Vengeance

by R. J. Patterson

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  About R.J. Patterson

  “R.J. Patterson does a fantastic job at keeping you engaged and interested. I look forward to more from this talented author.”

  - Aaron Patterson, bestselling author of SWEET DREAMS

  “Patterson has a mean streak about a mile wide and puts his two main characters through quite a horrible ride, which makes for good reading.”

  - Richard D., reader

  “Like a John Grisham novel, from the very start I was pulled right into the story and couldn’t put the book down. It was as if I personally knew and cared about what happened to each of the main characters. Every chapter ended with so much excitement and suspense I had to continue to read until I learned how it ended, even though it kept me up until 3:00 A.M.

  - Ray F., reader

  DEAD SHOT

  “Small town life in southern Idaho might seem quaint and idyllic to some. But when local newspaper reporter Cal Murphy begins to uncover a series of strange deaths that are linked to a sticky spider web of deception, the lid on the peaceful town is blown wide open. Told with all the energy and bravado of an old pro, first-timer R.J. Patterson hits one out of the park his first time at bat with Dead Shot. It’s that good.”

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  NFL writer for CBSSports.com

  & author of Sid Gillman: Father of the Passing Game

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  3-time Idaho broadcaster of the year

  and play-by-play voice for Boise State football

  DEAD IN THE WATER

  “In Dead in the Water, R.J. Patterson accurately captures the action-packed saga of a what could be a real-life college football scandal. The sordid details will leave readers flipping through the pages as fast as a hurry-up offense.”

  - Mark Schlabach,

  ESPN college sports columnist and

  co-author of Called to Coach

  Heisman: The Man Behind the Trophy

  Other titles by R.J. Patterson

  Ed Maddux thriller series

  King of Queens

  To Catch a Spy

  Whispers of Treason

  Brady Hawk series

  Dead Shot

  Dead Line

  Better off Dead

  Dead in the Water

  Dead Man's Curve

  Dead and Gone

  Dead Wrong

  Dead Man's Land

  Dead Drop

  Dead to Rights

  Dead End

  Dead on Arrival

  James Flynn Thriller series

  The Warren Omissions

  Imminent Threat

  The Cooper Affair

  Seeds of War

  Brady Hawk series

  First Strike

  Deep Cover

  Point of Impact

  Full Blast

  Target Zero

  Fury

  State of Play

  Siege

  Seek and Destroy

  Into the Shadows

  Hard Target

  No Way Out

  Two Minutes to Midnight

  Against All Odds

  Any Means Necessary

  Vengeance

  Code Red

  VENGEANCE

  A Brady Hawk Thriller

  R.J. PATTERSON

  For Chad, a good friend,

  a loyal soldier, and a great man

  CHAPTER 1

  Nuba Mountains, Sudan

  WISPS OF DUST settled onto Brady Hawk’s lips as he peered through his binoculars at the target location below in a small ravine. Despite the milder December temperatures, Hawk’s mouth was still dry from nestling beneath a blind on the sandy ground. Sweat beaded on his forehead with the occasional drop breaking loose and streaking down his face. But for all his discomfort, staking out an enemy combatant allowed Hawk an opportunity to think about something else, anything else than the one painful memory that had dominated his thoughts for the past six months.

  Losing his mother was difficult enough, but the brutal manner in which she was murdered stoked Hawk's determination to hunt down the animal who’d killed her and repay them. There was only one problem: there wasn't a single clue local law enforcement had gathered from the scene. Not a piece of fabric, not a strand of hair, not a drop of blood. Whoever murdered her not only was a professional but one of the best the Dallas Police Department had ever encountered. According to their initial and subsequent reports, the killer was highly trained and skilled. And with as much time passing as it had, Hawk was confident the case had already been relegated to the growing mountain of unsolved murders in the cold case files.

  But the mission to Sudan was a welcome distraction to the numbing pain. Hawk also had a place to focus his ire until he learned the identity of his mother’s killer.

  Hawk was accompanied by Titus Black, both men perched on opposing ridges about fifty meters above the valley floor, only a short sprint down the hill if their mission required it. But Hawk hoped this would be an easy mission—two shots and vanish into the wind.

  Hawk had been in place for nearly two hours with barely a word uttered over his coms to either Alex or Black. There wasn’t much to say until the alleged meeting commenced.

  The Phoenix Foundation had been closely monitoring the reemergence of Al Hasib, now called Al Fatihin under the direction of Evana Bahar. As Bahar used her fundraising expertise learned while leading a non-profit in London, she ran into problems moving funds through various banking systems. She wasn’t prepared for the constant freezing of her accounts or outright removal of small fortunes. Her attempt to correct this nagging issue was to contact South African diamond launderer Freddie Jacobs.

