Path of the Assassin

by Brad Thor

  Harvath asked questions about her family and growing up in Chicago. He asked about college and starting her own business. He even spent some time trying to explain the philosophy of true country music, which could be summed up as, “three chords and the truth”—my wife left me, my dog ran away, I lost my job…He had no idea if Meg appreciated his position, but she laughed nonetheless.

  Darkness had just fallen when Morrell finally made his way to the back of the cave where Harvath and Meg were still talking. “Saddle up,” was all he whispered before gathering his gear and heading outside.

  Sounds from the distant oasis could be heard floating on the mild breeze that stirred the loose sand all around them. Harvath and Meg took their places in the middle of the column, and after a final weapons and equipment check, the team set off for their positions overlooking the Hijrah Oasis.

  They picked their way over the boulder-strewn hillside with extreme caution, careful not to make even the slightest sound. Though the entire team was wearing throat mikes, no one dared break radio silence. As they crested the hill, the oasis came into full view. A perfectly still, oblong pool of water seemed to magically spring up from the desert sand like a forgotten mirror and reflect everything around it. An amazing array of flowers and vegetation, including young date and palm trees, surrounded the tiny desert lake and spread outward for hundreds of meters, adding brilliant touches of color to the otherwise barren landscape.

  Many of the buildings shown in the satellite photos, once only a hodgepodge of unimpressive gray boxes, were now completely visible. Vegetation hung from windows and over the edges of makeshift balconies. To people who had no idea of the real purpose of this oasis town, it could easily have been mistaken for a modern-day Garden of Eden.

  On a small promontory jutting out into the dark water, obviously a place of great honor and ceremony, stood a large bedouin-style tent. Torches lit a path to the open panels of striped fabric that billowed in the desert wind. Robed figures trudged back and forth from covered trucks, preparing for the meeting between Hashim Nidal and the Saudi, while other robed figures stood quietly by, clutching Kalashnikov assault rifles.

  All of a sudden, loud music erupted from a boom box in the back of one of the trucks, and the men setting up the tent cheered. The Operation Phantom team hit the deck and searched for cover. Morrell clutched his throat mike and snapped, “What the fuck is that?”

  The operatives were all silent. After listening for a few moments Harvath whispered, “Flashlight.”

  “‘Flashlight’? I didn’t see any flashlight. I’m talking about that goddamn music.”

  “It’s the name of the song. ‘Flashlight,’ by Parliament. They may hate us, but they love our music.”

  “Fuckin’ no-taste ragheads,” spat one of the operatives.

  “Actually,” whispered Harvath, “‘Flashlight’ is considered far and away a seventies funk classic.”

  “Both of you shut up,” commanded Morrell. “Obviously, our real players haven’t arrived on the scene yet. Let’s get into place.”

  Morrell gave the signal for the team to split up, and the members fanned out in separate directions. Two men went off to recon the suspected training camp as the sniper teams took up strategic positions overlooking the striped tent. Harvath and Meg were directed to stay behind a large outcropping of rocks while Morrell took several more men and his operative who had somehow managed to repair the mini-drone further down the hill.

  Harvath scanned the scene below with one of the next-generation AN/PVS starlight scope systems he and Meg had been given to identify Hashim Nidal with. The music seemed to have had the desired effect. The men were now unloading the trucks at a much improved pace. Harvath noticed that not all of them were dressed in robes. Some wore civilian clothes, and one even had a Chicago Bulls T-shirt on. He loved the hypocrisy of it all—The U.S. is the Great Satan, but Michael Jordan? He’s number one!

  The radio silence was interrupted when Rick Morrell whispered, “Marty away.” Harvath and Meg both tried to locate the mini-drone through their starlight scopes, but at half the size of a wine cork, it was next to impossible to see.

  For a moment, they heard what sounded like the beginning strains of “Kung Fu Fighting”; then an irate and obviously very senior member of Hashim Nidal’s staff began yelling at the men near the tent and the music was immediately turned off.

