Calculated Entrapment Read online

  Calculated Entrapment

  The Calculated Series: Book 5

  K.T. Lee

  Vertical Line Publishing

  Copyright © 2020 by Vertical Line Publishing, LLC ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

  * * *

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, sold or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written permission, except for statuary uses, the use of brief quotations in a book review, and other quotations with appropriate reference.

  K.T. Lee

  www.ktleeauthor.com

  Publisher’s Note: This work of fiction is a product of the writer’s overactive imagination. It is not intended to be a factual representation of events, people, locales, businesses, government agencies, or marine biology. Names are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, is completely coincidental.

  Calculated Entrapment/ K.T. Lee - 1st ed.

  ISBN: 978-1-947870-10-9

  The Calculated Series

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  Calculated Extortion (Prequel Novella)

  Calculated Deception (Book 1)

  Calculated Contagion (Book 2)

  Calculated Sabotage (Book 3)

  Calculated Reaction (Book 4)

  Calculated Entrapment (Book 5)

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  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

  Note from the Author

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  For my family

  Prologue

  Dmitri Yeninov waited until he could no longer hear the footsteps of the head of his country’s intelligence services before leaving his office. He reached the sidewalk outside of the government building and surveyed the area. Once sure he wasn’t being followed, he pulled his coat tighter, and began to walk in the opposite direction of his intended destination. Moscow was especially frigid today and the brisk wind offered no comfort. Dmitri had just been informed that he would be resigning his position, effective immediately. Moreover, he had been stripped of his clearances and demoted to a new job. A thankless, pencil-pushing job full of red tape. His blood thundered in his ears. All of his time, all of his hard work, had gone unrecognized. He doubled back and took several more wrong turns, leading him down alleys separating dilapidated buildings. He avoided making eye contact with the people huddled on the streets, watching him warily as he passed.

  Dmitri’s cheeks grew cold and a plan began to form. This wasn’t the end. In fact, it might even be an opportunity. One of his sleeper agents was still waiting for his instructions. The remaining pieces of his plan fell into place just that quickly. He quickened his pace. Soon, Dmitri reached the small apartment building where he’d rented a unit under an assumed name. He climbed three flights of stairs, his determination rallying a little with every step, despite the smell of something rotting in the stairwell. Unlike his colleagues, Dmitri was not a simpleton. He could adapt his plans. When he reached the dingy, barely-used space, Dmitri paused to step on a cockroach skittering across the floor, then scanned the apartment for listening devices. Finding none, he dialed a phone number. It was time to activate his agent working at the Oceanic Exploration Group.

  1

  Three Months Later

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  Stefanie Ryland braced her hip against one of the shiny silver railings of the large, custom-built research vessel, The Dog House. While she enjoyed the expansive ocean view the ship’s bridge offered, nothing compared to the sight of the remotely operated submarine, ROVer 1, approaching its platform at The Dog House’s stern. Stefanie took a moment to find her balance, bracing her hip against the railing when the vessel rose and fell with a wave. Ocean water flew up and splashed her, but that was to be expected. The lowest spot on the ship gave her the best view of her equipment and a little water never hurt anyone. The chop wasn’t terrible today, for which she was grateful. She didn’t need any unexpected complications. One wrong move and Stefanie would turn her company’s expensive remotely operated vehicle into high-end ocean debris. Stefanie tightened her grip on a handheld controller, using the onboard camera and her view of the platform to guide ROVer 1 to its designated location just off the stern of The Dog House.

  A green light flashed on the controller a moment after she heard a mechanical click. She rolled out her shoulders and took a deep breath of fresh ocean air, giving her body a moment to return to equilibrium. Stefanie noticed a little water had dotted her aviator sunglasses. She grinned and pulled them off to wipe them on her jacket, which was embroidered with the artistic blue wave logo of the Oceanic Exploration Group. The temperature was cool, but the sun shone cheerfully.

  With her underwater research laboratory now deployed on the ocean floor and ROVer 1 safely returned to its platform, she finally had the luxury of fully appreciating her surroundings. Across the horizon, she spotted the yellow buoy that would serve as the link between the research platform and her cell phone bobbing cheerfully in the water nearby.

  Once Stefanie’s heart stopped thundering, she turned to climb the stairs that led to the main deck to face the more experienced boat crew. When she reached them, their quiet murmurs transitioned to high fives. The group moved into a covered area with a large screen to watch their data stream in. The Dog House was not large in comparison to the ocean freighters she saw in the distance, but it was still sizable enough to comfortably hold a small crew of scientists and their equipment while towing up to two of their ROVs. It was impossible not to share the infectious energy of her fellow scientists. This. This was why she quit her comfortable office job at a start-up to come work for the OEG. Sure, she was working for a for-profit operation, but they supplied marine researchers around the world with meaningful tools.

