A murmur of excitement snaked through the audience. Hudson watched and listened as the images changed on the big screen behind McGreagor, first showing the previously depicted rocket blasting off and coasting comfortably in orbit. The computer-generated image alternated for a while with shots of Earth obviously borrowed from one of the actual space shuttle flights, then the sleek rocket was shown reentering the atmosphere and landing on a desert airstrip with the ease of a descending 747.
“We’re on track to have our first test flight in a few months,” McGreagor said, moving to the edge of the stage as the screen behind him filled with more images of the spaceship maneuvering through the skies and landing again and again. “Our reentry technology is this close—” he held up his thumb and index finger an inch apart “—to being completed. Thanks to the efforts of two of the greatest scientific minds of the past and current centuries.” He smiled and extended his arm toward the two older men, Terry Turner and Vassili Nabokovski, seated on the far side of the stage.
The audience applauded.
“This is your chance, ladies and gentlemen,” McGreagor said on the tail end of the fading applause. “Your chance to be part of the greatest adventure of our era. Your chance to be part of the New International Independent Space Agency, NIISA.”
More applause filled the auditorium.
The old son of a bitch has them eating out of the palm of his hand, Hudson thought. He’s already got more money than the US Mint, and these rich bastards are going to be lining up to give him more. Hudson shook his head. Too bad it would soon be time to rain on this little parade. But any regrets he might have had were vastly overshadowed by the thoughts of how rich he himself was going to be. All he had to do was play his hand right, and make sure everything went according to the plan.
He pressed his left arm against his side, feeling the comforting reassurance of the Smith & Wesson M&P 40L. It was a bit bigger than he needed, but it was a mean-looking piece of steel and polymer. Hudson never knew when McGreagor would pull him aside, in one of his braggadocio moments, and urge Hudson to show one of the movie-star idiots what “a real weapon” looked like. Thus, the larger frame .40-caliber pistol was an appropriate choice.
Everything McGreagor did was based more on image and speculation than on results. And Hudson, as the chief of security, was expected to be part of the program, just like the two new rocket scientists his boss had recruited, Turner and Nabokovski. One American, one Russian, and both experts in the field of old ICBMs from another era, Turner from NASA and Nabokovski from the Soviet space program. If anyone could lick the puzzle of how to achieve a successful atmospheric reentry, it was those two. But Hudson knew the New International Independent Space Agency would never see the first civilian commercial space travel, much less build that station on the moon. Especially after Hudson made good on his delivery to the North Koreans: the proposed telemetry for NIISA’s reentry system and two slightly worn nuclear physicists.
American Embassy
Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico
BOLAN AND GRIMALDI sat in the darkened room as the full-screen Skype image of Hal Brognola came into view. Seeing Brognola’s scowling face as he set his ceramic mug on the desk before him let them know all was not well at Stony Man Farm.
“What’s up?” Bolan asked. “Is your scowl a reflection on the results of the raid?”
“I just got off the phone with the White House.”
“How’d that go?” Bolan asked.
Brognola sighed. “About as good as could be expected, considering the circumstances.”
Bolan compressed his lips. More than just a few things about the ill-fated raid bothered him, but something indefinable danced through the inner recesses of his memory... Something out of place, but so far, he hadn’t been able to put his finger on it.
“What about it, Striker? Is there any way to put lipstick on this pig?” the big Fed asked.
Instead of the mother lode they’d hoped for, they had recovered a small, rather disappointing amount of unprocessed coca plants and other drugs from the warehouse, and lost three Mexican marines, all good men, in the process.
“The drug seizure wasn’t that impressive,” Bolan said. “Which probably means that the full shipment was still being picked up and hadn’t been deposited in the warehouse yet.”
“It was bad intel from the get-go,” Grimaldi said.
“What about the plane?” Brognola asked.
“It was destroyed,” Bolan said. “Apparently, the guy who engaged me in the firefight dropped the grenade he was about to throw. It detonated and then set off the fuel tanks. The plane was a complete loss. They’re going through the shell now. Preliminary reports showed five bodies inside. Six, if you include the grenadier.”
“We recovered a briefcase loaded with American currency and euros,” Grimaldi said. “Somebody was about to make a purchase.”
“Which brings up the matter of our special prisoner,” Brognola said. “The Cuban national. You got any idea what his angle is?”
“He’s playing it close to his vest,” Bolan said. “We’ll know more once we can interrogate him.”
“The Bureau’s sending a pair of special agents down there to do just that.” Hal sat back in his chair and held his coffee mug in both hands. “I know that look, Striker. Is something else bothering you?”
“Somebody tipped them,” he answered.
“You think they were tipped off in advance?”
“Not in advance,” Bolan said. “Otherwise they would have set up an ambush. This was more like a last-minute notification. If they’d known we were coming, that plane wouldn’t have landed, either.” The events of the raid were running through his mind like a movie at double speed. The approach, the interdiction, the firefight... Then it hit him. Someone inside the warehouse had yelled that the marines had arrived, not the police. How did the person know it was the marines?
