Operator Down

by Brad Taylor

  She found herself alone and circled quickly to the right of the temple, searching for the entrance and a place to hide until the tour continued its march. She went down a flight of stone steps and found herself in a cul-de-sac of sculptured shrubs, looking like a set from a Dr. Seuss movie, the bushes turning the area into a makeshift maze not unlike a Christmas tree lot. About forty feet in diameter, it was ringed by a nine-foot wall of stone. A good place to hide until the tour moved on, but not what she wanted, as there was no escape route other than the stairs.

  She turned to leave, and the stone in front of her smacked her face with spall. She immediately flung herself backward, rolling over her back onto her feet. Someone had fired at her, and now she was trapped.

  She had to get out, immediately. Pike would be attacking soon, and he would be coming in hard. He knew what she was capable of and would want to overwhelm her. She ran toward the wall and leapt up, missing the top and falling back down. She heard footsteps pounding down the stairs and ducked behind one of the shrubs, peering through the foliage. One man reached the bottom, a pistol held to the front. She didn’t recognize him from Pike’s team. She breathed through an open mouth, her own pistol at the ready, waiting for him to conduct a systematic search, hoping to slip into a place he’d cleared and get back up the stairs while he continued.

  She watched him and learned that wasn’t going to happen. His technique wasn’t methodical, with him slowly walking through the area behind the barrel of his weapon. Instead, he began moving in a rapid, practiced manner, attempting to flush her out while providing a shifting target to hit.

  He was skilled.

  She crouched and began backpedaling, stopping when her back was to the wall. She turned and looked up, considering another attempt but knowing she’d be highlighted for him to take a shot at her.

  The searcher came one row over, racing down it, his weapon sweeping left and right. She took aim and fired a double tap. And missed.

  The man oriented on the sound of her suppressor, without any physical fear of her shots, coming straight through the shrubs with his gun in a high two-handed grip. As soon as he cleared them, she fired, hitting him in the chest. Her weapon locked open on an empty magazine, and the round rocked him back, staggering him. Then he kept coming.

  Body armor. Shit.

  He brought his weapon to bear, and she screamed, throwing the pistol at his head and launching herself at him. He instinctively ducked the projectile and returned to aim, but she was on him like a cyclone.

  She grabbed his wrists with both hands, controlling the pistol, and planted her right leg behind his knee. Teeth bared, she surged forward with her entire weight, flipping him over her leg and slamming him to the earth. On the way down he fired one, two, three times, the bullets snapping by her brow. He hit the ground hard, and she landed on his stomach with her knees, punching the body armor and knocking the wind out of him with a visible grunt.

  She torqued his weapon to the ground, slamming it into a rock and breaking his hold, the pistol bouncing away. He sprang up on his knees, swinging at her head with a wild blow. She blocked it and rotated to his back, locking her legs around his waist. She grabbed the top of the plate carrier through his shirt and yanked down, hearing the Velcro holding it in place tear slightly, enough to send the ceramic front plate into his throat and causing him to gargle.

  He staggered upright, rising like a zombie with her on his back, wildly swinging his arms to get her off. She tucked her head and dug in, cinching her legs and using the weight of her body as leverage on the armor. His breathing began to rasp, and she let up lightly, then slammed down again, feeling the Velcro rip free under his arms and giving her the leverage she needed. He fell to his knees, no longer attempting to attack her but now trying to fight the armor.

  She leapt off him, lined up, and threw a spinning kick with all the force in her hip, whipping her foot around hard enough to crunch his cheek. He fell like he’d been hit with a cinder block.

  She grabbed his pistol and sprinted back up the stairs, the barrel leading the way. She reached the top and saw no threat. She stuffed the pistol behind her back and began running down the stairs toward the traffic circle below, no longer caring about the cover of the tourists.

  She crossed the garden bridge over Abbas Street and kept going, ignoring the views and focusing on the finish. She finally reached the traffic circle and found the iron gate to it closed. She began climbing, with the tourists on the other side taking pictures up the slope, amazed at her actions.

  She flung herself over and began running down the street, thinking of escape. Thinking of where she could go.

  She saw a bus stop ahead of her and recognized the line to Acre. Better than nothing. A clean break.

  She ran on board and paid the fare, then sank down into her seat, breathing heavily and thinking about her predicament. The bus began to pull away, with her mind working furiously over her next steps.

  Because of it, she missed the Orthodox Jew who entered behind her. And the fact that he was talking on a cell phone.

  21

  I reached the traffic circle at the base of the gardens and pulled up short, letting the tour buses go around and around for their pictures. I clicked into the radio. “Blood, we’re finally at the bottom. What’s the status?”

  “I got one bad guy down, but Shoshana did her own damage. I got cops all over the place.”

  “What happened?”

  “I’m up for ideas. I took the guy that went long. He was setting up for an ambush, so I took him out. She did something. I don’t know what, but whatever it was, it was complete. They’ve got an ambulance here, and it’s not for my guy. All I did was choke him out. No permanent damage.”

  “Where is she?”

  “I tracked her to the traffic circle at the base of the gardens, and she boarded a bus going to Acre. I couldn’t follow, obviously. You were right. She’s on the warpath.”