  Her coworker Nash looked over the railing to check that the ROV was in place, then turned to join the group with a big grin on his face. She raised her hand to meet his enthusiastic high five. “You made that look easy.”

  “I’m just happy I didn’t break anything. ROVer 1 did a great job. I thought that with the weight of everything we put on the platform, the sub would lumber along instead of zipping right to the site without breaking a sweat.” It was more than she could say for herself. Stefanie wiped her palms on her pants, which accomplished very little since the pants themselves were already damp from the ocean spray. While some companies preferred to lower their research equipment from a ship-mounted crane, their custom research sub could place their sensitive equipment with a high degree of locational precision and relative ease. Even someone new to the business like her could do it. Stefanie moved her sunglasses so they perched on her head. “Thanks for all of your help.”

  Nash shrugged. “You can thank me if everything still works in a couple of weeks. Saltwater is brutal on equipment if there is even the slightest imperfection in the seals.” Because of Nash’s tendency to consider every possible way their product could break, Stefanie didn’t share his trepidation. Nash had likely double- and triple-checked everything. When they came back to check the data in a couple of weeks, Stefanie had no doubt their little research lab under the sea
would still be in perfect working order.

  ROVer 1’s twin, ROVer 2, hadn’t yet returned, giving Stefanie some time to ensure she could also pull up the feed of data streaming to the screen on her cell phone. The data continued to update in real-time, the readings changing only by decimal places. She showed her phone to Nash. “Looks normal to me. No leaks.” Salinity meters, small sample collectors, cameras, a Geiger counter, and a seismograph – it was hard to imagine what else they could have squeezed onto their platform. Their customers, a small college that planned to use the custom platform for teaching and research, would be thrilled. They had requested that it be filled to the brim with all of the sensors the OEG could fit on it. She and Nash had successfully turned their request into a huge and complex reality.

  The wind picked up and Stefanie pulled her stocking cap down just a little lower. Contrary to popular belief, working as a marine biologist wasn’t all exploring reefs in tropical locales where fancy umbrella drinks were easy to come by. The Bay Area could be sunny and beautiful for sure, but warmth was far from guaranteed, particularly out on the open water. Fortunately for the company’s deployment schedule, it was mild enough they could go out on the open water year-round. However, Stefanie had wisely heeded Nash’s advice to bring a stocking cap and scarf along. Her phone buzzed with a notification. The GPS tracking was now active. A little yellow buoy icon representing the research platform showed on a stylized map with OEG branding. They could still see the buoy, just barely, in the distance. Nice. Everything was now working perfectly. Due to battery size and power requirements, the range was more limited than was ideal, but their solution of using a transmission buoy and cell phone was much cheaper than maintaining a satellite link. She squinted at her phone when she saw another yellow buoy icon at the edge of the map, just a little farther away from where they’d deployed their latest research platform. Stefanie squinted at the horizon but saw no other buoys in the distance. “Nash, we got another platform close by?”

  Nash tilted his head. “No, boss. This is the first drop we’ve done anywhere near here.”

  Stefanie leaned into the screen. Sure enough, two buoys were showing on the map – could it be an echo of their signal somehow? She was a marine biologist, not a communications expert, but maybe that was a thing? She’d picked up countless Wi-Fi signals that weren’t hers from her house. She zoomed into the map, but the yellow buoy icon disappeared, then reappeared. Trying to select it just made her phone freeze up. Well, there was one quick way to get her question answered. Stefanie slipped the phone in her pocket so she could grab the railing on the ship while she went below deck.

  At the bottom of the stairs, Stefanie took a moment to get acclimated to the motion of the ship. While not new to the ocean, she generally preferred to be topside with fresh air and a view of the horizon. ROVer 2’s camera was projected on a large monitor. They were mapping a previously restricted area of the seafloor that had only recently opened up to scientific exploration with the proper permits. Rumor had it, the newly-opened area was formerly used by the Navy for testing, but whether that was fact or fiction, she didn’t really know. She took a moment to watch its movements, then pulled her phone back out. She didn’t know most of the operators well, but they’d been friendly enough to her.

  Terry, the operator who had trained her to dock the remotely operated vehicles, was just handing off the controls to another operator. Perfect. She tapped her phone in her hand. “Hey Terry, got a sec?” Terry eyed the coffee carafe over her shoulder. She lifted an eyebrow. “Coffee on me?”

  “You got it, newbie.” He smiled, making the laugh lines in his face even more pronounced. He was graying and about the same age as her favorite uncle. He had boundless energy and more patience than most when teaching new employees. “Nice job getting the sub back to the surface. Looks like our driving lessons paid off. What can I help you with?”

