The Insider Threat (26 page)

I
sat in the car with my fists clenched, wanting more than anything to be up on the hill, directing the fight. I waited, knowing the team would give me a call when they felt it necessary. Which didn’t make it easier, I’ll tell you that.

I pulled out a small set of binoculars and focused on the entrance to the park, seeing uniformed police running about, with many headed up the path.

Won’t be long now. Clock’s ticking.

Finally, Knuckles came on. “Target is fleeing. Back the way he came. He’s avoiding the path and the police. He’s coming down through the trees.”

I said, “Straight north?”

“Yeah. Straight north.”

He’s going to hit Jennifer’s path.

“Can you keep eyes on?”

“Not without compromise. And he’s got a weapon.”

The unspoken command being,
I’ll have to kill him.
I said, “Let him go. I think he’s going to end up right in front of me. All elements, all elements, give me an up.”

I heard from Retro, Blood, and Knuckles. All had successfully avoided the police and were now working their way back. But no Jennifer. I called again, “Koko, Koko, status?”

At the crest of the hill, I saw a figure appear. Running down the hill. I put my glass on him and recognized Rashid. I said, “All elements, all elements, I’ve got eyes on. He’s coming down the hill. My van is in the square across from the university. I’m going to leave the keys on the right front tire. Retro, you got the van. Stage until I call. Knuckles, Blood, you guys get down the hill and vector in on me. He’s coming fast.”

I got a roger from all, then said, “Koko, Koko, what is your status?”

I got nothing again, which gave me pause. A little tendril of dread. I saw the figure halfway down and knew I had to make a decision quickly. I said, “Knuckles, I’m now going Foxtrot. You are surveillance chief. Blood, redirect. I need you to find out what’s up with Koko.”

He knew the unspoken emotion behind that call. She was a teammate to all of them, but he knew she was something more to me. He said, “Roger. Headed back to the amphitheater. Don’t worry. Probably just a bad mic.”

Then, “This is Koko. This is Koko. I’m okay. I monitor all.”

I wanted to explode at her, in between the relief I felt. I saw Rashid reach the goat pen.

I left the vehicle, locking the doors and surreptitiously putting the keys on the front tire. All clinical, I said, “Roger. What’s your status?”

“Got caught up in the police response. I couldn’t talk. I’m on the way.”

Rashid passed through the fence, glanced left and right, then began walking at a hurried pace, headed north one road over from where I was. I said, “I got the eye. He’s going into the Block.”

Rashid went north, moving deeper into the area once reserved for communist royalty, but now full of bars and kitschy boutiques. I intersected his line of march at an angle, losing sight of him for a panicky two minutes, but finding him again soon enough. He kept glancing back, and was clearly shaken. His tradecraft earlier had been pretty good. Better than any of the usual goat herders I tracked—which, given his training with DGSE, was to be expected—but now he was moving as fast as he could without drawing attention by simply running. He was scared.

He went about a quarter mile, then hung a left, and I alerted the team. “Now on Abdyl Frashen Street, headed west. He’s afraid, looking for the bad man. Get a team ahead of him; my heat state’s getting bad.”

Knuckles said, “Roger. Got Blood and Koko headed that way. Give me the pass when you have to.” Meaning, give him a call when I had to pull off or get compromised.

He then said, “Pike, what’s your feel? Is he going to run?”

I said, “Yeah, if I was going to call it now, he’s running. Whatever happened back there was probably the reason he was here, and it clearly went to shit. Would you stay? He can’t know what the police are going to find, and he sure as shit isn’t going to wait to find out.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. Uhh . . . you think it’s time to call Showboat?”

Which was something I’d chosen to forget. I’d kept LTC Alexander in the loop for the surveillance today—before the last bit of high adventure—and I wasn’t sure where Knuckles was going. I didn’t need his approval to continue surveillance, and I wasn’t going to waste my time telling him about the gunfight because it would just lead to a giant list of questions I couldn’t answer. I said, “For what?”

“For in-extremis assault. If he’s going to flee, this is it. You find his bed-down, and the clock’s ticking. We’ve probably got enough time for him to get on the Internet and buy plane tickets, then get to the airport. We can’t take him down in a cab. We have to hit that site before he leaves.”

Everything he said was true. I saw Rashid cross the street, running to a drugstore. He disappeared into a side door, and I caught a quick glimpse of stairs. This was it. I couldn’t follow him inside, and he’d disappeared.

I said, “All elements, all elements, I’m at the bed-down. You got my location?”

Knuckles said, “Yeah. Signal’s strong. We got you on the map. Moving now. Look for Blood and Jennifer. Find a place to stage with all of us, including the vehicle Retro’s bringing.”

