It was odd the way it worked. Team-1 was now the Go Team, ready to depart Hereford at a moment's notice while Chavez's Team-2 stood down; but it was the latter that was running complex exercises while the former did little but morning PT and routine marksmanship training. Technically, they were worried about a training accident that could hurt or even cripple a team member, thus breaking up a field team at a delicate moment.
Master Chief Machinist's Mate Miguel Chin belonged to Peter Covington's team. A former U.S. Navy SEAL, he'd been taken from Norfolk-based SEAL Team Six for Rainbow. The son of a Latino mother and a Chinese father, he, like Chavez, had grown up in East L.A. Ding spotted him smoking a cigar outside the Team-1 building and walked over.
"Hey, Chief," Chavez said from ten feet away.
"Master Chief," Chin corrected. "Like being a CSM in the army, sir."
"Name's Ding, 'mano."
"Mike." Chin extended a hand. Chin's face could have passed for damned near anything. He was an iron-pumper like Oso Vega, and his rep was of a guy who'd been around the block about a hundred times. Expert with all types of weapons, his handshake announced his further ability to tear a man's head right off his shoulders.
"Those are bad for you," Chavez noted.
"So's what we do for a livin', Ding. What part of L.A.?"
Ding told him.
"No kiddin'? Hell, I grew up half a mile from there. You were Banditos country."
"Don't tell me-"
The master chief nodded. "Piscadores, till I grew out of it. A judge suggested that I might like enlisting better 'n jail, and so I tried for the Marines, but they didn't want me. Pussies," Chin commented, spitting some tobacco off his cigar. "So, went through Great Lakes, they made me a machinist… but then I heard about the SEALS, an', well, ain't a bad life, y'know? You're Agency, I hear."
"Started off as an Eleven-Bravo. Took a little trip to South America that went totally to shit, but I met our Six on the job and he kinda recruited me. Never looked back."
"Agency send you to school?"
"George Mason, just got my master's. International relations," Chavez replied with a nod. "You?"
"Yeah, shows, I guess. Psychology, just a bachelor's, Old Dominion University. The doc on the team, Bellow.
Smart son of a bitch. Mind-reader. I got three of his books:a my place." '
"How's Covington to work for?"
"Good. He's been there before. Listens good. Thoughtful kinda guy. Good team here, but as usual, not a hell of it to do. Liked your takedown at the bank, Chavez. and clean." Chin blew smoke into the sky.
"Well, thank you, Master Chief."
"Chavez!" Peter Covington came out the door just then. "Trying to steal my number-one?"
"Just found out we grew up a few blocks apart, Peter."
"Indeed? That's remarkable," the Team-1 commander said.
"Harry's aggravated his ankle some this morning. No big deal, he's chewing some aspirin," Chin told his boss. "He banged it up two weeks ago zip-lining down from the helo," he added for Ding's benefit.
Damn training accidents, the chief didn't have to add. That was the problem with this sort of work, they all knew. The Rainbow members had been selected for many reasons, not the least of which was their brutally competitive nature. Every man deemed himself to be in competition with every other, and each one of them pushed himself to the limit in everything. It made for injuries and training accidents-and the miracle was that they'd yet to place one of the team into the base hospital. It was sure to happen soon. The Rainbow members could no more turn that aspect of their personalities off than they could stop breathing. Olympic team members hardly had a tougher outlook on what they did. Either you were the very best, or you were nothing. And so every man could run a mile within thirty or forty seconds of the world record, wearing boots instead of track shoes. It did make sense in the abstract. Half a second could easily be the difference between life and death in a combat situation-worse, not the death of one of their own, but of an innocent party, a hostage, the person whom they were sworn to protect and rescue. But the really ironic part was that the Go-Team was not allowed heavy training for fear of a training accident, and so their skills degraded slightly over time-in this case, the two weeks of being stood-to. Three more days to go for Covington's Team-1, and then, Chavez knew, it would be his turn.
"I hear you don't like the SWAT program," Chin said next.
"Not all that much. It's good for planning movement and stuff, but not so good for the takedowns."
"We've been using it for years," Covington said. "Much better than it used to be."
"I'd prefer live targets and MILES gear," Chavez persisted. He referred to the training system the U.S. military often used, in which every soldier had laser-receivers mounted on his body.
"Not as good at close range as at long," Peter informed his colleague.
"Oh, never used it that way," Ding had to admit. "But as a practical matter, once we get close, it's decided. Our people don't miss many targets."
"True," Covington conceded. Just then came the crack of a sniper rifle. Rainbow's long-riflemen were practicing over on the thousand-yard range, competing to see who could fire the smallest group. The current leader was Homer Johnston, Ding's Rifle TwoOne, an eighth of an inch better than Sam Houston, Covington's leading longrifleman, at five hundred yards-at which range either could put ten consecutive shots inside a two-inch circle, which was considerably smaller than the human head both men practiced exploding with their hollow-point match rounds. The fact of the matter was that two misses from any of the Rainbow shooters in a given week of drills was remarkable, and usually explained by tripping on something in the shooting house. The riflemen had yet to miss anything, of course. The problem with their mission wasn't shooting. It was getting in close enough-more than that, making a well-timed decision to move and take down the subjects, for which they most often depended on Dr. Paul Bellow. The shooting part, which they practiced daily, was the tensest part, to be sure, but also technically and operationally the easiest. It seemed perverse in that respect, but theirs was a perverse business.
"Anything on the threat board?" Covington asked.
"I was just heading over. but I doubt it. Peter." Whatever bad guys were still thinking about making mischief somewhere in Europe had seen TV coverage of the Bern bank, and that would have calmed them down some, both team leaders thought.
"Very good, Ding. I have some paperwork to do," Covington said, heading back inside his building. On that cue, Chin tossed his cigar into the smokers' bucket and did the same.
Chavez continued his walk to the headquarters building, returning the salute of the door guard as he went inside. The Brits sure saluted funny, he thought. Once inside, he found Major Bennett at his desk.
"Hey, Sam,"
"Good morning, Ding. Coffee?" The Air Force officer gestured to his urn.
No, thanks. Anything happening anywhere?"
A shake of the head. "Quiet day. Not even much in the wad of crime."
Bennett's primary sources for normal criminal activity were the teleprinters for the various European news services. Experience showed that the services notified those who were interested about illegal activity more quickly than the official channels, which generally sent information via secure fax from the American or British embassies across Europe. With that input source quiet, Bennett was working on his computerized list of known terrorists, shifting through the photos and written summaries of what was positively known about these people (generally not much) and what was suspected (not much more).