“My dad ran the CIA. I’m pretty sure there are a few complete sets floating around.”
“No, on here.”
He pulled out a glass screen and had her place each hand on there until he could scan in a complete set of prints. He then showed her a table where he had several detached pistol grips.
“Pick one that you like.”
She lifted each one and finally chose one that fit her hand well. He took the grip and plugged a wire into one end and sat down at a computer.
“What are you doing with that?”
“Programming it with your fingerprints. There are companies that make smart guns, but this is my own program and it’s more advanced than anything else out there. I’ve made modifications to all those pistols you see on that table over there. I can program any grip and match it with any of the modified pistols and you have a gun that only fires if you’re holding it. Handy if someone gets it from you.”
When he finished with the grip, he attached it to a Smith & Wesson 9mm identical to one he gave Casey and gave her a suppressor and a case for the pistol.
“Everything in here is 9mm. Keeps it easy when it comes to ammo, which we have plenty of. You know how to strip that thing down and put it back?”
She answered by doing just that faster than he could.
“Impressive. Care to join me at the range?”
“Lead the way.”
They went to the range and shot target after target, each trying to outdo the other.
“You shoot quite well for a young lady, quite well for anyone for that matter.”
“And you’re not bad for an old dude. Does everyone here shoot?”
“Ahmed and Miriam have probably never handled guns. Casey’s still learning, but he’s catching on fast. He’s still not as good as you, but he’s killed five men in the last few days, so you could say he’s learning fast. I’m trying to teach Jenny. Earl and Clyde stop in and use the range a lot, too.”
“Earl and Clyde?
“Earl’s Jenny’s husband and Clyde’s his best friend. Two of the best men you’ll ever meet.”
“So, I can just use the range any time I want?”
“Sure. There’s all the ammo you could want in the closet at the end along with empty magazines. I assume you can fill your own?”
“Sure. Dad taught me well.”
“We have something outside that might interest you as well. Come with me.”
They went out of the range and through another door into the now opened tunnel that took them above ground to the recently completed obstacle course and tactical range.
“You can also use the obstacle course and the tactical courses any time you want, but I would advise having someone with you.”
The obstacle course was like anything you would see at a military boot camp with climbing walls, climbing nets, rope swings, and barbed wire to crawl under. The tactical courses were state of the art with targets that would pop up at various ranges. The plywood course simulated an urban environment with buildings of different sizes and the targets that popped up were a mix of hostile and innocent targets.
“Can I give it a go?” she asked.
“Sure, there is a course for pistols with closer targets. The others are designed for rifles or sub machine guns.”
“Let me at it.”
“Okay. Here’s the start. Progress through each building and hit the hostile targets only. Your hits are recorded and points are deducted if you hit non- hostile targets. It is also recording how fast you hit each hostile target from the moment it pops up. Take too long on any one and you’re dead, round over. Good luck.”
The first two times through, she took too long or missed a hostile target and had to start over. The third time, she went through quite fast and drilled each target with remarkable accuracy. She finished, holstered her weapon, and approached Avi with a wide grin on her face.
“You, my dear, are the picture of fitness. You’re hardly breathing heavy.”
“Four years on the soccer team at GW.”
“That explains a lot. You sure shoot well too, but perhaps you could have gone easy on the little girl in the last house. You can come out here each day and give it a go. When you’re done, check this terminal for your results. You can even print it out.”
“How has Casey done?”
“He hasn’t done any of this yet. He’s still rehabbing his knee. He could probably do the shooting courses, but the obstacle course is a no go for a few more months I’m afraid.”
“So, his knee isn’t full go and you had him out in the field?”
“I’m afraid we had little choice. He’s all we have at the moment.”
“Well, now you have me.”
“Are you sure about this? I’m sure Jenny would love to put you to work downstairs.”
“To be honest, I’m not sure of much of anything right now. My parents just got their brains blown out and I didn’t even have time to process that. This is helping. Give me a couple days to consider everything, but I know one thing. Whatever you guys are doing here I want in.”
Langley, VA
On a desk in a small private office in the CIA headquarters, a phone was ringing. It had been ringing for a full minute and wasn’t showing any signs of stopping until finally a breathless individual picked it up. There was a series of clicks on the line, indicating the call was encrypted, and finally a voice came on the line.
“It took you long enough to answer.”
“I was in the restroom.”
“I guess you saw the news from Detroit.”
“You mean the lack of news.”
“The lack of good news it would seem. It was a failure.”
“Seems it was a lucky cop. Our man took him out, but got killed in the process. They’re calling the cop a hero.”
“I’ve heard the same thing. No mention of the nature of the attack though. The media is saying the police officer stopped a shooter. They didn’t even report the shooter as an Arab.”
“You know as well as I do how the media in this country is always downplaying the Islamic connection even when it’s obvious.”
