Target Zero

by Jack Patterson

  “Someone could’ve seen you come in here. Are you out of your mind?”

  “I doubt it. It’s dark out, and the old woman who lives here didn’t even notice me.”

  “What’d you do with McGinn’s truck?”

  “I parked it a block away and snuck around to the back of the house. Nobody saw me, trust me.”

  “My trust level is running low at the moment, so pardon me if I have just a little bit of angst about what you just did and where you were.”

  “Look, I really don’t want to talk about it right now, but I’m fine.”

  Alex squinted as she studied the bruise over his right eye. She reached up to touch it, but Hawk withdrew.

  “What happened there?” she asked.

  “Ran into some trouble, but don’t worry. I took care of it.”

  “Okay, I see. Going for the honest and transparent approach now, aren’t we?”

  Hawk ignored her jab. “Where’s McGinn?”

  “I sent him to look for you, so I’m assuming based on your question that you didn’t run into him while he was talking to the guy who’s supposedly selling the weapon to Al Hasib.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  She opened up her laptop on the table and spun the screen toward him. “I’m talking about this.”

  “What is this?”

  “That’s McGinn talking to Garaar a few hours ago at the place we’re supposed to infiltrate on Saturday night. But that’s not all.”

  Hawk’s eyes widened. “Think we’re being played?”

  “You tell me after you have a look at these documents I found here,” she said as she handed him her phone. “I took pictures of them when they were out the first time I got here. I looked for them again, but he removed them from the safe house as far as I can tell.”

  Hawk looked at her phone and perused the documents. “These are procedural papers for a hit, aren’t they?”

  “Sure looks like it to me. Look at the date.”

  “That’s this Saturday.”

  Alex nodded. “Exactly. I’m not so sure about this job now. And if you want to get the hell out of here right now, I’m with you.”

  “Let’s give him a chance to explain.”

  Alex stared at him slack jawed for a moment. “Are you serious? If you start putting all of this together, I’m thinking I don’t want to give him any opportunity to snow us with some lie.”

  “So, we just let the weapon fall into Al Hasib’s hands? I don’t think so.”

  “What else do you suggest? We can’t just go through with this mission like everything’s fine because it isn’t.”

  “No, but we play it cool. Maybe I’ll ask him some questions, see if he comes clean. If he doesn’t suspect we’re on to him, McGinn’s answers will be direct.”

  She exhaled as she shook her head. “I don’t like it, but I’ll go along with you on this.”

  “We can’t abandon this mission. It’s too important.”

  “Well, we could always steal the weapon now.”

  Hawk stretched his arms and walked around the room for a moment, apparently pondering Alex’s idea.

  “It’s not a bad backup plan, but we don’t need to be burning any bridges with the CIA if this is legit.”

  “I’m not sure it’s going to matter once we leave here, Hawk. For all we know, you might already be on the CIA’s hit list.”

  “You’re probably right, but let’s see how this thing plays out first.”

  CHAPTER 23

  McGINN TOOK A DEEP BREATH, inhaling the rich aroma of Kenyan coffee brewing in a pot on the counter. He’d already drank a cup and wondered if there’d be enough for the two guests sleeping in the safe house. He called Alex just before midnight to see if Hawk had come back, explaining that he’d run into someone and had some business he needed to attend to. With Hawk back safe, she told McGinn not to worry about it and they’d talk in the morning about what happened.

  McGinn arrived at the safe house at 7:00 a.m. on Friday and hoped to rouse Alex and Hawk with the smell of a hearty breakfast. Sausage, eggs, and potatoes were all sizzling in pans on the stove.

  Hawk stumbled toward him, one eye open, the other still held tightly shut. “Breakfast in the morning? But you didn’t even spend the night,” Hawk said.

  “That’s how amazing I am,” McGinn said with a wry grin.

  Hawk sat down on a chair at the kitchen table.

  McGinn placed a coffee mug in front of Hawk along with cream and sugar.