“I need to have a talk with Sergeant Martinez,” Bolan said. “I think he’s got a traitor in his group. Someone on the raid team tipped them as we were making the final approach.”
Brognola raised his eyebrows. “That’s not going to go over well with the administration, either here or in Mexico City. Do you have any hard proof?”
“Just a feeling,” Bolan said.
“But when he gets a feeling,” Grimaldi broke in, “you can pretty much take it to the bank.”
“I don’t know,” Brognola said, shaking his head. “One of the reasons the marines were sent in was to prevent leaks to informants.”
“This had to have been a last-minute tip-off. We were in close proximity up until the execution. Somebody must have had a cell phone and made a quick call, maybe contacting someone to call the compound and warn them.”
Brognola heaved a sigh. “Okay, I’ll pursue it from this end, too. See if Bear can pull some cell phone transmission records. So are you sure you can trust that Martinez guy?”
Bolan considered that, then nodded. “As sure as I can be. He was right there alongside us when it all went down. And he was pretty upset about losing his men. You can’t fake that kind of emotion.”
Brognola nodded. “Keep me posted.” His eyes narrowed. “Is there something else?”
“Another inconsistency. One of the hostiles down there, the guy from the plane who tried to take us out... I got a glimpse of his face before the grenade detonated. He looked Asian. Just thought I’d pass that along.”
“Thanks. As I said, the FBI’s sending a team to Mexico to interview the Cuban. I thought maybe you two could stick around and give them a hand.”
“Give them a hand?” Grimaldi repeated with an exaggerated groan. “What does that mean?”
“See if the guy’s legit, for one thing,” Brognola said. “We know the Cubans have been working hand in hand with the cartels for years, smuggling drugs. W
ith these new normalized relations with Havana, we’re going to need all the intel we can gather to keep on top of things.”
“We’ll need a better cover,” Bolan stated. “We were down here as ‘civilian contractors’ assisting the marines, remember?”
“I’ll have your usual DOJ credentials flown down to the embassy tonight.”
2
Tocumen International Airport
Panama City, Panama
Colonel Yi flipped shut the fake Chinese passport and placed it into his pocket as he waited for his luggage to clear customs. The rest of the Black Tiger team was going through customs, as well. Yi directed one of his men to take charge of the bags and strolled leisurely outside to stand in the nighttime air. He scanned his surroundings, looking for any possible foreign agents or police who might be suspicious of an arriving group of Asians. Their passports listed them as Chinese, a Hong Kong acrobatic team, which explained their elaborate equipment. And to the untrained eyes of the Panamanians, the distinctions between Koreans and Chinese would be indistinguishable.
Seeing no telltale prying eyes, Yi removed a cigarette pack from his pocket. He shook one out, placed it between his lips and lit it as he moved to a position of modest seclusion under a high concrete arch. Exhaling a cloud of smoke, Yi casually took out his satellite phone and called Song.
“We have arrived in Panama,” Yi said in Chinese, to maintain his team’s cover.
“Did you encounter any problems?” General Song asked, also in Chinese.
“None so far. We are clearing customs and waiting for our local contact to pick us up. We will then obtain the rest of our equipment. Are the ships in position?”
“Their arrival is imminent.” Song cleared his throat, which Yi knew was a bad sign. “However, there has been an unforeseen complication. The meeting in Mexico did not go well. Apparently, the Americans and some of their Mexican puppets interceded.”
Yi considered that. “How much damage was done?”
“Sergeant Kwon acquitted himself most admirably, from what I’ve been told. He fought back gallantly and blew up the plane containing the others before the majority of the principles could be identified or captured.”
“So the Iranians were not discovered?”
“Apparently not,” Song said. “But the briefcase with the money was.”
Yi knew that the Iranians had plenty of money to spend, so that was of little concern to him so long as the Americans did not link the money to Iran. It was, however, yet another reminder of the complexity of the plan—so many individual moving parts each dependent upon the other for the proper execution of purpose.
“Two prisoners were taken,” Song said. “One is a simpleton guard, who has already been dealt with.” He paused and exhaled loudly. “The other is one of the Cubans.”
This information concerned Yi. He said nothing, awaiting further information.
“It seems,” Song continued, “that this Cuban is withholding information at this time, so he can negotiate with the Americans. I have the information as to where he is being held. You must send the Black Dragon to silence him immediately.”
Yi was not thrilled about sending his best man to effect an assassination in an unfamiliar land, but still, the Dragon had accomplished such difficult tasks before on foreign soil. Yi decided he would send a Black Tiger with the Dragon. It would impinge upon the operational effectiveness of his own assignment in Panama, but two men would assure success. While it wasn’t certain how much the Cuban knew, or even if any early disclosure about the missiles would upset the delicate timetable, it was far better to leave nothing to chance.
“It will be done, sir,” Yi said. “And what of Kim Soo-Han? All goes well with the American?”
The other man chuckled. “Of course. That part of the plan is my least concern.”
