Easy Day for the Dead (24 page)

The average time to drive from Tripoli south forty-four klicks to
Byblos was about fifty minutes, but Cat reached Byblos in twenty-five. Near the end of the trip, they passed through the town of Amsheet, where Alex, Pancho, John, and Cat had cheated death before.
We'll cheat death again.

On the Lebanese amphibious base, Alex linked up with the Lebanese marine commandos. Even though the commandos knew it was a training exercise, they treated the situation as if it were real. They loaded up their boats with the Outcasts and Hassan and took them to the USS
Kearsarge
.

Both Pancho's and Leila's eyes were closed. Alex tried to wake them up, but neither responded.

“We need to go faster!” Alex told the coxswain. Cat translated.

“Yes, sir,” the coxswain replied.

But the boat didn't go any faster—it was going as fast as it could. The five-minute ride to the ship felt like five hours. On board the
Kearsarge,
only a select number of people knew that the medical emergency was real and were told to keep it a secret.

Pancho and Leila were immediately whisked off to the operating room, and Hassan was ushered off for a medical check. Alex, John, and Cat waited outside the operating room. “This will probably take a while,” a Navy commander said. “Is there anything I can do for you?”

“Some water would be nice,” Alex replied.

“Will do.”

An hour later, the first surgeon came out. “Pancho is a tough one. He's still in rough condition, but he's better off than he was, and now his situation is stable.”

Alex, John, and Cat smiled.

“He needs some rest now. I recommend you three get cleaned up, grab some chow, and then get some rest, too,” the surgeon said.

“We're waiting for Leila,” Alex said.

“Sure,” the surgeon said with a poker face that left Alex with less hope than the little he'd had before.

Minutes later, the second surgeon came out. “We did everything we could. I'm sorry. Leila is brain-dead. I don't know how she survived as long as she did.”

Pain strained John's face, and tears filled Cat's eyes.

Alex remembered being in the hospital with his sister Sarah. Now the world's colors faded and everything was turning white again. Even though his strength faded, he knew what he needed to do. “I need to see her,” Alex said.

The surgeon nodded. He escorted Alex to her room, then left him alone with her.

“I'll always remember you, Leila.
Mamnoon
.” He put his hand on hers and kissed her on the lips. He knew what he needed to say, and he didn't hesitate. “Goodbye, Leila. It's okay to say
goodbye
.”

Minutes later, her EKG went flat. Alex walked out of her room and returned to John and Cat. “She's gone,” Alex said.

Cat cried.

John pulled Alex aside.

Alex didn't want to talk to him. Alex didn't want to talk to anyone. He just wanted to be alone.

“In the Hummer, Leila told you something,” John said. “What did she say?”

Alex looked into John's eyes and saw so much hurt. Maybe it was just a reflection of Alex's hurt. He wanted John to feel better, so Alex said what he thought John wanted to hear. “John.”

“The last thing she said was my name?”

Alex nodded, then walked away. He walked down the narrow passages, not knowing where he was headed until he found himself at the forward hold. The steel door was unlocked, so Alex opened it and walked in. Rope, shrouds, turnbuckles, and other gear for deck operations and cargo transfers were stored inside. He closed the door and sat on a pile of rope in the dark. Alex felt lightheaded, as if he were going to pass out. He tried to keep a stiff upper lip, but his lips quivered. Tears ran down his face and they wouldn't stop. He
tried to stop them, but he couldn't. His body shook and his throat ached like it was going to sob, but no sound came out. The tears continued to pour.

T
HE
USS
K
EARSARGE
SAILED
a little over two days, until it arrived at the Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily. Alex, Pancho, John, Cat, and Hassan rode a helo to the air station. “I wish I was going with you all,” Pancho said.

“I do, too,” Alex said.

They exited the helo to find two pretty female hospital corpsmen with a stretcher. Pancho lay down on the stretcher. “Aah, Sicily,” he said with a peaceful smile.

Alex and Cat smiled, too. John just shook his head.

