All Necessary Force

“Stop it! Stop it! You’re killing him!”

She registered that the man had fallen and was writhing on the ground, snaking his hands underneath his legs, then saw him spring to his feet and run to the pistol. Before she could warn Pike, he ripped out of her grip and flung her bodily into a wall, then raced to beat the man to the weapon.

Pike reached the table a split second after the Chinese, clamping his hands on the man’s wrists and forcing him to the ground. They writhed on the ground for control of the pistol. She heard the pop of a suppressed round and waited to see who was hit.

Pike rose and stood over the body. Breathing hard, he turned and looked at her, his face twisted in rage.

She got her legs underneath her and did the only thing she could.

She fled.

24

The terror on Jennifer’s face devastated me, smothering the rage. I tried to talk but got nothing out before she ran. I turned back and looked at the man on the ground. He was no longer human. A body topped by a popped balloon of blood. I threw the pistol across the room in frustration.

What the fuck just happened?

I had lost control. Something that had never occurred on a mission. When I was operational, I was always— always—in control. It was what made me the top one percent of the top one percent in the world.

And I had just killed the only lead I had into the murder of my friend, after beating the shit out of him. Because I’d lost control.

Dammit, Jennifer. If she hadn’t tackled me, he wouldn’t have gone for the gun.

I knew blaming her was bullshit. She’d done exactly what I would have if the situation had been reversed. The right thing.

For the first time since I had come back to the Taskforce, I questioned my ability to serve my country. Maybe my psyche was too damaged to do this work. Maybe I was now too sensitive to the price the job might entail. Maybe you can’t separate the consequences from your emotions anymore.

Jennifer’s expression returned. The memory of her fear and revulsion sliced through me like a razor. She had literally run from me. Afraid that I’d hurt her.

I grabbed the man’s satchel and shoved everything in it, then ran out to find her. To explain. Although I had nothing to defend what she’d seen. It was what it was.

Amazingly, the neighborhood was going about its normal business. I shoved everything but the passport into a Dumpster and started in the direction of our hotel.

As I walked, the one word the man said finally penetrated my brain. Camera. I had thought he’d just uttered nonsense, but now, with a clear head, I put together the utterance with his passport entries from Indonesia. Jesus. Surely this has nothing to do with Kurt’s father. I picked up my pace.

Entering our room, I startled Jennifer. I noticed her bag on the bed, with clothes in it. I immediately held up my hands.

“Hey… I… I don’t know what to say. I lost control.”

She looked at me warily, like she wanted me to give her a clear shot at the door.

“Pike, I’m going home. I don’t know what that was back there, but I want no part of it.”

The words drove a spike into me. “Jennifer, please. Don’t do this. That guy was bad. He was in Indonesia the same time we were, and was at the catacombs two minutes before the bus blew up. He had something to do with it.”

“I’m leaving.” She threw a shirt into her suitcase. “I’m not like you.”

She said nothing for a second, then continued, “I don’t want to be like you. I thought I did, but I don’t want to cross that line. Maybe it’s necessary. I don’t know. I just don’t want any part of it.”

“That wasn’t me. It wasn’t. I don’t like it either. Something happened. I… I would never hurt an innocent person. I would never hurt you.”

“You can’t say that. You might believe it, but you can’t say it. I saw you. You would have killed anyone, innocent or not.”

The unspoken accusation hammered me, that the man I had killed might not have done anything wrong. “You can’t believe that. The guy murdered Bull! I wasn’t going to kill him. Just make him talk. You’ve worked with the Taskforce enough. You know that’s not true.”

She stopped what she was doing, facing me head-on. “Bullshit! You’re all alike! I’m not sure who’s the good guy and who’s the bad guy. Terrorists kill people, and the Taskforce reacts, running off killing people. Maybe you both just found an outlet for your psychopathic tendencies. They use God as an excuse to bomb, and you use them. Maybe there are no white hats.”

I couldn’t believe what she had just said. “Jesus. You can’t think that we’re like terrorists? We’ve never driven a plane into a building, for Christ’s sake. I’ve never enjoyed killing. We do what we do to protect people. Nothing more. If they’d quit, so would we. The opposite isn’t true. If we quit, they’ll just keep killing.”

She backed off a little. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I don’t know what I believe, but I know I’m not cut out to be a part of it. I’m going home.”

I remembered the camera, and the possible connection with the bus strike. I couldn’t do what I needed to do on my own. I needed a team. And I could use Jennifer’s help to get one.

I knew that was just an excuse to keep her here, but I had to do something. She had seen something good in me a year ago, when I was drowning in the abyss, and I needed to prove she wasn’t wrong. I needed some time. Some space from what had happened to mend the rip between us.

And I really could use her help.

“Okay, okay. I won’t stop you, but I need you to do something first.”

“What?”

“The man mentioned a camera, and his passport showed him in Indonesia at the same time as us. Something’s going on here. The bus strike wasn’t random. I’m going back to that convention center to find out what. I need a team on the ground, and I need you to bring them in.”

“Bring them in? Why?”

“Because they’ll be falling from thirty thousand feet.”

25

Rafik kissed Kamil on both cheeks, saying, “As-salamu alaikum.” He shook the hands of the men with him, then touched his heart with his right hand.

“Good to see you,” Rafik said. “Any issues getting here?”

“None,” said Kamil. “But I’m anxious to hear why you called us to Cairo.”

Rafik told him what had happened in Alexandria, and the dilemma the plan now faced.

Kamil said, “So we need to convince these heathen pilots to continue with the plan despite the fact that their boss is dead?”

“Yes. They don’t know why they’re here, and will probably resist. Which is why I brought you. We need to make an early lesson.”

Kamil pulled out a seven-inch fillet knife. “I can do that. What’s your plan?”

Rafik pointed into the hotel. “The elevator’s right past the reception desk, but we’ll be taking the stairs on the other side. The head pilot’s in room 232. We take him, have him call the others, then hold a meeting. There’s a loadmaster and three pilots. We only need one.”