“This is more than downplaying. It wasn’t even mentioned. The police must have kept that to themselves. They’re smarter than we gave them credit for.”
“Do you think the police deliberately kept that to themselves?”
“Yes, I do. No mention of the attacker’s ethnicity or the gas canisters. They knew what the public reaction would be if anyone knew what almost happened. The next best thing to a successful terrorist attack is the public fear of an attack. The end result is much the same, minus a few bodies here or there. Even if one person had died from the gas, it would have been a success.”
“It will take more than a lucky cop to stop the next one, and nobody will be able to sweep that under the rug.”
“How about this private outfit that tipped off your agency before the bus station attacks? Do you think they could have stopped Detroit?”
“They don't appear to have any field operatives, and they didn’t issue a warning about Detroit.”
“Someone has operatives out there. I thought you had everything clamped down over there.”
“I do. There are no CIA operatives on to us, and I was able to issue conflicting orders to the FBI counterintelligence folks before the bus attack.”
“Well, someone is interfering. Ansari was nabbed right out from under us in Mombasa and two of our men were killed. Then we lost another team of three outside Nairobi and both men we sent into Prescott’s house were killed. How do you explain that?”
“I don’t know. I can assure you that nobody from the CIA or the FBI was involved.”
“Then who in the hell killed seven of our men and made off with Ansari?”
“The man in Mombasa reported seeing two black men at the hotel. Seems like they were locals.”
“So, Ansari was saved by a couple locals who just happened to kill another team near Nairobi? I find that hard
to believe.”
“There could be off the book assets operating there, locals who have been trained and equipped.”
“I’m expecting you to get to the bottom of that, and to find out who killed our men in Virginia.”
“It looks like they did the job. Prescott and his wife were both found dead.”
“Then who killed the killers?”
“Prescott had a daughter. She has a concealed carry permit. She could have been home when the shooting started.”
“So, you’re saying their daughter took out two of our men? I’m not sure if I’m buying that.”
“It’s the only thing we have to go on at the moment.”
“We have to do better than that. Try to make contact with that private outfit. See if they might be hiding something. If they have operatives, they could present a problem.”
“I can try, but they seem to play everything pretty close to the vest.”
“Just do what you can. A lot is riding on this operation. I was hoping for a success in Detroit, but this next one will achieve all of our goals. We can cripple two enemies at once. We strike a blow at the U.S. that they will never forget and the Muslims will take all the blame. The Americans will be knocked down, but when they get back on their feet, and you know they will, they will strike back with a vengeance.”
“What if it comes back to us?”
“How could it? There are no ties. Everything points to Al Thi’b, the next Osama. The American people will cry for blood and their president will give it to them. He will cripple their economy going after the terrorists and who will be there to pick up the pieces? It might take a few years, but it will happen. How much money have they already thrown into Iraq and Afghanistan? After this, they will gladly do it again, and they are not in the shape to sustain that. They will spend their wealth and the lives of their young men to take out the Islamists. That is something that we all benefit from. Sometimes you have to take a long view, and that has never been their strong suit. You are sure Prescott found nothing?”
“There was nothing on his computer at all. He was snooping, but it appears that we took him out before he got close.”
“That is certainly good news. You have to keep up the good work a little while longer. I know it hasn’t been easy all these years, but you have been a most valuable asset and you are about to reap the fruit of your labors. I’m disappointed about Detroit, but that is only a minor setback. In a couple months, all will change.”
“How about our mystery operative out there?”
“That could prove problematic, but maybe we can provide another distraction.”
“What kind of distraction?”
“Maybe something small, but enough to draw resources away. The most vulnerable point of our operation is when the ship nears Mexico. If anyone caught wind of what we’re about, that is where they will strike. They’ll try to intercept the device before it gets to our friends in Monterrey. We can stage another attack, something small, and make sure the cell is sloppy. If that outfit is halfway as good as you say they are, they’ll pick up on it and send someone to stop it. We’ll plan it for the same time our ship is reaching port. A day is all we’ll need. Once it’s in the U.S., there’s no way anyone can find it.”
“Okay, that will work. Keep me in the loop and I’ll make sure no action is taken from this end.”
“I’ll send you the plan soon. Who knows? Maybe we can draw this operative away from Mexico and if we’re lucky, take him out in the process.”
25
Casey finished the pistol course for the fourth time that day and went to the computer terminal to check his score, still behind the score Rachel set earlier.
“You’re going to have to practice a lot more to beat me,” she said.
“Give it time. You had a head start.”
“What head start?”
“All the practice you had before I ever met you.”
“You’ve been here long enough to catch up.”
“Wait until my knee gets better. I’ll be moving faster then.”
“Excuses, excuses.”
“I’m still ahead of you on real bad guys.”
“Only by four, and you’ve had more chances.”
