Operator Down

by Brad Taylor

  “We weren’t following you. We were following Tyler Malloy. He’s a shithead, and he’s trying to supply a terrorist organization.”

  He nodded, but I could tell he thought I was trying to trick him. I waited, letting him read all the top secret collection we had. I saw him grow more and more agitated. When he finished, he looked up and said, “Pike, you have no reason to believe this, but I had no idea. I don’t care about this country one way or the other. I don’t care if the coup succeeds. I do care about being used.”

  I flicked my head to Shoshana, saying, “And you care, of course, about not getting skinned alive by my partner.”

  He said, “That was nothing personal. That was business. This is not. This is treason.”

  Jennifer said, “Treason? Against what country?”

  “Against me.”

  He shook his head and said, “I don’t expect you to understand, but I don’t work for terrorists, and I don’t like being used. Colonel Armstrong lied to me. I knew he was lying to me, but I thought it was about diamond concessions or something else innocuous.”

  He tossed the papers on the table and said, “Maybe I just wanted to believe that.” He looked up, staring me in the eyes. He said, “And now I’ll pay the price. I suppose I’ve earned it.”

  I was a little taken aback at how willing he was to suffer for his sins. I decided to attack from a different angle. “You’ve earned a ride in my aircraft, going to a black hole while we work to contain Tyler Malloy. Or . . .”

  He let the question hang in the air, then asked, “Or what?”

  “Or you help us, and you go free.”

  He rolled his eyes, saying, “I just got played by Colonel Armstrong. I don’t need the same from you.”

  I said, “I’m fucking serious. You help us now and I’ll turn you loose. My organization knows nothing about you. I can make that happen.”

  He said, “Why would you? I’m not stupid. I’m a fucking mercenary taking over a country, and you’re going to pretend that never happened? This isn’t running a stop sign.”

  I said, “Because, believe it or not, I like you.”

  He settled his gaze on me, thinking, and I drove home the point. “Without you, I might not be able to prevent Hezbollah getting those triggers. I might miss. Yes, I have you, but that’s not my goal. Tyler Malloy is my goal. You do what you think is best. Fuck the coup. Think of the terrorists. You told me before you don’t play that game.”

  Johan considered my words, then said, “If I do, you can’t kill my men. I’ll get you Tyler Malloy, but this mission will go. I won’t be a traitor to the men I’ve trained with.”

  I said, “You think they’re doing some good? You think this country is going to be better off because of what you’ve engendered?”

  “I don’t give a shit about this country. I care about my men. That is it. They didn’t ask for this, don’t know anything about the payout, and I won’t sell them for my own freedom.”

  Knuckles, who’d been silent up to this point, had heard enough. He sprang forward and said, “You fucking piece of shit. You care more about the assholes who are going to turn this country inside out than the country itself? What the fuck is wrong with you?”

  Johan looked him in the eyes and said, “I care about my men. I will not betray them. That’s the end of it. You want to kill me, that’s a price I’m willing to pay.”

  68

  I could see Johan was serious and was amazed he wasn’t afraid that his death would be the most horrific thing he could imagine. But then again, I’m sure he’d seen enough to imagine the worst. I was a little impressed.

  I said, “I don’t understand you. I really don’t. You have a moral streak that seems to measure up with everyone in this room, and yet you take pay for a coup that will do nothing but destroy this country.”

  Johan said, “You know anything about Lesotho? It’s corrupt. Changing out the prime minister will do nothing to harm anyone here. Any more than they’re already harmed. If I thought this would have been a tragedy, I wouldn’t have done it. It’s just a change of management, and I was making a paycheck. There isn’t any good here.”

  Jennifer said, “Yes, there is. I did the research. They have a party that truly wants to help. One that isn’t in the pocket of corporate diamond or water interests. One that wants to use the natural resources to help the people. Why didn’t you fight for them?”

  Johan looked at her like she was a liberal nutcase. He said, “Because they can’t pay.”

