by L. T. Ryan
“Last chance, Mason,” Jon said.
Sasha stepped in front of Jon’s gun. “You can’t do this. There’s nothing to back this up.”
“Bloody hell there’s not.”
Sasha said, “We’ve been on him for the last twelve months. There’s nothing. He’s clean.”
“What do you mean, you’ve been on me? You’ve been watching me?” Mason said.
“He probably knows about Joe,” Jon said.
“He’s not responsible for what his partner’s done. We’ve got no proof he’s involved in any way.”
“I’ll get my proof.” Jon pushed her aside and placed the barrel of his gun to Mason’s forehead.
Jack felt that he should stop the man, but he didn’t. He had lingering doubts about Mason, and this was sure to clear it up. As long as Jon didn’t actually pull the trigger.
“What did Joe do?” Mason asked.
No one spoke. Mason looked at them all in turn. His gaze remained on Jack. He didn’t look frightened. He looked confused. And the puzzled look on his face deepened.
“Someone want to tell me what my partner did? I don’t have a damn clue what’s going on here. I thought we were all good guys here going to get the bad guy.”
Jon lifted his gun and took a step back. He looked toward Sasha and shrugged.
“Mason,” she said. “Joe was at the hotel the day Jack arrived in London. He was also there the days the bombs went off.”
“What? No, he’s been on a fishing trip. It’s what he does with his time off.”
Sasha said, “I’ve been in his home. He doesn’t even have a fishing pole. How well do you really know him?”
Mason said nothing. As Jack recalled Mason’s files tucked away in the man’s desk, he realized that life had begun kicking the guy in the balls two years ago and had rarely let up. All the signs of a corrupt partner might have been there, but he would have missed them. Jack figured that by the look on the guy’s face, he saw them now.
Jon looked toward the front of the van and nodded. Alex stepped out. He approached Mason, said, “I’m sorry about that. We had to be sure.”
Mason nodded, looked away. Jack saw the anger on the man’s face. He didn’t blame the guy for being pissed off. Here you had a man who’d not only dedicated his life to his country, he put it on the line every day to protect those who couldn’t. And now he had to suffer the indignity of being accused of being a traitor. Someone who worked with terrorists. Jack figured they were lucky Mason didn’t pull his weapon and take one of them out.
“So what now?” Jack said.
“We go to the house,” Alex said.
“We?” Jack said.
“That’s right.”
“No, you need to head back to someplace where you’ll be safe.”
“I can’t think of any place safer than around this group of misfits. Right, Jon?”
Jon said, “You know I’m doing this under protest.” He walked off toward the front of the van.
“He’s not happy about this, but dammit, I’m tired of sitting around and signing papers and watching the news and listening to my cabinet bicker. I’m a soldier, Jack. I need to be in the middle of the action. This son of a bitch threatened my city, my country, my life. I want to see him humbled, on the ground, crying. I want to press the muzzle of my rifle to his forehead and watch him beg me for mercy.”
The look in Alex’s eye told Jack that no one would be able to get him to change his mind. Jack had seen that look dozens of times in the past. It’d had been a look that had crossed his own face, usually right before some of the biggest triumphs, and mistakes, he’d ever had.
“We should get going,” Sasha said. “We’ve got no idea what we’re heading into and it’d be good to scout the surrounding area in the daylight.”
So Jack got back in the van and parked himself next to Bear. Mason and Sasha sat in the middle. Alex yelled for Jon to join them, and he did. Mason still looked pissed, stayed that way for the next half hour. He’d brought Naseer’s head to them on a plate, and his thanks was a gun aimed point blank at his face in the middle of the woods.
Bear and Jack made small talk. They had a lot to catch up on still. Both of their lives had been a whirlwind since the day Jack found Mandy lost in the city.
Two hours later, Sasha turned in her seat and told them that they were close.
“These people that live here have no idea the demon that lurks in the dark, do they?” Jack said.
She shook her head. “I’ve been sent some satellite imagery, looks like the property is pretty isolated. There’s a stretch of woods behind the house that extends fully along the property line and is a half-mile deep. We’ll likely approach from there while we have men stationed at points along the road, as well as across from the front of the property.”
“How many inside?”
She looked at Mason. “Five? Six?”
Mason nodded. “We believe at least four, up to six.”
“So we should plan for eight,” Jack said.
They both nodded.
“How big is your team?” Jack said.
“Eight men,” Mason said. “These guys aren’t desk jockeys. So combined with us, it should be plenty.”
They drove for a while longer. They all paid attention to the intersections. Jon turned down several roads, located ones that ran into dead ends. They began to map out possible escape routes.
Jon pointed to a store ahead on the left. “I’m going to pull in there. We’ll grab some food and water.”
The van bounced across the uneven parking lot, eased into a spot. Alex leaned his seat back, covered the side of his face. Probably best that he not be spotted out here. If the media showed up, Naseer would split.
Jack scanned the lot and the store. A man approached the door from the other side of the slightly tinted glass.
“Get out of here,” he said.
“What?” Jon asked.
“Now.”
“Why?”
