Target Zero Page 10

  “We’re nothing alike,” Qureshi said. He snapped then pointed at one of the men in his party who was clutching a laptop. “Make it happen.”

  The man opened his computer and started typing on the keyboard. “Can you provide me with the account number?” he asked Garaar.

  Garaar grinned and placed a business card with his account number scrawled across it along with some other pertinent personal information that could help the bank identify him. “That should be all you need.”

  Qureshi laughed. “It sure is,” he said.

  Then he pulled out his gun and shot all the guards in formulaic fashion before training it on Garaar. Slack-jawed, Garaar watched all the men supposedly protecting him crumple to the ground.

  “There isn’t going to be a transfer of funds tonight,” Qureshi said. “But I am going to test out the Sarin on you.”

  Garaar looked up at Qureshi in horror. “You can’t—you wouldn’t,” Garaar stammered.

  “You’re right. I won’t,” Qureshi said right before he peppered Garaar with four shots.

  CHAPTER 29

  HAWK REPELLED DOWN to the ground floor through an opening in the skylight. No more than twenty meters away, McGinn was a mirror image of Hawk. When Hawk’s feet hit the floor, he flicked his rope, creating some slack before he yanked it down. As he rolled up the rope, he crept across the room and hid behind a set of cabinets.

  “You read me, Wonder Woman?” Hawk said.

  “Wonder Woman? I’m flattered. Is that how you see me, Hawk?” Alex asked.

  “If you help us get out of this alive, I will.”

  McGinn, who’d also released his rope, waved vigorously, motioning for Hawk to be quiet.

  Hawk gave him a thumbs up sign.

  “What’s our situation now?” Hawk asked in a whisper.

  “Well, you won’t have to worry about Garaar,” Alex answered. “The Al Hasib team just gunned him down. But keep your head on a swivel because they’re headed your way.”

  “Roger that.”

  Hawk fixed his gaze on the doors closest to him where the terrorists would likely enter the room. McGinn had selected this room to stage an ambush because it could serve as a kill box, a small enclosed area where the initiating party held the tactical advantage. In this case, Hawk and Alex had the element of surprise to go on their side along with the best position in the room from which to eliminate the Al Hasib operatives.

  While he waited, Hawk wondered if there wasn’t a better way to seize the Sarin. With all the advanced information McGinn possessed, Hawk still wondered why they didn’t simply bar the doors from the outside and drop in some gas to immobilize the Al Hasib team. Taking possession of the gas, not to mention the elimination of the agents, would’ve been cleaner and simpler. But McGinn insisted the Al Hasib agents would have gas masks and be prepared for such an ambush. Instead, McGinn’s plan felt to Hawk as if it were the most dangerous one of all. McGinn attempted to assuage Hawk’s fears by explaining how they were going to take out some of Al Hasib’s best agents as well as eliminate Al-Shabaab’s chemical weapons expert.

  So far, McGinn was at least right about Garaar, even if they didn’t have to pull the trigger to kill him.

  “If the feed I hacked and am looking at is accurate, they should be there within the next five seconds,” Alex said, her voice crackling over the com links.

  “Is there any reason it wouldn’t be accurate?” Hawk asked.

  Before Alex could answer, Hawk watched the doorknob turn slowly and a handful of men storm in. Immediately, Hawk could tell they were the Al Hasib agents he’d seen from the security cameras that Alex had hacked within minutes of arriving on location.

  As the door swung open, McGinn unleashed a flurry of bullets on the Al Hasib agents. Hawk had told McGinn to wait until the men were boxed in between them and had no opportunity to escape without walking through the line of fire.

  Screw it.

  Hawk joined McGinn in riddling the men with bullets, an ambush that initially appeared to be a rousing success. A faint grin spread across Hawk’s face as two, three, then four operatives collapsed to the ground. Loud moans filled the room as the men grappled with the reality of their situation. Hawk inspected the agents, searching for the case of chemical weapons.

  “Do you see the Sarin?” McGinn called from across the room.

