All Necessary Force

When nobody spoke, I said, “I want to be in and out in less than ten minutes. Fast and quiet. Find the terrorists and explosives, then run like hell.”

I positioned Jennifer and waited in the gathering gloom for the roving patrol. We were forty meters from the side door, hidden in the brush at the edge of the wood line. From our survey over the last few days, we knew the guard would circle about once every ten minutes. After we took him out, the clock would be ticking. The good thing was the roving patrol invariably used flashlights, which meant we’d have plenty of time to see them, and they’d have no night vision.

Soon enough, we saw the bobbing light come around the back of the house. There was still enough twilight to make out the man without the aid of NODs, but he apparently felt the need to use the flashlight.

He passed our position. Two shadows separated from the wood line at a sprint, closed on him and brought him to the ground. In short order, the body was dragged into the brush. I patted Jennifer on the shoulder and signaled the team. We crossed the open area to the door.

Decoy brought out a spread-spectrum scanner and quickly isolated the nearest signal, which should be the door sensor. He identified the frequency and dialed it into a small device the size of a billiard ball. He attached it to the wall and pressed a button. It softly chirped, then apparently did nothing, but I knew it was now blasting out a signal on the same frequency the door sensor used, overriding its ability to communicate with the control panel.

Within seconds, Retro and Buckshot had the door unlocked. Guns ready, we held our breath. Retro swung it open, and we went inside. No alarm sounded.

Retro led the way, moving to the first door he saw. He opened it to find a bathroom, empty. We kept going down the hallway, almost at a jog. Decoy pulled security on a door to the right while we opened a door to the left. Sweeping inside, we eliminated two men immediately, dropping them before they had a chance to react, the only noise the thump of their bodies hitting the floor. We exited and stacked on the other door, finding the room empty. We took a left turn and entered a wide hallway that led back to a room in the rear. I could hear men talking, at least three. A door to the left halted our advance. There was no way we were going to leave an unsecured room to our rear. We entered, found the initial room empty, but saw another door on the right wall of the room.

Then the alarm went off.

52

Adnan picked up a brick of SEMTEX and tested its consistency, ensuring it wasn’t just a block of flour. He nodded at Kamil and counted the blasting caps, checking that each one was capable of setting off a charge. He picked up a roll of time fuse, cut off a section, and threaded it into a fuse igniter. He pulled the metal ring on the igniter, hearing a pop and the hissing of the fuse burning down, the room filling with an acrid sulfur smell.

Satisfied, he said, “This will do.”

Draco said, “Of course it will do. Did you think I would sell you junk?”

Kamil said, “What about the shipping labels? And the special containers? This does us no good if we can’t fly it out of here.”

“Don’t worry about that. It will—”

Draco’s words were drowned out by an earsplitting alarm. He snarled, “I fucking knew it!”

He drew a pistol and fired twice into Adnan’s chest, Adnan holding his arms up to ward off the impending death, his eyes wide. Kamil dove into the nearest security man, wrestling him for control of his gun. Draco whirled from Andan and fired at the pair, hitting his security man in the back. Kamil rolled out from under him with the pistol and began firing wildly, hitting the other security man in the leg and causing Draco to dive to the floor. Kamil put two more rounds into the writhing bodyguard, silencing him, then moved around the couch, seeing Draco bear- crawling toward the door. He kicked Draco’s arm out, knocking the pistol away and dropping Draco on his stomach.

Draco rolled over to find Kamil’s pistol aimed at his head in a two-handed grip.

Draco spit into his face. “You fuck. Even your God won’t help you now. You’re fucking dead.”

Kamil said, “Insha’Allah.”

And pulled the trigger.

Jennifer heard the alarm split the night and fought to control the urge to flee. She silently begged the team to come running back out. When she heard gunfire explode inside the house, she knew things had gone terribly wrong. Her adrenaline skyrocketed, her breathing coming in short gasps. Then she caught the flash of headlights on the road.

Oh no. Please don’t come here.

The car made the turn at a high rate of speed, the headlights sweeping across the house as it bounced down the drive. The driver slammed on the brakes, skidding to a stop in the gravel.

The doors swung open and four men spilled out, all armed. There was no indication that the car was from any government agency. No lights, no sirens, no insignia. Not friendly. The men huddled by the car for a pregnant second, then raised their weapons and began jogging toward the front door fifty meters away. She knew there was no way she could kill all four before they located her position. And eliminated her.

Pike’s command echoed in her mind. Light ’em up.

She took two deep breaths and settled the EOTech sight on the rear man. She tracked him for a split second, her mind going blank. She squeezed the trigger. He dropped like a puppet with the strings cut. A detached part of her brain was surprised, as if it were a science experiment. She expected some dramatic death dance like she’d seen in the movies, but the man simply rolled forward as if he’d gone unconscious while running.

She rocked back with the recoil, working with it, just like she had been taught on the steel plate range. The weapon tracked to the next man. A squeeze. Recoil. Another drop. The third man turned at the noise of her weapon. Breathe. Squeeze. Recoil. A mist formed around his head as he was flung backward. The fourth man began running back toward the cover of the car, firing at her muzzle flash. The noise and impact of the bullets around her didn’t alter her aim. She felt nothing but the rifle.

Breathe.

Squeeze.

Recoil.

The man collapsed to the ground like all the others. A sack of flesh with no control.

A split second later, her body was on fire with adrenaline. She was trembling so badly she couldn’t hold the weapon straight, her body shaking as if she had entered a freezer.

Get the hell out of there. Please get out.

53

We ignored the alarm and cleared the final door in the room, finding a walk-in closet, empty of people. I heard gunfire down the hallway.

What the hell?

“Game on. Move to the sounds of the guns.”

We got weapons out into the hallway, the team splitting left and right pulling security as we advanced at a jog to the back room. I saw a man pick up a chair and throw it through a large window at the rear of the room, then jump out and race away. I snapped off a couple of rounds but knew it was wasted effort.

We entered the room, finding three dead bodies and a crate on the floor.

“Search them.”

Inspecting the crate, Decoy said, “Found the explosives. SEMTEX. Complete with initiation capability.”

Retro said, “Got an Arab. Passport from Algeria. Nothing else but a room key to a hotel.”

I said, “Get a profile from him. Skip the iris capture. I’m not sure that’ll work on a dead guy.”

While Buckshot finished searching the others, Retro used a HIIDE biometric scanner to get fingerprints and