Takedown

Zara looked at the curious little device creating the buzzing sound on the table then quickly back to Oleg, who had almost reached what he hoped might be the sanctuary of the pillows. There was a soft knocking at the door. “Room service,” said a female voice.

Taking a couple of steps in that direction, she paused and frowned, “What is room service?” she asked, curious. The phone started to vibrate again.

“Room service,” replied a female voice.

Zara frowned, but opened the door, unabashed about her nakedness. The woman at the door was dressed in a browned colored uniform with the name of the hotel embroidered on her breast. She was smiling and holding the handle a cloth covered cart with a steel colored dome on its top.

Zara look at the woman and smiled. “What is this?” she asked, looking down at the metal dome.

The women smiled as a man dressed entirely in black suddenly appeared at the doorway. He stepped into the room and aimed a small device directly at Zara’s torso, pulling the trigger and deploying two small electrodes attached to wires embedding in the flesh of her chest. Simultaneously she heard a sound from behind her, and as she was turning, she another heard the snap and felt two more prongs hit her in the back. She frowned, then her world went white with electrical overload, dropping to the ground as both men jolted her with their tasers.

“Do it!” growled the man who had followed the room service woman into the room.

While aware, Zara was astonished because she was powerless to move. The woman with the room service cart dropped down beside her and pulled out an autoinjector from her apron and slammed it into Zara’s smooth milky thigh. Everything went blurry for Zara as the sedative in her blood stream took hold and she succumbed to darkness. Moving quickly, the man who had come into the room via Arthur’s suite, pulled a dress over the unconscious Zara before pulling her arms across her chest. The other man knelt down and tied first her hands then her feet with zap straps.

The man who had entered from Arthur’s room scooped the unconscious Zara up into his arms, the other man looked at the woman, holding up a hand. Picking up Oleg’s cell phone, he answered it by swiping the green arrow on the screen. “The operation has been successful, we have the package.”

“Cole?” asked Sebastian.

“Affirmative,” replied Cole.

“This is Oleg’s phone, is he there with you?” inquired the large man.

“Negative, there is no sign of the asset,” he replied, looking at the other two members of the extraction team. Almost in unison the two both shook their heads to indicate a negative.

“Repeat, did you say there was no sign of the asset?” asked the big man, brow creasing as he ran a hand over his head.

“Copy that, there is no sign of the asset,” repeated the operative.

“But you have the girl?”

“The package has been acquired, repeat, the package has been successful acquired,” Cole answered.

“Dammit,” cursed Sebastian, “Make sure you sanitize the room of all material possessions and I want all of those materials here as soon as you can courier them to me.”

“Understood,” confirmed the man, disconnecting the call and sliding the phone into one of the pockets in his black combat pants.

“Sweep and sanitize of property. Bleach any surfaces for prints, I’m not concerned about biologicals in the bedding,” he instructed.

The woman returned to the cart, flipping up the sheet and getting out a spray bottle and rags while the other man began preparing luggage.

Every trace of both Arthur and Oleg were systematically removed from the room, including the newly purchased clothes for Zara. Arthur’s materials were also carefully bundled and everything was placed on the cart.

Laying out one of the hotel blankets, Morgan put Zara on it, bound hands down over her tummy and rolled her into it. Picking her up, the man who had entered through Arthur’s room hoisted her up over his shoulder.

“You got her?” asked Cole, looking at the other man.

The other man nodded, “She’s pretty light,” he said, smacking her bottom through the blanket.

“Keep it tight,” Cole cautioned.

“What about the asset?” the woman inquired, looking around the empty room.

Cole shrugged, “Intel suggested he was supposed to be here. He’s not. That’s on him. We have the package, so now we leave,” he replied directly.

“Don’t you find it odd that he’s not here?” asked the unnamed man, “We’re talking about Oleg Grigori here,” he said, raising an eyebrow.

“I know who he is Morgan,” replied Cole, “There is nothing I can do if he’s not here. We have the girl, we head back to the airstrip and we leave.”

“I just find it pretty fucking strange is all, Oleg is no slouch,” countered Morgan.

“He knows what the procedure is. He’s not here when we are, we leave him behind, plain and simple, now I suggest we move,” he said, motioning the woman toward the door.

“Roger that,” replied Morgan stepping in behind the woman as she hurriedly pushed the cart down the corridor.

Moving ahead of the two men to ensure the hall was free of possible witnesses as Zara was brought down to the elevator, the woman signaled the all clear, and both men joined her in the elevator. Once in the lift, Cole keyed the console and took the elevator down to the parking garage where the van was parked.

Stepping out first, Cole scanned the area, then opened the side door of the van.

Morgan put the bundled Zara in the seated, pushing her to the window before climbing in and pulling the door closed behind him while Cole climbed into the driver’s seat, the woman the front passenger seat. Morgan buckled his seatbelt before drawing the other one across the unconscious woman.