by Brad Thor
Waiting for him two hundred meters offshore was the Amalia, a weather-beaten Greek trawler manned by the only two people in Greece Harvath could trust, Ben and Yannis Metaxas. Harvath had met Ben while his SEAL team was training in the Aegean with the Greek navy. The two had become fast friends, and to this day Harvath still spent a good amount of his vacation time every year kicking back at Ben’s beach bar on the island of Antiparos.
Changing his radio frequency, Harvath raised Ben out on the Amalia and told him what had happened and what he needed him to do. When Ben’s flare broke over the water four and a half minutes later, Harvath was already up and running.
He never bothered ID’ing the body—it would have been suicide. Instead, Harvath grabbed the man by the collar, kicked open the villa’s double doors and dragged him inside the courtyard. It was only then that Harvath rolled the body over. There was no mistaking the man whose photo he had seen during his briefing in Washington, Constantine Nomikos. What the hell was he doing here? Harvath examined him. Head wounds always bled profusely and he looked like he had lost a lot of blood. Harvath doubted he would make it.
“Goddammit,” he mumbled under his breath. Nomikos had picked a hell of a time to come visit his old pal. Changing freqs, Harvath clued the Situation Room in on the development.
With no other vehicles inbound, Harvath was told to shift to locating the Achilles device. Easy for them to say, he thought. Somewhere, very nearby, was a killer who was most probably sent to Papandreou’s villa with the same orders as he was.
With the Metaxas brothers offshore on the Amalia, Harvath had no direct backup. He could only rely on himself. He was in the process of rigging a booby trap when the landscaping lights illuminating the neat rows of olive trees throughout the courtyard dimmed and went dark. Harvath had been in this game long enough to know there was no such thing as coincidence. The other sniper had just cut the power. That could only mean one thing—he was about to breach the villa. Harvath needed to move.
Finding the front door unlocked, Harvath quickly made his way inside and searched for the study. Five minutes later, he had uncovered Papandreou’s safe. While he knew more than most about safecracking, tonight it made no difference. Secreted behind a false panel was an American-made Safari-brand safe. Safaris were the best and Harvath knew he had no choice but to blow it. The only question was whether or not he’d brought along enough C4.
Considering Safari’s impregnable reputation, Harvath prepared to use everything he had. If he overestimated and it resulted in him damaging the Achilles device inside, then so be it. He knew Washington would be glad just to know the device was out of commission.
Taking cover behind Papandreou’s desk, Harvath blew the door off its hinges in an enormous explosion. Once the smoke had cleared, he rushed forward only to discover that it was totally empty.
The CIA was positive the device was being kept at the villa—most likely in Papandreou’s safe, but apparently that location had seemed too obvious.
Knowing that blowing the safe had drawn the attention of the other sniper, Harvath quickly exited the room and began making his way down the hallway, his SR25 up and at the ready.
He passed several rooms, and was about to pass the kitchen when something caught his eye and caused him to back up. In the middle of the kitchen floor was a trapdoor standing wide open. After double-checking the SureFire flashlight mounted to his rifle, Harvath swept into the kitchen and made his way down the stone steps beneath the trapdoor.
The steps led him into a low-ceilinged, rough-hewn corridor illuminated by a string of bare bulbs. From what he could tell, a generator somewhere at the end of the corridor was powering the lights.
Harvath hated tunnels. They provided little cover and had a rather undesirable propensity for funneling enemy fire right at you.
Hugging the wall, he made his way toward a fissure of some sort at the end of the corridor. He was now well beyond the grounds of the villa above and could smell saltwater from somewhere off in the distance.
He entered the fissure and had to crouch to make it through, but when he emerged thirty-five meters later he found himself in a brightly illuminated grotto with a narrow strip of sandy beach. Upon it were parked two heavily armed, high-end Farallon DPVs, or Diver Propulsion Vehicles. The lingering doubts Harvath had harbored about Papandreou’s innocence were beginning to melt away.
