Outsourced
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He ignored the outer office since those areas were usually confined to low-level support staff and he ducked into the first private office he found to begin his collection. Binders filled one wall and he wished he could haul away a truckload, but instead he settled for yanking out every hard drive he could find. He flipped over a laptop and realized that even with a small screwdriver, he was looking at several minutes to remove the drive. He ripped the computer from its power cable and shoved it into his duffle bag along with his communications headset, then he went on to the next office.
In the al Qaeda offices Camille was reaching under a desk for a bag in which to carry the laptops when she heard the door open. Rolling under the desk, she aimed the Glock at the intruder. If he turned the lights on, she would have little choice but to shoot him, then run over to al-Zahrani’s tent and give the bastard what he deserved before the whole camp swarmed her. She should’ve stuck with her primary mission objective like her father had tried so often to drum into her.
A rectangular hole was cut into the plywood wall, a makeshift window for ventilation. Enough light from al-Zahrani’s security lamp came through it so that she could see the silhouette of a bearded male figure carrying a bulky bag. The interloper made little noise, moved over to the desk and set his bag on the floor beside her, but didn’t seem to notice her. She heard him pull a binder from a shelf and flip it open. He could take hours studying the damn thing and she had to move on to her primary target. Camille shoved the Glock into her waistband and slid the knife from its sheath, preferring to eliminate him silently. Just as she reached out to slice his Achilles tendon, she heard Iggy’s voice coming from the guy’s bag. She had never heard such a welcome sound. She stopped and reached into the duffle bag. Her hand bumped into the headset’s mouthpiece. In less than a second, her fingers oriented themselves and she put her thumb over the ear speaker in case there was more comm traffic while she was removing it. The intruder was probably part of a rescue team, but he could also be a tango who had killed an operator and stolen the comm set. He grabbed for the bag just as she jerked her hand back along with her prize. He stuck a laptop and some papers inside and hurried from the room, shutting the door behind him.
The moment she donned the headset, the compound went black. Camille smiled. She knew what the blackout meant:
Black Management has arrived.
Hunter hugged the shadows, searching the areas between the buildings for anyone moving quickly as he worked his way to the second generator. GENGHIS had already knocked out lights to the south portion of the camp. As he cut the generator’s fuel intake line, he heard Iggy trying to get a response from Ashland, who was refusing to answer. The goddamn French spook had gone feral. He had known better than to trust the fucker. Within seconds of cutting the line, the generator fell silent and the lights went out.
Then Hunter heard over his comm set. “TIN MAN this is LIGHTNING SIX. Reporting for duty, sir.”
Hunter’s eyes teared up.
“Copy that, LIGHTNING SIX. Good to hear your voice,” Iggy said smoothly. The man was a true professional. “What is your status and position?”
“Acquired comm from someone who appeared to be a tango. Is he yours?”
“One asset confirmed. Not responding to comm,” Iggy said. “Repeat, what is your status and position?”
“Good. I’m in the office building. Fixed structure in the center of the compound with the satellite dishes.”
Upon hearing that, Hunter spun around and rushed toward the building, all the while continuing to monitor the radio traffic.
“LIGHTNING SIX, egress building and proceed to your twelve o’clock to the edge. CHALK ONE will link up with you and escort to the LZ.”
“Negative on the escort. Will link up with CHALK ONE, then proceed to neutralize HVT.”
Hunter wondered what High Value Target Stella had discovered.
“Request identity HVT and location,” Iggy said.
“JOURNEYMAN.”
JOURNEYMAN—al-Zahrani’s code name. Hunter was nearly as excited as he was that they had found Stella. They’d finally located the terror mastermind.
“Location, small tent in center of compound,” Stella said.
“CHALK ONE this is TIN MAN. Link up with LIGHTNING SIX twenty meters to the twelve o’clock of the office structure. Proceed with LIGHTNING SIX to extract JOURNEYMAN.”
“CHALK ONE this is LIGHTNING SIX. Belay that order. Link up, then proceed to neutralize JOURNEYMAN.”
