Viper Team Seven (The Viper Team Seven Series Book 1) (11 page)

“Got it, STRIKE
LEADER. Over and out.”

Next, Uzza
checked on the five agents who would keep Qasim pinned in his vehicle. “GUNMAN
ONE ONE, this is STRIKE LEADER. This is a status check. Over.”

“STRIKE LEADER,
everything’s good on our end. We can see the target approaching. Over.”

“Good. Stand by,
and pass the word on to your team to get ready. Over and out.”

There was only
one more wing of the team Uzza had to check: the SMAW team. “STREAK ONE, this
is STRIKE LEADER, do you copy? Over.”

The reply was
immediate. “STRIKE LEADER, STREAK TEAM is ready to go. Over.”

“Stand by. Estimated
thirty seconds left. Over and out.”

Everyone was in place and ready for action.
Let Qasim try and get out
of this one alive,
Uzza thought.

*          *          *

Fadi Qasim could
tell trouble was up ahead. His sixth sense told him so. He couldn’t see
anything wrong, he couldn’t detect anything unusual, but he felt something bad
was about to happen, and to him. He slowly pulled his .44 Magnum semi-automatic
pistol out from under his seat. It was loaded with nine shots and ready for
use. For use on what, he didn’t yet know. But was he just being too cautious,
or were his senses right?

Qasim’s stolen,
little, silver Mercury slowed as it entered the small border town. Suddenly,
from a building on Qasim’s right, a gunshot could be heard. The Mercury’s usual
smooth driving turned hard and bumpy. Several more shots could be heard from
the top of a building to his left, and Qasim knew whoever was up there was also
gunning for his tires. But before he could do anything, all four of his tires
were blown, and he could feel the Mercury slowing to a stop. He knew he
couldn’t press it. He could not drive anywhere with blown tires, but he had to
do something, and fast. Suddenly to his left, five men with automatic weapons
opened fire. All of Qasim’s windows shattered and burst in his face. In an
instant, he pushed the driver’s door open and rolled out onto the street, his
gun pouring fire from its muzzle. Qasim spied a hooded man’s head sticking out
from behind the building’s doorway. Literally diving headlong for safety, Qasim
managed to shoot the hooded man in the head. It exploded with the effect of a dropped
watermelon. The sight was horrific, even for a killer like Qasim.

STREAK TEAM fired their rockets at the vehicle, and upon impact it erupted
like a volcano. But none of it harmed Qasim. He was now running for the first
safe building in sight which was a local apartment complex on the left side of the
street.

*          *          *

Uzza had a hard
time processing what he was seeing, but he slapped his face and forced his mind
back in the game. It was now his turn to play. He centered the red dot in his
scope with the back of Qasim’s head. He squeezed off a shot. Qasim went down
but Uzza couldn’t tell if he was hit or not. He positioned for another shot,
just in case. The chase was on now. The four agents that had been trying to pin
Qasim down were now bolting after him, firing rounds from the hip as they ran.

Uzza called for
the backup team. “RESERVE ONE, this is STRIKE LEADER. Get up here now! The target
is running for the apartment complex across the street. Take him out, I repeat,
take him out.”

Uzza didn’t wait for a response. He shouldered his sniper rifle and
looked through his high-powered scope. He tried to see what was happening and
see if he could take a follow-up shot.

*          *          *

Qasim’s head was
violently bleeding from the shot that had grazed it. But still he had managed
to pick himself up and now he was running for cover. There was an apartment
complex not three hundred yards away, but he doubted he could make it. He had
to get to some closer cover fast. Several more agents were on their way over to
him, and the snipers on the roof could take him out easily if he stayed in the
open. Qasim had the explosives on him now; they were strapped around his waist,
ready for use. He could flip the ignition switch at any moment and the C4 would
blow him, and everyone around him, to pieces. But that was not what he had
wanted to do. He was supposed to have waited until Jerusalem to use his
explosives, yet he didn’t have too many choices now. Either he would have to
die by these agents’ hands, or blow up them, himself, and everyone around. He
decided on the last option. To die waging terror on Israel was more favorable
than to die by these agents’ bullets.

Qasim ducked
behind a wooden crate by the snipers’ building and pulled out the C4’s ignition
switch from a pocket in his pants. The cord leading to the explosives around
his waist was wrapped around his stomach, and underneath his shirt. Now was the
time to be offered up for the cause. He wished he had been able to carry out
his mission, but that wish was impossible right now. He breathed in deeply,
then his fingers tensed, and he couldn’t move them. His fingers just didn’t
work. Qasim presumed that was the result of his fear. He cursed himself for
being so afraid. Quickly, he lifted the switch to his chin and nudged it, just
as one of the snipers was pulling the trigger on his rifle.

The bullet never
reached Qasim. The enormous explosion took out every agent, and tore wide holes
into several of the nearby buildings, killing several bystanders as well. The
site’s temperature instantly soared well above a hundred degrees as buildings began
catching on fire.