  Hawk turned the lights on and began removing weapons from the dying men’s hands. One man writhing in pain begged Hawk to shoot him, and Hawk obliged. But still no weapons case.

  “You find it yet?” McGinn asked as he made his way toward the bodies.

  “There were six men in the image Alex showed us, right?” Hawk asked.

  “Roger that,” Alex said. “I’m looking at it again right now. And I only see four bodies on the feed I’m looking at. Are two outside the camera’s field?”

  “You can see everything we can,” McGinn answered back.

  “Well, there are two more men running around here somewhere. Let me see if I can pinpoint their location for you,” Alex said.

  “Ah-ha! Found it,” Hawk said, using his foot to roll over one of the men, who’d fallen on top of the chemical weapons case.

  McGinn knelt down and opened the case. He quickly shut it and picked it up. “This is it.”

  Hawk stared down at the bodies strewn around the room and pumped his fist. “Now we just need to track down those other two agents to make this a clean sweep.”

  Then he felt the cold barrel of a gun against the back of his neck.

  “Don’t move another muscle or you’re dead,” McGinn said.

  Hawk laid his weapon on the ground and raised his hands in surrender. “Unbelievable,” Hawk said. “I thought I could trust you.”

  “You still can,” McGinn said. “You’re still alive, aren’t you?”

  Hawk narrowed his eyes and turned to glare at McGinn. “So, what are you waiting on?”

  “I made a deal,” McGinn said, keeping his gun trained on Hawk while securing the door through which the operatives had entered. “I deliver you to Al Hasib, I make off with the Sarin.”

  Hawk shook his head. “And they’re just going to let you walk away with their weapon? I hardly think that’s going to happen.”

  McGinn collected all the weapons off the men and then walked briskly to the other side of the room. He opened the door, keeping it ajar with his foot so he could address Hawk before exiting.

  “Think whatever you wish, but I happen to know where the bigger cache of Sarin is—and that’s where the other agents are headed. But only after they tie up some loose ends with you.”

  “Loose ends?” Hawk asked.

  “Goodbye, Hawk. It’s been a pleasure knowing you. No hard feelings. Just a good business decision on my end.”

  “You better hope they kill me,” Hawk said with a growl.

  “Oh, they will. The man coming for you is the stepbrother of a man you recently killed. Good luck.”

  McGinn slammed the door shut. Hawk could hear what sounded like a metal chain being wrapped around the double doors. He rushed over to them, shaking the handles. They barely budged.

  Hawk wanted to hit something, preferably John McGinn, but needed to gather his wits if he was going to survive. Then, he heard a voice over his comlink that made him cringe.

  “Mr. Hawk, I believe I’ve got something that belongs to you. Or should I say someone?” said a man.

  “Who is this?”

  “Oh, Mr. Hawk, you don’t know me, but you ran into my stepbrother once—and you killed him. Does the name Nasim Ghazi sound familiar?”

  Hawk knew the name all too well, but he didn’t want to give the caller any more reason to hate him. “You’re going to have to help me out. I’m drawing a blank.”

  “You disgust me,” Qureshi said. “You insult the memory of my brother, a man you needlessly killed.”

  “I’m going to kill youl” Hawk said.

  Qureshi broke into a hearty laugh. “You’re going to
kill me? That just might be one of the funniest things I’ve heard in months. But I’m a fair man, so I’m willing to give you a fighting chance. You have ten minutes to find me. After ten minutes, I’m going to kill your little friend Alex. Or maybe I have other plans for her before I kill her. You’ll never know if you don’t arrive in time. I’ll be waiting—and watching.”

  In the background, Hawk heard Alex yell.

  “Don’t do it, Hawk. Just leave me. Get out of there and grab the weapon.”

  Then a high-pitched shriek followed by another scream.

  “Ten minutes,” Qureshi said before the com went silent.

  CHAPTER 30

  McGINN TUGGED ON THE CHAIN he wrapped around the handles to make sure the doors were secure. Satisfied with his work, he shoved an extra gun he’d lifted off the Al Hasib agents into the back of his pants, picked up the weapon and his gun, and headed toward the dock.

