Clear by Fire (32 page)

Zeus was careful to keep his head down and away from the camera while he spoke to the guard, and after a few minutes the Libyan turned and walked back to Mason’s position.

“That young man is very polite for an Egyptian. He knows the man we are looking for and told me that he had a very long night and is sleeping in his room right now. Allah always smiles on the faithful.”

“So, what are you thinking? Should we go wake him up?”

“I don’t want to be rude, but we are pressed for time.”

“Well, let’s do it.”

They found a line of Toyota Hiluxes parked near the edge of the compound, and Zeus spotted a set of keys in the third truck he checked. Mason got in the passenger seat, while Zeus drummed along with the CD playing in the cab.

“I like this band, the lady has a good voice. Who is it?” he asked as he drove.

“I don’t know. It’s some kind of teenybopper shit. Do you have any idea where you’re going?”

“Yes.”

“Are you going to tell me?”

“Not until you tell me the name of this band.”

“I told you that I don’t know.” Mason hit the eject button on the CD player and pulled the silver disc out of the deck. “It says Lady Gaga. Like I said, I’ve never heard of it. If you don’t tell me where we’re going, I’m going to throw it out the window.”

“Put it back in and I’ll tell you.”

Mason slipped the disc back into the stereo and hit the play button. “Done.”

“We are going to the modular housing.”

Zeus slowed the truck to a crawl as he approached a row of modular housing. The “mods” were metal trailers that had been converted into barracks and each had an address attached to the upper-right corner of the building. Once you found the correct row the numbers ascended from front to back.

Mason dug through his assault pack until he found a lock-pick set, a pair of gloves, and a cell phone. He wouldn’t have the luxury of conducting the interrogation the way he wanted, so he was going to have to improvise. He lifted out four black zip ties before closing the bag.

“He told you all of this in a ten-second conversation? How did he know where to find the guy?”

“Just because he guards the CIA’s front door, it doesn’t mean he’s loyal to the Americans. I would expect you to understand this better than anyone.”

“Good point,” Mason said before handing the zip ties to Zeus.

The American stepped out of the truck; his boots crunched over the gravel as he slipped between the metal trailers. He kept walking until he realized that Zeus hadn’t told him the number he was supposed to look for. Stopping at the edge of one of the mods, he waited for Zeus to catch up.

“What’s the number, dickhead?”

“It’s that one right there.”

The building was exactly the same as the ones they were staying in, except that these were painted a dull tan instead of white.

“It’s room number three.” Zeus spoke as he slipped on his gloves.

They moved to the stairs, opened the door, and stepped into a hallway that ran the length of the trailer. As they stopped to let their eyes adjust, Zeus held up five fingers, telling Mason it would be the last room before the bathroom.

Moving slowly down the hall, Mason motioned for Zeus to stay put while he moved into the bathroom. He paused long enough to ensure that no one was inside and then stepped casually through the door. A quick check under the stalls told him that no one was using any of the toilets, and then he headed to the shower area. It was empty and he stepped back into the hall.

Zeus gave him the thumbs-down sign, which meant the door was locked, and Mason took a knee next to the doorknob and carefully inserted the pick into the lock. It had been a while, but after a few seconds of screwing around with the tumblers he managed to disengage the lock and ease the door inward.

Zeus had his pistol out and stepped slowly into the room, and Mason drew his Glock and followed. It was dark inside and the two men waited for their eyes to adjust before moving any deeper. Directly in front of them were two beds pushed against the wall, with two wall lockers forming a neat cube. The lockers effectively cut the room into four sections, making it impossible to see the other two beds.

On the back wall there was a desk and an AC unit that hummed in the dark as it struggled to keep the room cool. Zeus could see the two beds closest to him didn’t have linens on them and he nodded to Mason that he was ready to move. As the two men moved deeper into the room, they could make out a faint glow coming from a window that had been covered by a poncho liner.

Mason moved along the left side of the room until he came to the opening between the wall lockers. He could see a man sleeping in a bed to his right, and he stopped with his pistol up to signal Zeus that he had a target. Zeus moved up to the left side and once he visually cleared his area, he lowered his pistol to give his friend the right of way.