  The wind picked up, and rough sheets of sand blew across the narrow streets of the oasis town. The workers wrapped their kaffiyeh headdresses across their faces to keep the sand out of their mouths and noses. Over the plastic earpiece wedged deep within his ear, Harvath heard one of the operatives say, “We’ve got an inbound aircraft.”

  As Harvath turned his eyes to the north, he could make out the lights of a small plane off in the distance. A moment later, the landing strip lit up like a Christmas tree. The man taken into custody in Helsinki had indicated that the Saudi would be arriving via private jet and he was right on time. That meant Hashim Nidal couldn’t be far behind.

  One of the sniper teams quietly hailed Meg and asked her to call out various points and distances around the tent. Meg pressed her face against the rubber blinders of the starlight scope and synced with both spotters to make sure they were on the same page. She didn’t dare remove the device from her face. Her vision was now acclimated to the greenish glow, and the last thing she wanted to do was expose her eyes to any of the blowing sand. The mission could not afford her missing the target.

  She was still scanning the area around the tent when another voice came over the team’s earpieces and said, “Two convoys approaching target area.”

  Meg knew that one of the convoys approaching from the direction of the airstrip would belong to the Saudi, while the other would most likely belong to Nidal. She noticed her hands were shaking, and she tried to steady them by resting her elbows on the boulder in front of her.

  “You okay?” asked Harvath, whose eyes were also glued to the scene unfolding through his starlight scope.

  “A little nervous.”

  “That’s good. It’s to be expected. Just ID Nidal to the snipers the way we practiced it. You’re going to do fine.”

  “I hope so. I want this to be over with.”

  “It will be soon enough. Don’t worry. It looks like the convoys are about to enter the perimeter.”

  The voice came back over their earpieces. “Convoys entering perimeter. All teams stand by.”

  Two sets of Land Rovers came to a stop twenty meters away from the tent. As the doors to the vehicles opened, another gust of wind erupted, sending sharp blasts of sand in all directions. The men momentarily retreated into their vehicles until the wind passed, then reemerged with their kaffiyehs drawn tightly across their faces, like the guards and workers.

  “Wild Onion, have you identified the target?” came the voice of one of the spotters over Meg’s earpiece.

  As Meg was from Chicago, Morrell had assigned her a code name based on what the Native Americans had originally called the Windy City.

  “Target not yet identified,” said Meg as she strained to get a better view through her starlight scope.

  Seconds passed and the men moved toward the tent, their bodies bent against the force of the wind and blowing sand.

  “Wild Onion,” came the voice again. “Do you have the target?”

  “Negative. Target not yet identified.”

  The men had now covered half the distance to the tent and would be inside within the next ten seconds.

  “Wild Onion. You must identify the target before they’re out of view.”

  “I’m trying,” said Meg desperately, more to herself than anyone else. “They’re all dressed alike and I can’t see their faces.”

  “It’s no good,” said Harvath over his throat mike as he watched the men finish filing into the tent.

  “Target pool out of view,” came the voice of one of the sniper team spotters. “Awaiting instructions.”

  “Da
mnit,” hissed Morrell over the team’s earpieces. “Stand by.”

  Meg pulled the starlight scope from her face and slid down against the large boulder. “I blew it,” she said.

  Harvath slid down next to her and put a hand on her shoulder. “You didn’t blow anything. Nobody could have called that shot. Their faces were completely covered.”

  “So what do we do now?”

  “You don’t want to know.”

  “Yes, I do,” said Meg as she wiped the perspiration from her palms onto her fatigues.

  “I think Morrell’s probably got no choice but to light that tent up like a roman candle.”

  “If he does, how are we going to know for sure we got Nidal?”

  “We might never know for sure, but we also might never get another chance like this.”

  “In Chicago, you told me you wouldn’t just fire missiles into a bunch of people. You said you couldn’t. You said you had to know for sure you got him.”

