The Callsign - Страница 2

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I heard "already moving" and ran to Jesse and the van, rip.ping into a duffel bag in the back and pulling out a Kernmantle climbing rope.

"Jesse, stage on Church Street with the engine running. We'll be coming out hot as hell," I told him.

I had shouldered the rope and turned to go to the building when he said, "We need to talk about this when we're done."

I was surprised, since he was basically saying he'd had enough of the CIA bullshit. I said, "We will. Trust me, we're go.ing to hot wash this entire thing. Now get out of here. Keep the radio on. We get busted, and you'll know it. If that happens get Kurt on the horn and get him ready for the fallout."

I jogged through the shadows of the cemetery until I reached the wall adjacent to the target. I was about to put myself in jeopardy, because I needed to start climbing before Retro accomplished his mission. He didn't, and we were all going to jail together.

"Reaper, I'm coming up. You got an anchor?" "Yeah. Inside the third floor window. It's open now. You see it?"

I flipped over the wall and landed softly on my feet in the alley. I could see the old window cracked a smidgen, a small pen.light flashing.

"I got it. Retro, what's your status?"

"Working it now. They just confirmed entry with headquarters on the scanner. From the radio calls, they're searching the first floor slow and methodical."

I went to the corner and started to climb, using the rough-hewn granite blocks as hand-and footholds. I'd reached the second floor when Retro called again.

"They've found the busted door. They're now focused on it and the stairwell leading up." "Jesus Christ! What the hell are you doing? Trip the damn alarm."

"I'm working it. The door has four different locks and is steel plate. You want me to go out front and chuck a rock through the window?"

"Get it done. Now." I kept climbing. I began wondering whether we should try subduing the cops in order to escape, knowing I was pushing a seriously bad idea.

I reached the third floor and was pulled in by Reaper. Kranz said, "Got the intel."

Like that would make up for the disaster we were in. The guy didn't even realize the stakes he had created, as if the cops them.selves were part of the exercise.

I said nothing to him, simply whispering to Reaper, "Where's the anchor? I need to put in a full loop so we can retrieve the rope once we're on the ground."

He showed me an old cast-iron radiator, long dead but still in.stalled, and I looped the rope through it, feeding it out the win.dow until both halves of the line draped down the sixty feet to the ground, no knots involved. I was turning to get Kranz out first when I saw a light flash from the stairwell.

Shit. They're coming up.

I hissed, "Get your ass out of here. Slide down the rope."

Kranz said, "I don't have any gloves."

Jesus. That means there are fingerprints all over the place.

I grabbed his collar, jerked him to my face and said in a low whisper, "Get your ass out of here. I don't give a shit if you leave your palms on the rope. Get out, or I'm going to fucking throw you out."

His eyes wide, he nodded and climbed through the window.

"Reaper," I whispered, "you think you can disarm that cop without injuring him?" He glanced at the light and said, "Pike, I don't know. I go for it and miss, I'll have to hurt him to keep him from shooting me." He watched the beam, now bobbing brighter, and said, "Shit. I don't know."

I slowly nodded, understanding that the decision was mine. I leaned out the window and saw Kranz was close enough to let go and jump.

"Get out the window. Get away. Jesse is stationed for pickup. If I'm not out, get Kurt on the line. Let him know I've been arrested."

Reaper looked at the window, then at me and said, "I'll do it. I can take him down.'' I smiled, taking a liking to my only squid. "Yeah, I'm sure you could. With the help of some Army guys. Get out."

He started to say something else, and the light flashed into the room for the first time, a small glimmer that meant the guy was now on our floor. I pointed to the window and moved to the blind side of the door.

Reaper disappeared from view, and I remembered the rope. If I were caught now, they'd know I wasn't alone. But I would need it for a hasty exit. Once I disabled this guy if I disabled this guy I couldn't afford a slow building climb. I would need speed above all else.

Man, this exercise is really sucking.

From the hallway, the reflection of the flashlight bounced through the room again, this time much brighter, and I pressed myself against the wall. I saw it splash into the room proper and felt my pulse race, the adrenaline flowing through me.

