The Flight Attendant

The Flight Attendant

Chapter Five

Andy had cut into the hotel's security cameras and knew when Melnyk left his room. By then, he had cracked the safe in their room and was able to get into their room with his computer. They left Bob in the room watching the security cameras. He would notify them if Melnyk came back. They headed up the stairs to his room. Andy had them inside in a few seconds. They were all wearing gloves and masks. Andy opened the place the safe was hidden. It was the same as theirs. He used a blue light to check for booby traps. It was a good thing, because he found a small hair attached across the door. If he had not found it, Melnyk would have known they had been there. He carefully removed the hair and opened the safe.

Paul carefully removed the small package. They had to carefully open the package to see what was inside. Paul opened the case they had brought with them. He carefully observed how it was wrapped and removed the packaging. Inside the box was a flash drive. They had brought several different versions of the packaging. They wanted to replace what was there with something that looked like it. He exchanged the original with the dummy. He then carefully returned the wrapping to the original state. When that was done, he returned it to the safe exactly how it was when they opened it. Andy closed the safe and replaced the hair in the same place it had been.

They then dusted everything they had touched and left. Within five minutes they were back in their room. Within two hours, they were on the plane home.

Melnyk woke up around four in the morning. The two girls were laying just as he had left them. He got up from the other bed where he had fallen asleep. He pulled the covers back, picked up the girl on top and laid her on the other bed. He played with her for a couple of minutes, but didn't feel like fucking them again. He covered each with their covers and turned out the lights.

They would wake up in a few hours without remembering what had happened. But they would have a pretty good idea of what had happened. Melnyk knew if they said anything to the hotel, the management would advise them not to call the authorities. The authorities would just blame them. They don't want their tourism to be threatened. Melnyk knew this. He had followed the same pattern on most of his trips to Qatar or Dubia. He loved this part of the world.

He arrived back at his room by five. Once there, he checked to see if the hair was still there and went to take a shower. He had three hours before the meeting with the American, and he would have to wait until the Georgian called him.

Moulin took the Aya and Susan into a smaller room, where they met with the director of DGSI, as well as the director of the Police Nationale, formally known as the Surete. They are the civilian national police.

Moulin introduced everyone, "Ladies, this is Director Allard, head of the DGSI, and the other man is the head of our civilian police, the Police Nationale. He is Director Visage."

Aya and Susan nodded. Susan did not speak French, so they spoke in English.

Allard started. "Ladies, thank you for coming here. We understand how difficult the last few days have been. We are sorry for that and would like to find a way to get you out of this mess. We are going to start by explaining everything we had done and what we have in mind going forward."

He nodded to Moulin. "We have had difficulty with not only Tehrani, but another man. Tehrani is someone who deals with information. He has contacts throughout Europe and the Middle East. However, his specialty is being invisible. There is another man that is very different. He is the main assassin used by Iran on the continent. The problem is, we don't have a name, or even a picture. He is a ghost. The only man who knows who he is would be his contact, Tehrani. We are holding Tehrani to try and smoke him out. We are holding him in a safe house away from everyone else. That is where Director Visage comes in.

The Police Nationale are providing security for him while our people concentrate on running down anything we can find about him. This plan involves your CIA as well as MI-6."

Aya held up her hand. "Okay, I get all of that. What does that have to do with us?"

"Good question. Unfortunately, you must have seen him. Tehrani has all his network working on finding you for him. We will have to find a way to leverage that need without risking you further."

Moulin continued, "Ms. Carmody, I am told you are one of the best snipers the CIA has."

Susan looked at him carefully. "I can hold my own."

"That you can. We are also borrowing a shooter from MI-6. The two of you will be stationed to provide cover for the safe house."

Susan shook her head. "I am responsible for Aya. She will not be out of my sight. If I am on a rooftop, she will be with me, understand?"

The three Frenchmen looked at each other, shrugged, and said in French, for Aya. "If you want to risk it, we will not stop you."

Aya answered in English, "I am with Susan."

