Alexandra pulled up the scarf, covering her face. “Ready to go,” she replied.
They were using burner phones from Vladivostok. They might as well have been from Mars. Even if they were discovered, local police were never going to expend any manpower tracking down how they had come to Moscow.
Taking out his lock pick tools, Harvath unlocked the back door and waited for Alexandra to text that she was in place. Their target lived on the ground floor.
When the text came, he pressed his ear against the glass, waited until he heard the doorbell, and then let himself in.
The man lived alone and had no girlfriend that Nicholas had been able to ascertain based on his emails, texts, and social media pages. He also didn’t have any pets. There was nothing else special about him other than he was about Harvath’s height and weight and worked on the floor they needed.
As Alexandra fed him a line of bullshit at the front door, Harvath crept up silently on him from the back of the apartment. Once he was in range, he deployed his Taser and took him down.
Kicking his legs out of the way, Alexandra stepped inside and closed the front door.
The fluidity with which Harvath flex-cuffed him and threw a hood over his head demonstrated that he had done this before.
Grabbing a chair from the kitchen, Alexandra helped Harvath drag him into the bedroom and sit him down. There, as she pulled the barbed Taser probes out of him, Harvath tied him up.
The man couldn’t see his attackers, but he could hear them. Harvath asked if he understood English. When the man claimed not to, everything else went through Alexandra.
They grilled him for over two hours until, looking at his watch, Harvath indicated that it was time to go.
After Alexandra had left the room, Harvath removed the man’s hood, but only long enough to gag him and wrap several passes of duct tape around his mouth before replacing his hood.
Per Harvath’s instructions, Alexandra returned with a gas can from the car and placed it beneath the chair. Even under the hood, the fumes were instantly recognizable. She explained in Russian that a bomb had been placed under him and that if he attempted to move, or made too much noise, it would explode.
She also relayed that as long as he cooperated, they would be back within twenty-four hours and would set him free. Who they were, where they were going, or why any of it involved him, they never revealed.
Going through his closet, Harvath found the clothes he needed and quickly got dressed. Then, in the living room, Alexandra handed over the man’s ID badge and repeated how security at the entrance to the facility worked. Alexandra would go in first, and be nearby in case anything went wrong.
Harvath hoped that wouldn’t be necessary. If there was one thing he knew, it was that nightshift workers were practically zombies once it was time to go home. The morning shift that replaced them was almost as bad, needing a lot of coffee—and most important, sunlight—before they were fully awake and functioning. It was the perfect time to make their move.
Leaving the man bound and gagged in the apartment, Harvath pocketed his cell phone and they headed out.
It was a short drive to their next stop and Alexandra parked out on the street, rather than in the employee parking lot, so that they wouldn’t be impeded in making their escape.
By the time they got to the front entrance, there was already a line of employees slowly shuffling inside. Alexandra went first, followed by Harvath.
Completely wrapped up against the cold, all he was required to do was show an ID. The security guards never even asked him to show his face. Without looking at Alexandra, who had taken one of the public chairs just inside the entrance, he pressed on into the building.
Eschewing the employee locker room, he found a utility area where he dumped the man’s coat, gloves, and scarf. From there, he was only one stairwell away from his target.
With his eyes downcast, he maintained the plodding, uninterested pace of the average Russian worker, while every cell inside him wanted to charge to his destination. He knew from experience, though, that sure and steady was what would win the race and get him what he wanted.
Because he moved the way that he did, no one gave him a second glance. He looked exactly as he had hoped