  I said, “Okay, okay. If I accept your conditions, how will you execute?”

  “Colonel Armstrong is going to land here after the coup, with the new prime minister. When we’re all said and done, I hand him to you. You do with him what you will. I owe him no allegiance anymore.”

  He locked eyes with me and said, “I’m serious. I don’t work for terrorists.”

  I said, “So I let the coup go? And then get success afterward? That’s my choice?”

  Johan nodded and said, “Honestly, I don’t know how else I can help you. If the coup fails, he’s not landing, and if he doesn’t land, you have no proof of what he’s done. And without him, you have no connection to Tyler Malloy. You can burn it all to the ground once it’s over, but you need to get him here because he’s the link to the South African who has the triggers. Otherwise, no matter what happens in Lesotho, he won’t be implicated. It’s just one more failed coup.”

  I said, “And this has nothing to do with protecting your men.”

  He laughed and said, “It has everything to do with protecting my men, but it’s not mutually exclusive. You get what you want, and I get what I want. My men get on that plane, and you get Colonel Armstrong. Look, I’m not trying to negotiate here. I’m telling you how to get what you want. And I want to help.”

  I said, “Do you?”

  He grimaced and said, “I do, Pike. I do. You can burn me at the stake after. Seeing that fuck get taken down is payment enough. Everyone on the continent knows I don’t work for terrorists. Everyone. Most certainly Colonel Lloyd Armstrong. He knew, and he still used me.”

  He said it with so much venom, I actually believed him. I said, “Okay. I get you’re a little ticked at him, but how do I know you can execute the deal?”

  “Because I’m the ground-force commander of the entire operation. I’m the one calling the shots for the coup. I’m the man that’ll bring in that aircraft. You’ve captured the only man on the team who could do it.”

  I nodded, saying, “Should have known. Good.”

  I leaned in to him and said, “All that remains, then, is you telling us what you did with Aaron. The Israeli.”

  He grew cagey, looking at Shoshana. Fearing her. He said, “I told the truth. I did question him, but General Mosebo took him. I have no idea where.”

  I slapped the table and said, “That’s not fucking good enough. We’re running out of time. Your damn coup is going to start in a couple of hours, and I’m not leaving here without him.”

  He said, “I told you what I know. I’m not hiding anything.”

  I said, “Well, how about I let his wife in on the questioning.” I turned to Shoshana, expecting to see the dark angel appear and scare the hell out of him. Instead, I saw her leaning against a bookcase, resigned.

  I said, “Shoshana?”

  She looked at him, then me. She said, “He’s telling the truth. He doesn’t know where Aaron is.”

  I said, “Bullshit. He’s hiding it to protect his ass.”

  She shook her head and said, “He’s not. I can see it. He’s not. I’d like to kill him right now because of what he did, but it won’t get me Aaron.”

  She was so despondent, I was unsure of what to say. It was crushing. I’d thought Aaron was dead, and now I saw that Shoshana was starting to believe it. Which meant I didn’t want to believe it. He was ali
ve. She’d told me that not more than an hour ago.

  Along with the feeling that he was in deep pain.

  The room remained quiet, Johan going from one face to the other, and everyone avoiding Shoshana’s eyes. A phone began bleating with a ringtone that most definitely wasn’t the Taskforce. I said, “What the fuck is that?”

  Shoshana began digging in her bag, saying, “It’s my phone. Someone’s calling my phone.”

  “Who the hell would have that number?”

  She said, “It might be my employer.” Meaning the Mossad. She frantically dug it out, hope in her eyes. She looked at the number and said, “It’s local.”

  She physically deflated like a balloon losing air. She answered, all eyes in the room on her.

  “Hello?”

  I saw her jerk upright, like she’d been hit with an electric current. She did nothing but listen, then said, “I’m here. I’m right here. I’m close.”

  She listened a little more, then said, “Don’t worry about that. It’s not just me. I’m on the way. And I have a force that won’t be stopped.”

