Target Zero Page 13

  She took off running in an effort to escape the imminent explosion. Hawk was right behind her.

  “Maybe next time you can think of a plan that’s not so destructive. Getting the job done at all costs isn’t always the smartest move.”

  “Are you worried about how we’re going to get to the border?”

  “Alive and in one piece? Yeah—I am.”

  “Well, don’t worry. You still got that five grand?”

  “Thinking about getting a taxi?”

  Hawk shook his head. “It’d be too easy for some other Al-Shabaab thugs to find us before we get there. We need to travel a little more discreetly.”

  ***

  AN HOUR LATER, Hawk and Alex were saddled on a pair of camels that set them back three-thousand dollars. It was more than market price, but Hawk didn’t have time to bicker over the price. Alex managed to talk the man into throwing in some traditional attire for her and Hawk to wear. Two hours later, they were approaching the Djibouti border.

  “This ought to be interesting,” Alex said. “I want to hear how you’re going to explain that we arrived in the country via plane but now we’re exiting on camels.”

  Hawk grinned. “I’m going to let you explain that one. You’re the one who speaks French, not me. Besides, I bet they’ll let us do anything we want once we gift them these camels.”

  “Untraceable bribes are the best kind,” Alex said.

  “Not that it matters out here.”

  It took Alex less than fifteen minutes to explain to the border patrol agent what they were doing on camels. He told them he couldn’t permit them to leave, not without the authority of a higher-ranking government officer. Then Alex turned on her charm. She asked the man if that was necessary if she was going to give him their camels.

  Out came the stamp—and they were through into Djibouti.

  Hawk offered five-hundred dollars to another agent on the other side to drive them to Camp Lemonnier. Once there, they asked for the gate MP to contact General Van Fortner and that they needed to speak to him on the orders of J.D. Blunt. After a few phone calls and verification of their identities, Hawk and Alex were forced to surrender their weapons and were taken via an armed escort to a hangar to meet General Fortner.

  Fortner emerged from an office door in the hangar to greet his guests. While Blunt had mentioned that Fortner was twenty years his younger, Hawk struggled to see it. Perhaps it was the effects of leading a military installation located in one of the hottest regions on the planet. Or maybe it was just life in the military. Whatever the reason, Fortner’s face was leathery, his hat covering up what wisps of hair escaped. Hawk noted that he’d never seen any fresh-faced generals, even ones that made the rank far ahead of their peers, even ones that didn’t live in such harsh environments.

  Fortner broke into a smile and offered his hand to Hawk and Alex.

  “You must be Brady Hawk,” Fortner said, shaking Hawk’s hand. He turned toward Alex. “And you’re Alex Duncan?”

  They both nodded.

  “It’s my pleasure to meet both of you. J.D. spoke highly of you both the last time we talked.”

  “When was that?” Hawk asked.

  “Several weeks ago when he was trying to escape that shit storm Washington was raining down on him.”

  “I’m glad someone has his back.”

  “That’s a dwindling crowd these days.”

  “We know that all too well,” Alex said.

  Fortner looked Hawk and Alex up and down. It hadn’t even occurred to Hawk how questionable their grimy clothes might appear to someone else.

  “Rough trip over here?” Fortner said with a grin.

  “If you only knew the half of it,” Hawk said.

  “Let me guess—terrorists, guns, camels, desert? Does that about cover it?”

  “How’d you know?” Alex asked.

  Fortner shook his head. “I live in Djibouti on the border of Somalia. That’s called Monday around here.”

  “Think you can get us to Tuesday?” Hawk asked.

  “Tell me what you need, and I’ll make it happen.”

  Hawk’s phone buzzed. “Excuse me, General. I need to take this call.”

  Hawk stepped away from the crowd and left Alex to charm the general. He glanced down at his phone before answering it.

  “Now’s not a good time, Emily,” Hawk said in a whisper.

  “I need your help.”

  “I’m not sure I can help you right now,” he said.

  “Please, I’m begging you. They’re going to kill me if you don’t do what Parker asks you to do. I need you to come to Cape Town.”

  CHAPTER 41

  Cape Town, South Africa

  EMILY THORNTON WAS ALL TOO AWARE that she’d lost a good man in Brady Hawk. It was a steep price to pay but a necessary one for someone who feels committed to the cause. Yet the cause had lost its fervor, though not its importance. Managing the surging number of shadowy black ops organizations had been reduced to an endless game of whack-a-mole. To ignore these groups would lead to a world overrun with tyrant leaders. But to snuff them out had grown exhausting and dangerous. There were fewer resources to deal with the burgeoning problem that had spread like a cancer across the globe.

