Hidden Threat (63 page)
Authors: Anthony Tata
“
Daddy?”
Matt Garrett set
up the satellite uplink from Mwanza, Tanzania and got confirmation of a secure satellite connection. He wasn’t sure he could handle the emotional torrent that might release if he watched his brother, Zach, reunite with his reformed daughter. So, he got Zach from Landstuhl Military Hospital in Germany to this remote corner of the Serengeti and then removed himself from the picture. This was Zach’s show, not his. Actually, it was Amanda’s and he was damn proud of that young lady for having the intestinal fortitude to persevere.
While Amanda and Zach were embracing, Matt plugged the two hard drives he had snatched from the Yemen raid into USB cables that fed into a master computer that the Central Intelligence Agency could access and monitor. He could see Riley standing in the center of the soccer field, laughing as orphans ran circles around her with a soccer ball.
“
Uploading files,” Matt said into his satellite phone as he watched the green bar slide from left to right across the screen indicating upload progress. The files would take encryption experts in some cases minutes and in most cases hours or days to decipher. The haul from Yemen, while considered a bust in the operative communities, was anything but that. CIA Director Houghton had instructed Matt to secure the two server drives he had taken from Yemen until international attention on the raid ebbed.
Houghton was on the line with Matt and said, “Good job. We’ve got Elsie Cartwright, our best techie already telling us you got a more current database than Rahman’s of every Al Qaeda member in the first few minutes.”
“
There’s a hell of a lot more there, Roger. And there are probably more databases. We have to keep the pressure on these guys,” Matt said.
“
Roger that,” Houghton said.
“
I want in on developing the plan to systematically go after these assholes.”
“
No question.”
“
And you were wrong, you know,” Matt said.
Houghton paused. “About what?”
“
Zach. He’s good to go.”
“
I heard. I’m always happy to be wrong about shit like that. Now get your ass back here when you can.”
“
Roger that, Roger.”
Matt heard Houghton chuckle and hang up. He looked out of the small cinderblock shack that Amanda had steered him toward for his “conference call.”
Next he called General Griffin in Pakistan and after a few seconds got the general on the tactical satellite radio.
“
Eagle six, give me a status,” Matt said.
Matt heard a chuckle, then Griffin said, “Well, son, I’m in Miram Shah with my headquarters where Haqqani used to hang out, so I’d say we’re doing some good. But it’s going to take time.”
“
At least we’re there,” Matt said.
“
Wouldn’t have been possible without you,” Griffin replied.
Matt smiled. No, it surely would not have been.
“
Keep your powder dry, General.”
“
I’m just about out of powder we’ve been killing so many of these bastards.”
“
Stay safe, sir.”
“
Matt?”
“
Yes, sir?”
“
I’d follow you into combat anytime, son.”
Matt paused at the strong sentiment from the seasoned soldier.
“
Likewise, sir.”
***
In Yemen, four
houses down from the raid objective of the Americans an ambulance arrived with a dialysis machine in the back. The medics disembarked rapidly and carried a stretcher into the suburban house, which was surprisingly unaffected by the blast of the server farm.
They found their way into the bedroom past several AK-74 toting security personnel who had materialized from the vapor. They loaded the tall patient on the litter and immediately hooked him up to the IV bags and heart rate monitors.
Securing him in the ambulance, they got the dialysis treatment underway, and under heavily guarded escort, sped away into the Yemeni desert night.
Make sure to stay tuned for
Dark Threat
, book four of the Threat Series, where Amanda Garrett runs a clandestine U.S. State Department HIV vaccine program in Tanzania.
International terrorists and American pharmaceutical companies descend on the Serengeti Plain as the secret cure is leaked to the world. Protected by two Tanzanian orphans, Amanda evades the clutches of the Leopard and the Cheetah, a French sniper and Rwandan war criminal escapee, who have teamed up to steal the vaccine.
Matt and Zach Garrett are called into action with Amanda on the run and the vaccine in jeopardy, when a billionaire’s fascination with a newly discovered 30,000-year-old text leads him to believe that Amanda’s prize may not only cure disease, but offer everlasting life.
The idea for
Hidden Threat
came from two places. First, ever since September 12, 2001 I have believed that we under-resourced the fight against Al Qaeda. As you have just read in
Hidden Threat,
I take creative license and put both Matt and Zach Garrett into the fight in Afghanistan and, more importantly, in Pakistan, where I believe we need to be to win this war.
Secondly, I have seen the impact of war on families and, in particular, on soldiers and their children. Amanda’s struggle on the home front in parallel with Zach’s in combat is symbolic of the agony I have witnessed in many different families and situations. The main point is that it takes courage to be a kid and have a parent in a war.
I would like to thank my editor, Shane Thomson, for his diligence, as well as Tim Schulte and Stan Tremblay at Variance Publishing. Also, thanks to the wonderful Jessi Alexander for allowing me to use her lyrics from the song “This World is Crazy” off her album
Honeysuckle Sweet
. Also, congratulations to Mary Ann Singlaub for winning the contest to have her name used in the novel during last year’s USO sponsored book release for Rogue Threat.
And most importantly, thanks to you, the reader, for your interest and loyalty.
AJT
Also by AJ Tata