The meeting broke up and they were taken to a different safe house. After a meal, Aya and Susan sat by a fire talking. "You know, Susan, they are saying they think I have seen this killer. I have only been around Andre here. I can't believe there was anyone unusual in New York around me."

"I can't believe a hired assassin would get close to you without killing you. The only reason would have been that when he was around you, he had no reason to kill you. What changed his position? Was it an order from Tehran? Was it Andre's murder? I can't believe they would just kill you because you knew Andre."

"That is some of what I have been thinking, also."

They gave up and went to bed.

The next morning Susan got a call from Paul. "Where are you guys?"

"We are on an assignment from the director. You will need to talk to him."

"Understood."

Paul hung up the phone with the others looking at him. "We need to go to the director's office, anyway."

They headed for the office. When they arrived, the secretary said they couldn't see the director at the moment. They told her to inform him they had the package he was looking for. She took the message and told them they could wait in the cafeteria if they choose.

They hadn't even gotten their cup of coffee when the secretary came running. "The director is ready for you now. Please follow me."

She turned and hurried up the hall. They had to drop their coffee and hurry to catch up with her. She let them into his office.

"Welcome home. I trust your trip was successful."

Paul put the small box on his desk. "Everything went fine. There is the country's property, returned as requested."

The director smiled. "Thank you very much. Now, what can I do for you, as if I didn't know."

"We want to know where Aya and Susan are."

The director stood up and walked around the desk closer to them. "They are with our new friend, Moulin. They are working on the original part of this case."

Paul spoke quietly, "Tehrani."

"Correct. We still need to find out who killed Andre and who is trying to kill Aya."

He smiled. "Moulin and the French have an idea. They are going to use Tehrani as bait to lure the assassin out into the open. Tehrani is the only person who can identify the killer. He can't allow Tehrani to talk to the French. They believe he will try to kill Tehrani as quickly as he can."

Paul shook his head. "So why send Aya into the line of fire?"

"They asked for Susan not Aya. I'm sure you know how good a shot Susan is. They are putting together a kill team with her and a MI-6 sniper as cover. Susan turned down the assignment because she said her job was protecting Aya, and she wasn't leaving her. Aya volunteered to go with her. I turned her down, but she insisted that I allow her to go so Susan can do what she was trained for. In the end, I figured she would stand a better chance with Susan than without her. Now, I am sending you to assist the French team with this mission. Find who the assassin is and terminate him with extreme prejudice."

"Gladly. When do we leave?"

"There is a plane at the airport waiting for you now."

They had time to repack their bags and head for the airport. By the time Susan and Aya had been fulling briefed and moved to the location, the rest of the team had arrived in France. The following morning saw everyone reunite.

Aya hugged each other as they came through the door. Paul wasn't as nice as the others. "This is your idea of being part of a team. Jeopardizing a mission, putting Susan in an impossible position, and making the rest of us come to your rescue?"

Susan didn't like that. "What the fuck? I appreciate the help, but I can take care of myself, and I am charged with protecting Aya. There is no one on earth who is going to get a clean shot at her if I am alive."

Paul held up his hands in defeat. "Okay, okay. Poor choice of words. So, now what do we do?"

Susan calmed down and got to business. "The French have Tehrani in a safe house they are sure the killer will find. They intend for me and MI-6 sniper to cover the outside of the house. They have several Police Nationale inside the house to guard Tehrani."

Paul looked skeptical. "I'm not sure that is the best plan."

Susan nodded. "For a good reason, it's shit. Putting your best shooters outside the building is like wanting us to shoot the horse once it leaves the barn."

"I can assume you have a better idea."

"Yes, but you're not going to like it."

Paul shook his head. "I am sure of it."

Susan looked around the room. "The only way to know he is the killer, is to be in the room when he attempts the kill. That is the only way to be certain."

"You know he will slip in quietly. You won't know for certain until he starts fining. By then, it would be too late."

" Yes, but I haven't even got to the best part. We know he is desperate to kill Aya also. We don't know why, but he is. If both of his targets were in the same location, he would have to come. Anyone you put on the outer perimeter are dead men, and you know it. He would slip in, kill the perimeter quietly so he would have a clean exit, and then come into the building. You know that because that is how we would do it."

