hold tight. P-Three, advance to the corner and keep them busy.
I’ll be there in a second. Lead Two, if you are in position, key twice.”
There was a pause, then Jonas heard two beeps. Good.
He climbed onto the roof of the yacht, crept past the radar and radio antennae, then crossed the roof of the bridge, walking lightly. As he came upon the forward observation room, he saw a black shadow crawling up onto the roof below him. Jonas hit the deck and drew a bead on the man.
Before he could fire, however, three shots sounded from below him, slamming into the man’s side. The intruder jerked as the bullets hit him, then rolled off the observation roof.
That gave Jonas an idea. “P-Two and Three, fire in the hole.” He set the timer on his last grenade and skittered it across the roof of the observation deck, the flash-bang disappearing from sight and exploding, lighting the night in a brilliant flash.
“Advance now!” Jonas jumped down to the observation roof and ran forward, training his pistol on the two prostrate, moaning men as the two trainees also came from both corners and covered them, kicking their weapons away. Jonas walked to the edge of the roof and let himself down, then checked the prone body lying underneath the shattered windows. He glanced up to see the other two men, their wrists and ankles neatly cuffed back-to-back in the middle of the bow area.
“Lead Two, this is Lead. Bow is secure. Tally is six hostiles, two dead, four captured. Our side has one KIA, two WIA, one MIA.”
“Acknowledged. Bridge is secure,” Karen replied.
“P-One, make sure P-Two is stable, then head back and reinforce P-Five, and make sure you give the proper key word. P-Three, you’re with me,” Jonas said.
Leading the way, Jonas and the trainee swept and cleared the entire ship, room by room. Along the way, they found the body of the young woman who had been at position four, taken out with a clean head shot. Jonas checked her vitals anyway, even though he knew it was a lost cause, then covered her face with a towel and kept moving. Only when he was satisfied that no one else was aboard did he contact everyone.
“The ship is clear—repeat, the ship is clear. Karen, let’s head in. We’ve got wounded to take care of.”
“What happens afterward?” she asked on a separate channel.
“I’m going to visit Mr. Castilo and ask him a few questions.”
“Do you want to interrogate any of the captives on the way?”
Jonas considered that for only a moment. “Negative. All of them are either deaf from the flash-bangs, concussed or both and besides, I doubt they know anything about what’s going down today. No, I need to go to the source.”
“I’ll contact Primary and update—?”
“I’m the agent in charge, I’ll do it,” Jonas interrupted. He sent a call to headquarters on a second line. “No doubt Judy will flip over this. Do you still have a fix on that Stinger crate?”
“Yes, it’s heading south-southwest, probably to Paradise.”
“Naturally. See if you can get this behemoth to go any faster, will you? I’ve got a really bad feeling that this thing is going down faster than we thought.” He gripped the hand-rail and waited for the connection, willing the yacht to speed them to their destination more quickly.
Losing an operative on a mission was always Kate’s biggest concern, even though she had long ago resigned herself to the fact that it would happen. She acknowledged the people who joined Room 59 knew the attendant risks, and their training had been designed to make them the most formidable operatives in the world. She also accepted that sending one person directly into harm’s way to prevent a catastrophe that could hurt hundreds or thousands of innocents was reasonable. However, whenever she lost an operative it was always painful.
When Hartung’s implanted chip sent out the signal indicating he was deceased, NiteMaster had alerted both Kate and Judy, each of whom had arrived just in time to watch the takedown of the last two remaining hijackers. All they could do was watch.
NiteMaster signaled that he had the incoming call, and patched it to Kate directly. “This is Primary,” she said.
Jonas’s voice was as calm as ever, but he was speaking slightly faster, which was how Kate knew he was angry.
“This is Beta. After our meeting, the buyers tried to take over the ship and its cargo and marked us as expendable. In the course of defending ourselves, two of our trainees were killed and two were wounded. We killed two of the hostiles, and captured the remaining four, who will need transport once we’re ashore.”
“What’s your next move?” Kate asked.
“We’re heading to Castilo’s home. There are two operatives on surveillance there already. Contact them and pull them out,” Jonas said.
“Don’t you want backup?”
“Not right now. The rest of the team isn’t going to be operational after what happened, and I don’t need inexperienced members watching my back. A single operative will stand a better chance of infiltrating the target and getting the information we need.”
“How can we help?”
“Two things. First, contact Alpha and have him ready to depart Paradise in the longest-range ship he can get —we may need to insert into Paradise, and this yacht isn’t going to be fast enough. Any information you can give him on patrols or any other obstacles would be appreciated.”
“He’s already been briefed and will be on the way to you immediately. What’s the second thing?” Kate asked.
“They brought proof that a Cuban military officer is involved in the mission.” Jonas paused, as if weighing how to say what he knew, then blurted it out. “As I’m sure you know, it was Damason Valdes.”
“That was a surprise.” Kate sighed. “I’ve issued a termination directive—he cannot be allowed to carry out whatever his handlers intend to have him do.”
“Everything I’ve seen indicates he’s involved in a plot to overthrow Paradise’s government. That’s what I’m going to verify from Castilo, as well as what Valdes’s role in it is.
When we met, I tagged him with a microbug, as I’m sure we’ll need to find out where he’s going.”
“We’ll have real-time surveillance on him by the time you’re on the beach,” Kate replied. “Be careful out there, okay?”
“Right. We’re arriving at the launch point. Will contact after insertion is over. Beta out.”
Kate cut the signal and rubbed a hand over her eyes.
“Get me the files on Hartung and McMichaels, please, Judy.”
“Right away, Kate.”
Kate sent a query signal to Mindy and asked her to brew a pot of tea. Her comm screen beeped, and Kate saw that Judy had downloaded the files on the two dead trainees. Sitting, Kate scrolled through the files of the latest two people who had given their lives so that a Third World dictatorship could remain in power.
That’s irony for you, Kate thought as she began the un-enviable task of briefing herself on the dead.
Jonas piloted the twelve-foot inflatable raft through the calm ocean waters, aiming the small craft’s bow toward the palatial beachside estate owned by Rafael Castilo. Behind him the black shape of the
Two hundred yards out, Jonas cut the motor and rowed the boat toward the beach with powerful strokes, trusting the raft’s dark gray color would be enough to hide it in the darkness. He didn’t want to waste precious time hauling it to the tree line or camouflaging it. Despite what had happened, all of the surviving trainees had volunteered to accompany him, but Jonas had ordered them to stay aboard the yacht. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust their abilities, but two of their col-leagues had already died that evening, and he wasn’t about to risk anyone else, especially when there was a strong possibility he might be walking into an ambush.
Once ashore, he took a moment to scan the building he was about to infiltrate. Castilo’s home was a two-story Mediterranean-style home with a large pool, terrace and red Spanish tile roof. There was enough foliage surrounding it that Jonas was sure he’d be able to infiltrate the grounds, but the electronic security perimeter was another matter.
Adjusting the multispectrum detection system integrated into his close-fitting Kevlar-weave helmet, he crept across the beach, figuring any systems wouldn’t begin until the actual grounds. He hit the tree line, weaving
