Eyes of the Hammer (The Green Berets) (44 page)

The Israeli nodded. "Thank you, sir."

Ring Man turned his gaze on Ponte and his face hardened. "I hope you have some information on the strange American."

Ponte licked his lips. This was his chance. "I do. One of our men trailed a woman from the American embassy to a hotel nearby. She's registered under the name of Gonzalo along with her husband. We have a Gonzalo couple listed on the manifest for the flight on Monday night."

Ring Man considered that. "Did you get an identification on the man?"

Ponte shook his head. "There's no sign of the man. The desk man says he left early this morning and has not returned. His description matches the one the man at the bar gave. The woman is still in the room. I'm having it watched."

"What do you plan on doing?"

Ponte licked his lips again. "Keep the hotel under surveillance until the man shows up and then grab him."

The Ring Man turned to the other occupant of the room. "Are you familiar with the situation with this mysterious American?"

Ariel nodded. "Ponte briefed me."

"What would you do now?"

The Israeli leaned forward in his seat. "We must seize the initiative. I would take the woman now. Find out where the man is from her. If you wait, you leave the initiative up to the opponent. That is unacceptable in war. This man has killed quite a few of our people. Who knows what he is up to at this very minute. There is a purpose to his actions but we don't know what that purpose is. Maybe it has something to do with the American soldier we hold prisoner here."

Ring Man agreed. "I like your reasoning. I do not like letting this American lead us in a foolish chase." He turned to Ponte. "Get the woman and bring her here. From her we will find out where her man is and then get him too."

Ponte nodded weakly and stood up, dismissed. As he headed for the door he was stopped by Ring Man's cold voice. "This is your last chance, my friend. Do not fail."

PRESIDENTIAL PALACE, BOGOTA

12:15 P.M.

Alegre looked up as two distant booms rattled the windows of his office. A few minutes later the door swung open and Montez strode in. "What was that?"

Montez sighed. "Two bombs went off at the Supreme Court building. We're not sure yet how many were killed. It is bad, my President."

Alegre closed his eyes and said a brief prayer for the dead and wounded. "Bring in additional troops."

"My President, we have already brought in three battalions. They cannot guard everything and be everywhere. There is suspicion that some of the troops have been planting the bombs. The commander of the army just called and said he could not afford to remove any more troops from fighting the rebels."

Alegre stood up. "I must go and see what has happened. I must make my presence known to the people and give them confidence that we will win this war."

Montez put out a hand and grabbed his old friend. "You will die if you leave here. That is what they are waiting for. You must stay inside. This is the only place you are safe."

Alegre threw the hand off angrily. "Am I prisoner in my own home? In my own country? The president is unable to leave his palace because he will be killed if he does?"

"I am sorry, my friend. That is the way things are unless something happens soon in our favor."

KNOLL 8548

12:35 P.M.

Riley watched the car roll down the driveway and pass through the gates of the grounds. He tracked it through the scope to where it pulled onto the main road and headed toward downtown Bogota. He wondered who was in the car and where they were going.

He checked his watch. Another four hours until he started down the hill to meet up with Westland.

LANGLEY, VIRGINIA

12:35 P.M.

Hanks slammed his desktop. "What the hell is she doing?" Strom shook his head. The news that Westland was a loose cannon running around Colombia wasn't going over very well.

The director fumed. "She's finished. You get on the horn and tell Jameson to reel her in."

Strom protested weakly. "But she's handling Riley." "Correction. She was handling Riley. I want her ass up here tonight. Jameson can take over."

Strom didn't want to, but he felt he needed to point things out. "I'm not sure Riley will still do the mission if we yank Westland."

Hanks considered that for a few moments as he let his temper cool. "All right. She stays until it's over. But I want Jameson with her from here on out. Call him and tell him to get his ass over to where she is and stay with her. He's not to let her out of his sight."

BOGOTA

1:10 P.M.

Westland stirred in her sleep. She cracked open her eyes as she tried to focus on what had awakened her. There it was again. Someone trying the doorknob. Westland's eyes flew wide open as she rolled off the bed, pulling the Beretta out from underneath the pillow as she went. Her heart was pounding as she centered the sights on the door.

She released the safety and curled her finger around the trigger, applying pressure. She tried to slow her rapid breathing. The lock turned and the door started to swing open. She was halfway through the five pounds of pressure needed to fire the gun when she recognized the figure in the door.

Jameson stopped in surprise at the sight of the muzzle aimed at his forehead. "Whoa! I'm one of the good guys."

Westland stood up, putting the pistol down on the bed. "Jesus Christ. Don't you believe in knocking? How the hell did you open that lock?"

Jameson dangled a key from his hand. "I made the arrangements, remember? Don't you think I'd have an extra key?" He shut the door behind him, strolled over to the balcony doors, and peered out. Then he turned back to the room. He winked at her. "You and Riley pretty cozy here?"

Westland was still frazzled from the near shooting and in no mood for his intimations. "What the hell do you want?"

Jameson was enjoying himself. "You are screwing up big time, girl. Your little escapade at the embassy has pissed off some very important people. The only reason you're not getting on a plane back to the States is because they're not sure Riley would still do the job without you and your, uh, shall we say assets? But from here on out I've been ordered to baby-sit you." He grinned. "Kind of a ménage à trois, eh?"

