High Flight
Page 90
But Barnes had seen random shit like that happen all the time—and not always for the team’s benefit.
It was very dark inside the house, but with NVGs everything was lit up green. Skip Faircloth, the lead assaulter, was the point man, and Barnes was next; several others were stacked up on the stairs. They moved slow.
If UBL was on the third floor he’d had plenty of time to strap on a suicide vest or at the least arm himself.
This had become nothing more than a CQB—close quarters battle—drill, that Barnes and every other operator on the mission had done hundreds of times.
Just a few steps from the top deck landing, Skip fired two suppressed shots at a head poking out of an open doorway.
Barnes was right behind him, their rifles at the ready as they approached the doorway and looked inside.
Two women dressed in long gowns were wailing and crying over a man lying on his back at the foot of a bed.
One of them looked up and suddenly charged Skip. It was impossible to tell if they were wearing suicide vests, but Skip deflected her charge, and hustled her and the older woman to the other side of the room without thinking what could happen if either of them were wired.
The downed man lay on his back, blood and brains leaking out of the side of his head where one of the shots had entered his skull. He was dressed in a white T-shirt, loose slacks, and a desert-colored vest.
It was bin Laden. Same build and height, same face, same nose, same hair and beard, though it appeared as if he’d dyed away the gray. He was twitching, still not quite dead.
Barnes was sure of the solid ID, and he and another assaulter fired several rounds into the man’s chest, killing him.
It was over, finally.
They cleared an adjoining bathroom and a room that looked as if had been used as an office. The women and three children were hustled out. The team leader securing the rest of the third deck reported all clear when Barnes came out.
“Secure,” Barnes said, and the team leader reported the situation on the troop net.
UBL was dead. It was time to gather up intel, including papers and hard drives, plus samples of the dead man’s body fluids for positive DNA proof, then bag the body and boogey out before the Pakistani military finally woke up and came charging.
NOVELS BY DAVID HAGBERG
Twister
The Capsule
Last Come the Children
Heartland
Without Honor
Countdown
Cross Fire
Critical Mass
Desert Fire
High Flight
WRITING AS SEAN PLANNERY
The Kremlin Conspiracy
Eagles Fly
The Trinity Factor
The Hollow Men
Broken Idols
False Prophets
Gulag
Moscow Crossing
The Zebra Network
Crossed Swords
Counterstrike
Moving Targets
Winner Take All
PRAISE FOR DAVID HAGBERG AND HIS WORKS
“Hagberg, a maven of mach-speed mayhem, intricately moves [the] pieces around his global chessboard, until many bodies, plane crashes, and a running sea battle later, action hero McGarvey wipes out the bad guys. Hagberg’s long yarns always muscle their way to the top of the techno-intrigue-warfare genre.”
—Booklist
“Through twenty-two novels, Hagberg has become known as a suspense writer who delivers. This massive near-future thriller will only enhance his reputation. Hagberg’s narrative maintains its pace, and, by the final pages, with planes falling from the skies and WW III seemingly inevitable, readers will be so engrossed they won’t want to blink.”
—Publishers Weekly
“HAGBERG IS A MAJOR FIND!”
—Dean Koontz
“Espionage, suspense, romance, and intrigue make David Hagberg’s High Flight a true masterpiece about modern American-Japanese relationships—a powerful and important thriller that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Michael Crichton’s Rising Sun.”
—Ed Gorman
“High Flight is a genuine, action-packed thriller that scrawls a warning sky-high.”
—Dean Ing
“David Hagberg’s High Flight has it all: honor, love, deceit, treachery, and right-in-your-face violence … all woven within a fast-paced tale of international intrigue and high-tech warfare.”
—Ken Goddard author of Prey and Wildfire
I thank the following relatives, friends, advisers, and colleagues for their generous, expert help in writing this book. The mistakes are entirely my fault.
Peter Bagley
Bruce Carlson
John DelGaizo
Laurel Erickson
John Foggia
Bob Gleason
Kevin Hagberg
Laurie Hagberg
Joe Jerick
Richard Martinez
Kenneth Nebel
Nancy Nebel
Robert Roningen
David Scorse
Paul Vesterstein
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are fictitious, and anu resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental.
HIGH FLIGHT
Copyright © 1995 by David Hagberg
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.
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New York, Ny 10010
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Tor is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.
Cover art by Alan Ayers
Quotes from Bushido: The Warrior’s Code by Inazo Nitobe, used with kind permission of Ohara Publications, Inc.
eISBN 9781466812826
First eBook Edition : May 2012
First edition: August 1995
First mass market edition: August 1996
Printed in the United States of America