Operator Down

by Brad Taylor

  Kurt said, “This is all about Aaron, isn’t it. Tell me you’re doing this for the United States instead of an Israeli assassin.”

  Pike said, “Sir, it’s the same damn thing.”

  Kurt said, “I want Tyler down.”

  Pike said, “You’ll have him. I promise.”

  Kurt said, “Stand by,” then put the phone on mute. He looked at George, saying, “How far out are we willing to obstruct the Oversight Council? They gave us Omega, yet we determine how that’s executed. I could plausibly say that the only way to effect such a thing was to go to Lesotho. But you and I know that’s bullshit.”

  George said, “It’ll all be in how you brief it. At the end of the day, the greater problem is the nuclear triggers. I say, let him go. There will be a mess, but nobody will care, if Pike’s successful. We have Omega authority. Let him use that to bring this whole fucking thing down.”

  Kurt said, “But you know that’s a lie. I can’t hide the fact that I told Pike to take down Tyler and then let him go to Lesotho.”

  “If the end state is that Tyler loses his triggers, then you’ve succeeded. And you might free Aaron in the process. Sometimes the little things are, in fact, big things.”

  Kurt nodded, then spoke into the phone. “If I were to agree with this insanity, what do you need from me, right now?”

  Kurt could tell Pike was taken aback. He heard nothing for a few seconds, then said, “Pike, you there?”

  Pike came back, saying, “I need an airdrop of an Africa package. The ones with the motorcycles. I’ll set up the drop zone, but I need you to get the package in motion. We don’t have a lot of time to waste.”

  Kurt said, “And? How are you going to prevent a coup in Lesotho with a couple of motorcycles?”

  “There’s only a small team of mercenaries that have set this up. I’ve confirmed a high-ranking Lesotho military man is involved in the conspiracy, so I’m sure the manpower is from the Lesotho Defence Force, with the mercs providing the leadership. Take them out and take out the coup.”

  “Can you do that? With only three people?”

  “I have four, actually. Shoshana’s with me, and we know the location of the safe house they’re going to use to stage. Hit that thing and we might get them all, to include the lead on your triggers.”

  Kurt looked at George, knowing he was now stepping over the line. He said, “You’ll have six. Knuckles and Veep will be in that bird with the package. They’re at DJ right now, and the L-100 is with them.”

  Once again, Kurt could almost hear the gears turning in Pike’s head. Finally, Pike said, “What the hell are they doing in DJ?”

  Kurt said, “For the life of me, I don’t know. I put them there because I figured you were going to do something stupid and I needed some sanity on the ground. If I get them moving now, I can have them overhead by midnight tonight. Is that enough time to find and establish a DZ?”

  “Yes, sir. That’ll be the easy part. You said you had the L-100? Is it still capable of a Fulton recovery?”

  “Yeah. Why?”

  “I’ve got to make this guy we have disappear, or he might compromise everything.”

  “Pike, I can’t authorize an extraction for a citizen of another country who’s not a terrorist and not an imminent threat. There are boundaries to my authority.”

  “Okay, I’ll just have Shoshana kill him. She really wants to.”

  Kurt clenched his fist, trying to crush the phone. He said, “All right, all right. Fuck. I’ll include a Fulton recovery package. You are really testing the limits here.”

  Pike said, “I know. But it’ll be worth it.”

  “Pike, don’t let me down. I’m hanging it way out, here.”

  “I won’t. Trust me, this way is harder, but in the end, it’ll be a much better solution, for everyone.”

  Kurt smiled and said, “I know. Stop the coup, and prevent the triggers from ever being transferred.”

  “Yes. Exactly.”

  “And bring Aaron home. Right?”

  Pike said nothing for a moment; then Kurt heard, “Right, sir. Thank you. I won’t let you down.”

  Kurt heard the words and knew he’d done the right thing. Pike was a supernatural predator, and he would move heaven and earth to save Aaron. In between him and that goal was a planned coup of an entire country orchestrated by a highly trained mercenary force.

  Kurt almost felt sorry for them.