  Hawk waved him off. “Real men drink coffee black.”

  “My grandfather said drinking it black would put hair on your chest.”

  Hawk studied McGinn for a few seconds. “From the looks of it, you like yours with cream and sugar.”

  “Be careful, Hawk. I could still spit in your eggs if you’re not nice.”

  Hawk chuckled and took a long sip of his coffee.

  “Where’d you go last night?” Hawk asked.

  “I wanted to ask you the same thing,” McGinn said. “I went looking for you.”

  Hawk smiled. “And apparently, you didn’t do a very good job.”

  McGinn laughed and waved his spatula at Hawk. “I’m warning you. You’re walking on thin ice with me.” He looked in the direction of Alex, who had yet to stir. “Alex, do you want something hot to eat?”

  She moaned and waved dismissively in McGinn’s direction.

  Hawk’s smiled vanished as he turned his full attention to McGinn. “All joking aside, what happened?”

  “You first,” McGinn said in a more serious tone.

  “I was busy with my own problems. I ran into some Al-Shabaab thugs, but I fought my way out of it.”

  McGinn’s eyebrows shot up. “And they didn’t take your weapons?”

  “This isn’t my first rodeo. I know how to hide my stuff from prying eyes.”

  “If you say so.”

  “I do. Now, it’s your turn.”

  McGinn pushed the eggs around before placing the spatula down. He leaned back against the counter and crossed his arms, taking a deep breath and exhaling before he spoke.

  “Like you, I was busy with my own problems.”

  “It had nothing to do with our heist, did it?”

  McGinn shook his head. “Oh, no. Nothing like that.” He paused. “I mean, nothing that’s going to endanger our mission on Saturday.”

  “Why don’t you say what you mean instead of beating around the bush with it? Did you meet with the weapons maker yesterday?”

  McGinn eyed Hawk closely. “Were you following me? Is that where you were?”

  Hawk laughed. “Trust me when I say this, but I would’ve loved to have been following you yesterday when your truck was surrounded by some of Al-Shabaab’s finest who stuck their guns in my face. Yet I somehow distinctly remember not following you.”

  McGinn turned around to look at the eggs. He peeked at them, checking to see if they were ready.

  “A member of the nanny state follows me here,” he said as shook his head. “Just great.”

  “I only asked you a question. A simple yes or no would suffice.”

  “Okay, then. The answer is yes. Yesterday, I saw Hassan Garaar, the chemist who works for Al-Shabaab.”

  “Is he a close personal friend of yours?”

  Turning back around, McGinn furrowed his brow and stared at Hawk. “I’m beginning to wonder if this whole mission isn’t some type of a set up to bring me down.”

  “I can assure you that it’s no such thing,” Hawk countered. “I’m here to assist you; nothing more, nothing less.”

  “Right now, you sound quite accusatory.”

  “Pardon my tone, but I was simply asking you a question. There needs to be a level of trust among us if Alex and I are going to help make this mission a successful one.”

  “Fine. I’ll lay all my cards on the table right now so you won’t have any issues tomorrow night—and I trust you’ll do the same. Agreed?”

  Hawk no
dded. “Continue.”

  “Garaar trusts me, evidenced by the fact that he asked me to provide security for the exchange.”

  Hawk’s eyebrows rose slowly. “He freely told you about the exchange?”

  “Not exactly. He told me that he had a business deal going down that could potentially give him some trouble. He asked me to make sure his place at the docks was locked down tight.”

  “Wait? He asked you to do that while another arm of his organization is trying to simultaneously kill you?”

  “Yeah, lucky me, eh?” McGinn said before rescuing the eggs from the pan and sliding them onto a plate. He walked across the room and placed it on the table in front of Hawk.

  “Seems a bit ham-fisted, don’t you think?” Hawk asked.

  McGinn nodded. “Al-Sabaab isn’t the most organized bunch. I doubt Garaar has much contact with their leadership who would know about such an operation going on.”