From the far end of the beach, a flash of sparks and a high-pitched, grinding whine caught Harvath’s attention. A figure dressed in black was using what appeared to be a circular saw to carve into a metal canister propped between two large rocks. Harvath’s instinct was to call in what he was seeing to Washington, but he had lost all radio contact the minute he had entered the first subterranean passage.
A million questions raced through his mind, the answers to which appeared to be on the beach.
Harvath found a narrow footpath and carefully picked his way down, never once taking his eyes off the figure so intent upon opening the metal canister wedged between the rocks. When his feet hit the sand, Harvath moved forward as silently as a shadow.
With sparks flying and the grinding of metal upon metal, the black-clad figure never noticed Harvath’s approach. When the suppressor of Harvath’s SR25 was pressed up against the back of the man’s wet suit, he let the saw fall to the ground.
Harvath told the man to turn around slowly, and when he did, Harvath was rendered nearly speechless. “Ambassador Avery,” he stated. “I don’t understand. I thought you were dead.”
An aura of shock was replaced by one of dignity and power as the silver-haired ambassador replied, “Obviously I’m not. Who the hell are you?”
“My name’s Harvath. I was tasked by the Pentagon to find your killers.”
“The Pentagon? They couldn’t find their ass with both hands. I suppose you’ve also been tasked with retrieving the device.”
There was something about looking into the eyes of a dead man that caused Harvath to mentally pull back and play it dumb until he could get a handle on what was going on. “The device, sir?”
“Don’t bullshit me,” commanded Avery. “That’s what this is all about. Put your weapon down and give me a hand. We haven’t got much time.”
“Where’s Papandreou?”
Avery was silent and so Harvath repeated, “Where is Papandreou, sir?”
“Somebody took him for a swim,” said the ambassador, motioning over his shoulder toward the water. “I don’t think he’s coming back any time soon.”
Harvath looked to where the beach dropped off into the deep water of the grotto. Several feet below the surface he could make out the shape of a man wrapped multiple times in what looked like heavy anchor chain. Pieces of the puzzle were starting to fall into place.
“And Nomikos?” asked Harvath. “Let me guess. Someone was just trying to help him clear the wax out of one of his ears.”
“Who cares? They were both 21 August. All that matters now is that we get the device out of here ASAP.”
The hair on the back of Harvath’s neck was standing up. He didn’t like this. Steadying his SR25 on the center of the ambassador’s chest, he ordered, “Get your hands up where I can see them.”
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Taking you into custody.”
“No, you’re not. I’ve got an assignment to complete. If you get in my way and fuck this up, I’ll make sure you burn for it.”
“Just the way you did in Athens?”
The ambassador fell silent and the only sound that could be heard throughout the grotto was the steady hum of the generator.
“I ought to put a bullet in you right here,” continued Harvath, his mind rapidly cobbling together a picture of what must have happened. “Good men on your detail died. And for what? Money?”
“Lots of money,” came a voice from behind. “Twenty-five million and counting.”
Harvath turned to see the head of the ambassador’s security detail, the agent know
n as Point Guard. In his hands he carried a fully automatic French FA-MAS with a heat shield over the barrel. The man was enormous—almost twice Harvath’s size and was wearing an Infrared reduction suit.
Though he didn’t mean to, Harvath laughed.
“What’s so funny?” demanded Point Guard.
“I was just thinking of that old joke about the difference between a BMW and a porcupine, except in the case of you and the ambassador, this time the pricks actually were on the outside.”
Point Guard stepped up to Harvath and wiped the smile off his face with a butt stroke from the MAS across his jaw.
Harvath saw stars and fell to one knee.
“We’ve all gotta do what we’ve all gotta do,” said the ambassador as he stripped Harvath of his weapons and equipment and tossed them into the water.
“And in your case,” added Point Guard as he kept him covered, “you’ve gotta join Mr. Papandreou for a little swim.”