  Once he exited the building, he raced down a set of stairs toward the port where he’d arranged to meet his contact. But he was nowhere to be found.

  What the hell? Where is he?

  While mildly annoyed, McGinn wasn’t concerned. He’d just locked Brady Hawk up in a kill box, though McGinn all but assured he’d never see the Firestorm assassin again after giving away Alex’s position. It was a plan he’d managed to execute flawlessly. All Qureshi had to do was finish off Hawk and Alex, which wouldn’t be difficult given their situations.

  McGinn dialed a number on his cell phone, but the call went straight to voicemail.

  Crouching behind a shipping container, McGinn could only wait and think. He actually thought Hawk was a good man, but McGinn was just following orders, like a good soldier does, even if he didn’t understand why or agree with the reason given. McGinn thought the order seemed harsh, particularly since Hawk had eliminated some of the CIA’s top threats globally in recent months. But McGinn operated in a black-and-white world: orders were orders. Who was he to challenge such a directive?

  McGinn peered around the edge of the container toward the water. He saw what looked like a faint glimmer in the distance. The ship was heading straight toward the dock.

  It was only a matter of minutes before he could vanish and never to set foot in Somalia again.

  And it couldn’t happen quickly enough for McGinn’s liking.

  CHAPTER 31

  HAWK RUSHED TOWARD THE OTHER DOOR, rattling it with both hands. But it didn’t budge. He then grabbed the rope he’d repelled into the room on and tried to search for a place to secure it and climb up and out. In the operation planning, he suggested to McGinn that they should have an alternative way out in case things went sideways, but McGinn nixed the idea, claiming that it would also create a way for more assailants to access the room and potentially entrap them.

  That dirty backstabbing bastard. This was a set up from the beginning.

  Hawk blamed himself for not seeing it, then blamed Blunt for being too trusting with one of his old friends from Congress. But then Hawk stopped. He needed to expend his mental energy on figuring out a way to escape the room.

  Once more, Hawk surveyed his surroundings. The room appeared to be a storage area without much in the way of storage. It was mostly open with the exception of a few shelving units with a scant number of supplies. The double doors at each end of the room were secured, and the only other portals were the skylights above. No windows to jump through.

  For a moment, Hawk even contemplated putting a hole in the wall until he realized thick aluminum comprised all four sides. He looked over the supplies but couldn’t find anything of use. A few beakers, a microscope, some dyes, stacks of washcloths, petri dishes.

  If I wanted to make some hippy tie-dye headbands, I’d be in heaven right now.

  But he wasn’t. He was in a hell of McGinn’s making. McGinn hadn’t just met with Garaar—they plotted together.

  Hawk noticed a blinking red light in the corner on the side of the security camera. There was another camera on the other side of the room as well. Without a clear way out, Hawk decided he wasn’t going to give Qureshi the pleasure of seeing him struggle. Hawk hung washcloths over the camera lenses and plotted his next move.

  Hawk’s com link crackled to life with Qureshi on the other end.

  “You might think you are clever by covering the cameras, but your little friend is going to die in five minutes if you don’t meet me in the lab,” Qureshi said. “I know you know where it’s at since I found the schematics of the building with your friend here. Five minutes. Not a second more.”

  Hawk seethed. “I swear I’ll kill you when I find you.”

  “All your empty threats won’t save your friend’s life. Better hurry.”

  The line went silent. Hawk shook his head as he looked around the room. He’d spent five minutes trying to figure a way out, and he was convinced this was exactly the plan that McGinn had conceived and hatched with Qureshi.

  Of all the times to be in this situation … and Alex is gonna die.

  Hawk interlocked his fingers and put his hands on his head.

  He was definitely in a kill box, but it wasn’t him who was going to die, at least not first.

  CHAPTER 32

  ARAV KATARI NAVIGATED THE AJAGAR into the port and eased it against the docking station. His crew worked quickly to secure the vessel, while he watched from the ground. Directions were shouted back and forth. Ropes were tied off. Crewmembers scurried across the deck.

  “I hope they can reverse what they’ve done just as quickly,” said a man.