“Trust me, you don’t want too many of those chances.”
“What if I do?”
“Then I say you’re crazy.”
“You saw what happened to my parents. I want payback.”
“You got it right there. You took out the guy that did it. The scumbag that killed Keisha, we turned him over to the CIA. Who knows what happened to him. I got to punch him once.”
“The guy who killed my parents, the guy who killed your sister, they’re small time. We got to take out the assholes calling the shots.”
“Don’t let Jenny hear you talking like that.”
“Yeah, forgot. You guys are an interesting group.”
“Well, Jenny’s nothing. My mom hears you talking like that, you’ll be tasting soap for a week.”
“Do you speak from experience?”
“Only too well.”
“You try the obstacle course yet?”
“Not yet, knee’s still not well enough for that.”
“How much damage was done?”
“Dislocated, and tore the ACL and MCL.”
“Wow, no wonder nobody drafted you. You ever think about it, you know, what if?”
“Sometimes, but I think this is where I’m supposed to be. Like it’s God’s plan or something.”
“God planned for you to get hurt?”
“Maybe not that, but he used it for the best, that’s for sure. I feel like I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing, and saving all those people in Detroit sure felt pretty good. Never would have done that playing football.”
“You’re pretty proud of Detroit?”
“Don’t know. Maybe proud is the wrong word. I feel awfully good about it, but it’s humbling. And it’s still not easy killing guys. I don’t think about it much when it’s happening, you know, him or me, that sort of thing, but I think about it after. I still see their faces, wish there was another way to stop them sometimes.”
“You are so not the secret agent type. Not like in the movies and the books. Those guys shoot up a room full of bad guys and go have a drink, shaken not stirred.”
“Yeah, but those guys aren’t real. I’m not in it for killing bad guys, but protecting good guys. There were twenty thousand people in that arena that night and I did something to save them. I don’t think all of them would have died, but a lot of them would have. There were kids in there, old people, moms, dads…man. I think about it every day. So yeah, it felt weird killing a dude, but I protected thousands by doing that. That’s what I want to do for the rest of my life, protect innocent people from dirtbags who want to harm them. A few months ago, all I could think of doing was playing football.”
“You know, maybe God is using you. There are a lot of worse guys he could have picked.”
“Thanks. You thought much about what you want to do around here?”
“I want to do what you’re doing. Don’t think I’m much cut out for the desk job.”
“Well, you should learn the desk stuff though. Times like this when we don’t have to go out there, we can still help out Ahmed and Miriam.”
“I’ve learned a lot of it. It’s an amazing system. Doesn’t take a genius to run it, but I don’t know how those two do it for hours on end, just scanning through piles of data.”
“The computers do a lot of the scanning and weed out a lot of the useless stuff.”
“I guess so, but I don’t think I could sit there day in and day out like they do.”
“They’re motivated. Miriam was dating the guy who blew up the bus station.”
“Ouch, that had to suck.”
“She didn’t know who he was. I don’t know how he hid it all from her, but she was shocked when she found out.”
“I’m not sure anything would surprise me ar
ound here anymore. Have you seen half the stuff in Avi’s workshop? It’s like something out of a sci-fi movie.”
“I haven’t snooped around in there much. Lot of high- tech stuff.”
“What about those funny metal belts on the wall. What in the world could those be for?”
“He called them dangerous. Tech nobody should have access to. They don’t look dangerous to me.”
“I tried asking him, got the same answer. How about those wing suits? You think he’ll ever let us try those out?”
“That looks like a lot of fun. I asked him a few days ago and he didn’t rule it out. Talked about them being used for infiltrating areas under the radar.”
“They have to be tested before we find ourselves in a situation where we have to use them.”
“That is true.”
“I haven’t seen Avi around. You think he’s gone for the day?”
“He was talking about leaving early. Are you thinking what I think you’re thinking?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You have to get up high with those. You can’t take off from the ground.”
“Those African guys have to take their plane to the shop.”
“Ken and Elijah? They just had that plane serviced in Kenya.”
“The tall one…Ken…he said he had to go down to CVG for something. Not routine servicing. Fuel lines or something.”
“And when was he planning on doing this?”
“Sometime today. He said I could ride along.”
“Are you up to something I don’t know about?”
“Well, it is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.”
“You two coming, or not?” Ken asked from behind them.
“Sure, we’re coming,” Rachel said.
“Where did you come from?” Casey said.
“From right there,” Ken said as he pointed to the tunnel opening, “Here take these and put them in the boot. I’ll be along shortly.”
Ken handed Casey and Rachel two of the wing suits and two pairs of jet boots.
“You were planning this?” Casey asked.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Avi…”
“Has gone home for the day. These will be back in his shop before he comes back.”
Wolf Trap (Casey Reddick Book 1) Page 19
