‘Old spooky’s in town.’
‘How many?’
‘Just one for now. Once Maziq locates him, you and I need to address this. Let’s call it a security leak.’
Pepper lifted his brows. ‘Sir, I can’t wait.’
‘We need to be careful. Just take him out of the equation temporarily until we’re long gone.’
‘How you wanna do it? Old school or new?’
Ross frowned. ‘Do I look new school?’
‘That’s what I thought.’ Pepper showed Ross his best evil-minded grin.
‘However,’ Ross quickly added, holding up an index finger. ‘We’re gonna have to do this new school. I won’t break the law or violate the rules of engagement.’
Pepper nodded. ‘That’ll make things a little more difficult … and dangerous.’
Ross smiled broadly. ‘I was going to say more interesting.’
Kozak was trembling with excitement. ‘Dude, this is the first time any Ghost Team has fielded this baby. This is one small step for a kid from Brooklyn, one giant leap —’
‘Man, kill the theatrics. That thing looks like it’ll break from just staring at it too hard. How much it cost? A million bucks?’
‘I don’t know. Why are you so negative?’
‘Because we fight with guns — not shit you find on Aisle 5 of Toys “R” Us.’
‘Oh, this isn’t a toy,’ Kozak argued, staring wide-eyed. ‘Say hello to my little friend.’
In his palm sat a MUAV, or Micro Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. Shaped like a dragonfly, the battery-operated ornithopter remained aloft for ninety minutes by flapping its translucent wings as its tiny camera transmitted sound and images back to Kozak’s cell phone. A smartphone application allowed him to pilot the craft and record its operations. Kozak considered the Dragonfly a ‘close quarters drone,’ and with the push of his right thumb, the MUAV hummed softly and flew away toward the roof of the hangar, then descended to zip inside.
‘Those geeks got too much time on their hands,’ said 30K, his mouth falling open as Kozak showed him the camera images piped in from the tiny craft:
The two mechanics were discussing something near the plane, while Kozak flew the drone past them and into an office area cordoned off with cubicle walls. There on the desk were inventory lists and shipping manifests with the Fadakno logo at the top, everything written in Arabic. Kozak hovered over them and began taking snapshots.
‘You know what’s even more cool?’ he asked 30K. ‘The fact that there really are dragonflies here in Libya, so even if these guys spot the drone, they’ll just think it’s a bug.’
‘So you’re a bug pilot. That make you feel proud?’
‘Yeah, it does. Now shut up.’
Kozak worked his thumbs on the screen, and the Dragonfly ascended and wheeled back toward the mechanics, who were now standing atop a rolling ladder and gaining access to the plane’s starboard side engine. Kozak kept a safe distance and decided to have the Dragonfly alight on the fuselage just above them.
Once the drone was in place and stable, he zoomed in on the men and turned up the cell phone’s volume.
The conversation was so dull that Kozak fought to keep his eyes open. They said nothing that would betray them, argued over who’d last serviced the plane, and then got to work.
‘I’m going in with the blanket,’ 30K said. ‘Or if you like, I can just walk in there with another story.’
‘Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down,’ Kozak began. ‘You’re going in? What’re you going to say?’
‘I’ll feel them out. I’ll say how pissed off Hamid is, that this poor aircraft maintenance is ridiculous, and Hamid was mad enough to send us here with orders to kill them if they don’t fix it.’
Kozak gave him a look. ‘Why don’t you run that idea by Ross?’
30K frowned.
‘If you’re talking to them, how’re you supposed to plant the tracker?’
‘That’s where you come in.’
‘I don’t like it.’
30K threw up his hands. ‘The blanket it is.’
‘Let’s just wait.’
‘Wait here all night?’
Kozak narrowed his gaze. ‘They’ll be done soon.’
‘In the time it’s taken to have this conversation, I could’ve been in and out.’
30K breathed deeply and cursed as he slipped off his pack. He tugged out their Cross-Coms, handed one to Kozak, and donned the other headset. Next he removed the optical camouflage blanket and computer, which was about the size of an external hard drive and communicated wirelessly with the blanket. He slipped the computer into his breast pocket, then pulled the blanket over his head. He now resembled a weird Libyan Jedi Master.
‘Camouflage active,’ he said. The computer read his voice command, and he vanished, save for his face, now a sweaty, disembodied mask floating beside the hangar.
‘If they spot you,’ Kozak warned.
‘If they spot me, they ain’t gonna be around long enough to sound the alarm.’
‘Oh, and that’s zero footprint, huh?’
30K rolled his eyes. ‘Hey, they won’t spot me.’
Kozak’s breath shortened as his teammate shifted toward the entrance, the blanket flickering.
‘Jimmy,’ Kozak whispered.
30K turned back.
‘Be careful.’
30K smirked and rounded the corner, the air where he’d just passed bending like a rift in the space-time continuum.
TWENTY-FIVE
It was an old Libyan fishing trawler moored at the marina for who knew how long, and when Ross lowered his binoculars and glanced over at Maziq, the man was typing furiously on his laptop computer. Pepper, who was hunkered down beside Ross on the church’s rooftop, gave a curt nod and said, ‘If you want to go new school, then Kozak’s our man for this. Pair him up with Maziq and cut ’em loose. I can use one of the drones and run surveillance on the trawler. I’ll give them the signal if and when he leaves.’
Ross thought about that plan as he raised his binoculars and zoomed in on the boat once more. She was a medium-size trawler, about eighty feet, with a meager boom and dark red stains running down from her hawse pipe. Her pocket-shaped nets lay piled on her deck, and judging from their faded appearance, they hadn’t been used in some time. Perhaps the trawler’s owner had just moored her there and walked away from the boat and his business, who knew. For the past thirty minutes there’d been no movement within or around the vessel, although Ross had thought he’d seen someone near a window of the navigation bridge, but a second look proved him wrong.
According to Maziq’s intel, Tamer, the CIA man they needed to ‘neutralize,’ had set up shop on the boat because it offered an unobstructed view of the Fadakno warehouses.
‘Pepper, I like your plan,’ said Ross. ‘The only problem is this — if I’m Tamer, I don’t go anywhere without my computer, and if we’re going to compromise the information he’s receiving from Langley, then we sure as hell need access to that computer.’
Pepper squinted into the distance. ‘I’ve been thinking about that. It’s complicated, but there’s a way to make that happen. We just need Maziq to call in a few favors.’
‘What did you have in mind?’
30K used one hand to hold the blanket tightly at his chin as he shifted quickly behind two natural-gas-powered forklifts parked beside stacks of wooden shipping pallets. Beside them lay rows of small boxes printed with the Fadakno logo. The mechanics were on the other side of the plane, standing atop their ladder, with the fuselage blocking 30K from their view.
Kozak, who was observing the entire hangar via the Dragonfly, spoke softly to 30K as he moved: ‘Okay, bro. You’re still clear.’
30K took a deep breath, left the wall, and began to cross the open area between the pallets and the plane — just five meters between himself and the forward landing gear.