“CHALK ONE, this is TIN MAN. Order stands.”
“TIN MAN, sorry, but I’m taking him out with or without help,” Stella said.
“CHALK ONE, this is TIN MAN. Intercept LIGHTNING SIX and extract HVT. Dammit, LIGHTNING SIX. Standing orders are to take him alive. He’s got invaluable intel. What’s gotten into you?”
Hunter ran up to the building and raced inside, but didn’t immediately see Stella. He kicked open an office door and Ashland whirled around, pointing a pistol at him; his other hand held a computer.
“Where is she?” Hunter said.
“Who?”
“GRACKLE—Camille Black, you idiot.”
“How would I know?” Ashland said, shoving a laptop into his bag.
“She’s using your comm.”
“Impossible. It’s here.” Ashland reached into bag stuffed with laptops and rooted around.
Hunter looked around to check out his surroundings, and through a hole cut out for a window, he saw Stella. She was moving toward the smaller tent, the one she had described as al-Zahrani’s. Without thinking, he vaulted the desk and sprung through the hole toward her. He landed hard because of the weight from the Claymore mines in his rucksack.
Camille thought she heard someone and jerked her head around, but it was so dark she could barely see. She had always been clear with Iggy whenever she was along on a mission, he was the commander. Technically, she wasn’t on the mission, so she excused her insubordination as she moved ahead, treading lightly, trying not to step on a sleeping tango. Iggy was right that they should capture al-Zahrani, but she didn’t care. All she wanted was to feel that knife pushing into his throat and ripping through the cartilage.
She heard footsteps, stopped and aimed the AK in that direction. Suddenly someone slapped his hand across her mouth. Reaching for her knife, she heard Hunter whisper into her ear.
“I love you. Walk with me.”
He took her arm and led her away from the tent, toward the rim where the bench dropped off to the next one. She didn’t resist. Tears of relief and joy rolled down her face. Hunter whispered into his mouthpiece. “TIN MAN, SABER TOOTH here. LIGHTNING SIX intercepted. Falling back to regroup.”
Hunter said in a low voice, “Did you hear me? I said, I love you.”
“Someone’s behind us,” Camille whispered back. “And I love you, too.”
Hunter glanced around. “It’s Ashland.”
“Who?”
“A French spy. Long story.”
Hunter stopped sixty meters away from the nearest structure and squatted down. He held her with one hand and kept the other on his XM8. She wanted to kiss him more than anything, but she knew they couldn’t let their guard down even for a moment. The French piece of merde had already proven he couldn’t be trusted for security.
“You know we have to take al-Zahrani alive if we can. It’s been a standing order with Force Zulu. Iggy’s right.”
“I know. I want the fucker dead anyway.”
“What’d he do to you?”
Camille turned her head away while she fought back tears.
Hunter squeezed her close. “If he did anything to hurt you, I promise you, he’ll suffer more if we take him back. Guaranteed. Slitting his throat is giving him the easy way out.”
GENGHIS jogged up to them. Hunter continued to focus on her. “Are you with us or do I have to zip-tie you?”
Camille laughed.
“GENGHIS, stand guard for a minute,” Hunter said, then he pushe
d up his NVG and rotated the mike away from his mouth. He pulled her to his lips.
For the brief moment while they kissed, she really did feel like she was in Shangri-la.
Iggy was going crazy, waiting. Even though they had Camille and the tangos hadn’t yet figured out they had visitors, the op was taking too damn long. The helicopters were in holding positions and burning up several pounds of fuel every minute and now he was watching Stone and Camille lip-lock. Too much. He gave them five seconds, then keyed his radio. “CHALK ONE this is TIN MAN. Nautical twilight isn’t far off. Get a move on.”
Hunter heard Iggy’s voice, but wanted to stretch the kiss, aware it might be their last. He forced himself to stop and pull away, unhooking from his belt webbing the extra NVGs he’d carried. Without losing a moment, he pressed the NVGs into her hands.
“What’s this?” Stella said, then laughed softly. “NVGs? You always knew how to give a girl what she needs.” She pulled them on over her head.
