HAWK REPELLED DOWN to the ground floor through an opening in the skylight. No more than twenty meters away, McGinn was a mirror image of Hawk. When Hawk’s feet hit the floor, he flicked his rope, creating some slack before he yanked it down. As he rolled up the rope, he crept across the room and hid behind a set of cabinets.
“You read me, Wonder Woman?” Hawk said.
“Wonder Woman? I’m flattered. Is that how you see me, Hawk?” Alex asked.
“If you help us get out of this alive, I will.”
McGinn, who’d also released his rope, waved vigorously, motioning for Hawk to be quiet.
Hawk gave him a thumbs up sign.
“What’s our situation now?” Hawk asked in a whisper.
“Well, you won’t have to worry about Garaar,” Alex answered. “The Al Hasib team just gunned him down. But keep your head on a swivel because they’re headed your way.”
“Roger that.”
Hawk fixed his gaze on the doors closest to him where the terrorists would likely enter the room. McGinn had selected this room to stage an ambush because it could serve as a kill box, a small enclosed area where the initiating party held the tactical advantage. In this case, Hawk and Alex had the element of surprise to go on their side along with the best position in the room from which to eliminate the Al Hasib operatives.
While he waited, Hawk wondered if there wasn’t a better way to seize the Sarin. With all the advanced information McGinn possessed, Hawk still wondered why they didn’t simply bar the doors from the outside and drop in some gas to immobilize the Al Hasib team. Taking possession of the gas, not to mention the elimination of the agents, would’ve been cleaner and simpler. But McGinn insisted the Al Hasib agents would have gas masks and be prepared for such an ambush. Instead, McGinn’s plan felt to Hawk as if it were the most dangerous one of all. McGinn attempted to assuage Hawk’s fears by explaining how they were going to take out some of Al Hasib’s best agents as well as eliminate Al-Shabaab’s chemical weapons expert.
So far, McGinn was at least right about Garaar, even if they didn’t have to pull the trigger to kill him.
“If the feed I hacked and am looking at is accurate, they should be there within the next five seconds,” Alex said, her voice crackling over the com links.
“Is there any reason it wouldn’t be accurate?” Hawk asked.
Before Alex could answer, Hawk watched the doorknob turn slowly and a handful of men storm in. Immediately, Hawk could tell they were the Al Hasib agents he’d seen from the security cameras that Alex had hacked within minutes of arriving on location.
As the door swung open, McGinn unleashed a flurry of bullets on the Al Hasib agents. Hawk had told McGinn to wait until the men were boxed in between them and had no opportunity to escape without walking through the line of fire.
Screw it.
Hawk joined McGinn in riddling the men with bullets, an ambush that initially appeared to be a rousing success. A faint grin spread across Hawk’s face as two, three, then four operatives collapsed to the ground. Loud moans filled the room as the men grappled with the reality of their situation. Hawk inspected the agents, searching for the case of chemical weapons.
“Do you see the Sarin?” McGinn called from across the room.
Hawk turned the lights on and began removing weapons from the dying men’s hands. One man writhing in pain begged Hawk to shoot him, and Hawk obliged. But still no weapons case.
“You find it yet?” McGinn asked as he made his way toward the bodies.
“There were six men in the image Alex showed us, right?” Hawk asked.
“Roger that,” Alex said. “I’m looking at it again right now. And I only see four bodies on the feed I’m looking at. Are two outside the camera’s field?”
“You can see everything we can,” McGinn answered back.
“Well, there are two more men running around here somewhere. Let me see if I can pinpoint their location for you,” Alex said.
“Ah-ha! Found it,” Hawk said, using his foot to roll over one of the men, who’d fallen on top of the chemical weapons case.
McGinn knelt down and opened the case. He quickly shut it and picked it up. “This is it.”
Hawk stared down at the bodies strewn around the room and pumped his fist. “Now we just need to track down those other two agents to make this a clean sweep.”
Then he felt the cold barrel of a gun against the back of his neck.
“Don’t move another muscle or you’re dead,” McGinn said.
Hawk laid his weapon on the ground and raised his hands in surrender. “Unbelievable,” Hawk said. “I thought I could trust you.”
“You still can,” McGinn said. “You’re still alive, aren’t you?”
Hawk narrowed his eyes and turned to glare at McGinn. “So, what are you waiting on?”
“I made a deal,” McGinn said, keeping his gun trained on Hawk while securing the door through which the operatives had entered. “I deliver you to Al Hasib, I make off with the Sarin.”
Hawk shook his head. “And they’re just going to let you walk away with their weapon? I hardly think that’s going to happen.”
McGinn collected all the weapons off the men and then walked briskly to the other side of the room. He opened the door, keeping it ajar with his foot so he could address Hawk before exiting.
“Think whatever you wish, but I happen to know where the bigger cache of Sarin is—and that’s where the other agents are headed. But only after they tie up some loose ends with you.”
“Loose ends?” Hawk asked.
“Goodbye, Hawk. It’s been a pleasure knowing you. No hard feelings. Just a good business decision on my end.”
“You better hope they kill me,” Hawk said with a growl.
“Oh, they will. The man coming for you is the stepbrother of a man you recently killed. Good luck.”
McGinn slammed the door shut. Hawk could hear what sounded like a metal
