the M16Al's bolt finally snapped against an empty magazine.
A moment later, the last of the eighteen shattered tin cans rolled to a stop in the projectile-softened dirt.
Every member of the Brigade stood paralyzed with shock as Wintersole casually redirected the barrel of the M16A1 back up in the air, thumbed the select lever to the SAFE position, and then handed the still-smoking weapon to one of his men.
'Now then, gentlemen' — he turned and addressed the stunned militants — 'if you'll move over to your pop-up target range, my men will demonstrate how to utilize the M16A1 properly in fire-team assault tactics. Please pay close attention. As you will see, things can happen very quickly in a combat situation.'
Chapter Thirty-eight
Thirty miles from the Chosen Brigade of the Seventh Seal's hidden training grounds — where Wintersole's men prepared for the fourth stage of their eye-opening demonstration of modern small-fire-team assault techniques, and the two covering members of Lt. Colonel John Rustman's rogue hunter-killer recon team quietly shifted to new concealed positions with their telescopic-sighted sniper rifles — Henry Lightstone entered the hotel using his now-customary rear-alley approach, jogged up the rear stairs, checked to make sure no one lurked in the hallway, and knocked on the door.
Mike Takahara checked the peephole and quickly unlocked and opened the door.
'How's it going?' the tech agent asked as he closed and re-bolted the door.
'It's not,' Lightstone grumbled as he walked over to the window and checked the street. 'Where's everyone?'
Takahara glanced at his watch.
'It's three o'clock on what any normal person would consider a beautiful Saturday afternoon, so assuming everything's proceeding in a reasonably uneventful manner, which is pretty unlikely, all things considered,' the tech agent added ruefully, 'Larry and Thomas should be transferring 750 giant tarantulas into forty or so terrariums as we speak.'
'How'd you and Stoner manage to escape that detail?'
'In my case, I was saved by predictable bureaucratic inefficiency.' Takahara smiled as he walked over to the coffee table, picked up a rubber-band-wrapped packet of papers, and tossed them to Lightstone. 'However, before we get to that, and speaking of bureaucratic efficiency for a change, there's your ID packet. Congratulations. You're now officially Henry Randolph Lee.'
'Henry Lee?' Lightstone blinked in disbelief. 'That's the Washington Office's idea of a Southern name that can pass a casual background check?'
'Actually, I do recall something about Lee being a reasonably famous Southern surname,' Takahara looked at the ceiling pensively.
'Yeah, well, there's a reasonably famous Taiwanese-American forensic scientist named Lee who's been in the news lately, too. You don't think it's going to draw attention when I start calling myself Henry Lee?'
'Hey, don't look at me. I'm Japanese-American. What do I know?' Mike Takahara shrugged. 'I thought I was doing good when I only had to threaten them three times to get them to send us a pair of guaranteed non- interceptable and encrypted cell phones.'
He held up the phones, then tossed one of them to Henry.
'That is efficient,' Lightstone agreed as he slipped the phone into his back pocket.
'It's not great, but it sure beats the phone company,' the tech agent groused. 'I can't get anyone to install a phone line in the warehouse yet. Now they tell me Monday morning at the earliest, and I wouldn't bet much on that. Meanwhile, Larry asked me to hang around here and monitor the phone until I heard from you and Halahan.'
'What about Stoner?'
'Larry's got him staked out on Charlie Team's warehouse, trying to keep an eye on things until we find out what the hell's going on.'
'Any sign of my military buddies?'
'Not as of a half-hour ago.'
'So what's Charlie Team doing?'
'According to Stoner, still making a serious effort to connect up with anybody who might be running illicit guided hunts out here in Jasper County. The way he put it, about the only thing they haven't tried so far is putting Marashenko out on a street corner with a short skirt and small purse.'
Lightstone's features darkened in confusion. 'Is she the only one they're trolling?'
'No, actually, it looks like they're sticking pretty much to a script. Marashenko, Donato, and LiBrandi alternate as the bait in varying combinations, with Riley, Wu, and Green on rotating surveillance duty when they're not out looking for Wilbur Boggs.'
'Wait a minute. Why use LiBrandi for bait instead of Green? Shouldn't the team's tech agent stay focused on the monitoring chores?' Lightstone asked reasonably.
'That's the standard procedure,' Mike Takahara acknowledged. 'But according to Stoner, Riley's added an interesting twist. He's got both LiBrandi and Marashenko taking pictures of each other all over town. Even using a flash for some evening shots.'
'Setting the stage for either one of them to have a camera either in their hands or within reach to snap off a covert picture or two with infrared film if somebody starts nibbling at the bait.' Lightstone smiled appreciatively.
'You got it. In fact, Stoner's pretty sure they're using one of the new 30–70 zooms with an extra wide setting. If they watch out for the incidental lighting and work the angles right, the bad guys will never know they've been shot.'
'They'd better be careful,' Lightstone muttered. 'I sure wouldn't want to be in their shoes if one of those military characters got his hands on that camera and found it loaded with sneaky-type film. And speaking of that, does Marashenko know how to use infrared film?'
'She should. She monitored the photo surveillance course at FLETC on her own time, and from what LiBrandi told me, she's a pretty accomplished amateur photographer. I don't think we need to worry about her on the technical end even though LiBrandi's definitely got more training and experience, but I'm not sure that's the only reason why Riley decided to use him instead of Green.'
'Why not?'
'I'm thinking that even though it makes sense to pair Marashenko up with an accomplished street actor like Green, our buddy Riley may have felt a little uneasy about an interracial couple walking around town in conservative Jasper County.'
Lightstone thought about that for a moment.
'I guess that could be a problem, depending on the circumstances. But it could also work to their advantage… if they played it right.'
'Sure it could,' Mike Takahara agreed. 'But Green came to us straight out of the Refuge program — basically a uniformed, public image type of law enforcement — so he's still pretty new to covert investigative tactics. And Marashenko's still a little unsure of herself, which makes her a wild card as far as her temper is concerned — which, as I recall, you got to experience firsthand, so to speak,' the tech agent reminded Lightstone with a smile.
'Yeah, that is a point,' Lightstone conceded.
'Anyway,' Mike Takahara went on, 'knowing Riley, I bet he thought the whole thing out and decided it'd be a lot easier for Charlie Team to make contact with these militant assholes if they didn't piss them off first.'
Henry Lightstone blinked.
'Hey, wait a minute. That's the second time you used the word 'militant' instead of 'military,'' he pointed out his friend's critical change in terminology.
'About time you started paying attention.' The tech agent smiled as he handed Lightstone a piece of paper. 'Take a look at this.'
'What is it?'