"You're saying you want to put Aya in the same room as Tehrani? It would be a shooting gallery. You'd get both killed."

Aya had been sitting quietly, listening. She didn't seem upset. Paul figured that was because they had already discussed this option."

"You okay with this, Aya?"

"I admit I would not be excited to do this, but I trust Susan. If she is more confident in this plan than the French, I am willing to go along with it."

"You don't think I would actually put her in danger, do you? No, I am talking about me dressing up as like her as I can in the dark with a bulletproof vest on. It would be dark, and I would have a fifty-fifty chance of getting him before he hits me somewhere other than the vest."

"What does the French have to say about this?"

Susan smiled. "I was hoping you could sell them on it."

"I see, you haven't even mentioned it yet. You want me to broach the idea that their idea is shit, and we have a better one. That will go over really well with the French, don't you think?"

"I know. The guy from MI-6 doesn't think much of their plan either. But he isn't saying anything because he can just sit on the roof next door until it is over and go home. He knows he will never see the man in the dark."

Paul went looking for Moulin. He was with his team leaders. They were going over the details when Paul walked in. "Congratulations on Doha. At least we know it will be a little longer before they can fire a nuclear bomb."

Paul nodded. "Yes, the director informed the director of Mossad of our success. It is hoped they will delay any strikes at the Iranian nuclear program for a little while."

Moulin pointed to a map on the table. "Would you like me to go over our plan?"

"Certainly." For the next half an hour, Moulin detailed what they hoped would happen.

When he finished, Moulin asked. "What do you think?"

Paul took a deep breath and dived right in. "I think you stand a reasonable chance of success. However, we both know that at least some of the perimeter guards will die. This man is expert at stealth. He will get in before anyone knows he is there."

"That is the one thing we are worried about. The director of Police Nationale is concerned that it will be his men who die, and I can't promise him he is wrong."

"The other problem will be the two snipers. They are really useless for an expert like him. They will never see him in the dark. It will be over before they hear or see anything."

"Do you have any suggestions that might mitigate these problems?"

"I don't, but Susan does. She has been in Iraq and Afghanistan. She fought the insurgents on their own turf. She has a plan, but it is risky."

"Let's hear it."

"Okay, here goes. You get rid of the outer perimeter. You place the snipers in the building, hidden the best you can. We will assume anyone who breaks in is the killer, and fire first. Susan wants Aya in the building with Tehrani."

"That will give him one chance to solve both his problems."

"Yes, except Aya won't be anywhere close. Susan can dress like Aya with a bulletproof vest. In the dark, the killer won't know in time it isn't Aya. The killer will get the first shot. It is fifty-fifty whether he shoots Tehrani or Aya first, but my money is on Tehrani. He is desperate to prevent him from identifying him. Aya is just a nuisance to him. He will want to shoot Tehrani first. That will give Susan and the other sniper time to unload on him."

"It makes sense. It will also solve my problem with the Police Nationale. They can take their men away. I wouldn't be risking any of our men. I can go along with you, but I must insist that we put our sniper in the building with yours. We must share the risk."

"Done."

"It is agreed."

Paul headed over to his team to tell them to set it up.

Under cover of darkness that night, the three snipers slipped into the building. They later made a show of the Police leaving together. They were ready. Now they had to just wait. They didn't know how many nights they would have to wait, but they didn't think it would be very many. He needs Tehrani dead as soon as possible.

It didn't take any more nights. They had security cameras set up. Around three in the morning, the cameras and electricity went dead. They whispered for everyone to be ready. A few minutes later, the door into the room that had Tehrani tied to a chair opened. They had Susan lying on a bed in the corner. One of the snipers was under her bed, and the other was on the other side of the room, laying behind a dresser.

As the door quietly swung open, everyone stayed still. The quiet figure padded softly across the floor towards Tehrani. As he raised his gun and shot Tehrani, Susan fired from under the covers. The assassin died under a hail of gunfire. They turned on the emergency lights to see this little man filled with holes.