  “If Morrell decides to take out that tent, I would have to agree with him. It’s a good tactical decision.”

  “But there’s innocent people in there.”

  “Meg, calm down. The people in that tent are anything but innocent.”

  “Are you absolutely sure about that? Do you know for a fact that the people helping set that tent up and who are probably serving a meal inside right now aren’t some hapless workers from the oasis town?”

  “No, but this is a numbers game. We have to be willing to sacrifice a few for the benefit of the many. And better it be a few of theirs, than many of ours.”

  “What about their families?”

  Harvath was beginning to lose his patience. “What about your family? What if Hashim Nidal had been responsible for killing someone you cared about? How about your assistant, Judy? Do you want to let this guy slip through our fingers again only to hurt more innocent people than we might?”

  “Of course not. But I want to know we did everything we could to nail him before another innocent person dies.”

  “Well, you can sleep like an angel. Your conscience is clear. We did do everything we could.”

  “No we didn’t.”

  “What are you talking about?” said Harvath.

  “It doesn’t matter if Nidal’s face is wrapped up tight. After what he tried to do to me on that plane, I’d know him just by his eyes.”

  “You can’t make out anybody’s eyes from up here.”

  “You’re right. But, from down there I could,” said Meg as she pointed her index finger over the water of the oasis and toward the tent.

  45

  This is, without a doubt, the mother of all bad ideas, said Harvath to himself as he and Meg Cassidy crept around the outer edge of the oasis toward the tent. Meg had convinced Morrell of her plan in no time. Of course it wasn’t a very tough sell. It seemed Morrell would sacrifice anybody and anything to accomplish his mission.

  Harvath had gone along with Meg’s idea for one simple reason. If they had chosen to stay back and annihilate the tent from a distance, there would been no way of confirming that they had actually taken Hashim Nidal out. Sure, everyone inside would be dead, but what if Nidal had had a change of heart at the last minute and had sent someone else to conduct the meeting in his place? The other thing that bothered Harvath was that he was not so sure Nidal was who everybody thought he was.

  It only took Harvath about two seconds longer than Morrell to realize that they didn’t have any other choice, and so he made his way with Meg into the darkness.

  They were under cover of the two sniper teams the entire way. Their circuit took a painfully long time and was made even worse by the intermittent wind that kicked up enormous clouds of sand.

  They had been creeping around the edge of the lush oasis, using the thick groves of palm trees for cover, when fifty meters away from their objective, Harvath held up his hand for Meg to stop. With two fingers, he pointed at his own eyes and then motioned toward the front of the tent. Meg shook her head No. It was no good. She wouldn’t be able to identify Nidal from this distance, not even with their night scopes. She wanted to be closer. She signaled Harvath that they should sneak nearer to the tent. Harvath immediately shook his head. Negative. They were already much closer than he had wanted to get.

  Harvath indicated that they would stay where they were and wait. With two short abrupt movements, he again pointed at his eyes and then at the tent. Meg got the picture, but she didn’t like it. She again shook her head No. Harvath didn’t care what she thought and he firmly pointed to the ground at their feet. He was lowering from his crouched position to his knees and preparing to lay in behind a clump of tall oasis grass when Meg took off. It was the last thing Harvath had expected.

  He engaged his throat mike and whispered, “Meg! Damnit! Get back here. You’re going to get killed!”

  Meg either didn’t hear or didn’t want to hear, because she kept moving at a running crouch closer toward the tent. Harvath had no choice but to go after her.

  “What the fuck is going on down there?” rasped Morrell over his earpiece, but Harvath didn’t pay any attention. His only thoughts were on stopping Meg before she went too far.

  She was no match for him, especially in the soft sand. She had swung out toward a pile of discarded crates when Harvath caught her around the waist and tackled her to the ground.

  “What the hell’s the matter with you?” snarled Harvath as he rolled her over to stare her in the face.