Harvath spat a gob of blood from his mouth and said, “Probably not a good idea. I just ate before I got here.”
“Very funny, wiseass.”
“Why don’t you tell me how long you’ve been working for 21 August.”
The ambassador smiled. “We don’t work for them. They work for us. Our associate, Mr. Papandreou, screwed up very bad a while back and we offered not to turn him in if he would be our eyes and ears inside the organization.”
“Did the State Department or CIA know about this?”
“Of course not, Papandreou was too valuable an asset to be shared.”
“And he used his friendship with Nomikos to steal the device?”
“Yes, but Nomikos was no angel. He was the chairman of 21 August.”
Harvath was stunned.
“Papandreou had suspected for quite some time that his cover within the organization was blown,” continued Avery. “He knew that they were going to come for him eventually. In fact, I suspect that was why Nomikos showed up here tonight. Looking back on it, we probably should have done away with Papandreou much sooner and gotten out of the country, but we had other loose ends to tie up and hindsight is always twenty-twenty.”
“So you and Papandreou put this plan together yourselves? The hit on your detail, your car?”
“We threw a couple of bodies in the car,” replied Point Guard, “swapped out our dental records and then firebombed them so only the bullets would survive to tell the tale.”
Harvath had to hand it to them. “And the entire trail led right back to 21 August. You skated with the money and the device, ready to start a new life anywhere you choose.”
“Precisely,” replied Point Guard.
“And the Jordanian buyer?”
“Will be meeting us in a hotel on Sicily in three days,” said Avery, “so I’m sure you can appreciate that we need to get on with our business.”
As Point Guard grabbed a length of anchor chain from a nearby pallet and began to approach, Harvath tried to stall for more time. “So that’s it? Papandreou double-crosses Nomikos and 21 August, after which you double-cross him, and your country, then fake your deaths and make off to sell the device to some character who is very likely to be an enemy of the United States?”
“Well said,” replied the ambassador as he accepted Point Guard’s assault rifle so the man could bind Harvath with the heavy chain.
Harvath made a move to take Point Guard’s legs out from under him and get control of his sidearm, but he wasn’t fast enough. Point Guard dodged left and brought an elbow crashing down into Harvath’s temple, causing him once again to see stars. As he fell to the ground, he felt clumps of sand between his fingers made moist not from seawater but from the blood running from his mouth.
Point Guard worked quickly, wrapping the anchor chain around Harvath’s wrists and ankles and then began half dragging, half carrying him into the grotto’s saltwater pool. All Harvath could think about was staying alive, but no matter how hard he struggled he couldn’t get free.
As Harvath felt the bottom dropping away beneath the bigger man’s feet, he knew that any moment now he was going to be let go.
Drowning seemed like one of the most ignoble deaths a SEAL could face and yet that was exactly what was rushing headlong to meet him.
Harvath summoned all of his strength and tried for one more major contortion of his body. If nothing else, maybe he could get a hold of the sick son of a bitch who was about to drown him and take him down, too.
He counted to three and then as fast and as hard as he could rolled his shoulders forward, his hands grasping for any item of his killer’s clothing. As he did, there was a snap, followed by a searing pain in his upper arm. Somewhere in the back of his mind, something told him he had just torn something very serious, but he didn’t care. All that mattered was staying alive.
Harvath tried again, struggling with all of his might to break free, and then heard another snap. A second later, blood began to drip into his eyes. As he looked up, he saw something bracing his killer’s throat and blood pouring out all over. It was only a quick snapshot and before Harvath knew what had happened, the powerful hands that had been dragging him deeper into the water let go.
In an instant, the heavy chain pulled him to the bottom. It happened so quickly he had barely enough time to fill his lungs with air. He tried desperately to locate the upward slope and inchworm his way back to the beach, but it was no use. The sand was too soft—each time he moved he only dug himself in deeper.
