The Moscow Protocol: A Modern Espionage Thriller (University Book 4) Read online

  THE MOSCOW PROTOCOL

  A UNIVERSITY ESPIONAGE THRILLER BOOK FOUR

  TERRENCE MCCAULEY

  The Moscow Protocol

  Kindle Edition

  © Copyright 2022 (As Revised) Terrence McCauley

  Rough Edges Press

  An Imprint of Wolfpack Publishing

  5130 S. Fort Apache Rd. 215-380

  Las Vegas, NV 89148

  roughedgespress.com

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events, places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means without the prior written consent of the publisher, other than brief quotes for reviews.

  eBook ISBN 978-1-68549-018-8

  Paperback ISBN 978-1-68549-019-5

  CONTENTS

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  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Take a look at Ghosts of War: Blazer Book One

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  About The Author

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  THE MOSCOW PROTOCOL

  CHAPTER 1

  SOMEWHERE

  The man calling himself James Hicks felt his handheld vibrate in his shirt pocket.

  He moved out of the heavy flow of foot traffic on the sidewalk and ducked into an alcove of an office building. He already stuck out in this city. No reason to play the ugly American who checked his phone in the middle of a busy street.

  He removed his handheld from his shirt pocket and checked his phone. Just like any other office worker on a break.

  But James Hicks didn’t work in an office. And his handheld was no ordinary phone.

  He was disappointed to see Rahul Patel was calling him directly. He may have only been with the University for a short time, but he should’ve known better than violate the organization’s Moscow Protocol.

  After the University had struck its first blow against The Vanguard in Berlin and China, Hicks enacted the emergency protocol to put the covert organization on a war-time footing. The protocol had been designed to protect the organization. All communications between Department Heads, Faculty Members, Teacher’s Assistants and Assets were kept to a minimum. Only texts to Jonathan, the organization’s Dutchman, were allowed through their secure internal network. Further contact was allowed only during an op or an emergency.

  Rahul’s phone call broke protocol. Hicks was not pleased. The call potentially put the rest of the organization at risk. The Vanguard had proven to be a capable and elusive enemy.

  He let the call go to voicemail as the device scanned his thumbprint, face, and retina before granting him access to the Optimized Mechanical and Network Integration system on his phone. It was not only the university’s internal communications platform. It was also one of the most advanced computer networks in the world.

  But Hicks knew that no network was perfect. OMNI had never been hacked because, like the University, it had operated in obscurity for years. Taking on The Vanguard directly had changed that forever.

  Hence his displeasure with Rahul’s phone call.

  Rahul’s op was confirmed. All the details had been decided. Contingency plans finalized.

  He tapped out a secure text message to Rahul.

  Why are you calling me? You have your orders.

  Rahul’s reply was immediate.

  Why won’t you take my calls? Where are you?

  Hicks decided to ignore the question about his location.

  Moscow Protocol, Ace. Video and voice comms are minimal unless during an operation.

  Hicks checked the street to see if he’d drawn any unwanted attention. So far, so good.

  Patel typed out a reply.

  Reviewed your target package. Your plan is difficult to execute. One month is not enough time to set a honey trap for this kind of target.

  ‘Honey trap’, Hicks thought. An old term for a love ploy against a target, but an accurate one.

  The timeframe is adequate if you use it wisely.

  Again, Rahul’s reply was immediate.

  This isn’t some drunk convention attendee on the make. This is a very dangerous and crafty target.

  Hicks didn’t need Rahul Patel or anyone else to tell him Colonel Yeung was a dangerous man. That’s why Hicks had ordered Roger Cobb to break Tessmer so he could help them track down Colonel Yeung.

  Now that they knew how to get him, it was up to Rahul Patel to bring the colonel in.

  Hicks knew a month would be ideal for a couple of reasons. An agent of Rahul’s skills would be sufficient for Patel. A month would also give Hicks enough time to heal from his procedure. By then he’d be ready to personally oversee the final stages of his plan to bring The Vanguard down.

  For attacking his city. His country. And killing the woman he loved, Tali Saddon.

  The plan he was ordering Rahul to launch was the masterwork of Hicks’s career. He’d spent weeks refining it. Its perfection was in its simplicity. He knew things would go wrong. Mistakes would be made, and unexpected complications would arise. His plan already allowed for such things.

  Hicks knew there was only one catch. Every step had to happen in precise order if his plan had any hope of succeeding.

  That was why he’d selected Rahul Patel to conduct the first operation in the scheme. Colonel Yeung would be the first domino to fall that set his plan in motion.