  “Are you sure that Al-Shabaab was responsible for the attack on us at the compound?”

  “I’d bet my life on it. Besides, we heard from other soldiers who said it was them. I’m confident that’s who it was.”

  Alex mumbled something that was barely audible.

  “What’s that, princess?” McGinn asked, directing his comments toward Alex.

  “I said it would’ve been nice to know all of this up front.”

  McGinn shrugged. “I’m sure it would have, but I didn’t exactly have time to send you two my entire dossier before this operation went live. I figured we could just trust each other. Am I still right?”

  Hawk nodded slowly. “At this point, what choice do we have?”

  “Not exactly a strong affirmation there.”

  “This business is give and take. Right now, you’re just asking me to give after you hid some very important information that is pertinent to this mission.”

  “Fine. You want to know everything? I’ll tell it to you. I’ve been working on gaining Garaar’s trust for several months now. I knew what he was up to with Al-Shabaab, and I knew the only way for him to trust me was for me to act as if I was a dirty CIA operative who could be bought.”

  Hawk tapped his finger against the side of his mug. He stared at McGinn for a few moments before responding. “Did you tell him that we were coming? Was that all part of gaining his trust?”

  McGinn turned around and scooped the potatoes out of the pan before plating them. He took another sip of his coffee, lingering with his back to Hawk.

  Hawk pounded his fist on the table. “Well, did you or not?”

  McGinn sighed and turned around. “Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.”

  Alex stood up and walked across the room. “Not when it could get your partners killed.”

  “I knew they wouldn’t kill you.”

  Hawk watched as Alex became fully awake—and angry.

  “But what about all those other soldiers who were killed? What about those innocent people, too?” Alex asked.

  McGinn slowly shook his head. “This is Somalia, Alex. There are no innocent people here.”

  “Maybe not, but they didn’t deserve to die because you set them up. Was this really necessary?” she asked.

  “To win his trust?” McGinn asked rhetorically. “Yes, it was. It was necessary because thousands of truly innocent people are going to die in America or Europe if those nut jobs at Al Hasib get ahold of the Sarin. I can promise you, nobody in the world will care about a bunch of militia men in training getting riddled with bullets. But if Sarin gas is unleashed in a populated area, the world will take note and strike back with a vengeance—and Al Hasib will have accomplished exactly what they wanted to: incite violence.”

  “This isn’t a game,” Hawk said.

  “No, it’s not,” McGinn said. “There is a real possibility of Al Hasib getting their hands on this gas, and it can’t happen. It’s a serious threat, and it needs to be dealt with properly.”

  Hawk exhaled slowly. “You better know what you’re doing with Garaar. Thousands of lives may be at stake, and Alex and I are willing to risk our lives to stop any potential threat. But your plan better not be giving us up, because I will hunt you down and kill you if I make it out alive.”

  McGinn held up his mug as if he were giving a mock toast.

  “To trust,” he said.

  Hawk shot a glance at Alex. He could tell she wasn’t buying McGinn’s story either no matter how plausible it sounded.

  CHAPTER 24

  ARAV KATARI NAVIGATED THE AJAGAR through the Gulf of Aden and toward the Berbera harbor. He was still fifty kilometers away from his destination, which made him scan the horizon more closely for pirates. The closer he cruised toward the coast of Somalia, the greater the chance he would become a mark for the thieves roaming the sea.

  The last time he was in this location, Katari knew he would get boarded. The elaborate deception he pulled that day was why he enjoyed a new car and air conditioning for the homes of everyone in his extended family. As he watched the pirates tear out across the water after removing several barrels of chemicals six months ago, his conscience started bothering him. It nagged him less as time wore on to the point where he’d convinced himself that his act could be construed as noble. Americans who were complicit in allowing their country’s authoritarian view of capitalism would get what was coming to them. He was confident his family with more livable homes would agree. Though Katari still regretted killing Virk, yet it had to be done.