Moving directly toward the bed, Mason popped the hard corner formed between the bed and the lockers. It took only a split second, but once he saw that it was clear he pointed his Glock at the sleeping man and waited for Zeus to tell him it was clear.

Zeus moved up behind him and squeezed his shoulder, which told him he was free to move. General Nantz’s mouth was open slightly as he snored on his back, and Mason inserted the barrel of the pistol into the man’s open mouth. In one smooth motion he forced the pistol to the back of the man’s throat until he gagged.

The general’s eyes shot open while his brain processed what was happening. Zeus leaned in and whispered, “If you move, my friend is going to kill you.” Then he flipped on the small lamp sitting on the desk. “I want you to get up slowly and move to the chair. Nod if you understand me.”

Nantz nodded carefully and slowly sat up in the bed. Zeus grabbed the general’s pistol off the camp stool that sat next to the bed and shoved it into his waistband. Once the general was standing, Mason used the pistol like a bit to guide him until the backs of his legs touched the edge of the chair. He gave Nantz a nudge with the pistol, and the man lowered himself into a seated position.

“Place your hands on the arms of the chair and do not move them, or I will shoot you in the face. Nod if you understand.” Once again he nodded and lowered his arms. Zeus zip-tied the spy’s arms to the chair and then bound his legs together at the ankles. After he was secure, Zeus moved around behind him and slipped another zip tie around his throat. Slowly he clicked the male end of the tie through the female until it was tight enough to be uncomfortable but not affect his breathing.

“I am going to take the gun out of your mouth. If you make any noise, my friend is going to choke you. You need to know that I didn’t bring any cutters with me, so if you make him tighten it, we can’t get it off. Nod if you understand.” Mason waited for the nod before slipping the pistol out of the man’s mouth.

“Before you start talking, I want you to listen. We know who you are and the orders you’ve been giving General Swift. We know that you compromised a team that launched yesterday and that they are all dead. All we want is information, and if you tell us what we need,
you will never see us again. If you lie to us, we are going to hurt you. There is a kill team at 365 West Union Street waiting for our call. If you are uncooperative, they will kill your wife and your children. Nod if you understand.”

Drops of sweat appeared on the general’s forehead and dripped down his face when he nodded. His pupils dilated from the adrenaline dumping into his system. The fight-or-flight response was in full effect, but Nantz wasn’t going anywhere. Zeus slipped past him and began searching his bed and the area around it. The Libyan pulled open his wall locker and began tossing the contents onto the floor.

“I need you to pay attention to what’s happening right here. I don’t need you to worry about what my friend is doing. I am going to ask you some questions now. I know your first instinct is to lie, but I want you to fight that. What do you have Swift doing for you in Syria?”

The general stared him right in the face and lied. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Mason didn’t say anything. He just moved to the back of the chair and tightened the flex cuff around his neck a few clicks. Pulling the phone from his pocket, he began typing in a series of numbers. He waited for a few seconds, then began talking.

“Saber 6, you are a go to enter the house.”

“Wait, I’ll tell you. You have to understand what’s going on over there while we are stuck in this shit hole. It’s for the good of the country, you have to believe me. I’ll tell you everything you want to know. Just don’t hurt them.”

“General, you probably have two minutes until they have your family.”

“Ask me anything. I swear, I’ll tell you. Just don’t hurt them.”

“Where is Barnes?”

“He is outside of Damascus.”

“What’s the target? You’re wasting time.”

“There’s a mosque in Damascus that he’s going to use to draw the
terrorists into the city. Just like Najaf, Barnes is going to blow up the mosque and let them flood in. Everything I have is in the wall locker. Please don’t hurt my family.”

“You have thirty seconds.”

“There’s a hidden compartment in the back with a thumb drive. Everything that I know is on that drive.”

“Fifteen seconds.”

“That’s all I know, I swear.”

“Ten seconds. Tell me how to find him.”

“I swear to God I don’t know.”

“You’re running an operation in another country and you expect me to believe that you can’t talk to your men? That’s bullshit.”

“We have a secure server that allows us to communicate. The address and the password are on the computer. Please, I swear to you.”