The Mossad would
never really know where Fadi Qasim was heading, and what he’d planned to do. But
he would be part of the Americans’ key to unlocking the horrific future.  

Monday, March 17
^th
– 1030 hours

The Eisenhower Executive Office Building

Flustered and
tired, Greg Norse sat in his office in the EEOB. He’d been up all night,
worrying about this day, and he was beginning to feel the effects. He had told Solomon
that Parks would be the “end of the team while it was still beginning,” and now
he felt his statement was confirmed. From the beginning Norse had hated the
idea of bringing in a Marine to command the team. Eric Lee had agreed that
Parks was a mistake. In Norse’s mind, Solomon would have been the best team
leader, so why did the President choose an inexperienced “jarhead” of all
people? But Norse could have argued until he was blue in the face, and it wouldn’t
have made a difference. The President had made up his mind, and he wasn’t going
to change it.

Norse came from
a long line of government employees. His father had been the chief of police in
New York City, his mother had been an FBI agent, and likewise, both of his
brothers were in the FBI counterterrorism branch. Norse was nothing special in
his family. All of his brothers were doing a similar job, so there was no glory
in being a Special Agent in the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He was the
youngest in the family, and when he joined the FBI, his parents came to expect
it and didn’t view it as something heroic. Truth be known, his brothers had taken
the idea to become federal agents from him when they were just small boys. But
since he was the youngest it seemed that Greg Norse would live his life as an
imitation of his older siblings.

This had been
his chance to get some family fame. He had been chosen to be a part of an elite
counterterrorism team, and if Solomon became leader he had the possibility of
being deputy commander. That would have made his whole family proud. But no,
Parks had ruined his only chance at glory. Now he was just a member of that
team; just a lowly member. No glorious position, no leading position, nothing.
Of course, Norse didn’t think about how the President had classified him as one
of the top three agents in the FBI counterterrorism division. He was too green
with envy to think of that. Jealousy was overriding him. He felt as if he were
less than dirt and Parks better than gold. Right then and there, Norse decided
that he’d make this job as hard as it could be for Parks. If he couldn’t have
the leadership, no one would.

Someone knocked
on his door.

“Yeah, it’s
open,” he threw out, not really feeling like talking to anyone.

It was Solomon,
the last person he wanted to see. “Can I come in?” the black man asked quickly.

Norse nodded
slightly and turned to look out the window.

“Greg, is there
something wrong with you? You look upset.” Solomon’s tone was more accusing
than questioning.

Norse turned
back around and faced him. “Nothing is wrong, Solomon.” Then he didn’t know
what to say so he just asked, “Can I help you?”

Solomon looked
disgusted. He knew what Norse was thinking and he didn’t like it. He had worked
with the man for years, and he knew that he could throw a tantrum if he didn’t
get his way. He was acting like a two-year-old right now, and that infuriated
Solomon.

“Parks is a good
man, isn’t he?” Solomon pried skillfully.

Norse was not
impressed. “He’s okay I guess.”

Solomon wasn’t
done yet. “I just came by to tell you, or shall I say,
remind
you, that
he is our team leader, and we should respect him. I know how you get, Greg, and
I don’t want you making any trouble for him. He’s a good guy and he’ll be a
good leader.”

Shocked, Norse
hung his mouth open. He couldn’t believe Solomon had just said that to him. It
was a hard blow, and the hardest part was that it was true. “Just how do I get?”
he demanded. “I always have a reason for my feelings.”

“I’ll let you
answer your own question, Greg. I just wanted to give you a friendly reminder,
as your friend and your boss.”

Norse cleared
his throat. “Then answer me this, Solomon. Why did the President pick him
instead of you? Why did he pick a lesser person?”

“Lesser?”
Solomon asked. “I completely disagree. It’s just your ignorance and jealousy
that is blinding you from seeing that he is the best man to lead this team.”

“Why? What do
you know about Parks?”

“Enough to know
that he’s good. Really good. Good enough that the President thinks he can
handle the job of leading better than you, or me, or anyone in the CIA or FBI.”

Norse didn’t
want to hear any of it. He thought Parks was an incompetent individual, and a
big mistake on the President’s part. He wasn’t going to listen to anyone who
opposed his beliefs. “I don’t want to talk about it, Solomon. Let’s just stick
to business,” Norse declared.

“That’s what I’m
trying to do, Greg, but if you don’t do your part, there won’t be any business
to stick to. This is a
team
, not a one-man show. Everyone needs to do his
part, and if anyone slacks off, for any reason, then we all fail. I know you
know that already, but I think you need to refresh your memory.”

Norse flopped
his head in disgust and exhaled noisily. “Look, I know my business. I don’t
know if Parks knows his, and I am just trying to make sure this team is a
success. Okay?”

“No, that’s not
okay because you’re not being very honest, Greg,” Solomon accused. “You think
that you and I should have been the deputy leader and leader, don’t you?”