I said, “Don’t get ahead of yourself. Still got to make that call to higher.”

I heard, “Yeah, yeah. Like that’s ever stopped you.”

I felt good that Knuckles was pushing the issue. I thought he was right, but if he believed this was critical, it meant a lot. You read books about the great leader making decisions that bucked the odds, or was proved right when “everyone” said it was wrong, but in my experience, it was never one guy. It was one guy in power backed by a small minority who felt as he did, giving encouragement from the background. Unfortunately, for every one guy who went down as the stalwart defender of freedom, there was another who went down as a goat.

But this wasn’t a decision that would make me a goat. As long as forty-two thousand things didn’t go wrong. I said, “Going off the net. Calling Showboat.”

I dialed, waiting on the encryption to catch up. A commo guy answered and said, “Send it,” as if I was going to give another sitrep. I said, “Put on Showboat.”

He said, “He’s engaged. Send it to me.”

I snarled, “Put him on the line right now, or I’ll rip your throat out. I don’t care if he’s taking a shit. I need to talk to him.”

I heard some fumbling, then, “Jesus, Pike, what did you say to the guy? You know your reputation, and I don’t need them afraid of you.”

“Nothing. Just that I needed to talk.”

And I gave it to him: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

He said, “Shit. I need to get to Kurt on that. I can’t do an in-extremis without lives at stake. Keep eyes on.” He did a calculation in his head and said, “It’s lunchtime in DC. I’ll have to track him down.”

I said, “I’m good with that, but I need a call right now, in case I see indications he’s leaving. I need to know my authorities. Something happened in that park, and it was important. I have no idea what it was, but Rashid does.”

“Pike, you said he went into some dive apartment complex. You don’t even have a room. You couldn’t hit if you wanted to. Let me contact higher. Get some sanction.”

What he said was true, with the exception of one thing. I said, “Sir, Aaron got a Dragontooth on him. I can find his room. The sun’s going down right now. It’ll be dark in thirty minutes. All I need is assault authority. I can do it. I have the team closing now.”

“How will you exfil?”

“With my vehicle. It’s a minivan. It’s got windows, but I can keep him low. I can get him out.”

He said, “Okay, okay. Build an assault plan, but you have no execute authority. After Nairobi, I need some backup. I can’t go crazy just yet.”

I
knew where Blaine was coming from, and I appreciated the support. I said, “Roger all, but Rashid’s going to flee, and sooner rather than later. Once he’s on the pavement, he’s in the wind. Tell them that. Let them know the urgency. We can do it clean right now. Later, it gets much, much messier.”

I saw Brett and Jennifer walking up the street and heard, “I got it, I got it. I’m working it.”

They reached me and I said, “We need to find a staging area for the van. That’s you, Brett. Jennifer, I want you to penetrate the apartment. Get up the stairs and use the Dragontooth. Find the apartment he’s in. Nothing fancy. Just get in and walk, then get out. Pay attention to atmospherics. Let me know where the stairs go and what we’ll encounter if we try to drag a body out of there.”

They both nodded, no questions, Brett surveying the street and Jennifer looking at the door next to the pharmacy. I said, “Where’s Knuckles?”

Brett said, “He’s coming. Right behind us. Aaron was controlling Shoshana, and he can’t get her on the phone. Knuckles went with him to sort it out.”

I took that in, not really worried. Shoshana could take care of herself better than about 99.9 percent of the human population. I clicked my earpiece, saying, “Retro, Retro, you got the van?”

“Got it. Headed your way. You got a place for me to stage?”

“Not yet. Circle the block. Blood’s on it.” I nodded at him, and he disappeared, walking toward an alley next to the building.

I looked at Jennifer and said, “Time to go.”

She said, “What’s up with Shoshana? All she was doing was locking down the eastern exit. She wasn’t even near the gunfight.”

“I don’t know, but it’s not a worry. She’s not tied into our commo structure. For all we know, her battery is dead in her cell phone. You were a lot closer, and you didn’t get in the fight. She’s fine.”

She looked at me and I saw something in her eyes. I said, “What?”

She glanced away, making sure Brett hadn’t come back, and said, “I killed a man. One of the guys running with a pistol. I have no idea who he was. I heard the call you gave to Brett, saw the kid get hit, and went into autopilot. He stood up right in front of me. He had a gun out. . . .”

She was looking for absolution. She said, “What if he was a cop? What if they have security in the park? I just pulled the trigger. I didn’t even think about it.”

She was staring into me, not unlike Shoshana herself, reading me. Wanting to know if what she had done in the name of the United States was correct.

I said, “If he was there with a weapon, he was bad. You did the right thing. You can make up stories in your mind forever, second-guessing, but they don’t have undercover police in that park.”