“Saber 6, stand down,” Mason said into the phone. He’d bluffed and won, but he wasn’t sure it would matter.

“Can you keep them safe?”

“I need the password to this computer,” Zeus said from the bed, where he had booted the computer and inserted the thumb drive, which had been exactly where Nantz said it would be.

“It’s Pusher 79810.”

Mason wasn’t listening. He didn’t care what Nantz had on the drive. Right now all he cared about was killing him. Placing his hand on the general’s shoulder, he waited for the signal from Zeus. The Libyan looked up from the computer and nodded. Mason bent down and grabbed the zip tie.

“I want you to know that if I ever get back to the States, I’m going to kill everyone you care about.” Nantz tried to say something, but Mason was already pulling the zip tie as tight as he could.

The general’s legs shot out as his brain told him that there was a big problem. He tried to get his hands to his throat, but they were tied down, and the only thing he could do was twist and turn in his chair as the oxygen was slowly cut off.

Mason turned the chair so he could look into the man’s eyes as the light faded from them and Nantz fell still.

“Do you have everything you need?” Mason asked.

“Yeah, I’m good.”

“Okay, help me cut him loose.” The two men cut the tie from the dead man’s legs before cutting his arms free. Dragging the man to the wall locker, Mason grabbed a pair of medical shears from Zeus’s back pocket and cut the zip tie from his neck.

“What are we going to do about this shit?” Zeus asked as they folded the general’s body into the locker and forced it shut.

“I’m going to call Mr. David, and let him handle it,” the American replied.

Zeus began wiping down the room. Mason pulled out the phone and held down the speed-dial key. Moving to the bed, he closed the laptop and put the thumb drive in his pocket.

“I didn’t expect to hear from you this soon, Mason. Is there a problem?”

“More of a situation. I need a cleaning crew sent to building D 2280, room number three. Tell them to check the wall locker. And someone needs to start checking manifests on anything that carries passengers out of Pakistan. Barnes has to get to Syria with all his gear, and it’s not like he can buy a ticket and check his weapons with the baggage guy.”

“Got it, get back here now.”

“Roger.” Mason hung up the phone and pointed to the flight line. Barnes already had a jump on them, and he wasn’t sure if he could catch up in time.

Hope they have an exit plan
, Mason thought to himself on the way back to their vehicle. It was going to be a shit show for whoever won the lottery of finding the dead general shoved into a wall locker.

Zeus started the truck and pulled away from the modular housing, both men scanning for any obvious witnesses. They were just
two contractors going about their day; he was sure no one was paying attention.

•  •  •

“What about Renee?” Zeus asked as he tried to keep under the posted speed limit. Their adrenaline was still pumping and he fought the urge to speed.

“Shit. We can’t worry about that right now. Call Tarek and tell him to meet us in Syria,” he said, handing the phone to Zeus.

Mason could hear Tarek jabbering in Arabic but couldn’t make out what he was saying. He just heard the conversation from Zeus’s side: “Tarek, Tarek, shut your mouth and listen. I don’t care how much sleep you’ve gotten, I need you to go to Damascus. Mason said he’d give you ten thousand dollars if you meet us there . . . Yes, that is what I thought. We will see you soon.”

“Why do I have to give him ten thousand bucks? Why can’t you pay him?” Mason asked when Zeus handed him back the phone.

“If we were looking for a terrorist for my country, I would pay him, but we are not. Besides, you have plenty of money left.”

“That’s bullshit, Zeus. You don’t even have a country.”

“Well, if we are being honest, then neither do you. Unless you believe the fairy tale your latest CIA boyfriend told you.”

“Wow, thanks,” Mason said.

Mason knew he was never going home; he’d come to grips with that fact a long time ago. But he knew he needed to call Renee; after all, it was her men who had gotten slaughtered.

“What?” she asked after a few rings. Her voice was clouded in sleep.

“Renee, I . . .” Mason didn’t know what to say now that he had her on the phone.

“You tell me where you are, or I’m going to kill you. Do you understand?” Renee didn’t sound tired anymore, she sounded pissed, and Mason wondered if Zeus could hear what she was saying.