Read Online Sea of Lies: An Espionage Thriller by Bradley West - Free Book Online Page B

men. They’d take care of the cleanup, including the truck.
    Hecker was saying his farewells and exchanged double handshakes and back clenches with his favorite police chief. Dara vacated the Toyota in favor of the second SUV. The last cars arrived and everyone was accounted for.
    The vacant lot was growing lighter by the minute. Time for the vampires to get back into their coffins. Nolan took Zeya’s filthy backseat spot and Ryder joined him a minute later.
    “Your mustache points are Day-Glo yellow. Did you heave?”
    “Damn straight. Ever see three bodies of people burned alive? It’s not nice, especially when it’s your fault.”
    “Ah, shit. This sort of thing happens. Don’t let it get to you.” Ryder was riffing, still buzzing from whatever had happened at Airstrip One.
    Hecker got in looking like the winner of the student science fair. “Let’s go.” The two white SUVs pulled out, leaving Major Zaw and his cohorts to confer next to the pickup.
    Ryder told Hecker what had happened at what Ryder dubbed “Bob’s barbecue.”
    Hecker mused, “Teller is certainly well connected. Imagine pulling a license plate in Rangoon on a Saturday night . . . . Hell, I don’t think we could do that in Bethesda. He’s one ruthless SOB, too. That’s for certain.”
    Nolan passed up the unopened fingerprint kit. “I didn’t get a chance to use this.” For some reason, Ryder found this hilarious. Even Hecker gave a snort.
    Hecker said, “You need to relax. We’ll get through this. Unless Teller ambushes us either side of Einme, in which case we’ll be dead before breakfast.”
    Their driver, Arun, accelerated despite the smattering of Sunday morning pedestrians, bicycles and farm equipment now on the road. Anyone taking a shot would have to be leading the Range Rover by a considerable margin before registering a hit.
    Ryder’s handset vibrated. “Yeah? OK, Dara, thanks,” he answered, then tapped off. “Bob, some woman called for you to say she’s at the embassy annex now.”
    “That’s Millie. I called her once we saw the burned-out house and car. I told her to get to Dubern Park.”
    “That was quick thinking.”
    “So what did you find out at the airstrip?” Nolan had been dying to ask.
    Hecker began, “Everything and nothing. No people, but we couldn’t have missed them by much. The building you were so keen on, it was burned out as well. Your friend Teller must be a pyromaniac. Zaw’s people set up roadblocks at either end of the road, but nothing doing. Travis and I made it to high ground, though with this cloud cover it was so damned dark that Travis couldn’t see dick half the time, even through his Starlight scope. I couldn’t see anything at all through my night-vision goggles."
    "Particularly when you forgot to take the end caps off to start, boss."
    Hecker ignored Ryder. “Gonzalez and Zeya dug under the fence and low-crawled three hundred feet to the building, and took soil and contents samples from the ashes of the burned shed. The metal was still hot to the touch. We’ll analyze what they collected to see if we can find out what was being stored there.”
    “That’s not very encouraging,” Nolan said.
    “It gets better,” Ryder interjected. “Inside the building were burned crates of something sweet, maybe fruit. We lifted samples. Maybe Teller’s smuggling bananas? Maybe not, because Gonzalez dug down and checked out the edge of the concrete floor. The pad was something like eight inches thick. That floor can handle quite a load: gold, ammo crates, dismantled heavy weapons—you name it.”
    “I can’t believe there weren’t sentries,” Nolan said.
    Hecker sounded upbeat. “Teller doesn’t have unlimited people, either. They left after they removed or burned what was on the strip. He won’t be using it again. Golden Elephant will transfer it to the Army or maybe a general. Perhaps most interesting of all was the smashed infrared beacon Hanny Gonzalez found behind the