  None of his people knew the complexity of the plan or where it led. Only Hicks knew that. To tell anyone, even Jonathan or Roger or Rahul, could put the entire scheme in jeopardy. His faculty members couldn’t know the details of his plan, only the specific role they played in causing each specific domino to fall when and how Hicks ordered it.

  It would require a lot of oversight on Hicks’s part, but by then, he’d be ready.

  He quickly typed out a response to Rahul.

  You have two weeks to select a Field Assistant, preferably one already in country. You have an additional two weeks to bait the hook and reel in the target. You have your orders. You have sufficient time to execute them. Plan accordingly. Keep Jonathan informed. Hicks out.

  Hicks ended the conversation by closing out the discussion in OMNI. As dean, he had that unique technical privilege to shut down dialogue whenever he chose. The course had been set. Any further debate was pointless.

  Hicks pocketed the handheld again and looked at the endless stream of people moving along the sidewalk. It was an oppressively hot and humid day by his standards, but none of th
em seemed to notice.

  His mind drifted back to his plan. It would work. Rahul would see to that. Once they had Colonel Yeung in hand, he could know exactly where to focus his next attack on The Vanguard. He’d have a place to start and, if he was lucky, a bit more.

  Hicks decided he’d been standing there long enough and continued walking to his destination. He didn’t want to keep his surgeon waiting.

  CHAPTER 2

  VLADIVOSTOK, RUSSIA - ONE MONTH LATER

  Rahul Patel’s fingers drummed the steering wheel while he waited for his colleague to call.

  The concrete parking garage seemed to only get smaller as each second ticked by. The lights grew more intense. He hated being closed in like this during an op. Exits were limited. The number of cars parked around him provided numerous spots for an ambush.

  The trap should’ve been sprung already. They were still on schedule, but he wanted to be on the move now.

  Waiting had always been the toughest part of the job for him. Patience was the most important skill he possessed.

  He knew his Asset would call him as soon as the drug took effect. He wasn’t worried about that part of the plan.

  He was worried about all hell breaking loose in the minutes that followed. Colonel Yeung’s security team would not be happy.

  Rahul knew Colonel Kim Yeung, an army officer of The People’s Democratic Republic of North Korea, had come to Vladivostok to indulge his carnal appetites, particularly his fondness for young Russian men. The university’s surveillance of the colonel also showed Yeung’s security team often gave their boss privacy during his frequent visits to the Russian city.

  Their discretion and Yeung’s indiscretion had given the university a prime opportunity to kidnap him. To make him confess all he knew about North Korea and The Vanguard’s operations in the United States.

  Patel knew grabbing Yeung was one thing. Escaping with him would be something else entirely.

  Yeung was one of the most dangerous men in the world, though few outside the intelligence community knew his name. Officially, he was a colonel in the North Korean State Security Department (SSD). As was the case with most people in such positions, his influence extended far beyond the definition of a title.

  Yeung had been a driving force behind the SSD for decades. Publicly, he swore allegiance to his party and its leader. Quietly, he began to question the decadent young man’s commitment to the cause. To Communism.

  Intelligence reports revealed the colonel to be a hardline Communist who considered himself closer to Stalin than Gorbachev. He resented the new regime’s overtures to the West, wishing instead for a more hostile, provocative stance with the sworn enemies of Communism. He thought his leader’s repeated saber rattling quelled soon after by concessions from the Americans made The Hermit Kingdom look like a beggar nation.

  His frustrations explained why Yeung had quietly allied himself with a group of former Russian and Chinese intelligence operatives who shared his world view. A group known as The Vanguard.

  In doing so, Yeung had found a way to support the spread of Communism while he lined his own pockets as well. Communism might be the best way to rule a country, but Yeung believed himself to be exempt from such limitations. He had been a peasant before joining the army. He enjoyed being wealthy much better.

  When Roger Cobb broke the prisoner named Tessmer, the University learned that Yeung had become wealthy by allowing The Vanguard to use North Korea’s loose infrastructure of spies in the United States to infiltrate his country’s most hated enemy.

  The intelligence infrastructure was so loose, in fact, that most American intelligence organizations paid the North Korean network little mind. What’s more, few of Yeung’s operatives in America knew they occasionally served the aims of The Vanguard, not their country.

  But now the University had Yeung’s network in its sights. Not because of the threat it posed, but because of a man Tessmer had said was hiding in a North Korean safe house somewhere in California.

  Someone Hicks wanted captured. And Yeung could provide the information they needed to get him.

  If Rahul could get him out of the building alive, of course.