Radios crackled, and within a couple of minutes, there was a convention of secret agents from three different countries in the room.

An ambulance came and took the body to their morgue. Everyone agreed to meet up in the morning. They all headed for their hotel rooms.

Paul's team gathered in his room. Aya was the first to speak. "I know I'm new to this but didn't that seem a little too easy."

Susan beat the others to it. "We are all thinking the same thing. This is supposed to be one of the world's greatest assassins, and he just walks into a building that must be a trap."

Paul spoke up. "I have been wondering. Remember the story of Bugs Bunny that he told of the tortoise and the hare?"

Wayne spoke up. He was usually the last one to speak. "Sure, I loved those cartoons when I was a kid. In Bug's version, the reason the tortoise beat the hare was because there were many of them. You think there may be more than one in this organization?"

"Aya is correct. The best way to get us off their back is for us to think they are dead. They could sacrifice one soldier for the cause."

They decided to go to the debriefing tomorrow, but not mention their idea. It would be better to not have them muddying up the field, in case they are correct. Of course, if they are wrong, they didn't want to send everyone on a wild goose chase.

Moulin opened the meeting when everyone was seated. "I want to thank the other agencies, the Cia, and MI-6 for your help with this matter. However, now that the threat is over, it is time for us to be completely candid with you."

He nodded to the man watching the door and he opened the door. In came another DGSI man, and behind him came Andre Bardot.

When Aya saw him, she screamed and fainted. It took a few minutes to restore order to the room. Andre had come to Aya and sat beside her as she recovered.

When she was strong enough to go on, Moulin continued, "We are sorry for the deception. However, we had it on good authority that the Iranians didn't trust Andre, and was planning on doing something after Tehrani had the program. It was decided to pre-empt them and fake his death before they could kill him. We did not for a minute think they would try and kill Aya. At the time, there was no reason to believe they considered her as more than his latest infatuation. It was only after the attempt on the plane that we began to dig deeper. It was then our contacts in Iran said something about Aya having seen their agent. Aya, do you remember seeing this face?" He showed her a picture of the man they had shot. She shook her head.

Paul spoke up. "So, what now?"

Moulin shrugged. "That is up to each of you. I assume your team will go home now. What Andre and Aya will do is up to them."

Aya replied. "One God Damn thing is for sure, I want to hear out of the horse's mouth, why did you not think you could trust me with this news? Why did I have to spend the last several days mourning the fact that you are dead? I can understand why you (pointing to Moulin) would not trust me, but I thought you might have a better opinion of me?"

Andre finally spoke, "You mean the person who seduced me in order to steal information off my personal computer?"

That pretty much took the starch out of Aya. She slumped down in her chair and grew silent.

"If there is nothing else, Andre, do you want us to take you to one of your homes?" He nodded. "Do you want any protection?" He declined.

Paul asked for a room to a discuss their plans before Andre left. They were shown into a smaller room. When they were alone, Paul asked Aya, "Are you okay?"

"Yes, when he put it like that, I realized I had no reason to be told. Whatever I think, it was logical for them to do as they did."

"Okay, then what do we do?"

Aya looked up, "Whatever he really thinks of me, I must go with him. We all believe there is another attempt coming. I need to talk to him first."

She left the room and went back to the room where Andre was. "Andre, may I speak to you, alone?"

The DSGI men nodded and left the room. When they were alone, Aya spoke. "I am sorry for the way I acted. You were right to not trust me. I don't deserve your trust. I just want you to know, we were told you were selling nuclear secrets to the Iranians. I must tell you, the times I spent with you were the happiest times I can remember. Even when I was conflicted with the idea of how wonderful you were, and you were a terrorist. It killed me."

Andre smiled and took her in his arms. "I want you to know that I insisted they tell you, and you alone, the truth. I believed I could trust you, and I didn't want you to suffer until you learned the truth. What I said when I dropped you off at the plane, I meant, and still do." He kissed her softly.