  58

  I took a wind reading and saw that, while it might be kicking higher than safe above the ring of rock outcroppings, once the team got low enough, below the stone wall, they’d be able to pilot the parachute safely to earth. The wind in this area was constantly whipping, a continuous scream across the hardscrabble ground, and it had caused trouble as we tried to find a drop zone. We’d located a few patches of terrain large enough for a night drop, but the key had been finding one that was protected from the wind. Well, that and one that was hidden from all the damn backpackers running around.

  We were at the foothills of the Drakensberg Mountain chain, about three hours west of Durban and within striking range of the border of Lesotho. The problem was that Lesotho was called the Mountain Kingdom for a reason, and the terrain was incredibly rugged, at an altitude of seven thousand feet, which was pretty damn high, and we hadn’t even crossed the mountain chain yet.

  Deep in the Mkhomazi Wilderness Area—a national forest not unlike Yosemite—was an outdoor enthusiast’s dream, with hiking and mountain climbing up peaks with names like the Rhino’s Horn, and four-wheel-drive adventures to the Sani Pass, the latter reached only by taking a daredevil switchback gravel road straight up the chain of rock, ending inside Lesotho at the Sani Lodge, and the highest pub in Africa.

  Americans like to think of themselves as the wild west outdoorsy types, but they have nothing on South Africans. I don’t know where else in the world cage diving with great whites would be advertised like a Ferris wheel ride, and this national forest attracted adventure seekers of all types.

  Because of it, the area was dotted with lodges both primitive and luxurious, offering everything from fly-fishing to mountain biking, which made our mission that much harder to conceal. While I most certainly would have liked to take our Land Rovers straight up the gravel to the Sani Lodge, hoisting a beer at the end, we needed to get inside Lesotho without going through any form of immigration. I had no desire to leave any scrap of evidence that we had been there, because I was sure we were not going to remain clandestine.

  We were going to get in a gunfight and then disappear. When the inevitable investigation occurred, I didn’t want them to have a lead in the form of a customs stamp or border-crossing tax payment. Especially since we had no cover for action whatsoever. While Lesotho, like most of the world, held enough archeological work to allow us to plausibly execute a Grolier cover—to include even actual dinosaur tracks—we’d had no time to establish it, so I was looking for a clandestine penetration.

  I’d tasked Brett and Shoshana with finding the crossing, while Jennifer and I found the drop zone, with an eye to infiltrating the country that night. It was certainly an aggressive plan, but we would readjust if we couldn’t meet it. There were a lot of things stacked against us, but we knew from Mowgli that the safe house in Lesotho wasn’t due to be occupied until the following night, so if we had to wait, we’d do so, using the next day as another reconnaissance day. Shoshana wouldn’t like it, but I wasn’t going to sprint forward into a foreign country—and possibly get arrested as coup plotters—just because she was antsy.

  Jennifer came back from the far side of the field and said, “No obstacles. There’s a creek on the left, but it snakes away from the field.”

  I said, “No roads? No houses?”

  “Not that I could see, and I went a good five hundred meters.”

  “Okay, then, this is it. Let’s go bac
k, send the grid, and check what the dynamic duo found.”

  We walked about twenty feet, and she said, “You think Knuckles is going to have a problem with the ridgeline? If they miss the spot, they’ll end up on top of that plateau, and we have no way to get to them.”

  I turned and looked, seeing an escarpment about a hundred feet high. It was a little tight, but I said, “We don’t know which direction they’ll be coming in from. Look at the bright side: If they come the other way, and the spot’s off, the plateau will stop them when they run into it.”

  She scowled at me, and I said, “Not my fault. You did the DZ survey.”

  I opened the driver’s door and saw Mowgli in the back, shackled to the anchor point of the seat. There had been no way I was going to leave him at the resort to create mischief, and I didn’t want him riding with Brett and Shoshana as they tried to penetrate the border, so he came with us. Well, that and I wasn’t sure Shoshana wouldn’t just beat him to death and leave his body on the side of the road.