  I said, “Okay, okay. So she’s good? She’s free?”

  “Yeah, she’s free from here, but I don’t know what assets are against her. If you’re asking if I was successful in protecting her, I’ll tell you that I was here. Here. I don’t know about anything else.”

  Shit. Brett had worked operations like this for a decade. He was putting a little frosting on the turd with that answer. He had gotten her clear from the gardens, but he didn’t think that was the end. I gave him our location and waited on him to arrive.

  Why won’t she fucking answer her damn phone?

  Jennifer said, “What now?”

  “I don’t know. She’s in the wind, and she’s being chased by a team. Apple Watch is still out there, and he was just security in a car. We know they had a team that went up, and there’s no way Shoshana eliminated them all. If she had, she would’ve walked out the front door instead of jumping in front of us.”

  Jennifer said, “Why do you think she looked at us that way? She wanted to shoot us.”

  “I don’t know. I’ve thought about that . . . I don’t know.”

  Jennifer toyed with a napkin between our seats, then said, “I think I do. She thinks you’re after her.”

  “What? That’s fucking crazy. All I did was ask for dinner.”

  “Don’t get mad . . . but she is a little off. I think she saw you and made a connection to something that isn’t there.”

  “What about all that empath shit, where she can see a threat? The thing you think is real? Why would she look at me as a threat?”

  Jennifer exhaled and said, “Good question. I don’t know.”

  I said, “I do. Because she’s fucking crazy. Jesus. I should have never called.”

  Jennifer looked at me with a side-eye and said, “Really? Your call caused this? So you completely ignored all Taskforce protocols to go running up here to protect her? Ignoring our main target? Quit it.”

  I sigh
ed and said, “Okay. I’m worried about her. That look wasn’t right. She wanted to shoot me, for real. I saw it. She bolted not because she was deciding whether she should or not. Just that she didn’t have the time to waste.”

  “I know. And it’s also irrelevant. This is like trying to save a tiger in the water. We want to help, but the tiger thinks we mean harm. In the end, you have to rescue the tiger, no matter how much it claws.”

  Brett came up, slapping the window. I popped the locks, and he slid into the back. He said, “Okay, she did some serious damage. The guy she took out looks like he’s been through a meat grinder. He’s on the way to the hospital—alive—but I’m surprised she didn’t kill him.”

  “And your guy?”

  “He’s probably slinking back to the base right now, coming up with a story of how he was blindsided by Batman.”

  I put the car into drive and pulled away. Jennifer said, “What now?”

  “I guess head on back to Tel Aviv and try to at least accomplish our mission. It’s going to be hard enough explaining this detour to Kurt. We gave her a day. Maybe more.”

  Jennifer sat up straight in her seat and said, “Are you kidding me? We did this today but didn’t solve the problem.”

  The words were music to my ears. I said, “So you want to continue flagrantly ignoring our mission, which, by the way, is paying our salary, to go chase that nutcase?”

  Brett’s head went back and forth between us, but I knew he didn’t care. He just liked watching the fight. Even though he didn’t realize there wasn’t one.

  Jennifer became incensed, saying, “Okay, I made a joke about the gardens today. But there’s no way I’m leaving Shoshana out on her own with a team of assassins hunting her. A team, I might add, that’s tied to our mission. What the hell has come over you? You’re always the first to tip over the applecart.”

  Brett started laughing, now in on the joke. She turned to him and snapped, “You think this is funny? You think her getting killed is humor?”

  He said, “I think Pike was looking for a solution, not a fight.”

  She looked at me, and I grinned. She smacked my shoulder and said, “Why do you do that stuff? Just agree with me. I’m always right.”

  I passed through a traffic light and said, “Yeah, that’s true. But we still have no leverage. No anchor to tug on.”

  She sat in the car, tapping her fingers on the dash, and I knew her mind was working a thousand miles a second. I, honestly, had no idea what to do next. And I’d done the thousand-miles-a-second routine. I was willing to see what her brain could come up with.

  She finally said, “Okay, we know she’s being hunted, right?”

  “Yep.”

  “And we know that they’re good at what they do. They’ve managed to plan an operation against her using both native assets and transnational killers. They have some talent, and they have some money behind them. They won’t stop because of what happened today, and we probably didn’t short out their ability to succeed.”

  I said, “Okay, that’s reassuring. So, we have no idea how to find Shoshana, but they do, and they’re going to kill her. Great.”

  “That’s not true. We know at least three of the players that are hunting her, right?”

  “Who?”

  “Apple Watch, the Orthodox Jew, and the man he met at the marina restaurant.”

  “Yeah . . . I guess that’s right. You mean we have their cell phone numbers?”

  “Yes. Exactly. And we know Shoshana is going to Acre, and that’s only thirty minutes away.”

  “Wait, we know she got on a bus that goes to Acre. We have no idea if she’s riding it the whole way.”

  Jennifer pursed her lips, not liking the logic, and said, “Okay, we know she’s on the bus, and we know the location it ends at.”

  “So?”

  “So, if these fucks are so good at their job, they’ll find her. All we need to do is find them.”

