Blunt stirred his coffee for a few seconds and then placed the spoon on the saucer. “Before you do anything rash, we need to talk in person.”
“So, the plane is out of the question at this point?”
“Forget the plane. Do you think you can find a way to get to the border in Djibouti?”
“I’m sure Alex and I can come up with something.”
“Good. Get to the border, and then go to Camp Lemonnier. You’ll find some friendly faces there. Ask for General Van Fortner.”
Hawk remained silent, longer than usual.
“Hawk? You there?” Blunt asked.
“Yeah, I’m still here. Just trying to figure out if going to a U.S. military installation is a good idea at the moment.”
“The CIA and the military aren’t working in concert to eliminate you. If they were, it’d already have been done.”
“You’re not exactly instilling loads of confidence in me right now, you know that?”
Blunt chuckled. “Just figure out a way to get there, and I’ll try to meet you there. My situation here is really touch-and-go, but I’ll be in touch.”
“Good luck,” Hawk said.
“Same to you.”
Blunt had been seething since he realized how he’d been double-crossed by Roland. Against better judgment, Blunt dialed Roland’s number.
“I was beginning to think you weren’t going to ever talk to me again,” Roland said as he answered Blunt’s call.
“How could you?”
“How could I do what?”
“Don’t play coy with me,” Blunt said. “We’ve been friends a long time. If you’re at least trying to kill me, come right out and say it.”
“Busted,” Roland said. “I’m not going to hide it any longer since I’ve got a man there to do the job right now.”
Blunt grew enraged. He got up out of his chair, slapped down some money on the table, and headed back to his room. As he walked down the hall, Blunt grew even angrier.
“I’ll call you back in a minute,” Blunt said.
He marched into his room and locked the door behind him. He peered over the balcony, estimating that the fall onto the cobblestone street below would kill the man.
Blunt worked furiously, untying the man’s bindings. But the man didn’t wake up. Dragging the man’s body over to the porch, Blunt decided to go with the suicide route. He heaved the spy over the edge and waited inside until he heard the thud.
Once the man hit the ground, Blunt walked downstairs and out onto the street. The commotion over a dead body in the open wasn’t nearly what Blunt thought it would be. Only one man knelt next to the body, while several others took pictures with their cell phones. Blunt joined them, snapping a few pictures of his own before texting the photo of the dead agent to Roland.
“You just signed your death warrant,” Roland texted Blunt.
“Looks like I’d already done that but welcome to the club … and take a number,” Blunt fired back.
He put his phone in his pocket and disappeared into the crowd milling around the market.
CHAPTER 40
Somaliland, Somalia
HAWK WASN’T EXCITED about the prospect of traversing Somalia’s dangerous roads to get to Camp Lemonnier outside of Djibouti. Aside from the ever-challenging task of negotiating a border crossing in eastern Africa, Hawk needed transportation and cash. Those two items were vital to survival under normal circumstances. But killing several operatives from the region’s prevailing terrorist organization made their situation anything but normal.
“What’s our next move?” Alex asked.
“Blunt wants us to meet him at Camp Lemonnier.”
“So, no plane?”
Hawk shook his head.
“Then we need to get out of here,” Alex said. “It’s only a matter of time before Al-Shabaab sends some men back here to investigate why their men are missing.”
“And Al Hasib, too.”
Alex turned to watch The Ajagar, which continued burning in the channel.
“Before we go though, we have to do something first.”
“And what’s that?”
“We need to dispose of all the Sarin and burn that plant to the ground.”
Alex cocked her head to one side. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? How are we going to get rid of it without endangering anyone?”
“We’re going to dump it into the harbor.”
“You’re just going to put all the chemicals into the water?”
“Better than letting someone vaporize it and kill thousands of innocent people. Now, let’s get going.”
Hawk and Alex returned to Garaar’s makeshift chemical plant. Garaar’s body was still lying in a pool of blood when they re-entered the main lab. Hawk wasted no time in identifying the two fifty-five-gallon drums that Garaar was saving for Al Hasib.
“You think that’s it?” Alex asked, gesturing toward the drums.
“While you have to consider the source, McGinn told me there were two other barrels. Not sure what purpose it would serve lying to me about that, especially if he planned to kill me.”
“I’ll make one more pass through the building and see what I can find.”
Hawk loaded the barrels one by one onto a dolly and carted them down to the dock. He carefully cut a hole in the top of each drum before dumping them into the water.
When he returned to the building, Alex had a wide grin plastered across her face along with her computer bag slung across her shoulder.
“What is it? Did you find another barrel?” Hawk asked.
“I didn’t, which is one of the reasons I’m smiling.”
“And the other?”
“Two reasons. First, I got my computer back.” She then held up a pair of keys. “And next, these go to Garaar’s Land Rover.”
“Better than McGinn’s piece of junk.”
The sun still hung low in the sky, but Berbera was starting to come to life. Hawk and Alex hustled over to Garaar’s vehicle and fired it up.
Once they reached the compound, they found five-thousand dollars stashed in a hollow bottomed drawer in McGinn’s desk.
“This ought to be enough,” Hawk said.
He grabbed a scarf on the back of McGinn’s chair and handed it to Alex. “You’re going to need this too. We’re already going to stand out. No use in making it more obvious.”
Hawk also wrapped a keffiyeh around