“GENGHIS, Ashland. Get over here,” Hunter said, just loud enough for them to hear.
They came over and squatted down.
“Approximately thirty to forty minutes ago, al-Zahrani was in that tent,” Stella said. She pointed to where Hunter had grabbed her. “I have every reason to believe that he was getting ready to go to sleep there.”
Stella spoke before Hunter could say anything. It was his team and she wasn’t briefed on their capabilities. He was going to have a hard time keeping her from taking over. The woman loved to be on top.
“Any other intel we need to know before I distribute the orders?” Hunter said in his most professional voice.
“He had two guards in front of the tent. I saw no patrol. However, he has three barracks within thirty meters—two to the south at our two o’clock, one north at our ten o’clock. Everyone here is carrying an AK and tangos are sleeping on the ground everywhere.”
“Thanks, Stella. Snake the tent.” He removed a PAQ-4C infrared laser pointer from his belt and handed it to her. Hunter keyed his mike. “TIN MAN this is SABER TOOTH. Snaking the HVT’s suspected location. Confirm IR signature of a single individual inside.”
Stella turned on the infrared beam and shined it on al-Zahrani’s tent, moving it in a figure eight. It was very bright to anyone wearing night vision equipment, but invisible to everyone else.
“SABER TOOTH this is TIN MAN. I see it. Steady.”
She quit moving the pointer and held a constant beam on the target.
“SABER TOOTH, TIN MAN. Terminate snake.”
She turned off the pointer.
A few seconds later, Iggy continued, “Confirmed. One body inside. Two outside at your twelve o’clock.”
Taking off his pack, Hunter turned toward the group and said, “It’s a go, then. GENGHIS, set up a line of Claymores in front of the barracks here, as planned.” Hunter ran his finger through the sand, sketching a rough diagram of the camp so Stella could visualize it. “I figure GENGHIS will have two to three minutes while Stella and I grab al-Zahrani. Make certain that range fan is pointing south to the camp’s six o’clock, our current three o’clock.” The last thing they needed was for the danger zone to be inadvertently pointed toward them. “If there’s noise and some unhappy campers come running out, I want to be ready to even the odds as fast as we can with the Claymores. If things go hot, Iggy will call in close air support and use his 240-Golf.”
Hunter outlined how he and Stella would take out the guards, then snatch al-Zahrani and meet up. “If we use the Claymores, we’ll go south through the weakened force to LZ-two. If everything stays quiet, it’s LZ-one.” He drew Xs in the sand to indicate the pick-up zones.
“What do you need me to do?” Ashland said.
“Find a weapon and if we start firing, don’t hit us,” Hunter said in a low voice. “And you better hang close and not go off on any more of your own missions if you want out of here. I won’t leave a man behind, but you’ve made it clear you’re not one of my men.”
“Tell me what you need and I’ll do it,” Ashland said.
“Baby-sit al-Zahrani after we get him.”
“Head’s up,” GENGHIS whispered. “Company.”
A tango was walking toward them. He called out something. Before Hunter could do anything, Ashland responded in Arabic. “My brother’s lost his wedding band. Come help us.”
GENGHIS rose slowly and circled around behind the man, who didn’t have their night-vision advantage. Hunter called out in Arabic. “I must find it, insh’allah. Izdihar will never forgive me.”
GENGHIS flanked the tango. Stone and Ashland kept the man talking while he moved into position, slinking up behind him with his knife drawn. Placing his left hand on one side of the tango’s head, he struck his temple with the grip of his knife as hard as he could, shocking the temporal artery into a quick death. The body fell limp in his hands and he let it drop to the ground.
One tango down, four hundred ninety-nine to go.
Against his better judgment, GENGHIS picked up the man’s AK to give to Ashland.
A few minutes later, Camille crept up behind the guard she was assigned to neutralize. He was squatting on the ground, chewing something, probably qat to keep himself awake. She jabbed the knife in between the occipital bone and the first vertebrae, turned it, then pulled it out. Just as she was sticking it back into the sheath, she heard an AK fire, then another and another.