  “I have a question. How many platforms does the OEG have in this area?”

  “Counting the one you and Nash just dropped?” He made a show of counting on his hands, then looked up with a smile to accept the coffee. “One.”

  Stefanie frowned and pulled out her phone. “Is it possible that our app would pick up a signal from ROVer 2?”

  Terry took a sip of his coffee. “I don’t think so. It should just call up the research platforms.”

  Stefanie opened the app to show him the anomaly on the map, but only their current platform remained. “Hm. That’s weird. I could have sworn there were two.”

  “That’d sure be unusual.” Terry frowned. “Maybe it’s a glitch from the transmitter getting settled in. I’ll mention we picked up a strange signal in my trip report to your boss. It’s probably an easy fix. We can have the team that developed the app take a look at it.”

  “Thanks, Terry. I better get back up there so I can help Nash when it’s time to park ROVer 2. Even though we don’t have much chop today, I don’t want to put a dent in one of the OEG’s pretty submarines.” Stefanie got her own cup of coffee, watching the screens for a few moments before leaving to find Nash.

  Soon, they had both ROVs secured and had returned to the harbor. There were still a few hours of work left to finish cleaning and putting everything away. Technically, washing down the equipment wasn’t her responsibility. However, she’d spent a lot of time on boats in her career and wasn’t afraid of a little hard work. She worked alongside the team but before a half an hour had passed, her crew shooed her off the boat, accusing her of trying to stand between them and their hourly pay. She smiled. While most of them were pretty gruff on the outside, they watched out for her. Or they were worried she might break something. Either way, her weary body was grateful.

  Stephanie yawned and checked her watch. She’d beat everyone to the harbor by an entire hour, thanks to her nerves refusing to let her sleep more than a few hours the night before. A whole day had passed quickly on the ocean. Everything had gone exactly to plan, and she had no reason to do anything besides celebrate her successes. Still, something about the extra transmission buoy on her cell phone bothered her. She couldn’t come up with an explanation she found plausible. Maybe they were getting some interference from Navy equipment someone had forgotten on the bottom of the ocean. The OEG’s nearest transmitter wasn’t anywhere near in range, so it was impossible they were picking up another signal from OEG equipment. Terry was right. It was probably some kind of crossed wire. Unfortunately, people discarded junk they shouldn’t in the ocean every day. She yawned again and blinked quickly to perk herself up. She was just tired from a long day on the water and letting her imagination run away with her.

  2

  CIA Operations Officer Joey Pacelli took a long pull of his morning coffee and put the finishing touches on his latest report. He’d spent more time than usual crafting the language – Dmitri Yeninov was making a move, but he couldn’t prove it yet. That was the hazard of chasing someone like Dmitri – he left almost no evidence behind until it was too late to act. It felt like only a few weeks, but it had actually been a few months since Joey had been invited on a CIA operation to help stop the rogue Russian spy from causing a nuclear meltdown at an experimental reactor. Originally, the CIA had invited Joey on the operation because they thought he might be Dmitri’s accomplice. Once they realized that Joey’s research of the man had stemmed from a personal interest in taking him down, Joey soon became an integral part of the team watching Dmitri. Working at the CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, wasn’t nearly as glamorous as working undercover on an operation, but it served an important function. While prevention never made the newspapers, it saved just as many lives.

  Joey sighed when realized he couldn’t make any further improvements to the report, then he sent the document to his CIA colleagues. The lack of concrete information had been the only predictable part of this investigation. He looked up from his computer to spot two of the email recipients arriving for the day: Quinn, a fellow operations officer on his team, and her boyfriend, Ca
m, an operations officer who generally worked for another group but was also currently involved in their team’s investigation. Quinn and Cam kept it professional at the office, but it was clear they were dating. If Joey hadn’t figured that out by now, he’d go work in a job that didn’t require him to notice details. It was nice they’d found happiness, even if they weren’t openly talking about it at the office. Joey gave them a quick wave, then closed his eyes to think for a moment, second-guessing if he should have included more speculation in his report. When he heard someone in front of his desk, he quickly opened his eyes.

  Cam had kept walking in the direction of his desk, but Quinn had stopped, travel mug in hand. Since she had personally led the charge to make sure Joey wasn’t working for Dmitri and complicit in the death of her former partner, they talked almost every workday. They’d even become friends – shared experiences had a way of doing that sometimes. It was a good thing because Quinn was a certified badass. She’d kick him out of the building if he didn’t measure up. She took a sip of coffee from her mug. “Morning, J. Sleeping already?”

  Joey grinned. “I wish. I was thinking. I sent the report on Dmitri our boss asked for. All the details are in your email. The NSA traced a phone call that might be connected to Dmitri to a location in San Francisco.”