Though he was ill-equipped to take on the approaching sandstorm, there was no way he could risk returning to the camp for additional supplies. He would have to face the elements with only what he carried on his back. It was a daunting proposition. Manjani knew that desert winds had killed fitter, more prepared men than he. Given the distance to the nearest settlement, he gave himself a ten percent chance of survival, at best.
But those odds were much better than the ones he faced in camp.
That was a war he couldn’t win, and Manjani knew it. He would rather die searching for others who might have escaped — colleagues who lacked his experience with desert survival or equipment of any kind. He owed his team that much. Their lives now rested on him, as did the legacy of those who had already perished.
Someone needed to tell the world what had happened here.
Someone needed to know what he had found.
1
Few people knew of the private road through the swamps of south Florida, and fewer still had driven on it. Several harshly worded signs warned trespassers that they weren’t welcomed on the property and would be severely punished when caught. Not by the police or a court of law, but by the owners of the land itself.
In the glades, it was known as jungle justice.
And it was just how things got done.
The longhaired biker ignored the warning signs and turned off the dirt road, eager to take advantage of the smooth stretch of asphalt in front of him. The moment his back tire reached the pavement, he twisted the throttle on his customized Harley and held on tight. His engine roared its approval and he rocketed forward at a dizzying rate of speed, laughing as the trees whizzed past him. Mosquitoes (the size of birds) and lizards (the size of poodles) darted out of his way to avoid a messy death.
Not that he would have cared.
He had killed many things over the years, most of them quickly.
It was what he had been trained to do.
At the end of the road, he slowed to a halt as he approached the massive steel gate that protected the waterfront property beyond. He was familiar with the entrance, having passed through it several times before, but he suddenly realized that he had never actually opened the gate by himself. He had always been with someone who had done it for him. Intrigued, he parked his Harley in the middle of the road, dismounted, and stepped toward the odd-looking control panel.
Strangely, there were no buttons to push, numbers to tap, or switches to activate. All he could see was a flat rectangular touch screen mounted on a futuristic metal stand. At least that’s what it looked like to him. Given the sleek look of the device and what he didn’t know about technology, it might have been a biometric sensor capable of reading his thoughts.
Just like the genie that lived in his iPhone.
Unsure what to do, Josh McNutt swiped his hand above the surface, hoping it was a simple motion detector like one of those fancy faucets. Next, he pressed his fingertips on the screen itself, wondering if it would scan his prints and let him in like the armory at Fort Bragg. When that didn’t work, he tried both palms, one at a time.
But nothing happened.
McNutt stroked the three-day stubble on his cheeks, pondering his next move. ‘Hello,’ he said to the device. ‘Anyone in there? Heeeelllloooooo.’
Eventually, he knocked on the unit as if it were the front door.
Still, no response.
‘Stupid robot,’ he mumbled under his breath.
Growing more and more frustrated, McNutt walked toward the steel gate and reached out to shake the grate. An instant before making contact, he snapped his arms back to his sides, as if the bars had suddenly transformed into venomous snakes. In truth, his reaction was caused by something more deadly. In the past, he had been told that the gate was only the first of the security measures surrounding the estate. The grounds were also encircled with highly electrified wire mesh that could deliver a lethal current. At the last second, he wondered if the gate was armed with the same type of charge.
A high-voltage ‘fuck-you’ to those who didn’t belong.
Ultimately, he decided not to find out.
‘Crap! I thought he was going to do it,’ Hector Garcia blurted from behind his computer screen. He had been watching McNutt on a variety of closed-circuit security feeds ever since he had turned off the dirt road. A seismic trigger embedded under the pavement had set off an alarm, alerting those inside that someone was approaching.
‘Thought who was going to do what?’ asked Jack Cobb, a former major in the US Army. As the unquestioned leader of the team, he had more pressing concerns than watching surveillance video. That was Garcia’s responsibility. That, and notifying Cobb if someone was headed their way.
‘McNutt,’ Garcia answered. ‘He’s been trying to figure out how to get through the gate for the last few minutes. So far, he’s losing.’
‘Can you put it up on the big screen?’ Cobb asked.
‘Sure.’
After a flourish of clicks and keystrokes, the entire collection of security footage was displayed in a grid on the ninety-inch television that hung above the fireplace. Cobb watched as McNutt stepped back to the gate’s control panel and lowered his face to the surface. Cobb pointed to feed number three — the view from the camera underneath the touch pad. A few clicks later, McNutt’s bloodshot eyes filled the entire screen.
‘What’s the hillbilly doing now?’ asked Sarah Ellis from a nearby couch. Trained by the CIA and a master of security systems, she could only shake her head in embarrassment as her colleague tried to open the gate. ‘What’s he looking at?’
‘Nothing,’ Garcia guessed. ‘I think he thinks the pad is a retina scan. He’s trying to press his eyeball on the glass.’
Sarah burst out laughing. ‘Oh… my… God. He’s dumber than I remember — and that’s saying something because I’ve had pet rocks smarter than him.’
‘Than he,’ Jasmine Park said as she entered the room. As the lone academic in the group, she was the only one who noticed Sarah’s improper grammar. ‘If you’re going to make fun of his intelligence, you should use proper English.’
‘Says the chick from Korea.’
‘Actually, I was born in America.’
‘Then you should know that it’s rude to correct someone’s grammar — particularly someone with my skill set.’
Jasmine smiled and glanced at the video feed. McNutt had turned away from the screen and was walking back toward his bike. ‘Is he leaving?’
‘I hope so,’ Sarah said as she crossed her fingers. ‘I’ve been giving it some thought, and I have the perfect candidate to replace him. Not only is she great with guns and explosives, but she’s smart enough to make ice. And that isn’t an expression. McNutt once asked me if ice cubes came from Alaska.’
Garcia turned from his computer. ‘When did he do that?’
‘When we were in Alaska. He wanted to bring some back as souvenirs. He was going to pack them in his suitcase.’
Garcia stared at her, unsure if she was joking. ‘Really?’
Sarah shrugged, her blank face revealing nothing.
Jasmine pointed at the television. ‘Seriously, is Josh leaving?’
Garcia looked up at the screen and realized that McNutt still wasn’t in view. He quickly tapped a button on his keyboard and switched to a wider angle, this one from a camera mounted on top of the gate. It showed McNutt returning to his bike and unbuttoning the cover of a large golf bag that was strapped to the sissy bar.