I moved into a fighting crouch, waiting for him to breach the door, when the alarm from the gallery pierced the night. The flashlight paused, the police officer's radio exploding in a cacophony of voices.

And then it disappeared back down the stairwell.

Chapter 3

Colonel Kurt Hale turned from the computer screen and shouted behind him, "Mike, for the love of God, tell those guys to quit hammering!"

"Sir, if you want the renovations done quickly, I can't keep shutting them down every time you need to talk on the phone."

Kurt squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his temples. When he opened them again, Mike saw the danger lurking behind his scowl and scurried out of the office, yelling at the construction crew. When it was quiet again, Kurt said, "Okay, Pike, continue."

"We got the beddown location from the real-estate office and placed a beacon on his car last night, but I'm not sure we can execute a hit in one cycle of darkness."

"Didn't you get the intel dump from the targeting cell? Didn't they neck down his probable activities?" Kurt saw Pike scowl over the VPN, then heard, "Can I speak freely here, sir?"

"By all means."

Pike turned to look behind him, ensuring he was alone, then said, "This whole exercise is a cluster-fuck."

Kurt felt like he'd been slapped.

Pike continued. "I know you set it up, putting in the roleplayers and inventing the scenario, but there's too many fake things, which are leading to false confidence. I mean, we go through our entire mission profile to figure out where the target lives so we can develop a pattern of life, then intel hands us his future location on a silver platter, making that whole mission worthless. It should take us weeks or months to figure out his pattern of life, and we get it handed to us. It isn't realistic."

Kurt said, "Come on, Pike, I can't run an exercise for two months."

"I know, I know, but there's got to be a happy medium. I mean, the exfil plan is dictating my operation. I'm told a boat exfil for the target at oh-two-hundred tomorrow, but I don't even know if I'll have the target. It's canned. Way too canned. I need to make my men think. To solve problems. Not sit back and wait on headquarters to feed us the answer."

"Whoa. Hold on," Kurt said. "Have you ever been on an exercise that duplicated combat? Ever? I can't invent the variables that will happen in combat and still maintain control over the exercise. You know that. Especially with this unit. Compromise on an exercise is the same as compromise for real. We have nothing to fall back on."

"That's not what I meant. This one actually did duplicate com.bat exactly for the reasons you just stated. The stakes became very, very high. It's just that you never used to hand us answers. Back in the unit you trusted us to solve the problem, and enjoyed making the problem hard. It's like you threw these teams together and don't trust them."

Kurt was considering what to say when Pike's next words gave him pause. "And I'm with you. I'm not sure I trust the team you gave me either."

"What do you mean?"

Pike relayed last night's activities, ending with, "You forced me to take this double-oh superspy as a two IC, and he's show.ing his ass."

"Pike, we're not in the unit anymore," Kurt countered. "We have a much, much harder mission and we're going to need to leverage the expertise. It's not all door-kicking, and the CIA guys know that arena better than us."

"Bullshit! He might know the tactics, but his judgment is shit. Send me, Retro, and Bull to the damn training courses. This isn't rocket science."

"I don't have time to do that. I'm under some pressure to get operational. Bottom line: I expect you to lead. Get him to do what you want. It's no different than the leadership challenges you had in the Ranger regiment."

"Jesus, sir! That was a long time ago with way less sensitive missions than what you're asking me to do now."

Kurt bristled at the exchange, letting a little of the pressure he was experiencing seep out. "End of discussion, damn it. I've got a target and I'm briefing the Oversight Council in an hour. I'm trying to get Alpha authority to send you overseas. You want me to pick the other team?"

The Taskforce called each phase of the operation a different letter of the Greek alphabet, with alpha being the initial introduction of forces. Which, to this point, had never happened. The pixilation of the screen did nothing to hide Pike's surprise.

"A live target? No exercise?"

"Yes. In Yemen. An easy one. A confidence target. No kill/capture on the terrorist."

"What's his status?"

"He's a passport guy. Someone that knows the identities for