The Camel Club

barrel is nanotechnology-refined and can place a round at less than .00001 minute of angle at one thousand meters. Overkill for this job, but so what. We’ve also got a couple of MP-5s with about two thousand rounds. ”

Early in his career Captain Jack had made the inexcusable error of inputting the barometric pressure after the adjustment for altitude had been made, the number typically given by weather forecasters. However, shooters needed the actual barometric pressure without regard to altitude adjustment. It had been a huge mistake because cold air was denser than warm, and the speed of sound was also lower in cold air, which was critical when one was chambering supersonic ammo. That mistake had caused his bullet to wound instead of kill, not an acceptable result when one was attempting to assassinate a head of state.

“Where have you hidden the ordnance?” he asked.

The Afghan went around to the back of the big-screen TV and unscrewed the rear panel. Neatly stacked inside were dozens of fully loaded MP-5 mags and boxes of M-50 rounds. “As you can see, we don’t watch much TV,” the Afghan said unnecessarily.

“How about the other two rifles and ordnance you’ll be using? They’re the most important of all.”

“They’re under the other floorboards. They’re ready to go. We’ve practiced over fifty hours with them. Don’t worry, we won’t miss.”

“The weather looks good for game day, but it can change quickly around here.”

The Afghan shrugged. “It’s not that difficult a shot at this distance. I’ve easily hit the target at three times this range at night with people shooting back.”

Captain Jack knew this was not mere bravado on his part, which was one of the reasons the man was here in the first place.

“But you’ve never done it quite this way before,” he said. “The range and flight path are a little different.”

“Believe me, I know.”

Captain Jack went into the bathroom and looked at his disguise in the mirror. He took off the hat and examined his thick hair shot through with gray and a mustache and short beard of the same coloring. He took off his tinted glasses, and blue eyes looked back at him. A small scar rested on the side of his nose, which was long and thick. In reality the beard and hair were fake. He was actually bald and clean-shaven with brown eyes and no scar, although his nose was long, but thin.

He put the hat and glasses back on. He’d disappeared many times in his life, sometimes while in the employ of others, including the government of the United States. Other times he’d been on his own, his shooting skill and nerve purchased by the highest bidder. But as he’d told Hemingway, his next disappearing act would be his last.

He drove out of town to the ceremonial grounds, barely ten minutes from downtown, and yet a lot could happen in ten minutes.

Captain Jack didn’t stop at the grounds but instead drove past them slowly, eyeing certain landmarks he’d long since committed to memory. The ceremonial grounds were framed by white rail farm fencing with only one vehicle entry point and numerous pedestrian entrances. Six-foot-high brick columns framed the car entrance, and the motorcade would have to pass through there going in and out. The Beast would find it a tight squeeze.

He eyeballed the surrounding tree lines, guessing at the placement of the American countersnipers that would be posted along this perimeter. How many would there be? A dozen? Two dozen? It was hard to tell these days, even with the best intelligence. They would be wrapped in their camouflage suits, blending in with their surroundings so perfectly you would step on them before you ever saw them. Yes, his men would most certainly die on these hallowed grounds. At least it would be quick and painless. Supersonic long-range ordnance, particularly to the head, killed you faster than your brain could react. The fedayeen’s death, however, would not be nearly as painless.

Captain Jack envisioned the motorcade coming in and the president exiting the Beast. He would wave, shake hands, pat some backs, give some hugs and then be escorted to the bullet- and bombproof podium as “Hail to the Chief” was played.

The reason the song was used when a U.S. president entered a room originated with President James Polk’s wife, who was furious that her diminutive, homely husband was often totally ignored when making an entrance. Thus, Sarah Polk ordered that the song be played whenever her husband came into a room. All presidents since had followed this imperious woman’s lead.

However, the origin of the song itself was even more amusing, at least to Captain Jack’s thinking. Set to the words of Sir Walter Scott’s epic poem The Lady of the Lake, it described the demise of a Scottish chieftain who was betrayed and then put to death by his archenemy, King James V. Ironically enough, the song that was used to herald the coming of the president of the United States actually chronicled the assassination of a head of state. In the last part of Canto Five, the poem summed up, in Captain Jack’s opinion, a query that all would-be politicians should give serious thought to: “O who would wish to be thy king?”

“Not me,” he muttered to himself. “Not me.”

The ex-National Guardsman settled himself in the chair and looked at his new hand while the two men watched him carefully.

“Now that we’ve added the pouch, let’s begin practicing the movements,” the engineer said.

The American moved his hand and wrist as he had been shown, but nothing happened.

“It takes practice. Soon you will be an expert.”

Two hours later they had made considerable progress. Taking a break, the men sat and talked. “So you were a truck driver?” the chemist asked.

The former soldier nodded, holding up his hook and fake hand. “Not an occupation you can really do with these because I also had to help unload the cargo.”

“How long were you in Iraq before it happened?”

“Eighteen months. I only had four more months to pull, at least I thought. Then we got orders extending our tour another twenty-two months. Four years! Before all this happened I was married with a wife and family and holding my own in Detroit. The next thing I know, I’m scrambling to get the money to buy my own body armor and GPS because Uncle Sam didn’t have the cash. Then a land mine outside of Mosul takes both my hands and a chunk of my chest. Four months in Walter Reed Hospital, and I get back home to find my wife’s divorcing me, my job’s long gone and I’m basically homeless.” He paused and shook his head. “I did my tour during Persian Gulf One and sucked in all the shit Saddam was chucking at us. After my discharge from the army I joined the National Guard so I could at least have some income until I got back on my feet. I did my Guard duty and then resigned and started driving trucks. Then after all those years the army knocks on my door and tells me my Guard resignation was never ‘officially’ accepted. I told them not so politely to go to hell. But they literally hauled me kicking and screaming away. Then a year and a half later boom, there go my hands and my life. My own country did that to me!”

“Now it’s your turn to repay them,” the engineer said.

“Yes. It is,” the very ex-National Guardsman agreed as he flexed his hand.

Adnan al-Rimi strode through the hallways of Mercy Hospital, his observant gaze methodically taking in all details of his surroundings. A minute later he returned to the hospital’s front entrance just as an elderly patient was wheeled in, a portable IV hooked to her arm.

Adnan stepped outside and breathed in the warm air. To the left of the hospital’s front steps was a ramp for gurneys and wheelchair-bound patients. Al-Rimi walked down the steps to the sidewalk that ran in front of the hospital. There were fourteen steps. He turned and walked back up them, silently counting time as he did so. Seven seconds at a normal pace, perhaps half that if someone was running.

He went back inside the hospital, his hand sliding down to his sidearm. It was an old .38 revolver, a piece of American crap, as far as he was concerned. Yet that was the only weapon the security firm he worked for had to offer. It didn’t really matter, he knew, but still, weapons were of paramount importance to Adnan. He had required them virtually his whole life simply to survive.

He walked back down to the nurse’s station and stopped at the fourth tile over from the exact center of the