  Jacobs was on scores of terrorist watch lists due to his close ties with several top cell leaders. His operation had slowed tremendously after getting raided on numerous occasions. Forced to deal in diamonds more honestly, he almost dropped off the radar after several years. But when Bahar reportedly reached out to him to set up a meeting with one of her top lieutenants Kahlid Salib, the U.S. intelligence community took notice. And the Phoenix Foundation found itself as the one tapped to snuff out this potential threat and serve yet another setback to Bahar and Al Fatihin.

  “Any sign of them from your side?” Hawk asked.

  “Negative,” Black said. “Just dust and sand.”

  “You’d think they’d pick a more luxurious site, like, say Dubai.”

  “You can work on your tan out here just as well as you can there,” Black said with a chuckle.

  “Not when I’m draped underneath all this netting.”

  “You could’ve always been an accountant or an insurance salesman if you wanted the life of comfort.”

  “And boredom.”

  Black laughed softly. “And you think wallowing in the sand on a warm African day is more exciting?”

  Hawk didn’t say anything.

  “Those accountants and insurance salesmen have it just as boring today but far more comfortable,” Black continued. “And I bet they’re taking vacations to Dubai whenever the hell they want to instead of having to wait for some terrorist to schedule a clandestine meeting there.”

  “I just want to shoot something,” Hawk
said.

  “That makes two of us, though I’d prefer the target to something of value.”

  “Okay, okay, that’s enough,” Alex said, interrupting the two agents’ banter. “Time to stop pining away for better vacations and sounding like the rest of America. You’ve got company headed your way from the north and south.”

  Positioned on the west side of the ridge, Hawk slowly turned to his left to see a trail of dust flying behind a black SUV. To his right, he saw a near-identical vehicle storming toward the valley below. While Hawk hadn’t enjoyed lying in wait, at least his suffering hadn’t been in vain. The intelligence had been perfect, and it was time to ensure that the men and women who obtained the information be rewarded for their sacrifices.

  “You want to take out Salib or Jacobs?” Hawk asked.

  “Dealer’s choice,” Black said.

  “I’ll take Jacobs then. Utilizing children to mine the diamonds is bad enough, but then you launder them to support terrorists. It doesn’t get much more lowlife in my book than that.”

  “Can’t argue with that.”

  A long paused followed before Alex chimed in again. “Before these scumbags are eliminated, Blunt told me that we need a visual verification of their identities as well as audio of the conversation.”

  “What on Earth for?” Hawk asked.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “Something to do with proving to the Sudanese government that we weren’t up to anything nefarious since they gave us permission to be on their soil.”

  “Like they could discern what’s right and wrong,” Hawk said. “These people butcher each other to death for being from the wrong side of the street.”

  “Not to mention they’re probably involved somehow in this whole laundering scheme,” Black chimed in.

  “It’s barely noon and you two are teeming with cynicism,” Alex said. “What a perfect pair.”

  “Cynical? That’s all you consider us?” Black said. “If that’s my worst attribute, I’ll take it, especially since that’s what usually keeps me alive.”

  “Never change, Black,” Hawk said. “Though I'd say you aren't nearly as cynical as you should sometimes be.”

  “Maybe I’m just good enough that I haven’t been captured as many times as you have, Hawk.”

  Hawk shrugged off the zinger. “I’m still alive though—and still the worst nightmare for these punks.”

  Black chuckled. “Time to confirm their identities before we light them up.”

  The two vehicles had skidded to a stop, kicking up another cloud of dust to join the one already wafting through the valley from their respective trips to the meeting site.

  “What are they waiting on?” Black asked.

  “I don’t know,” Hawk said. “But I don’t like this.”

  Hawk studied the scene, which, for the moment, was little more than two SUVs parked directly in front of one another in the middle of the Nuba Mountains. The tinted windows made it difficult to see any movement inside as neither door on his side budged.

  “Anything on your side?” Hawk asked.

  “Negative,” Black said. “They’re both glued to their seats from what I can tell. About all I can see is the driver of the SUV on the south—and he hasn’t even flinched. His hands are still gripping the steering wheel as if he’s about to take off again.”

  “There’s no way they could’ve spotted us,” Hawk said.

  “Those assumptions are what get you in trouble,” Alex said.

  “I set up a motion detector perimeter for a mile around us,” Black said. “I haven’t heard the first notification that even an animal penetrated the line. How the hell could they know where we are?”

  “Call it a hunch,” Alex said. “Evana Bahar learned from one of the best. It took us years to catch Karif Fazil.”

  “He was the epitome of caution,” Hawk said. “And it’s exactly why one of his subordinates requested a meeting in a place like this.”

  “But he still made a mistake,” Black said.

  “His only mistake was his pride,” Hawk said. “Otherwise, we’d still be trying to squelch him as opposed to simply snuffing out Al Fatihin before it builds any significant momentum.”

  After a few seconds, Hawk noticed a glint of sunshine off the window as it was slowly slung open.

  “Hold tight, everyone,” Hawk said. “It looks like we’ve got movement.”

  “Roger that,” Black said. “Got something happening here on this side with the south SUV.”

  “Just a reminder that we need visual confirmation before laying waste to these guys,” Alex said. “Does everyone copy?”