A gray van was parked nearby with the words
U.S. NAVY
written on the side. The doors opened and a commander stepped out with Dr. Sheema Khamenei. Hassan rushed toward his wife, tripped on his own feet, and fell. Dr. Khamenei ran to assist him. Hassan picked himself up before his wife reached him. Between hugs and kisses, they babbled in Farsi, but Alex didn't need to understand Farsi to know they were happy. Alex was glad that Leila's sacrifice hadn't been in vain. He walked over to greet Dr. Khamenei, but she was still busy with her husband, so he waited patiently. As Alex watched, he felt a calmness come over him, and he wanted what they had. He looked at Cat, but she was too focused on them to notice Alex looking at her.
Maybe Cat is thinking the same thing.

Dr. Khamenei turned and spoke to Alex in English. “Thank you so much. The MBD21 lab is in the jungle ten kilometers west of La Paragua, Venezuela. . . .”

“W
hat is General Tehrani waiting for?” Lieutenant Saeedi asked while driving their bullet-riddled Range Rover south through Monday morning traffic toward Beirut. He wore a suit and tie, assuming the cover of an Iranian diplomat. Next to him in a diplomatic bag on the seat rested his pistol and ammunition.

General Khan was also dressed as a diplomat and hid his weapon and ammo in a dip bag on his lap. “He says he needs five more days before he has enough rat fleas and MBD21 for the attack.” Three groups were scheduled to infiltrate the United States via ship. They would proceed to the domestic airport terminals in Dallas, Los Angeles, and New York, where they would unleash the fleas on passengers and the terminals. By the time airport officials figured out what had happened, the fleas would already have traveled throughout the country, spreading Black Death and reproducing while Americans helped spread the disease with their coughing and sneezing. Because MBD21 was resistant to antibiotics, no one infected could be saved. The general's goal was to wipe out half the U.S. population before a cure could be found.

“Dr. Khamenei must've already told this Alex bastard about the
lab in Venezuela. General Tehrani should stop being so greedy and just launch what he has before we lose another lab.”

“It's our job to see that he doesn't succeed in destroying the lab.”

“Let's just get one thing straight. I don't give a damn about the lab. I don't give a damn about General Tehrani. The only thing I give a damn about is slaughtering the pigs who killed Pistachio.”

“This green-face killed my mentor, and my protégé.”

“You never told me that,” Saeedi said.

“I just did.”

“Damn.”

“You lost a friend. I lost more. I've never hated anyone as much as I hate Alex Brandenburg.”

Lieutenant Saeedi parked in the lot at Beirut International Airport, and the two strolled inside and boarded an Alitalia flight to Rome. In Rome, they transferred planes and flew Alitalia to Simon Bolivar International Airport, near Caracas, Venezuela. Next, they flew thirty-nine minutes to Ciudad Bolivar. From there it was a three-hour charter flight to La Paragua. In La Paragua, Lieutenant Saeedi hired a driver who drove them in his jeep ten kilometers west through a maze of dirt roads until they reached the outer gate of the MBD21 lab. No outsiders were allowed past the gate, so Major Khan paid the driver and stepped out of the jeep. Major Khan and Lieutenant Saeedi walked sluggishly from the gate to the main building. Although they'd slept and eaten as often as they could during their trip from Beirut to La Paragua, both of them were exhausted.

W
ednesday, at Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily, after contacting JSOC with the location of the biological weapons lab, Alex, John, Cat, Dr. Khamenei, and Hassan Khamenei boarded a C-130 and took flight.

Cat fell asleep in her seat, but the Khameneis seemed nervous about the flight.

“You think they'll be waiting for us in Venezuela?” John asked.

“Yeah,” Alex replied. “Whoever survived that Bouncing Betty you left for them will be waiting for us, and they won't be happy.”

“I know our mission is to destroy the lab and capture or kill the general, but I want to take out those three creeps.”

“They certainly earned it—in more ways than one.”

“I agree with the priority for taking out the lab, but is the general more important than those other three men?”

“That's what JSOC thinks. General Tehrani is the ringleader, and I think JSOC called this one right.”

John lowered his head.

“You ever hear of a Team Two guy called Jabberwocky?” Alex asked.

“Of course.”

“He was my mentor in Iraq. Later, I found out who killed him. It was Major Khan.”

“No way. Are you serious?”

“After we take care of the lab and take out the general, I want Major Khan. I don't care about Lieutenant Saeedi or his buddy, Captain Fat'hi—I want Major Gholam Khan.”