“Put the van in reverse and get moving.”
“Jack, what is it?” Sasha said.
Jack pointed at the man exiting the store.
“That’s Owen! Go! Now!”
CHAPTER 51
Jon threw the van into reverse, hit the accelerator, and whipped the steering wheel to the right. Gravel pelted the undercarriage. Dust kicked up and created a haze around the car. Rubber and pavement fought one another. The van flew back, jerked to a stop, then whipped forward. They exited the parking lot and turned onto the road without slowing. Jack was sure they were riding on two wheels for a few seconds.
“Well, that didn’t look suspicious,” Bear said.
Jack had a laugh, then shook his head. They were too close to Naseer’s hideout and the moment of attack for jokes. At least, he had to make it look that way.
Jon drove on and made a series of turns and then pulled off the road into a clearing between two groups of trees. They remained seated in silence for a few moments. Ragged breathing filled the void.
Sasha pulled out her phone and placed a call. She asked for ongoing satellite surveillance. She wanted to know whether or not their arrival had been tipped to Naseer and his men after Jon’s driving escape clinic. Sasha’s contact told her that there was no new activity at the house and they’d continue to monitor.
“We’ve got a couple hours till dark,” Jon said. “I’d suggest we lay low here.”
And so they did. One hundred and twenty minutes passed without a word spoken. Bear slept. Jack dozed on and off. He didn’t pay much attention to the others. When the time came, Jon started the van and slipped it into gear and they drove off to meet Mason’s tactical team.
They exchanged information with the eight agents. The team had brought several maps of the area. They all confirmed assignments and details, and then they split up.
Mason had one final thing to say before he left with his team. “Naseer must be taken alive.”
An hour later, Jack and Bear and Sash
a trekked through the dark woods behind the house. Two members of Mason’s team were a hundred yards or so to their left. Alex and Jon were a hundred or so to the right.
Jack saw the signature of white bursts lights through the trees. He lifted his night vision goggles, confirmed it.
“We should get low,” he said. “They might have thermals aimed out here.”
If they did, it wouldn’t matter whether they were standing straight up or laying on the ground. The group of them would give off a giant heat signature.
“We should split up,” Sasha said.
“No,” Jack said.
“Why not? We’re easy targets all together.”
“And easy targets split up, if someone comes at us from behind for a close range kill.”
They lowered to the ground when the edge of the woods came into view. They halted there. Jack and Bear set up their M4 rifles. They split coverage at the back door. Bear had the right, Jack the left. Next to him, Sasha monitored the surrounding area.
Masons’ voice piped in through Jack’s earwig. “We’re preparing to surround the house. So far, we have confirmation of Naseer, Samir, and Yafi inside. No sign of anyone else. Checkpoints, do you have anything to report?”
Two voices spoke one after another indicating that they had seen nothing.
Jon said, “In position.”
Sasha said, “We’re in position.”
“OK. Moving in.”
Jack might as well have been in a vacuum. That’s how the silence that followed caused him to feel.
His mind drifted. He wondered about their safety in the woods, and when they had to cross the field to the house. Had someone ever rigged it with traps or explosives? Sasha told him they had checked for deed information on the house and found nothing. They had no idea who owned it. How could people that high up in the government not be able to locate this kind of information? Perhaps it was a generational ownership thing. Something that didn’t exist in the U.S.
An icy chill trickled down his spine. What if this was a set up? What if his indecisiveness on Mason came back to bite them all here and now?
A flash of light appeared at the back of the house. Jack inched closer to the M4’s scope. He peered through, saw that the back door had been opened. Two men stepped out. The frame of the first matched Naseer, but there was not enough light for Jack to verify facial features. The second man lifted his hand, a smaller burst of light flashed between the two. This was followed by two smaller dots that became bright when the men brought their hands to their faces. A few moments later, Jack smelled cigarette smoke.
Could there be a worse possible moment for him to be reminded that he’d recently quit?
Next to him, Sasha eased herself to the ground. She kept a pair of ATN Night Scout night vision binoculars pressed to her face. Her head turned on a swivel, scanned one end of the field to the other.
“Empty,” she whispered.
Jack lifted his head an inch or two, then settled. He eased his eye to the scope. Steady hands drew aim on Naseer. Sure, they were to take him alive, but things rarely go according to plan. If it came down to it, he would not hesitate to pull the trigger and end the man’s life.
He felt Sasha shift and brush against his side. Instantly, his head rose and he began scanning the area around them.
Sasha cursed under her breath.
“What?” Bear said.
“Two men, roving patrol, off to the east.”
Jack looked to his left, saw two shadowy figures fifty yards in front of them. He pulled his night vision monocular down. The men looked like pros. They were armed with sub-machine guns. Jack and Bear and Sasha waited in silence. No one moved. The men continued past them.
“Call it in,” Jack said.
Sasha whispered over the radio. “We’ve got a patrol unit in the field between us and the house. They’re armed to the teeth and heading your way, Jon. If there’s one, there could be more.”
“We’re sending two guys your way,” Mason said. “Sit tight. Do not engage these men. We’ll neutralize them.”