He was still grinning as the door burst open. Jameson's reactions were slow but his presence was enough to distract the men coming in. They hadn't expected anyone other than the woman.

Westland dove for the floor, putting the bed between herself and the intruders. As she hit the ground she remembered that the Beretta was still lying on top of the bed. Near the window, Jameson was belatedly reaching for his gun, inconveniently located in a holster in the small of his back. He was still reaching as the first man through the door blew the agent out the balcony doors and over the railing with a sustained burst from his Ingram MAC-10.

Westland slid underneath the bed. Looking to her right she saw the legs of three men enter the room. One of them called to her. "Come out, little lady. You left your gun on the bed. We just want to talk to you."

The man who had blown away Jameson kneeled down and peered under the bed. His eyes opened wide momentarily as he saw the black hole of the muzzle of the Colt Python pointing right at his forehead. Westland's round blew off the top half of his head.

The other two men stared in surprise. That gave Westland the time to roll back out from under the bed on the far side. The two men angrily emptied their magazines into the bed, sending feathers flying. As soon as she heard the clicks of their bolts sliding forward onto an empty chamber, Kate rose up to a kneeling position. The two sicarios stared slack jawed at this apparition of death.

She fired one round through each man's forehead.

PENTAGON

1:35 P.M.

Linders nodded as he spoke into the phone. "Yes, that's right. I verify the orders General Pike showed you. He's working on direct vocal orders from the chairman."

"What about the comm link?"

"Didn't Pike give you one?"

"No."

"I guess I'll have the normal setup prepped here, then. I'll have the comm channel opened up starting at 0600 tomorrow morning. Will that give you plenty of time for your checks?"

"It ought to. Who's the verifier?"

Linders frowned. "I imagine it's the chairman. Didn't Pike give you that?"

"He said it was operating according to something he called the Hammer strikes."

Linders paused in thought. "All right. I guess they'll be picking you up over at Belvoir then for the comm link. I was wondering why he hadn't given you that. Is Pike still around down there?"

"Yeah, he's over at the memorial service. He said he'd stop by later."

"Check with him then on that. He should be able to square you away on everything."

"Roger that. Anything else I need to know, sir?"

"No. Good luck."

Linders turned off his STU-III and swiveled his chair around. Something didn't sit right with this whole situation. He'd understood the need to keep the Hammer strikes in real tight for security reasons, but this thing was almost getting out of hand.

Linders considered calling the chairman with his misgivings. He thought about it for a few seconds, then picked up the phone and punched in an internal number for the Pentagon.

"Chairman's office. Colonel Cross here, sir."

"This is General Linders. Is the chairman available?"

"No, sir. He's across the river testifying on the B-2. Do you have a message?"

"When will he be back?"

"He left word that he'd be heading straight home to Fort Myers after finishing there, sir. Would you like me to forward a message to him over at the hill?"

Linders sighed. "No. That's all right. I'll get a hold of him tomorrow."

FORT BRAGG, NORTH CAROLINA

2:00 P.M.

The chaplain stood in the shadow of the famous Iron Mike statue of a Green Beret soldier that stood outside the Special Forces Museum at Fort Bragg, across the street from the 1st Special Operations Command headquarters. His words drifted out over the crowd gathered for the service.

"We are gathered here together to honor the memory of our fallen comrades. Ours is a profession that is fraught with dangers, even during the apparent safety of peacetime. We all know the risks involved in training hard and we all. .."

Pike tuned out the 7th Group chaplain. He hated the hypocrisy of the whole thing. Partusi, Marzan, Holder, and Lane had all died in combat fighting. Yet, that reality would never be acknowledged.

Pike turned his weathered gaze on the people seated in the front row facing the statue. Two of the four men had been married and both had children. The weeping families sitting in that front row had paid a high price, and they would never know how their husbands and fathers had really died.

Pike knew he could still stop the wheels he had set in motion. But looking at those crying faces steeled his heart. There'd been too much backing off and too much running away. He was going to push this to the limit. He'd probably be found out and fail, but he'd go down trying.

LANGLEY, VIRGINIA

2:12 P.M.

"I'm scrapping this whole thing."

Strom looked up in surprise at his boss's reaction to the news on Jameson. "But they don't know if Riley or Westland were compromised."

Hanks shook his head. "This thing's turning to shit. What did the local authorities say?"

Strom looked up from his briefing notes. "They say Jameson was killed during a robbery attempt."

"Bullshit!" Hanks exploded. "A chest full of 9-millimeter? Anything on Westland?"

"No."

"Think they got her?"

Strom paused for a second. "I don't know. Somebody had to waste those three cartel guys."

"You think Westland did that?"

"The report I've got says that Jameson's weapon was still in his holster and unfired. Since the bodies were still there when the police arrived, I'd have to assume that nobody was left alive from their side to retrieve the dead. Otherwise you can pretty much figure they'd have tried to cover things up."

"Where is she then?" asked Hanks. "Why didn't she show up at the embassy?"

"I don't know. It only happened about an hour ago. She could be anywhere."

Hanks considered the situation. "You think they'll still try and go ahead with the Ring Man hit?"

"My best guess is that Riley and Westland have gone into hiding. Maybe they have aborted and are on their way back. They've got to know their cover is blown."