Decoy looked over my shoulder at the computer screen and said, “Who the hell is that guy?”
“I have no idea.”
It had taken about an hour, but eventually we’d determined that all cars were clean, with me scrubbing mine just to be on the safe side. On my command, we’d let Lucas go, intending to find his bed-down site through his phone. After coming back to the hotel and helping Jennifer smuggle in the kit, we’d printed the funnel, sending everything we could back to the Taskforce. There ended up being four sets of fingerprints: two complete unknowns, Knuckles, and this guy, who had pinged in the database.
I unmuted the VOIP, with the entire team hovering around me. “Okay, one of you fifty-pound heads tell me what this is. Give me his history. Is he Hezbollah or what?”
“Well…uhhh…he’s a complete mystery. He came up in a BATTS sweep in Yemen three days ago. He was in an AQAP torture house getting brutalized, along with fourteen or fifteen other guys. The house was hit by an American-trained CT force looking for Khalid al-Asiri. It was a dry hole, and they scanned him just as routine SOP. He wasn’t the target, and he didn’t pop after the scan as anyone of interest.”
“Is he Yemeni? Or Lebanese?”
“Saudi. And we ran an airline data search. Nobody by this name and nationality has left Yemen since the hit.”
Saudi? What in the hell is going on?
“Any chance of a mistake?”
“Zero.”
I glanced at my Timex and saw it was closing in on four P.M. So it would be almost seven A.M. there. Kurt would be working out right now, and I needed some guidance before I did something that caused serious heartburn.
“Go to the gym and find Colonel Hale. I need to speak to him ASAP.”
I heard nothing but silence. I switched windows on the computer, hiding the picture of the Saudi and bringing up the camera. I saw two analysts looking at each other, neither of whom I recognized. New hires since I had left operational status.
“What are you doing? Did you hear me?”
One said, “Yes, but the section chief told us we had to go through him before seeing Colonel Hale. We aren’t allowed to hit up the boss directly.”
Behind me, Decoy said, “Who hired that ass-clown?”
“I don’t know,” I said, “but he’s working on a short career.”
I knew Kurt very well, and there was no way he would want to be cut out of the loop like that. Filters were fine, and even necessary, but a blanket edict was stupid. That’s how bad things slip through the cracks, because decision makers don’t have the information they needed.
“One of you go to the damn section chief and the other one get Colonel Hale.”
“He’s not at work yet. He’ll be here in a couple of hours. Eight thirty, along with the dayshift guys.”
“Look, I know that most of your stuff is slow-burn, but I have a crisis going on. I realize I’m far away from you right now, but I’m a much bigger threat than your stupid-ass section sergeant. Now go get Colonel Hale or I’m going to rip off your fucking head.”
The threat of violence seemed to do the trick. One of them scurried off while the other looked sick. I blacked the camera and microphone on our side, grinning at the results. I turned around and saw everyone else grinning too. Until I got to Jennifer. She was scowling at me, shaking her head.
“What? Come on. That was a little bit funny, wasn’t it?”
“Nobody likes a bully, Pike.”
That comment hurt a little bit, because I really did get along great with all the support folks. I just didn’t like little Napoleons preventing me from doing my job. I started to say something back to her when the computer squawked.
“Pike, you there?”
I saw Kurt and opened the mike and camera.
“Yes, sir. And I have a little issue I need some guidance on.”
“Yeah, I got the rundown from the analysts. So you think Lucas has a posse over there?”
“What else could it be? And not an amateur one either. That IED was well constructed. He’s had training.”
“What do you want to do?”
“It’s not what I want, it’s more what you’ll let me do. I’ve got Omega authority for Lucas, but I’m not sure he’s the primary threat. He could just be the handler, and taking him out only cuts the leash on this Saudi guy.”
“So you want Omega for an unknown? A target we can’t identify? I agree on the threat, but I don’t think that’ll fly. The Oversight Council will see right through this request to the next one, worried about the precedent.”
“Yeah, that’s my point. I hope they do. Remember when we set up the Taskforce? Your initial take was for a primary target and the authority to flex to a secondary target on any perishable intel we got from the first hit. That thought was right then, and it’s right now. No telling how many unknown bad guys Knuckles could have rolled up once he had Crusty, but he had to send all that bullshit back to the rear, then go through this huge vetting process. It’s not the best way to run a railroad. Especially after you’ve put all the time and effort into developing the cover to get in-country.”
“Yeah, yeah, but that’s all water under the bridge. I didn’t get what I wanted, and now we operate within a different framework.”
“That’s what I mean. This is the perfect opportunity to show them you were right. The perfect justification.”
“Well, maybe perfect on the enemy side because of the envoy’s visit, but they’re not going to be keen on turning you loose to dig around. Especially you.”
“What the hell does that mean? Me? I’ve put more terrorists away than anyone-without any compromises.”
Kurt laughed. “Calm down. You just tend to scare people.”
“Bullshit. If they think my operations are scary, they can sit on their hands and see what’s really frightening: a YouTube video of this unknown terrorist standing over the body of a dead American envoy.”