  She listened again, and I saw her eyes water. She said, “I’ve got Pike Logan with me.” She nodded at the unheard words coming through the handset, then locked eyes with me. She said, “Yes, he’s a wrecking crew. And he has a team. We’re coming for you. Stay alive.”

  She hung up, saying nothing for a moment. She wiped her eyes, breathing deeply. I said, “Well?”

  “That was Aaron. He’s alive.” She couldn’t get the next words out, overcome now that her worst fear had been vanquished.

  Growing frustrated, I said, “Where? Where is he?”

  Tentatively, fearing my answer, she said, “He’s in the middle of the military base housing the Lesotho Special Forces, hiding in the woods. He’s killed a lot of people, and they’re hunting him. He’s got Alexandra with him, a single AK, and he’s surrounded by the entire base.”

  She dropped the phone, knowing it was an overwhelming request. She said, “I told him we could help. But it’s damn near impossible.”

  She looked back at me and asked, “Can we?”

  She was willing to go on her own, facing a force she had no way to win against, fearing I would say no. But the odds wouldn’t matter to her. She was going no matter what I told her.

  I nodded, saying, “Yes. Yes, we can.”

  Her mouth dropped open in surprise. I said, “What? I can’t be called a wrecking crew and not prove it.”

  “You heard the part about him being inside a Special Forces base, right? Surrounded? And you’re still willing to go?”

  Knuckles said, “Yeah, we’re willing. Shit, we’ve been chasing his ass over half the world. We’re not going to quit now. Anyway, it’s not as bad as you make out. From what we just saw, the entire Lesotho Special Forces Regiment is being used for the coup.”

  She said, “I will never forget this.”

  I said, “You’ve already told me that. Should I start keeping score?”

  She smiled at my smart-ass comment, and I saw Shoshana coming back to life, the killing machine at her core spreading its wings.

  I nodded and said, “Everyone kit up. We’re going hunting.”

  Johan said, “What about me?”

  I looked at Shoshana, wanting her opinion. She stared at him for a moment, doing her weird thing, then nodded. I said, “You want to make this right?”

  “Yes. I do.”

  I said to Knuckles, “Get him his body armor and radios.”

  Johan said, “What about a weapon?”

  I smiled. “Not so fast. I’ll keep you alive defensively, but you’ll have to prove good faith with our deal before I’ll let you have a bullet launcher.”

  I didn’t wait for the protest I knew was coming. I mean, I would have bitched about assaulting a Special Forces base with my fists. Knuckles dropped his kitbag at Johan’s feet, and I said, “We roll in five.”

  69

  Aaron advanced through the small copse of trees, dragging Alex slowly behind him, the undergrowth grabbing their clothes at every step, the noise to Aaron sounding like an elephant wandering by.

  He’d initially tried moving up the mountain, away from the majority of the buildings, to either escape outright or—if they reached a protective fence that proved too hard to cross—at least find a place to hunker down until Shoshana could arrive to help. Instead, they’d run into a mini-city of cement barracks, with men out front cooking over open fires, drinking beer, and using trails to go back down the mountain, winding right by their hiding spot. He’d slowly retraced their steps, fearing they were going to be discovered by accident.

  Once they’d returned to level ground, he’d crouched in the undergrowth, thinking. Alex had whispered, “What now?”

  “Pretty easy on our part. We just need to stay hidden until Shoshana arrives, but I want to do it as close to the front gate as possible. I don’t want to force her to penetrate the length of the base.”

  She trembled, saying, “I’m not sure how long we can sit here. Those trails are all over the place. Sooner or later, someone’s going to stumble over us.”

  Aaron realized that Alex was barely holding it together, but he didn’t fault her for it. Given the complete lack of experience and training for the trials they’d been through, she’d held up pretty well. He said, “She won’t be long. She’s on the way right now.”

  Alex nodded, then said, “I’m more worried about what happens when she is found. How is she going to sneak in here and then sneak us back out?”