  At the center of all these groups was the one Emily wanted to see taken down more than anything. It was why she stayed with Searchlight even as she acknowledged that the organization’s tactics often rode roughshod over legal lines. However, Emily’s latest assignment had her straddling the fence between succeeding in her mission and maintaining a shred of authenticity in her relationship with Hawk. Their romance had been real years ago when they were working together in Jordan with the Peace Corps, despite the fact that it was first part of a covert op. Hawk, her secondary assignment, was born out of opportunism. A chance to lure an elite-trained Navy Seal to work for them couldn’t be ignored. It’s all she ever mentioned to Hawk. She never wanted to tell him the primary reason she was there. The assignment was too dark and too evil. She knew he’d never look at her the same way again if he ever found out.

  Yet here she was years later faced with a quandary that pitted duty and devoted obsession against the only man she’d ever loved. To move forward, she resigned herself to the fact that Hawk was a lost cause for her. Emily figured there weren’t enough days left in their lives to rebuild the trust that they’d once had. It was over—and it made what she was about to do that much easier.

  Hawk just might try to kill me once he realizes we want to use Alex for bait, but there’s no other way.

  Emily had perfected the art of manipulation and was prepared to use it when the situation called for it. If there was ever a time when she needed to do so, this was the moment. The guilt Emily felt over lying to Hawk about her supposedly being in danger from Searchlight would easily be assuaged after she took down the person at the center of The Chamber. Once The Chamber was weakened, a domino effect would ensue as the other players vied to assume the role as top dog. But no other group was positioned as strategically as The Chamber, and neither was one resourced as well either. Weapons and money were one thing, but The Chamber also possessed a stable of highly-trained operatives who could remove any world leader from power if its decision makers so desired. Destroying The Chamber would make the world a safer place, that much Emily believed. And she held this belief as if it was religious dogma.

  Her phone buzzed, and she answered the call from Kade Parker.

  “Did you have any luck with Hawk?” he asked.

  Emily sighed. “He said he’d do it.”

  “Excellent. I knew he’d come around. What’d you do? Turn on your Thornton charm?”

  She ignored his question. “For the record, I’m not happy about this. You better succeed or else we might become Hawk’s next target.”

  “Oh, once we get what we need out of him, he will become target zero on our hit list,” he said. “Perhaps I’ll even give you the honors.”

  “That’s one I’ll take a p
ass on.”

  “Suit yourself. Good work, Agent Thornton. Once you get confirmation that Hawk and Alex are on the plane headed to see you, I’ll send you the rest of the details about how to proceed.”

  Emily hung up. Hawk had promised her no such thing, but she was confident that he’d cave and come to her rescue.

  CHAPTER 42

  Camp Lemonnier

  Djibouti City, Djibouti

  HAWK LOOKED AT ALEX still engaged in conversation with General Fortner while calling Blunt to find out where he was. It’d been hours since they’d spoken, and there was no sign of Blunt. When he finally answered Hawk’s call, a conversation occurred that rattled Hawk to his core.

  “Are you going to be joining us soon?” Hawk asked. “We’ve made it to Camp Lemonnier.”

  “So I hear,” Blunt said. “General Fortner gave me a call to vet you.”

  “Good to know he’s being careful.”

  “You can never be too cautious in this day and age. You know that as well as anybody.”

  “Are you in route?”

  “Not yet,” Blunt said. “I’m afraid something else has come up that I need to take care of.”

  “Do you have another assignment for us? And preferably one that doesn’t involve working with a backstabbing traitor.”

  Blunt waited a few seconds before answering. “I wouldn’t recommend overstaying your welcome. It seems you’ve made some enemies at the CIA or at least some division of it, and who knows how long before they convince one of the military personnel there to take you out. What better place to do it than one where you feel safe all the time?”

  “I never feel safe any more.”

  “Good. That’s what’ll keep you alive.”

  Hawk took a deep breath, unsure of how to broach the next subject.

  “I spoke with Emily Thornton,” he said.

  “And you’re still alive?” Blunt fired back.

  “Why would you—?”

  “Look, Hawk, it’s dangerous times out there, and you need to be careful. She’s working with Searchlight and could pose a serious threat to you and Alex.”

  “Why Alex? I mean, Emily wants me to bring her with me and—”

  “Where? Why? What is this all about?”

  “She needs my help, Senator. Searchlight is after her now.”

  “That’s bullshit. She’s one of their top operatives. Go if you don’t believe me, but please don’t take Alex with you.”

  “Why not? Alex and I work great together as a team. I feel much better about my chances of saving Emily with Alex on the team.”

  “Listen to me, Hawk. Emily’s life isn’t in danger. She wants you down there because they want to use Alex.”

  “Use Alex? Like as a hacker?”

  “No. It’s for something far worse, I’m afraid.”

  Hawk turned his back to Alex and General Fortner, gazing at the choppy waters in the distance. “You think they’re going to hurt her?”

  “It doesn’t matter because they don’t care if she gets hurt or not.”

  “Then why on earth would they need her?” Hawk asked.

  “To use her as bait.”

  “Bait?”

  “You heard me: bait.” Blunt paused to let the gravity of his statement sink in.