  “With me?” whispered Meg. “What’s the matter with you? I told you I couldn’t see anything from where we were. I had to get closer.”

  “And I told you no.”

  “We’re here now, so let’s make the best of it.”

  “No way. We’re getting out of here.”

  “You’ve gotta be kidding me,” said Meg as she rolled over and prepared to get back up.

  “The hell I am. We’ve got absolutely no sniper support here.”

  “We don’t need it. We’re safe here. If we can get over behind those crates, I can get a good view of Nidal when he leaves the tent. Then the sniper team can take him out. Nobody will be looking for us over there. Once the shooting starts, we’ll sneak back out and around the oasis.”

  “That plan is almost as bad as coming down here in the first place.”

  “But it will work.”

  “It might work,” said Harvath.

  “It will,” replied Meg. “Trust me.”

  “Trust you? Taking off like you did, you just lost my trust. From now on, you do exactly what I say. You understand me?”

  “Does that mean we’re staying?”

  “Are you going to do what I say?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then we’re staying.”

  Meg thanked Harvath, but he ignored her as he quietly radioed to Morrell their new intent. Morrell didn’t like the fact that Harvath and Meg were where the rest of the team couldn’t see them, but he agreed with their plan nonetheless.

  Harvath signaled to Meg to remain completely quiet as they silently crawled forward toward the stack of discarded crates. Halfway there, first one, then several figures began to emerge from the tent. Harvath didn’t need to tell Meg what to do. She froze, then slowly brought the night scope up to her eyes. The men had exited the tent between gusts of wind and, believing that the sandstorm had passed, did not bother covering their faces.

  “The party is breaking up,” said Harvath quietly into his throat mike to the rest of the team.

  “Copy that. Awaiting your ID,” responded one of the sniper teams.

  Harvath crawled over so that he could lie right next to Meg. He was angry that they hadn’t been able to make it to the cover of the crates before the men began exiting the tent. “How’s the view?” he whispered into Meg’s ear.

  Meg rocked her outstretched hand from side to side as if to say, So, so, and then pointed her thumb straight down. Her voice barely a whisper, she leaned toward Harvath and said, “I’m getting bac
ks of heads and the occasional profile. This is no good. We’ve got to get behind those crates.”

  Harvath didn’t like it. It was too risky. Though they were halfway there already, it still seemed a long way off. What’s more, they’d be that much further away from the oasis and the fire support the sniper teams could lend them if they were seen. But, Harvath knew they had no choice. Scot tapped Meg on the shoulder and indicated for her to quickly follow him, which she did.

  Men were now filing out of the tent at a steady clip, and the eyes of the armed guards were busy surveying the entire area. With the night scope again pressed tight against her face, Meg peered out from behind the crates and focused on a tall man in a striped robe as he exited the tent and looked around. When the man unknowingly glanced in their direction, Meg could see his eyes. It was him! Hashim Nidal. As Meg was about to engage her throat mike and call in the target, she was struck hard with the butt of an assault rifle against the back of her head and everything went black.

  46

  When Harvath awoke with a throbbing headache, the first thing he noticed was the stifling heat. It made him feel as if he were in an oven. There was no telling how long he had been out, or where he was. He assumed that he was somewhere within the oasis town. The tiny room was completely black. The floor he was lying on was hard-packed sand and reaching out either arm he could touch the walls, which were some sort of stone. He did a quick inventory and wasn’t surprised that all of his weapons had been taken away, as well as his Rolex.

  Something with way too many legs crawled across his thigh and he quickly brushed it off. He jumped up and, guessing at where the creature was, raised his foot to smash it. He brought his boot down and heard the satisfying squish of a direct hit.

  Despite the good-night kiss he’d been given by one of Nidal’s men, physically, he was doing okay. He wished he could be sure of the same for Meg. There was no telling what they were doing to her. A woman like Meg was quite a trophy. Being captured as an enemy would all but guarantee the unthinkable.