Punta de las Sueños
Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico
JAMES HUDSON STOOD by the bed with the phone, watching the woman stroll around the room in her high heels and one of his white shirts, unbuttoned. The sight delighted him, even as he listened to the repetitive instructions from Dr. Phillip McGreagor over the cell phone.
“Remember,” McGreagor said, “we’re pulling out all the stops on this one. Besides employees, we’ll be hosting investors of all sorts, most of whom are accustomed to having their every whim satisfied. Am I making myself clear?”
“Absolutely,” Hudson said, watching as his companion plucked ice cubes from the plastic bucket and dropped them, one by one, into the two glasses.
“And make sure you’ve hired enough local police to maintain security down there,” McGreagor said. “We can’t afford to have anything untoward happen.”
The hotel was set on the beach, well away from the ramshackle houses of the nearby town. The beach and the grounds were patrolled by uniformed security carrying weapons. Hudson was sure of all this because he had already figured out a way to defeat all the measures. “I’ve gone over everything down here, sir,” he said. “Believe me, it’s tighter than a drum.”
Hudson heard McGreagor sigh. “And have you made arrangements for the...entertainment? A couple of these high rollers have exotic tastes.”
Exotic... The word fitted his companion to a T, he thought as she ambled back toward him, a glass of gin in each hand, the open front of the shirt giving him more than an eyeful of her stunning cleavage, her tight abdomen.
“Did you hear me?” McGreagor asked, his voice imbued with the customary irritation and truculence that set Hudson’s teeth on edge.
“Yes, Doctor,” Hudson said, figuring that the mention of the man’s PhD would stroke his ego enough to lessen the customary chastisement.
“Well, then, say something, dammit. You know I hate it when you don’t answer.”
Hudson frowned as he accepted the drink, so angry at the long-distance criticism that he felt like throwing the glass against the wall. But he didn’t. There would be time, later, to deal with this unctuous, demanding prick of a boss.
“I’ll make sure the hookers are first-class,” Hudson said.
“Dammit! Watch what you say. You never know who’s listening.”
“Sorry, sir.” Hudson felt himself flush. McGreagor had a way of making him feel embarrassed and inadequate even if he was a couple thousand miles away.
“Use some common sense,” McGreagor snapped. “We’ve got to make this excursion flawless. If we’re going to stay on schedule for our launch, we need to impress the shit out of these investors. We can’t afford any slipups. Got it?”
“Yes, sir,” Hudson said. “I got it.”
“Good. Get everything set up and then get your ass back here.”
Hudson ended the call and took a long gulp of the drink.
“Your boss is upset?” the woman asked, canting her head slightly.
He shook his head. “He’s just being his typical, asshole self.”
“So,” she said, pulling Hudson close. “This will not interfere with our plans, will it?”
“No, no, of course not. Let’s not worry about him. I can handle it.”
“All is well, then?” she asked. “The company retreat will remain on schedule?”
“Everything’s ducky, Kim Soo-Han,” Hudson said, pronouncing each syllable of her name with delicious distinction. “Just ducky. Trust me.”
Soon, he thought. Soon.
Café de Luca
Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico
BOLAN NODDED TO Martinez as the sergeant entered the small cantina and headed to their table. He’d changed into civilian clothes, as had Bolan and Grimaldi, but still hardly looked like a typical citizen out for an early-evening snack. He shook hands with the two Americans, sat, then shook his head.
“I have just come from telling the families of my fallen marines about the deaths of the
ir loved ones. It was very sad.”
Bolan nodded in commiseration. He knew the pain of loss.
The server arrived to take his order. Both Bolan and Grimaldi had bottles of beer on the table in front of them.
“Beer,” Martinez said.
The woman left and the big marine leaned forward, his hefty forearms on the tabletop. “Now, what is it that you wished to speak to me about?”
“I’ve been thinking about the raid,” Bolan said. “The men we lost. It shouldn’t have gone down the way it did. We had the element of surprise.”
Martinez compressed his lips and nodded, a look of anger in his dark eyes.
“Sí,” he said. “I agree.”
“Right before the firefight started, someone shouted and the lights and sirens began.”
Martinez nodded again. “I remember.”
“How did they discover we were there? They hadn’t seen us, and we were moving up just like clockwork.”
“What is it you are saying?”
“Someone on our team tipped them off during our approach. It’s the only answer.”
“No,” Martinez said, shaking his head. “No. I will not believe this. I have fought and died beside my men. There is no possibility that one of them is a traitor.”
“One of the cartel guards used the word marines,” Bolan said. “He knew we were marines and not the police. How did he know that?”
Martinez looked down at the tabletop. Just as he was about to speak the server returned with his beer. She smiled at them as she set it down and asked if they needed anything else.
Bolan slipped her some pesos and shook his head. The woman smiled again and moved away.
“Think about it, Jesus,” Grimaldi said. “I wasn’t down and dirty with you guys, but my partner’s seldom wrong about such things.”
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