The radio went silent, so did the woods. The men on the porch went back inside the house.
“You know any attempt to neutralize these men is going to result in gunfire,” Jack said.
“Yep,” Bear said.
“And that is going to make a surprise raid on the house a little less effective.”
“Unless they are planning to do both at once.”
“Without telling us?” Sasha said.
“Or they’re coming after us,” Bear said.
“Or the Prime Minister,” Jack said.
“I’ll go.” Bear rose and then disappeared into the darkness.
“How’s he so quiet?” Sasha said.
“I’ll never figure it out,” Jack said.
“What’s he going to do?”
“Warn them. Let them know something doesn’t add up.” Jack glanced at her. “You any good with that rifle?”
“I’ve managed to hit a target or two over the years.”
“All right, get ready. I’m not sure what, but something is going down soon.”
And it did. Less than three minutes later, the first shots were fired. They came from the right. The patrol team had been neutralized. But the gunfire didn’t end there. As Jack had expected, Mason led the raid on the house at the same time. Several shots erupted from across the field. Dark windows burst like fireworks and faded back to black. Shouts rode the wind. Men barked orders.
Then it was over.
Mason spoke over the radio. “All teams except checkpoint come to the house. Move with extreme caution. Mind the fields for any patrols.”
Jack and Sasha rose and took a line that angled to the right. Their path would intersect with Bear, Jon and Alex. Jack refused to enter the house without knowing that the men were unharmed.
Jack kept his focus on the house. Sasha watched the field surrounding them. Halfway between the woods and the house, they met up with the other men.
“Everyone’s OK here,” Alex said.
“Not liking how this went down,” Bear said.
Jack agreed.
“That team was closed,” Bear said. “They stopped in front of us. That’s where they were killed.”
“Did it look like they had spotted you?” Jack said.
Bear shrugged. “It happened fast. Couldn’t tell.”
“Where are the guys that took them out?” Sasha said.
“Still back there, watching the woods until we get clear,” Jon said.
Jack said, “So best we can figure, Mason and six of his guys are inside that house right now along with however many of Naseer’s men survived the attack.”
“Sounds right,” Sasha said.
The group approached the house with caution and apprehension. Jack and Bear led the way, with Sasha and Alex in the middle and Jon at the rear.
All the lights had been switched on inside. A flood light warmed up and cast a large cone of bright white light over the back of the property. They altered their path to avoid the light in case someone was watching. Jack did not care for how nonchalant Mason and his men were being. Did they have additional intelligence they were not sharing? Had someone been in place long before they arrived and knew head counts, the layout of the scene, and what had been happening inside?
Bear held up his right hand, balled it into a fist, came to a stop. Jack froze in place.
“What is it?” Sasha said in a low, husky voice.
Neither man spoke. She didn’t ask again.
Bear extended his thumb and started jabbing it over his shoulder. He took a few steps back, stopped again. Jack looked at Sasha and gestured toward the woods.
“What is going on?” Alex said.
“Something isn’t right,” Bear said.
“Did you see something?” Alex said.
“Just a hunch,” Bear said.
“Oh, come off it,” Jon said. “I’m not waiting out here on a hunch when we’ve got
half a dozen trained agents inside there.”
Jon started toward the house.
“Jon, come back here,” Alex said.
The man didn’t listen. He continued toward the house, deviated in his path to go around the front.
Jack released the tension in his body and tried to attune himself to whatever it was that set Bear’s instincts into overdrive. The voices of men shouting from inside the house cut into the silence of the night. He heard at least one man moaning in pain? One of Mason’s guys? A terrorist? Had to be one of Naseer’s guys. If Mason had a man down, he’d have been shouting for an ambulance.
A burst of static interrupted Jack’s concentration. Mason’s voice blared through the earwig.
“Everyone get out of the house. Get clear. Go, get out now!”
Whether they had time to react or not wasn’t clear. Jack didn’t. As Mason finished his last sentence, the house erupted into a fireball.
CHAPTER 52
The blast wave knocked Jack backward. He managed to turn mid-air and land on his stomach. His oxygen deprived lungs screamed in pain. They hurt twice as bad when he finally managed to force air into them. To his right, Sasha lay unconscious. He dragged himself to her side, reached over and felt for a pulse. She groaned at his touch. Her head rolled toward him and she opened her eyes.
“Are you OK?” he said.
She licked her lips and softly said, “Yeah.”
He forced himself to his knees and hovered over her. His hands acted on instinct and performed a quick assessment. Nothing broken, no major cuts. She had a slight gash on the side of her head, but it didn’t appear to be deep. He turned toward the Prime Minister.
Alex bolted upright with his hands planted in the ground behind him. He had a cut that traveled halfway across his forehead. Blood coated half his face. Bear knelt at the man’s side, prepared an improvised bandage to place on Alex’s head.
“Are you OK?” Jack said.
“Is she all right?” Alex said without taking his eyes off the smoldering house.
“She acknowledged me. Nothing broken. I’m giving her a few to see if she comes to anymore.”