His chest felt like it was pinned beneath a thousand tons of concrete. Every fiber of his body was screaming for oxygen. His vision was dimming at the edges and he knew it was only going to be a few seconds before his mouth automatically opened in one final, desperate attempt at life and his lungs sucked in a hopeless quest for air.
Harvath prepared himself for the end and as he did, he felt something strange bump his back. It felt distinctly like the nose of a shark, which shouldn’t have come as any surprise since the grotto most likely opened up onto the sea.
The bump came again, followed by another. Soon, he felt himself being pulled away. He strained to see the animal, but his vision was almost black and the water was filled with blood.
The great beast propelled him forward and he had the eerie sensation of breaking the surface. Immediately, he was jolted by a heavy impact followed by a searing pain in the same spot in his upper arm where he had felt a similar pain moments ago. A popping sound that reminded him of gunfire, but which he knew were actually teeth snapping bone came next and Harvath told himself it would all be over soon. Finally, there was quiet. Deep, cold, the end is finally here quiet.
It was at that moment that Harvath’s eyes shot open and he began sucking in hot, greedy gasps of air. Thrashing in the shallow water, he looked to his left and swung to his right, trying to find the shark.
“Easy,” said a voice from above as a pair of weathered hands began unwinding the chain from around his wrists and ankles.
Harvath looked up and saw the face of Ben Metaxas. “Ben, what the—”
“Careful, my friend, don’t move,” he said.
“Why? What’s going on?”
“I’m not as good a shot as Yannis, I’m afraid.”
Harvath didn’t understand. “What are you talking about?”
“Your arm,” said Ben.
Looking down at his arm, Harvath saw a long metal shaft and realized what had pierced the throat of his killer—a speargun. Harvath’s own wound was almost as serious. The spear had gone straight through his left bicep and almost punctured his rib cage.
“It was very difficult pulling you out of the water.”
“But how did you get here?”
Ben held up his mask and swim fins. “There was another boat offshore. We saw a man bringing out supplies from inside this cave. When we couldn’t reach you on the radio, we decided to take a look.”
Harvath remembered the ambassador. “The other man. What happened to the other man?”
“T
he man on the beach?”
“Yes.”
“He’s dead,” said Yannis as he made he way back toward them. “I shot him with this.” Yannis held up Point Guard’s weapon.
“What about the canister?” asked Harvath, fighting back the shock beginning to take over his body.
“He dropped it in the tunnel. Don’t worry.”
But Harvath was worried. They had to secure the canister and get the hell out of there. “We need that canister. Go get it.”
Harvath collapsed onto the beach and waited for Yannis to come back with the Achilles device. While he lay in the sand, Ben did his best to work the spear free of Harvath’s arm and dress his wounds. It was an incredibly painful procedure.
The longer Yannis was gone, the more Harvath began to worry. When he did finally return, it wasn’t with good news. “I can’t find it.”
“What do you mean?” said Harvath as Ben helped him to his feet.
“The canister is gone.”
“That’s impossible. We’re the only ones here.”
“I don’t think so. There’s a trail of blood leading down the corridor and up the stairs into the kitchen.”
Upon hearing that piece of information, the bottom dropped out of Harvath’s stomach. “We’ve got to get upstairs.”
Harvath led the way as quickly as he could through the low tunnel, down the corridor and up the stone steps into the house. The trail of blood couldn’t be missed. He used the beam of his SureFire to trace it back through the house, out into the courtyard, and right up to the spot where Constantine Nomikos’s blue Land Rover had been sitting less than half an hour before. There was no sign of the Land Rover, the device or Nomikos.
Harvath reached for his radio only to realize that Ambassador Avery had pitched it into the water, along with the rest of his gear.
Defeated, Harvath leaned back against the outer wall of the courtyard. He tried to tell himself that it would be impossible for a man as high profile as Constantine Nomikos to hide forever, but Harvath had been around long enough to know that with enough money, anything in life was possible.