“Take out Fazil,” Alex answered. “I’m guessing you were already planning on that, but that’s probably the only thing that will satisfy Fortner.”
Hawk took aim at Fazil, subsequently eliminating the advantage of surprise. With all six bodies from Oberfelk’s men lying in plain view, Fazil would figure out soon enough that there was an intruder among them. Hawk watched Fazil and noticed where the shot had missed.
Just low and to the left.
Hawk adjusted his sight and continued his belly crawl as he sought a more favorable position to take his next shot.
Fazil glanced around the area, never moving from his protected place behind the truck door. He yelled something to his men, who rushed over to the vehicle. They piled into both trucks that had arrived with the caravan and roared out of the clearing.
“Damn it,” Hawk said. “They’re gone.”
“Well, look on the bright side,” Alex said, “it wasn’t a complete failure of a mission. The weapon was crippled, and the country is safe for another night.”
Hawk forced a laugh. “A lot of good that’s going to do me when Fortner crawls all over me and blames me for failing to get the job done. And then I’ll have to deal with Blunt.”
“It’s not the first time you’ve failed to accomplish all the mission objectives—and I doubt it’ll be the last.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“Just being honest,” Alex said. “Black ops don’t always go as smooth as you’d like them to. I knew that long before you signed up to stop the sale of this ICBM.”
“I like it better when you’re on site.”
“Why’s that?”
“You don’t feel the need to be so honest when we fail.”
She chuckled. “What’s your next move?”
“See if I gather any info off these soldiers to bring back and let Fortner’s Pentagon buddies analyze any devices for clues about Oberfelk’s comings and goings.”
“Well, you better make it quick because you’re about to have company.”
Hawk bolted upright and sprinted toward the dead bodies. “What do you mean?”
“I see three Humvees barreling toward your position. And I’d be willing to bet they aren’t Fazil’s men.”
“That’s all I need,” Hawk said as he reached the first body. Hawk knelt beside it and felt the pockets until he retrieved a cell phone and small journal.
“Better make it snappy,” Alex said. “I’m estimating you’ve got about fifteen seconds before they roll up on you.”
Hawk checked another man quickly before finding nothing. As soon as Hawk saw the headlights flicker through the trees out of the corner of his eye, he hid a GPS tracker underneath the carriage of the truck before racing toward the edge of the woods. He crouched low in the shadows and watched the oncoming vehicles.
A team of men poured out of the trucks and cleaned up the scene. They collected as many bullet casings as they could find and scooped up all the bodies. A pair of men worked to put out the missile, which was still ablaze. After ten minutes, any random observer would’ve questioned if anyone had ever actually been in the clearing other than to chop down the trees and burn the undergrowth.
Hawk waited to give Alex an update until the men were finished and were driving away with the destroyed ICBM in tow.
He was about to raise Alex on his coms when he heard a twig snap in the jungle behind him. Hawk turned around slowly and strained to see into the darkness. He thought he saw something moving in the shadows but wasn’t sure if his eyes were playing tricks on him. Refusing to move, Hawk remained planted in his spot. After ten minutes of relative silence, Hawk started walking in the direction of the noise.
As he went, Hawk reached into his pack and pulled out a pair of night vision goggles. He saw plenty of nocturnal wildlife mostly scurrying along the jungle floor with some occasional movement in the forest. But after slogging through the dense vegetation for a couple minutes, he stumbled upon something he didn’t expect to see—a man stripped down to his t-shirt and boxers huddled in the fetal position next to a tree.
Hawk studied the man closely before speaking. Once his hands were in full view—and devoid of any weapons—Hawk addressed the man.
“Who are you?” Hawk demanded. “And what are you doing here?”
“I’m trying to survive,” the man answered in heavily accented English while refusing to look up at Hawk.
“Survive? There are better ways to do it.”
“Not if you don’t want Karif Fazil to chop off your head.”
“Did he leave you here?”
The man shook his head. “I escaped. He was going to kill me.”
“What did you do?”
“I was supposed to secure the area. Apparently I failed. If I would have gone back to the truck, he would have killed me.”
“How would you like to get revenge on your taskmaster?”
The man finally looked up at Hawk and scowled. “I do not wish him any harm. He took me in when no one else would.”
“He took you in so he could use you,” Hawk said. “The fact that you understand that he would’ve killed you had you made it back to one of the vehicles proves you understand as much.”
“Maybe I deserve it for not doing what Fazil told me to do.”
Hawk chuckled. “You don’t deserve it, as least not for that. My life depends on you not being able to even catch even a whiff of my scent when I’m on a mission like that. I was a ghost. You could’ve checked a thousand times, and I doubt you would’ve ever found me. It’s not your fault.”
“Fazil would have seen it another way.”
“He would’ve killed you, yet here you are, still alive,” Hawk said. “Don’t you think that’s for a reason?”
The man nodded. Hawk offered his hand to the man and pulled him to his feet.
“Why don’t we go find out what that reason is,” Hawk said. “What do you say?”
“Okay.”
Hawk moved quickly and zip tied the man’s hands behind his back.