Norse didn’t
answer at first; he just stared out the window. The words finally came to him
and he blurted them out as fast as he could. “Yes, I think we’d have led the team
much better than that military guy. To be honest with you, I think he’ll be a
handicap to us. And I don’t think the President really knows what he’s got into
either.”

Solomon closed
his eyes for a second, then opened them wide and glared right at Norse. “If it
was a mistake, then it’s the
President’s
mistake, and he’ll live with
it. Will you just get over it for Pete’s sake?”

Norse didn’t say a word to Solomon; he just stared at him. Both men were
good friends, but Solomon had always been boss over Norse, even from the
beginning. Nothing would be different, now or ever.

*          *          *

Hazeroth stepped
into the prime minister’s office. Aziza had been waiting for him for the better
part of the hour. The prime minister was waiting for a report on the operation,
and Hazeroth knew he wouldn’t be happy when he received it.

“Come in, Judah,” the prime minister said, a smile spreading across his face. “I could use some good
news right now.”

Hazeroth
swallowed. He knew there was no way to smooth things over, so he just plunged
headlong into his difficult report. “Mr. Prime Minister, I regret to inform
you–”

“You regret?”
Aziza asked in a harsh tone. “Please, tell me they didn’t lose him.”

“No, they
haven’t lost him; the situation is not that bad. However, I regret to inform
you that in the process of being taken out, Qasim exploded several bricks of C4,
which were on his person. The explosion killed him,
all
of our Quick
Reaction Team, and several bystanders.”

“How do you know
this?” Aziza questioned, sitting bolt-upright in his chair.

“The Lebanon sleeper agent told me. I requested that he follow Qasim a safe distance away, just
for extra insurance. Fortunately, he was unscathed by the explosion.”

Aziza did not like
what he was hearing. “So now we’ve got twenty men from our best Mossad QRT lying
in pieces on the border?”

Hazeroth
nervously told him he was right. “But again, the situation could have been
worse. At least we took him out.”

“
He took
himself out.
You didn’t take him out. I told you I wanted this to be a
quick operation with
no
deaths on our side.” The prime minister’s face
was turning red. “I thought you said your teams were good. You said they were
the best we have. If that’s what we’ve got protecting us, you’d better start
training teams that are more capable of doing their job.”

“Yes, Mr. Prime
Minister. But I must draw your attention to the fact that the entire operation
was hastily planned. My team hardly had a chance to prepare.”

“That is what
the Mossad’s claim-to-fame is supposed to be. It prides itself on sending out
strike teams on short notice and getting positive results.” Aziza grabbed for
his forehead. “Now every Lebanese citizen will hear about this. Suicide bombers
will come in by the dozens. Our guard was let down, and now we must pay the
consequences.”

Hazeroth tried
to calm down the fuming prime minister. “I should hardly think so, Mr. Prime
Minister. I mean, Qasim didn’t carry out his attack; he was stopped before he
could. Granted he took out our teams with him, but still, it could have been
worse.”

“
Stop saying
that
,” the prime minister ordered. “I know it could have been worse, but it
could have been better. It
should
have been better. Why do you think
we’ve been terrorist free for a year? Because we showed Lebanon who was boss. They didn’t dare let the Hezbollah terrorists into our country for fear we’d
nuke them. We stopped them in their tracks, but now they’re rising up once more
and we’ve let our guard down. Do you see what I’m saying?”

“I do, Mr. Prime
Minister, but I must say, a suicide bomber from Lebanon does not mean they’ve
declared an all-out war. Hezbollah terrorists come and go as they please. For
all we know, this Qasim came in unnoticed by even the Lebanese.”

“Well the Lebanese
ordered Qasim to take out our foreign minister a year ago, why couldn’t they
use him now? It’s a sure thing he’s working for Lebanon.”

“We don’t know
that Lebanon ordered Qasim to take out the minister. We think that, but as I
said, Hezbollah terrorists come and go as they please.”

But the prime
minister was convinced Lebanon was to blame. “Lebanon is behind this, and we
have to respond quickly. This could be the same trick they pulled on us last
year: starting with a terrorist attack and then declaring war on us. Judah, I want you to keep your eyes and ears open. We’ll lock down the borders and if need
be, mobilize our military units in the Golan Heights. The Lebanese may be
trying to take that from us.”

“Mr. Prime
Minister, with all due respect, I believe you are overreacting. Mobilizing
forces in the Golan could be the thing that ignites another Israeli-Lebanon
war. I would lock down the borders if I were you, but I would wait on moving
any military units.”

“I said if need
be we’d mobilize, I didn’t say we would right this instant. Now see to your job,
Hazeroth,” Aziza heatedly commanded.

The tension with
Lebanon was beginning to rise, Aziza could feel it. And the pressure of being
responsible made him uncomfortable. Was Lebanon preparing to strike southward?
Were Lebanon and Iran both going to invade Israel? Questions without answers
flooded Aziza’s mind. But one thing was for sure, he had to do this major
border lockdown before more terrorists entered Israel.