She heard GENGHIS say over the radio, “Taking fire.”
GENGHIS didn’t want to fire off and give away his position to the whole goddamn camp, but the shooters were getting close. Bullets were crackling on all sides of him. It was hard to hit someone on the ground, so he lay on his belly while he twisted the wires to the detonators, then inserted them into the Claymore and hooked up the firing device. Reaching around the mine, he ran his fingers across the metal face plate to make sure he could feel the raised letters, FRONT TOWARD ENEMY. His arm was starting to throb from the morning’s bullet wound as he crawled on to the next position, dragging the combat packs with him and stringing wire to daisy chain as many mines together as he could.
More shooters joined in.
One more mine and he was out of there.
The gunfire was picking up and it was now coming from two sides. Hunter signaled Stella that he was going into the tent with a flash-bang grenade and he rolled it into the tent. He looked away until he heard the loud clap and saw the reflection of the bright burst, designed to stun and blind anyone inside. Then they rushed inside.
Al-Zahrani was on the ground in his bed reaching for a gun, but Stella knocked it away with her bare foot, then kicked him in the face. He shrieked like a girl.
Hunter rolled him over, shouting at him in Arabic as he smacked his combat boot down onto his back, pinning him down. He handed her a plastic tie and pulled al-Zahrani’s arms together. She zip-tied his wrists as tightly as she could and restrained herself from breaking a thumb.
Bullets were ripping through the tent. They had to get out of there fast. Hunter took out a swath of duct tape and slapped it over al-Zahrani’s mouth and pulled him to his feet. He didn’t resist as they led him away. He thought it was strange not to offer resistance, but bin Laden had been the same way.
Ashland was waiting outside, lying on the ground. Hunter transferred al-Zahrani to his custody. Ashland pulled him down to the ground and gave him orders in Arabic.
Through the night vision equipment, Hunter could see dozens of tangos running toward their leader’s tent, holding AKs at their sides. Their muzzle bursts flashed white and green tracers crisscrossed the raiding party. The morons were firing into the dark, risking friendly fire hitting al-Zahrani. They hit the ground and began firing in opposite directions.
Hundreds of tangos were swarming toward their position and GENGHIS was split off from them.
“TIN MAN this is SABER TOOTH. Request suppressive fire, your two o’clock. GENGHIS, SABER TOOTH. Fire whatever’s ready and move to link up. Now!”
Scores of tangos were about to overrun the Claymore line. GENGHIS dropped to his belly and pumped the firing device several times for good measure. The C-4 in the mines flashed, then sent fireballs into the air and a thousand steel balls hurtling toward the tangos. His ears were still ringing, but he could hear a crossfire of screams. He took his XM8 and pelted the tangos who’d overrun his line. Staying low, he searched for his teammates.
God, I love this job.
Through the machine gun’s night vision scope Iggy could see tangos pouring from the barracks on all sides of his chalk’s last known position, but he couldn’t see them now that they needed him to take out the tangos. He had to get them to signal their location. “SABER TOOTH this is TIN MAN. Rope your position.”
The tangos were coming as fast as Hunter could shoot. They’d be overrun if he paused to signal his position. “SABER TOOTH to TIN MAN. Busy here. Stand by.”
“I got it. Slowing down on my side,” Camille said as she removed the IR laser pointer from the soft case on Hunter’s belt. Pointing it into the air, she turned it on and moved it in circles, until the lasso formed a cone of invisible light.
“SABER TOOTH this is TIN MAN. Contact. Terminate rope.” Iggy aimed the machine gun and it roared. His NVGs refocused so fast that the glare of the muzzle burst hardly bothered him. He took out the tangos nearest his chalk, then moved his line away from them, sweeping toward the north. But the area was too wide and some were getting through.
GENGHIS heard the rapid chatter of the machine gun just as he spotted the cone of light and started to run toward it. The Claymores had knocked out dozens of tangos, but more were coming at them, shouting something about Allah as they ran and fired.