  I sat in silence for a moment, just letting the car glide forward. It was pure genius. I glanced into the rearview mirror, catching Brett’s eyes. He said, “You screwed up bringing her on board. You’re no longer the smartest person in the room.”

  Jennifer perked up at the comment, looking like Marisa Tomei at the courtroom scene of My Cousin Vinny. If she’d put her hands on the dash and shrugged, it would have been a fait accompli.

  I said, “Dial up Creed. Get us a geolocation of those numbers.”

  22

  Shoshana waited until the bus reached the apex of its route, stopping outside the old citadel of Acre. A crusader castle that was jam-packed with tourists, it bled into the Turkish Bazaar, a maze that would allow her to disappear. She knew of a youth hostel deep in its embrace that would be completely outside of the scope of anyone searching for her. Even Pike. She exited after everyone else, glancing left and right, not realizing she’d already had a bull’s-eye placed on her head.

  She hit the street and glided through the tourists, moving swiftly into the citadel and ignoring the pleas of those outside begging for money. She raced through the exhibit, searching for the exit on the far side, the one that would let her into the Turkish Bazaar. She was growing more and more paranoid.

  Pike had an ability like hers, she was sure. He could see where she went. Could feel her weakness. He was coming, and she was dead. Given all her missions in the Mossad, she came as close as she ever had to total panic.

  And it was precisely because she’d found a reason to live. Before, if she’d have died, it was just something that happened. And might actually release her from the trials the Mossad had put her through. Now? She had a reason to live. And if that meant killing Pike Logan, she’d do it. But she didn’t think she could. He would win. She’d seen it.

  She exited the walls of the crusader museum and followed the signs for the bazaar, an ancient Turkish market buried in the narrow stone alleys outside the castle. It was once the primary market for the locals—and still was to a certain extent—but it now catered to tourists as well, selling more souvenirs than spice. She went down an alley, looking for the hostel she remembered, something backpackers used, with no outward signs of availability. A place that was found through word of mouth in Internet chat rooms vice any advertising.

  She broke through the alley and found herself in the market, stalls left and right selling everything from candy to leather goods. She continued forward, her head swiveling, sliding through the mass of humanity, looking for a threat.

  She went deeper, and the street signs went from Hebrew to Arabic. She believed she was in far enough to be secure. No way would anyone but an Israeli be able to find her here.

  She began to relax, blending in with the throngs of tourists out to see a “real” market, even as the shop owners catered to their whim of what “real” meant, doing whatever it took to get a sale.

  She felt her stomach growl and realized she hadn’t eaten since she’d awoken. She’d been going on adrenaline and fear for hours. She saw a shawarma stall and went to it. She bought a meal of lamb and slid in behind the stove to eat it on a chipped picnic table.

  She devoured the food, feeling more comfortable about where she stood. She considered contacting Aaron. She hadn’t before because of the mission, waiting on him to call her, but this had obviously changed things. Her phone was still in the hotel, and she’d have to think a bit about how to get back there. She was sure she could. Pike might have surveillance on it, but odds were, he knew she wouldn’t return. He wouldn’t waste time on that.

  She took a bite, gazing across the concourse, and froze. She saw Jennifer coming through an alley, the light from the outside silhouetting her in the gloom of the market. At first she thought she was wrong. Because it couldn’t be. But it was. And behind her was Pike.

  Her world collapsed. It was unreal. There was no way they could have found her. And yet here he was.
>
  She lowered herself, putting the food on her plate and withdrawing her pistol. She mentally prepared to kill those she loved. A necessary evil.

  She saw Jennifer looking at a device in her hands, trying to orient it. Which was confusing. They were tracking her through electronic means? No way. She’d left her phone in the hotel. She had nothing on her that could be tracked. Nothing.

  It took a moment for the truth to settle. They’re tracking someone else.

  They came across the food court, trying to look like a couple on a date, but she saw the adrenaline in Pike’s face. He was on the hunt. But for whom?

  She slid backward, keeping low, leaving her food behind. She turned, about to sprint out of the area, when she heard a commotion behind her. She whipped around and saw that Pike had an Orthodox Jew on the fetid stone floor, torqueing his arm in a manner it wasn’t meant to go, jamming the man’s face into the offal from a millennium of travelers. She slid forward, hiding behind the table.

  She heard, “Where is Shoshana? How many men are in here looking for her?”

  The man said, “No one! I swear. I just called them. They’re on the way, but they aren’t here.”

  Pike slid down to his level, gave him the full heat of his gaze, and hissed, “If she’s hurt, you’re going to feel pain you have never imagined.”

  The words sank in, and it was a revelation. A mishmash of emotions that she’d never expected to feel. It righted everything she’d known for the last four days. All the fear and trepidation she’d felt fell away like the chrysalis of a butterfly.

  Pike was pure. And her instincts had been right.

  She saw Pike crank the man’s arm back and heard the wail. She stood up, providing a view of her body. Jennifer saw her and slapped a hand on Pike’s shoulder.

  Shoshana said, “I’m over here. Right here.”

  Pike released the guy on the ground and stood up. He said, “You want to take his place? Because I’m about to do the same to you. At least he has a phone that he actually answers.”