  He started to speak, and I said, “Rules, Mowgli, rules. No talking. Or I pass you to Carrie.”

  He scowled, both at his given callsign and at the fact that I wouldn’t let him present his case. He was adamant that all he did was provide the safe house. Which was true, but it was enough.

  From what I could see, he wasn’t a bad guy, as far as assholes go. More like a simple con man. Intelligent, loquacious, and smooth. He’d probably been fleecing tourists at the age of five. Which was precisely why I had brought him with us, and was enough of a reason for me to keep him quiet. Leaving him in our resort cabin would have been asking for him to escape.

  We drove through the backcountry on dirt trails, crossing streams and cutting across fields until we eventually hit a two-lane blacktop. After another thirty minutes, we were pulling into our chosen lodge—and not a primitive one, I might add. No way was I sleeping with a mosquito net and no power. I’d probably be using a rock for a pillow in the next few days, so I figured the Taskforce could pay for the night at a lodge with a spa. And I actually had some reasoning behind it. We’d rented one of the “cater yourself” cabins, meaning there was no maid service, but it was expensive enough that nobody would come investigate when we didn’t show ourselves for the next couple of days. Money would guarantee some privacy.

  I saw our other Land Rover and said, “They’re back. Let’s see what they found.”

  Our cabin was at the end of the row, in a cluster of four, down the road from the main lodge facilities. It was two stories and only looked rustic on the outside. Inside, it held every convenience of a modern home—stove, fridge, television, minibar, Wi-Fi, and four separate bedrooms.

  I walked up the steps, forcing Mowgli ahead of me, and Shoshana opened the door. She started to speak, and I held a finger to my lips, pointing at Mowgli in front of me. She nodded, but she was smiling, so I knew it was good news.

  I took Mowgli to the back bedroom and handcuffed him to the bed. He started to say something, and I held up a hand, then closed the door and returned to the den. Brett was on the computer, working something, and Shoshana was eating an apple. I said, “Okay, what do you have?”

  Shoshana looked at Brett, and he said, “Go ahead. It was your idea.”

  She smiled, and I could tell they’d clicked on their little adventure. Brett had always been wary of Shoshana—like most normal humans—but he seemed to have warmed up to her. Which was good.

  She said, “There is no damn way we’re crossing through the mountains. It’s just too rugged. We could do it on foot, but that would take days—and we don’t have that time.”

  I said, “Come on, there are hiking trails all over the place. All of them big enough for a bike.”

  “Yes, and we looked at a bunch of the most promising ones, but all the trails, at one point or another, go to literally pulling yourself up rock escarpments, some with ropes. For the most part, they’re easy walks, but every damn trail we researched had at least one choke point that prevented its use. We aren’t riding a bike up them, and going on foot is a nonstarter. We won’t reach Maseru for a week, and that’s hoping we can get someone to pick us up as hitchhikers.”

  “So what are you saying? We need to use the Sani Pass and just risk getting caught after?”

  Brett said, “No. Shoshana found another way. One that’s not really advertised. There’s another border crossing near here called Bushman’s Nek, and it’s not even manned with immigration folks on the Lesotho side. Just police.”

  “What is it?”

  “It’s a crossing that allows the Lesotho folks to enter South Africa to sell their wares. It’s got a road that leads to it on the South African side, but there is no road on the Lesotho side. Just a mule trail. It’s pedestrian-only.”

  Shoshana said, “But it’s a trail that a motorbike could use.”

  I said, “What about the police?”

  Brett said, “The South African checkpoint is about a hundred meters away from the Lesotho side. We can get around the South African post by using the trails instead of the road. We’ve already marked them. Once we’re beyond it, we can use the road to get to the crossing. The South Africans restrict anyone coming into their country, but Lesotho doesn’t have a lot of security on their side. Really, who can blame them? What person wants to sneak into Lesotho?”

  I looked at Shoshana and said, “You learn that in the West Bank?”

  She grinned and said, “I’d like to say that, but it was a guy at a coffee stand. Brett wanted some water, and I struck up a conversation. That’s all it was.”