  Rahul sat up straight when he heard his Asset’s voice in his hidden earpiece. “Base, this is Hammer. Do you copy?”

  In compliance with the University’s communications protocol, Rahul kept his radio chatter simple. “I copy, Hammer. Sit rep.”

  “Target is down,” the Asset reported, “but I don’t know for how long. Hurry.”

  Rahul was already out of the car and on his way to the elevator. “Prep him and get him ready to move. Any guards outside your apartment?”

  “No,” the Asset said. “He forbids them from even entering the building, though they’re usually stationed in the lobby. He’s afraid they might get the right idea.”

  Rahul got into the elevator and hit the button for the eleventh floor. He hoped the elevator wouldn’t open in the lobby. Yeung’s bodyguards might see him, and that could present a problem later. An Indian man in a diverse city like Vladivostok wasn’t as rare a sight these days. But seeing him so soon on a return trip with their boss bound and gagged would make him memorable.

  He wasn’t worried about the doorman seeing anything on the security cameras at the desk. OMNI had been playing a looping feed for the cameras in the garage, on the eleventh floor and inside the empty elevator for the past ten minutes. If all went well, there’d be no trace of him when this was all over.

  Rahul breathed a bit easier when the elevator skipped the lobby and ran directly to the eleventh floor. He made sure his jacket was open in case he needed to grab the nine-millimeter Glock holstered under his arm.

  The elevator doors opened, and the hallway was clear. Fortunately, the Asset’s apartment was directly across from the elevator. That had been Patel’s idea when he’d arranged to lease the apartment a month before.

  The apartment door was already ajar as per their plan, and Rahul pushed his way in.

  He found his Asset, Dusan Petrov, in the bedroom, struggling to get Colonel Kim Yeung’s pants back on.

  Colonel Yeung’s preference for pale, blond Russian men was an open secret among North Korea’s military and intelligence apparatus. But since Yeung was the keeper of many secrets, including those of his government’s ministers, his superiors turned a blind eye to Yeung’s proclivities. There was no reason to risk the colonel bringing their own shortcomings to light. Kim Jong Un was not known for being broad minded.

  Rahul rushed to help Dusan get the colonel dressed.

  “You dirty dog,” Rahul chided. “You boys usually don’t get down to business this quickly.”

  “He said he was in a hurry this time,” Dusan told him. “He was worked up about something and drank his champagne faster than normal.” He nodded at the bottle on the bedside table. “He never tasted the drug I used to coat the glass. Whatever was bothering him must’ve been big. I’ve never seen him like that.”

  Rahul knew what that something was. He may not have known the details of Hicks’s greater plan, but his objective was obvious.

  The University had already taken a healthy bite out of the Vanguard’s European operations. It had also coordinated an airstrike on The Vanguard base in Xianyang. OMNI’s intelligence showed Yeung’s masters at The Vanguard were pushing him to help safeguard their remaining interests in Asia against further University attacks.

  The Vanguard had no idea that the one man they’d relied on to save them was literally in bed with a University Asset. At least not yet.

  With Yeung’s pants on and hastily buckled, Rahul held the colonel by the collar, keeping him upright while Dusan pulled Yeung’s arms into his jacket.

  Together, they carried Yeung out of the apartment and into the hallway. Rahul bore most of the unconscious colonel’s dead weight while Dusan rang for the elevator. If one of the tenants happened to see them, they looked like they were taking care of a friend who’d had too much to drink.
>
  The colonel’s security detail would see things differently.

  When the elevator doors separated, Dusan held them open with his foot while he helped Rahul haul Yeung inside. Rahul let the apartment door shut locked behind him.

  As the elevator doors closed, Rahul said, “Sorry about that. Hope you have a key to get back in.”

  “I won’t be going back after tonight,” Dusan said as the elevator began to descend to the basement garage. “Too dangerous. Besides, they’re promoting me to Teaching Assistant after tonight. I’m on my way to Istanbul after this. Just got word of it this morning.”

  Rahul would have congratulated the young man if he wasn’t concentrating on the electronic numbers counting down the floors to the garage. Once again, he willed the elevator to not stop in the lobby. The security cameras might be on a loop, but he’d have no way of hiding Yeung from his bodyguards if they happened to be looking at the elevator at the wrong time.

  His stomach sank as he felt the elevator begin to slow as they approached the lobby. The damned thing was going to stop after all.

  “I’ve planned for this,” Dusan said as he shoved the unconscious Yeung into the corner of the elevator and propped him up as he pushed the much larger Rahul in front of him. “Lean back to keep him from falling over. He’ll be tougher to see if he’s behind you.”