  Katari scanned the horizon for any pirates. His hope that he would be able to slip into port without attracting any attention was met with disappointment. Picking up his binoculars to check, Katari realized the two boats he’d seen were headed straight toward them.

  Aside from warning the crew with a brief announcement, there wasn’t much else he could do to prepare for their looming encounter with the pirates. A few minutes later, the speed boats with machine gun mounts flanked Katari’s ship. With guns trained on the The Ajagar, the smaller vessels made up for their lack of size with powerful weaponry, including a pair of handheld RPGs that had been welded to the front of the boats on swivels.

  Katari stopped his ship. There was no need to drag on the inevitable. Besides, he didn’t want anyone on the shore to see what was about to happen to the men who’d just made what would be a fatal mistake. A handful of crewmembers found their way to the deck to see why their ship had suddenly stopped moving. Katari wasn’t sure which boat was in charge until one of the men aboard the starboard side vessel started speaking through a bullhorn.

  “Attention, captain of The Ajagar, prepare to be boarded,” the man said. “We intend to do you no harm.”

  Yeah, right, and I can pull an elephant around Mumbai on a rickshaw.

  Katari smiled and waved, gesturing for the pirate captain to come aboard.

  “Sir, you can’t be serious,” said Dalip, one of Katari’s crewmembers.

  “I am—very serious.” Katari wagged his index finger. “You be sure to stay out of their way if you know what’s best for you. Just let me do all the talking.”

  Moments later, the pirate’s captain ascended the rope ladder that Katari had instructed his crew to drop down. The captain was followed by two other men who Katari labeled as fools.

  Before the captain opened his mouth, Katari approached the man and stared sternly at him.

  “I suggest you three climb back down that ladder and leave us alone,” Katari said.

  The captain broke into loud laughter. “Did you hear that? The good captain here wants us just to go home, perhaps pretend this whole thing never happened.”

  “That’s not what I was—”

  “Oh, sure it wasn’t,” the captain said as he mocked Katari. “If I’ve boarded one ship out here in the gulf, I’ve boarded a thousand. They all try to convince me they have nothing to hide. But I always find what I’m looking for.”

  “And what do you plan on finding?”

  “I think you know.”

  K
atari growled, miffed that the pirates’ ship captain was relentless and condescending. Katari was done listening. “Want to hear what I think of that?”

  The captain stopped and glared at Katari. “Please enlighten us.”

  “Consider this your only warning. If you think you’re just going to come aboard my ship and start taking my stuff, you’re going to make a grave mistake.”

  The captain threw his head back and laughed. “Says the man without a gun.” He turned serious and jammed the barrel of his rifle into Katari’s stomach. “Now, if you know what’s best for you, you’ll sit down and keep your mouth shut.”

  “And if you know what’s best for you, you’ll leave now,” Katari responded.

  The captain used the butt of his rifle to knock Katari out.

  When Katari regained consciousness a few minutes later, he watched the pirates handing loot down the ladder and into their boats. With his head still aching, he staggered to his feet. The captain pointed at Katari and laughed.

  “Welcome back, but I suggest you stay down.”

  Katari bent over, resting his hands on his knees. He didn’t look up to address the captain. “You were warned.”

  The captain laughed again before walking up to Katari and kicking him in the stomach. “Farewell, my friend.”

  Katari crumpled to the ground again and grabbed his midsection.

  Dalip walked over and put his arm around Katari. “You still glad you did all the talking?”

  “You still glad you stayed out of their way?” Katari shot back before grabbing his head.

  “You talked tough, but those men just made off with some of our cargo. That won’t sit well with your superiors.”

  “My superiors do not care about losing some worthless trinkets. They care about what I bring back.”

  Katari motioned for Dalip to follow him to the bridge, where Katari picked up a pair of binoculars. He scanned the horizon before hailing another ship on the radio. At the request of the man speaking on the other end, Katari gave him their current coordinates along with an estimate of the pirates’ coordinates.

  “Watch those two ships,” Katari said as he handed the binoculars to Dalip.