  I nodded, thinking the single-night infiltration might actually be possible. I said, “Good work. Really good work. This might actually have a chance now.”

  She nodded and glanced at Jennifer, liking being part of the team. Jennifer grinned back, and I said, “We need to send in the coordinates for the drop. We’ve got about four hours to get them prepared.”

  Brett said, “I know. I was talking with Blaine Alexander about the operation earlier. He’s on the ground.”

  I said, “Wait, what? Kurt said nothing about him coming.”

  I didn’t really mind Blaine taking charge, because it would relieve me of any responsibility when I went apeshit, but I was already trying to sneak in six people on motorbikes past a guard force. One more was asking a bit too much.

  Brett laughed and said, “He’s in DJ. He’ll control from that location. Trust me, we could use him.”

  I nodded, relieved, and said, “Yeah, you got that right. Get him on the line.”

  Brett dialed up the VPN, and I saw Blaine on the screen. We’d worked together for years, and I truly liked and respected him. I just didn’t want him on a motorcycle behind me, dragging one more person on the operation, but he would understand that.

  He’d commanded every Taskforce team in existence on an Omega operation, and yet he said the same thing he always did as soon as he saw me.

  “Pike Logan. I was hoping it was you. Looking forward to working with my favorite team.”

  As always, I said, “I’m the only team that ever makes you look good.”

  He chuckled and said, “So, I get pulled from Mali by Kurt—from a luxury resort tracking a terrorist with Johnny’s team, I might add—to live in the barracks at DJ as a contractor. Thanks for that. Johnny sends his love, by the way. Axe said you’re a dead man, because their mission is now on hold.”

  “Good to see I’m helping keep the officer corps in tune with the common man.”

  He laughed again and said, “I’m told we got the Africa package you wanted. Six Motoped Survivals, along with a Fulton rig. You ready to execute?”

  “Sir, I am. And I’m glad to hear your voice. You ready to do some good?”

  “Hell yes. From what I hear, you’re about to stop a bunch of assholes from raping the local folk. Doing some real good.”


  Which was the first time I’d actually considered the full implications of the coup. Before, it had been all about the nuclear triggers and Aaron. I’d never considered the innocents who would be harmed by the action, but what he said was true.

  I said, “Prepare to copy the DZ information,” and then went into a long diatribe of signals, markings, and everything else I could think of. I ended with, “You sure they got the bikes in the package? It’s not standard kit in the Africa package.”

  He said, “I have no idea, but I was told so. I just got here. I’m playing catch-up.”

  Which was a little confusing. Why not just go to the bird and check? Not wanting to insult him, I said, “Where’s Knuckles? Can I talk to him before he launches?”

  He said, “Pike, the bird’s in the air. It’s close to an eight-hour flight. Knuckles left with the package at five, local time. He’s been in the air for a couple of hours. He was in the air before I landed.”

  Shit. Although I knew it inherently, I’d failed to calculate just how far away Knuckles really was. Kurt’s saying “I’ve staged them in Africa in case you need them” made it seem like they were close, but they weren’t, any more than someone saying “I’ve staged them in North America,” and the team was in Calgary while I was in Texas.

  I said, “So, Knuckles gets a true blind combat drop. Better him than me.”

  Blaine said, “First time for everything. Now, let’s get to business. Give me the plan. Kurt mentioned nuclear triggers, and apparently, I’m supposed to do something about that.”

  I laughed, liking his attitude. “Yeah, there’s an asshole who’s getting paid for this coup with castoffs from Project Circle. He’ll get his as soon as we’re done.”

  Blaine nodded and said, “And there’s a bit of a hostage rescue in here? Kurt’s packet mentioned an operator down. An Israeli who’s part of the mission profile.”

  I couldn’t believe it. Kurt had made that part of the profile? I glanced at Shoshana, and she couldn’t either, her eyes wide. I said, “Yes, actually, there is. An Israeli friend of the Taskforce who stopped a nuclear attack in Brazil. At the World Cup. You remember?”