I saw doubt and said, “Did he shout anything? Did he say, ‘Police!’ or anything? Try to mitigate the violence? Try to stop it?”

She reflected and said, “No, no. Nothing like that. He jumped onstage and started shooting at that other guy. The one that got away.”

“Then quit fucking thinking about it. Look, I don’t have a single clue what went on there, or why it happened. What I do know is that if you’d let him go on, he probably would’ve killed three or four kids with the wild-ass spraying of rounds. You did good.”

She nodded and I said, “Get inside the apartment. We’re running out of time.”

She nodded again, this time more firmly, then turned to go. I grabbed her arm and said, “Sorry about the slight on the gunfight. I didn’t know you were in it, but I’m glad you were.”

She said, “Shoshana would’ve been better.”

“No, she wouldn’t. She would never question. Which is why you’re on my team.”

She showed a flicker of a smile, then broke away, jogging across the street.

I watched her go, then Retro came on. “I’m coming back your way. Where do I park?”

I called Brett. “Blood, Blood, what do you have?”

He said, “Bring him right into the alley. The one you saw me go down. It’s deserted. I’ve been to the end and back. There’s one drunk homeless guy, but he’s passed out. Stage in the entrance. I’m there now.”

Which was perfect, because it was right next to the pharmacy and the door to the apartment. I jogged across the street to meet him, saying, “Nothing back there?”

“Nope. Some doors, but it’s dead. Stinks like shit.”

My phone rang, and it was Blaine. I said, “Tell me you got somewhere.”

He said, “Okay, you got Omega, with some caveats.”

I thought,
Of course.

“You can assault tonight, but only if you determine you can exfil successfully.”

I said, “That’s it?”

I could almost hear the grin. “Yep. I know that’s stupid. Kurt was pretty pleased.”

Both Kurt and Blaine knew that I would
never
assault for a capture if I couldn’t get out clean. But apparently the Oversight Council thought they’d better make that clear. Just like every level of command I’d ever had. Making statements of the obvious.

I said, “Okay, then. Get the support package ready. We’re coming home with Jackpot.”

He said, “WILCO. Nothing stupid, right?”

I said, “Not tonight. It’s a good situation. I promise. Gotta go. My support team just showed up.”

Retro pulled the van in, did a three-point turn until the nose was facing the street. He exited and said, “What’s the story?”

“We’re taking him tonight. Get the long guns ready. Jennifer’s going—”

I was cut off by a call from Knuckles. “Pike, Pike, we’re out of the park. We’re in the Block but this phone isn’t tight enough for a location. I got you on the street, but I got a fifty-meter gap with the circle. Where are you?”

The sun had dropped during all the planning, the twilight now bathed in a glow of sporadic neon signs. I said, “You see the traffic circle?”

“Yeah. Just to my right.”

I strained my eyes, the circle about seventy meters away. I couldn’t see him with all of the people on the sidewalk, mostly young, the men dressed in black jackets and wearing peculiar half Mohawks, stubble on the side but the hair long on top, and the women wearing skintight jeans. All going to the Block for party time.

“I’m in front of a pharmacy, on the south side of the street. There’s a sign advertising drugs.”

He said, “I see you. Be there in two.”

Jennifer came out on the street. I saw her exit the door, look left, then right, and saunter our way. She said, “I got the apartment. 2A. Just up the stairs. The Dragontooth was booming right inside. You go up, take a right, and it’s the first one. Atmospherics are good. No people that I saw. It’s poor, and probably full of folks who don’t open the door if they hear anything. There’s a lot of noise from inside his place. He’s packing and throwing things around. He’s running.”

I said, “All right. Good job. Jennifer, you’re the driver. Stage here. Brett, you’re lead man. Retro, you’re number two. I’ll be third, and Knuckles will take the rear. We enter and dominate. No gunfire. When I say that, I mean it. If he pulls a weapon, you’d better be quicker than him. I
do not
want him shot. Is that understood?”

In the gloom of the alley, away from the street, Brett was checking his long gun. Retro pulled a weapon and shined a light on it, seeing a piece of tape that marked it as mine. My brand-new 300 Blackout. He handed it to me. I have to admit, it felt better than a UMP. Reminding me of hundreds of assaults in the past, before the Taskforce. He pulled out his own and said, “Got it. No killing. Unless he’s about to kill me.”

Knuckles and Aaron arrived, breathless. I said, “Late for the game. He’s here, we have Omega, and we’re going in. Aaron, you’re out here with Jennifer. I want you to lock down the entrance. Knuckles, you got tail-gunner.”

Knuckles said, “We got a problem.”

I said, “What?”

Aaron said, “Shoshana’s missing. We searched for her, but all we found was her cell phone, smashed on the ground.”