“Hawk, how are things going?” Alex asked. “I’m looking through the binoculars, and I don’t see you down at the harbor? Are you still there?”
“I had to look elsewhere,” he said. “Couldn’t find anything, but I think I stumbled upon something now just west of the harbor.”
“What do you see?”
“A boat anchored in a secluded inlet that doesn’t belong with one armed guard moseying around the top deck.”
“Don’t just rush in there, Hawk. I don’t have eyes on you.”
“It shouldn’t be a problem. I only see one guard.”
“Stay where you are. I’m coming down there.”
“Roger that.”
Hawk hunched low in the bushes, eyeing the guard. But after five minutes, Hawk was convinced the man was alone. Waiting for Alex would just complicate things.
I’ll have this taken care of before she gets here.
Hawk eased farther down the beachhead until he found an ideal location to enter the water. After he was submerged, he swam up to the boat and waited for the right moment.
As Hawk clung to the boat’s step ladder, he went over how he would handle the guard. Without a gun due to the water approach, Hawk needed to make quick work of the man patrolling the deck and take his weapon. Hawk thought if he could handle everything without a shot being fired, he would be in good shape to inspect the vessel and locate the control panel. But that was all conditional upon everything going as planned.
A few minutes later, the guard lit a cigarette and strode aimlessly around the ship. At one point, he stooped over the railing and glanced downward yet never laid eyes on Hawk who was near the back of the ship. Hawk seized the opportunity to make a surprise attack, presumably with the guard’s back turned.
Scampering up the ladder, Hawk raced toward the Al Hasib guard, who had just started to turn toward the noise of heavy footfalls. But he never even saw Hawk’s face. Hawk slit the man’s throat and eased his body down onto the deck. Taking the man’s gun, Hawk headed below in search of the control console.
The click of a gun froze Hawk.
He held his hands up and turned toward the sound.
“I thought we were alone,” Hawk said, scanning the cabin for any other guards.
The Al Hasib agent kept his eyes and gun trained on Hawk but yelled something in Arabic that Hawk didn’t understand.
Another man called out something to the guard, who scowled and screamed back another slew of words Hawk figured was some sort of code talk.
As the back and forth banter continued, the guard glanced away from Hawk for just a second. But that was all Hawk needed.
With a roundhouse kick, he sent the guard staggering backward. A throat punch followed and then another slit of the throat.
How many more of there are you?
Hawk surmised there was at least one other guard based on the conversation that had occurred just moments before. But making assumptions could get him killed. He’d already made a dangerous one before engaging the Al Hasib operatives on the boat without Alex to help, and he’d be lucky to escape with his life, which had become a far greater priority than the weapons system control panel.
Hawk dragged the man’s body to the corner of the room and then eased up against the wall near the entrance, waiting for the next guard to enter.
Another guard called out for his colleague.
“Mohammed, where’d you go?” he said in Arabic.
Those were also the last words the man uttered.
Hawk hid up against the wall and waited for the next man to walk into the room. The second he did, Hawk forced a knife into the side of the man’s knee. But instead of going for the kill, Hawk punched the man in the stomach and sent him reeling backward. Two more swift punches to the face knocked him down.
“What do you want?” the man asked in English.
“I want to know where the control panel is for your new weapons system,” Hawk said, waving a gun in the man’s face. “If you help me find it, I’ll consider letting you live. But that’s all you get at this point. Understand?”
The man nodded and started to say something before a bullet ripped through the back of his head. Another man strode into the room, his gun already trained on Hawk.
“He was going to talk,” the guard said. “And I could not allow that.”
“I’ll make the same offer to you as I made to him,” Hawk said. “If you tell me where the control panel is, I’ll let you live.”
The guard smiled. “Mr. Hawk, you are in no position to make any such deals. Perhaps I should remind you that all I have to do to end this conversation is squeeze the trigger.”
“This offer will expire at the end of one minute, at which time I will kill you,” Hawk said.
The man laughed but never took his eyes off Hawk. “You are a funny man, Mr. Hawk.”
“You know my name. I’m impressed.”
“When Karif Fazil is looking for you, everyone knows what you look like.”
“So, are you going to take me up on my offer?” Hawk asked.
“It wouldn’t matter if I wanted to or not. The weapons system control panel is destroyed—but not before putting the device on auto-pilot. The only way it can be turned off is by going to the actual weapon itself buried fifty meters underwater.” The guard looked Hawk up and down before continuing. “But not that you’ll ever find it in the Strait of Hormuz.”
Hawk pursed his lips. “So you’re going to shoot me now?”
“Of course not. I’m going to make you suffer just as I was instructed to do.”
“And how exactly do you plan to do that?”
“I’m going to make you watch Al Hasib bring your country to its knees.”
“Those are awfully bold words coming from a man who’s about to die,” Hawk said. “You’re not even going to be able to make