  “Who could she possibly be used as bait for? She’s a loner. She has hardly any friends and—”

  “Her mother. They want to use her as bait for her mother.”

  “Her mother? But her mother’s—”

  “Dead?” Blunt said. “No, not hardly. The woman Alex knows as Kathryn Duncan, the woman that gave birth to Alex and reportedly died in an accident on the Beltway—she’s actually Katarina Petrov. And the CIA has been trying to capture her for years. They even had the same plan to use Alex as bait at one point before she went all white knight and blew the whistle on some of their covert operations that weren’t exactly operating within the confines of the law.”

  “Would Alex be in danger?”

  “From what I know of Katarina Petrov, she wouldn’t hesitate to kill her own daughter. I always thought it was a foolish plan, but the CIA was adamant that it would work.”

  “And you hired Alex to keep her safe?”

  “Exactly. That’s why I never wanted her going into the field. It had the potential to jeopardize her and compromise a mission, especially toy with your better judgment.”

  “So why does everyone want to kill Katarina Petrov so badly?”

  “She’s the head of The Chamber.”

  “The Chamber? The one you used to work for?”

  “That’s the one,” Blunt said.

  “And you’re just now getting around to telling me this? Don’t you think that’s kind of important? All my missions could be at risk because of Alex.”

  “Hard to stuff that genie back into the bottle, especially when you can’t talk to her about it.”

  “You’re sure she doesn’t know?” Hawk asked, incredulous.

  “Not a clue, and let’s keep it that way. You just keep her safe, understand?”

  Blunt kept talking without waiting for an answer, but Hawk was lost in his own world. He watched a plane touch down on the runway in front of him, the blast from the roaring jet engines making it impossible for Hawk to hear anything Blunt was saying.

  “What was that?” Hawk said loudly.

  “Oh, never mind.”

  “Just to be clear—you don’t want us to go to Cape Town then?” Hawk asked.

  “Under no circumstances,” Blunt said. “You stay put until I call you.”

  “Roger that,” Hawk said. “Be safe.”

  Hawk hung up the phone and resisted the urge to turn back around and look at Alex. He wanted to catch that secret glimpse of her, a beautiful woman whose personality and looks had grown on him quickly, more quickly than any other woman he’d known.

  Stop it, Hawk. Keep your focus. This is about making the world a safer place, not hooking up with a beautiful woman.

  Hawk spun around on his heel and walked back toward the conversation he’d been conspicuously absent from for the past ten minutes.

  “Is everything all right?” Alex asked.

  Hawk nodded. “Everything is good, but we need to get moving.”

  “Without Blunt?” she said, her brow furrowed.

  “Yes, we’ve got business to attend to elsewhere,” Hawk said, looking General Fortner in the eyes. “He was wondering if you might be able to arrange transportation for us, General.”

  “And where are you two jet setters off to next?” Fortner asked.

  “We’re going to Cape Town.”

  THE END

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I am grateful to so many people who have helped with the creation of this project and the entire Brady Hawk series. Morocco is one of my favorite places I've ever visited and loved setting some scenes in the book there.

  Krystal Wade has been a fantastic help in handling the editing of this book, and Dwight Kuhlman has produced another great audio version for your listening pleasure.

  I would also like to thank my advance reader team for all their input in improving this book along with all the other readers who have enthusiastically embraced the story of Brady Hawk. Stay tuned ... there's more Brady Hawk coming soon.

  NEWSLETTER SIGNUP

  If you would like to stay up to date on Jack Patterson's latest writing projects with his periodic newsletter, sign up here.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  JACK PATTERSON is an award-winning writer living in southeastern Idaho. He first began his illustrious writing career as a sports journalist, recording his exploits on the soccer fields in England as a young boy. Then when his father told him that people would pay him to watch sports if he would write about what he saw, he went all in. He landed his first writing job at age 15 as a sports writer for a daily newspaper in Orangeburg, S.C. He later attended earned a degree in newspaper journalism from the University of Georgia, where he took a job covering high schoo
l sports for the award-winning Athens Banner-Herald and Daily News.

  He later became the sports editor of The Valdosta Daily Times before working in the magazine world as an editor and freelance journalist. He has won numerous writing awards, including a national award for his investigative reporting on a sordid tale surrounding an NCAA investigation over the University of Georgia football program.

  Jack enjoys the great outdoors of the Northwest while living there with his wife and three children. He still follows sports closely.

  He also loves connecting with readers and would love to hear from you. To stay updated about future projects, connect with him over Facebook or on the interwebs at www.IamJackPatterson.com and sign up here for his newsletter to get deals and updates.

  Target Zero

  © Copyright 2016 Jack Patterson

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  First eBook Edition 2016

  Cover Design by Books Covered

  Published in the United States of America

  Green E-Books

  PO Box 140654

  Boise, ID 83714

  Table of Contents

  What Others are Saying about Jack Patterson

  Other titles by Jack Patterson

  Dedication

  Chapter 0

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4