When the C-130 reached a safe altitude, Alex took off his seat belt and lay on the cold deck.

Ten hours later, it was early morning when they touched down at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Virginia. A lieutenant and a petty officer greeted Alex's crew on the tarmac. The petty officer took Hassan to help him find temporary married quarters. Meanwhile, the lieutenant drove Alex and the others to a secure intel building in the Dam Neck annex.

Alex thought about asking Cat to sit out the rest of this mission. She was physically fit but not as fit as Alex and John. Cat shot better than most people but not as smoothly as Alex and John. Overall, she was a great operator but not at the level of SEAL Team Six standards. Most of all, Alex didn't want to bring her home in a body bag—he didn't know how he could live with himself if he did.

On the other hand, Cat had more fire in the gut than some SEALs he knew. She wouldn't take kindly to being sidelined. The last time he left her behind, he felt he'd been unfair. That decision had pissed off not only Cat; it had pissed off the skipper, too. Also, even though she wasn't up to the insane standards of Team Six, she always managed to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. With Pancho out of the picture, Alex could use another shooter. Keeping her on the mission seemed the only right thing to do.

Another thing that occurred to Alex was that
he
might not survive the mission. It wasn't something he dwelled on, but it was a reality he constantly lived with. He loved Cat, but he hadn't told her that yet. Alex didn't fear death, but he feared dying before telling her. But this wasn't the time or the place to tell her that he loved her.

Inside a secure conference room, Alex, John, and Cat discussed details about the lab with Dr. Khamenei. “You could destroy the fleas with a natural chemical like pyrethrin, attacking their nervous systems,” she said. “Or you could attack their neural membranes with the synthetic chemical permethrin. Pyrethrin and permethrin will not stop the eggs from hatching, but methoprene will—”

Cat interrupted. “Can't we just toss in a Raid fogger? They probably have something that kills the adults and the eggs.”

“Our priority is to destroy the MBD21,” John said. “How do we do that?”

“Raid will kill the fleas and their eggs, but it won't kill the MBD21 bacteria. MBD21 resists streptomycin, tetracycline, and all antibiotics, too,” Dr. Khamenei reminded them.

The Lut Desert was so hot that not even bacteria could survive.
“Can we burn the MBD21?” Alex asked.

“I guess so,” Dr. Khamenei answered.

“You're not planning to nuke it, are you?” John asked.

“No, too many civilians nearby, and our friends south of the border wouldn't be too happy with us for nuking South America,” Alex said. “I was thinking of thermate.” Thermate was an upgraded version of thermite.

“And burn down the Amazon rain forest?” Cat asked.

“Thermate could work,” Dr. Khamenei added. “But formaldehyde would be more effective.”

“Formaldehyde?” John asked.

“We use it for sterilization,” Dr. Khamenei explained. “Formaldehyde kills MBD21.”

Alex and Dr. Khamenei continued to discuss the lab compound, including its layout. Cat and John bugged out early, and returned to the Team Six compound. Cat would visit the head shed to gather the latest intel: satellite photos, maps, local population, terrain, weather, enemy, the target area, and infiltration and exfiltration
routes. Before coming to Team Six, she had experience as an intelligence specialist, so Alex could depend on her without having to tell her what to do. John dropped in on the Explosive Ordnance Disposal guys to request Raid foggers, formaldehyde bombs, claymore mines, and thermate that couldn't be traced to the United States.

After Alex finished with Dr. Khamenei, a petty officer came and escorted her to the temporary married quarters. Then Alex joined John and Cat in the Team Six compound to discuss mission planning.
Will we insert by sea, air, or land?
They planned in reverse, starting with destroying the biological weapons lab. Next, because they would have no fire support, they discussed the insertion and how they'd be picked up. Finally, they figured out what mission gear was needed—Raid foggers, formaldehyde bombs, thermate, detonating (det) cord, antitank rocket, et cetera. They also discussed other considerations such as escape and evasion. They needed an Activity guy to meet them in Venezuela and take them to the target area. Because the Outcasts were shorthanded, if the Activity guy could assist with the assault that would be even better. Even though the Outcasts worked quickly, it took them two days, day and night, to put everything together.