  Aaron quietly chuckled. He said, “She’s coming with a team. A friend of mine from America. They’ll sneak when they can but kill when they can’t. They think they’re conducting a snatch and grab, then hightailing it off the base.”

  Alex said, “They ‘think’ they’re conducting a snatch and grab? What’s that mean?”

  Aaron said, “Well, they are doing that, but we’re taking out more than just us. We’re going to rescue some of the men in that prison.”

  Alex hissed, “What? Are you crazy?”

  “Shhh . . . keep your voice down. You heard them talking about killing Thomas tonight? I can’t let them do that.”

  “Yes, you can. We can’t be responsible for what they do to their own people. This is their country. We can’t save everyone.” She started vibrating in fear at the very thought. “Aaron, you’re going to kill us both trying to do that, along with your friends.”

  Aaron’s face dropped in disappointment. He said, “Alex, without Thomas you would have been gang-raped every hour you were in there. I would be dead. As far as I’m concerned, every minute now is just extra time I would have already lost. He’s coming with us.”

  Alex drew back, the words cutting deep, and Aaron could see the shame fall over her. She said, “I . . . didn’t mean . . . I know it’s the right thing . . . but we can’t . . .” And then she seemed to come to grips with what she was saying, understanding her fear was sealing another man’s fate. One who had already saved her life. “Okay. Okay.”

  She took a breath, then pointed to the east and said, “I think the gate is that way. I was in the front of the prison, and I could see trucks coming and going toward the west through my window.”

  Aaron smiled and said, “Good. Very good. We’ll stick to the woods as long as we can.”

  She started to say something else, and he patted her arm, saying, “Drop it. Forget about it. I already have.”

  He struck out in the direction she’d indicated, hoping the woods extended all the way to the fence line. They did not.

  He reached the edge of the cover, staying deep enough inside to remain in the shadows of the brush. He saw a rutted track snaking its way around a U-shaped cinder-block building with a single lamp on the far corner.

  He heard movement and crouched down. Lurch and another man came r
unning up to the building, shouting something in Sesotho. Two men came out, one short, with a bald head and a thick neck, looking like someone had slapped a bowling ball between the shoulders of a five-foot mannequin. The other was the exact opposite, a tall, thin man, reminding Aaron of a cattail caught in the wind.

  Lurch began shouting, waving his arms, and Aaron knew he’d returned to the interrogation cell. He’d found the general.

  The bald-headed man rattled off a sentence and then snorted, as if he was trying to clear his nose. They went back and forth, Bowling-Ball Head snorting each time he finished, like he had some form of Tourette’s syndrome.

  The tall man raced inside the building, and Aaron knew the window for their escape was ticking down. Before the thin man could return, a lorry came flying up the gravel road, screeching to a stop, a cloud of dust enveloping it. The driver leapt out and ran forward, then close to ten men spilled out the back, all armed with AK-47s.

  At first, Aaron thought they were the search team, until they unloaded two bodies from the back, dumping them unceremoniously on the ground. The driver began arguing with Lurch, the latter looking confused. Lurch began shouting, gaining control.

  Aaron recognized two things: One, Lurch outranked everyone there, and two, nobody but Lurch knew Aaron had escaped. The truck full of soldiers was a reaction to something else, not a planned response, and it would take time for Lurch to develop a course of action.

  Aaron grabbed Alex by the hand and began going back the way they’d come, trying to find a path that would allow them to circle around the group. He hit a line of trees that went south, sparsely running between two tin shacks, and took it. He stopped in between them, slowly inching forward, and was overpowered by the smell. The door to the one on the left opened, and a soldier exited, buckling his pants.

  Aaron whirled at the noise, and the man shouted at him. The soldier realized something wasn’t right and began screaming, a banshee wail that split the night air. He turned to run. Aaron dropped his AK, darted forward, and caught him around the neck, silencing the noise. He cinched the man’s upper arm, rotated, and flipped him over his hip, slamming the soldier into the ground. Aaron dropped onto his neck with his knee, using the force of his body to kill him outright.