Kill Them Wherever You Find Them

by David Hunter

  ~ ~ ~

  Meir Halevi furrowed his eyebrows as the agent who placed the call ceased talking mid-sentence. A clattering sound, followed by uneven breathing for a very brief moment near the phone, told Halevi that something happened to his agent. As the breathing slowed, then seemed to completely stop, he heard continuous chatter in the background from at least several people.

  In an instant they seemed to be directing a barrage of questions at one person, addressing her formally. From their deferential tone, this woman must be dressed in a uniform of some kind of authority. He could hear that they had gathered around his agent's body but nobody seemed to be in charge. Nothing more was being addressed to the authority figure woman. She was probably no longer to be found at the scene, let alone someone in authority who had any business being there..

  The mobile phone disengaged.

  Meir signalled a "man down" code with the location, instructing that the living quarters of No'am be sealed, the agent taken to a hospital if still alive, brought back to the Shin Bet morgue if not.

  Additionally, ping the agent's mobile phone and retrieve it. No calls in or out would be in the mobile's history, no contacts stored, and no GPS location chip would be found in the phone to give away information on the agent's movements. Still, a cautious man, Meir preferred to leave nothing to chance.

  Meir wanted to identify and locate everybody near the crime scene. In this day of ubiquitous mobile phones with cameras, chances were good that somebody took photos, or even video, of the event. Halevi wanted to nail whoever was responsible for the injury, most likely death, of his agent. Retribution wasn't the only thing on his mind, he was too seasoned and cool-headed for that. He knew that this mystery woman could lead them back to more people, possibly even the two they already knew were running the entire show. He had to form a complete flow chart of the terror organization, otherwise removing the two heads would simply create a vacuum for others to fill.

  The team leader of agents was on his way to the kibbutz, Halevi confirmed. The team leader would report to him directly, maintaining an open line. Finally Meir contacted the audio analysis people to see if they would be able to confirm the mysterious woman's voice to any of the archived voice data files.