  Katari turned around to see John McGinn standing a few feet away.

  “They make lightning seem slow,” Katari said, offering his hand to McGinn.

  McGinn smiled as he shook Katari’s hand. “Let’s get out of here so we can avoid any potential trouble.”

  “Trouble?”

  “I don’t want to press my luck,” McGinn said. “I just left an assassin locked up, but I’m not inclined to hang around to see if he somehow managed to survive.”

  “An assassin?”

  McGinn waved dismissively at Katari. “Let’s just get going.”

  Katari nodded. “Do you have the promised amount?”

  “Two hundred and fifty thousand U.S. dollars?” McGinn asked.

  “I was told it would be a half million.”

  McGinn sighed. “That’s more than I was told to deliver.”

  “I’m not going anywhere until I have the money in my account.”

  “You get nothing if you don’t get this ship out of the harbor and quickly.”

  Katari eyed McGinn closely. “Two hundred fifty now and two hundred fifty when we arrive. I won’t let you off until I receive the amount promised to me in full.”

  “Fine,” McGinn said. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  “No, you’ll do it or you won’t leave this ship,” Katari said, snatching the case from McGinn’s hands. “And I’ll take this as insurance.”

  “Be careful with that,” McGinn said. “I’ll make sure you get what you were promised. Just get us the hell out of here, okay?”

  “I’m supposed to pick up another man.”

  “Whoever he is, I know he’s not promising you the kind of cash you’ll be getting from me. Let’s go. Now.”

  Katari nodded and whistled at his crew, gesturing at them. They knew what it meant. They needed to prepare to leave the harbor.

  CHAPTER 33

  HAWK GLANCED AT HIS WATCH and let out a long breath. Only four minutes remained before Qureshi would make good on his promise and kill Alex. The situation wasn’t a promising one as Hawk had run out of options.

  As he looked around the room yet again in search of something that could help him escape, he heard a smack on the concrete floor. He turned around to see a rope dangling from the skylight and reaching all the way to the ground.

  “Well, don’t just stand there and gawk. Get a move on,” said the person hunched over the skylight.

  It was Emily.

>   Hawk shimmied up the rope in less than a minute.

  “I thought I told you not to contact me again,” he said as he reached the roof.

  “A thank you might be more in order,” Emily shot back.

  Hawk ignored her. “We’ve got to get to the lab. Some Al Hasib agent is going to kill Alex if I don’t get to her in the next couple minutes.”

  “And what? So he can kill you instead? I don’t think you’ve thought this through.”

  “Look, if I don’t make it out for some reason, I want you to take care of Alex and make sure she gets home safe.”

  “I’m coming with you,” she said.

  “No, you can’t. They’ll shoot her on site. I can’t have that. I need to do this my way.”

  Emily bit her bottom lip before speaking. “Fine. Do it your way. I’ll be watching though in case things go sideways.”

  “Wish me luck,” Hawk said before he slid down the roof, jumped to a pole, and shimmied down to the ground.

  He sprinted toward the lab and then stopped in front. Taking a deep breath, he turned the knob and entered the room, both hands raised in the air.

  “What are you doing, Hawk?” Alex asked.

  Hawk locked eyes with her and remained solemn, walking slowly toward who he assumed was Qureshi.

  “You have me now,” Hawk said. “You can let her go.”

  Qureshi laughed. “You thought I was actually going to let her go? Oh, you Americans are so naïve.” He shoved Alex toward the lone guard flanking him. “Take care of her.”

  “Be a man of your word,” Hawk said, still moving slowly toward Qureshi. “We both know you don’t care about her. It’s me you want.”

  “You might be right, but that’s not going to change my mind. However, I’ll let Ahmad have a little fun with her before he finishes her off. But you are all mine.”

  Hawk had walked close enough that he was in striking distance. Unexpectedly to Qureshi, Hawk ducked down and kicked at Qureshi’s knee cap, crippling him. Qureshi yelped in agony and instinctively reached down to grab his knee. Hawk proceeded to seize the opportunity, delivering a vicious blow to Qureshi’s neck.