  “Copy that,” Black and Hawk both said in unison.

  Hawk took out a small recording device and pointed it in the valley below at the two men who were walking toward one another to shake hands.

  “Are you getting all this, Alex?” he asked.

  “Your signal is coming in strong,” she said. “I’m running their faces through the database right now just to make sure.”

  “And their voices?” Hawk asked.

  “I can barely make out what they’re saying,” she said. “Can you tweak the audio?”

  “Negative,” Hawk said. “You’ll have to boost it on your end.”

  “If you’ve got something on the audio, the video should suffice,” Black said. “I say it’s time to take a shot.”

  Alex let out a string of expletives, reverberating in Hawk’s ears.

  “What’s that all about?” Hawk asked.

  “You guys have company,” Alex said. “I missed it while I was trying to secure all these requirements.”

  A helicopter popped over one of the mountains behind Hawk and zoomed past him, heading straight for the ravine where the two SUVs were parked.

  “Black, you got a shot?” Hawk asked.

  “I had one, but it’s gone. They both just got into one of the vehicles.”

  “I saw that, but it wasn’t on my side.”

  “It’s too late now,” Black said. “We’re going to have to wait until they get out again. Or we could just light up these vehicles.”

  “No explosions,” Alex said. “That was part of the agreement. We cannot attract attention out here.”

  “I don’t need to blow anything up to kill everybody inside,” Black said.

  “Resist the urge,” Alex said. “One of the drivers is a Sudanese national. If we kill him, we’re going to be brought in on charges of murder.”

  “Hang on a second,” Hawk said. “The back passenger side door on the car from the north is opening.”

  “I see it,” Alex said. “If you can take the shot—”

  Hawk had already tuned her out and was focusing on lining up his shot. He was almost sure that he had Jacobs sighted in before disaster struck.

  The chopper descended just to the west of the vehicles, kicking up the equivalent of a sandstorm. As a result, Hawk lost visual with Jacobs and Salib.

  “They’re gone,” Hawk said. “I can’t even tell what vehicle they’re in now.”

  “If they're even in one of those SUVs,” Alex said.

  “You got a shot, Black?” Hawk asked.

  There was no reply.

  “Black, you read me? You have a shot?”

  Still nothing.

  “Damn it, Black. Answer me,” Hawk said.

  “They’re not getting away,” Black said, sounding as if he were out of breath.

  “You’re not down there, are you?” Hawk asked.

  “Affirmative,” Black said.

  “You’re not thinking straight,” Hawk said. “I can’t give you any cover from up here with the way that chopper is stirring up all that sand.”

  “I won’t need it,” Black said.

  Hawk watched as his colleague scrambled down to the valley floor. Then he vanished in the midst of the swirling dust.

  “You have a visual on him from the satellite feed?” Hawk asked.

  “No,” Alex said. “I can’t see anything. The
heat signatures aren’t even working very well in the desert.”

  “I’m going after him,” Hawk said.

  “Don’t you dare,” Alex said. “You stay put. We can’t have both of you captured or shot. Blunt is gonna lose it when he hears about this.”

  “I don’t care,” Hawk said. “I’ve already lost too much recently, and I’m not about to lose a team member without a fight.”

  Hawk slithered out from beneath his blind and leaped over a boulder. Hustling down the mountainside, he stayed close to the ground, crouched over with his weapon drawn and trained in the direction of the action. But before he reached the bottom, both SUVs spun around and tore off in the opposite direction from which they came while the helicopter ascended and then rolled away.

  Hawk sank to his knees in the sand and glared skyward.

  “He’s gone, isn’t he?” Alex asked.

  Hawk didn’t answer. He couldn’t bring himself to utter a response aloud.

  Black was gone—and Hawk didn’t have a clue who had taken his partner.

  CHAPTER 2

  Washington, D.C.

  HAWK SLUMPED INTO A CHAIR at the conference table in the Phoenix Foundation’s offices. He grimaced as he rubbed his face with both hands and sighed. A week had passed since Titus Black vanished into thin air amidst a mission that ended in almost the worst way possible. While the loop was kept tight on the assignment, Hawk couldn’t help but think someone leaked the details about their operation to Al Fatihin or Freddie Jacobs. Either way, Hawk had lost a fellow soldier who was every bit an equal in the field.

  J.D. Blunt lumbered into the office and swatted Hawk with a manila folder.

  “Get your head out of your ass, Hawk,” Blunt said. “So what? Things went sideways in Sudan. We’ll figure out a way to get our man back.”

  Hawk shook his head and leaned forward, resting on his arms. “I can’t put my finger on it, but this felt like a setup somehow. I’d almost bet on the fact that we were played.”

  “Then why are you still here?” Blunt asked.

  “Maybe they didn’t think we would send a pair of operatives,” Alex said as she breezed into the room. “Most of Hawk’s recent missions have been solo. And if this was a setup, it’s clear they wanted Hawk there.”