He joined her on the ground, the two of them leaning into each other—neither of them wanting to say another word about what had just taken place in that basement.

CHAPTER 40

CHAPTER 40

Felix Orlov accessed the dark web site assigned to him for the operation and started to read the update while the team gathered in the RV. He’d received the text message alert less than a minute ago, while stoking the red-hot charcoal at their campsite grill. Oleg had just returned from a shopping run with several thick cuts of preseasoned steak and two shopping bags filled with American picnic foods like potato salad, coleslaw, and chips. A treat to tide them over at this dump of a campground while they impatiently waited for orders. He turned to Oleg, who stood in the kitchen area next to the bags of food.

“We’ll have to put the picnic on hold,” said Felix. “We need to be at the Allegheny County Airport in less than two hours to hop on a privately chartered jet. We’re headed to Branson, Missouri.”

“How far away is the airport?” asked Oleg.

“An hour and twenty minutes,” said Felix.

“Leaves us enough time to cook the steaks and eat them on the way,” said Valerie. “Right?”

“Where the fuck is Branson, Missouri?” asked Oksana, getting a quick laugh out of most of them.

“Branson, Missouri, is in Missouri,” said Felix. “And the joke’s on all of you, because we have to break down and repack all of the gear into duffel bags for the flight—within the next twenty minutes. I’m leaving us a twenty-minute buffer for traffic. We’re leaving the RVs here. I’ll make arrangements to extend our reservation at these campsites while you jump through Oksana’s ass to get this done.”

She winked and cursed at him in Russian.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” said Felix before tapping his watch. “Hurry along now. Start with the other RV.”

When the team had cleared out, he called Oleg over to the table to take a look at the mission update. He gave him a minute to read through it, so they could compare notes.

“Not what I was expecting,” said Oleg. “Why not just ferry us to the site ahead of time, if this is a counterassault mission?”

“That was my first thought, but the target complex is less than a five-minute helicopter flight from the Branson Airport, where we’ll be staged. They obviously expect advanced warning of an attack,” said Felix.

“Or they suspect the place is already under surveillance from a distance,” said Oleg.

“Right. And there’s nothing worse than a surprise,” said Felix. “They’re probably figuring some shock factor into our sudden arrival.”

“Anything on who or what we’re up against?”

“Oddly, no,” said Felix. “But I’m guessing it’s an assassination team.”