Full Black - Brad Thor [50]
No sooner had that thought entered his mind than the radio in the bag next to him clicked. Schiller was indicating that he and his assault team were geared up and ready to breach the apartment.
Murphy clicked back the all-clear from behind the complex and after one last check of the street, Harvath reached his hand into the bag and clicked back his response. All clear. It was time to clean out the rats’ nest.
As Harvath’s hand felt for the butt of his MP7, he could completely visualize what was going on upstairs. With the all-clear having been signaled from outside, Schiller would motion up his breacher, have him pause, and then click his radio one last time before giving the man the command to swing the breaching ram and knock the safe-house door right off its hinges.
Flicking his cigarette into the street, Harvath drew his left hand inside the window and hovered it over the truck’s horn. He wanted to give Chase a heads-up, but he knew he couldn’t. He needed to appear just as shocked by the entry team as everyone else. If there was a signal before the attack, they could very well cue in on that after the fact. Harvath’s plan for leaving Chase under cover with them once they had been transported to a black site for interrogation could all come unraveled.
As Harvath waited on the street below for the assault team to enter the apartment, his heart began to beat faster and the hairs on the back of his neck suddenly stood on end as if the air was charged with electricity. It was a way his gut had of signaling him that something wasn’t right.
CHAPTER 24
Having seen the book on the dashboard of the car outside, Chase knew the assault team would hit the apartment before nightfall. There was no way of knowing if they had seen his signal. He hoped so, because he couldn’t do it a second time. There was a very bad vibe in the safe house. If he got caught opening the blinds or any of the windows again, he had no doubt there’d be hell to pay.
Sabah had returned, and he and Karami had shut themselves up in one of the rooms at the end of the hall. Chase wondered if there were any computers or weapons hidden away in that room. He also wondered where Sabah had gone in such a hurry and what he and Karami were now talking about.
Chase was certain that the Uppsala cell was in the final stages of something. What it was, he had no idea, but it sure felt as if they were about to go operational on something. Was the Uppsala cell Aazim’s dead man switch? Had he provided Karami with a target deck and a way to activate the network’s sleepers in the United States and elsewhere upon his death?
These were all questions Chase couldn’t wait to start asking. He also wanted to know why it had been so important for the Uppsala cell to bring Aazim’s nephew in. Was the uncle just that overprotective, or did Mansoor know something or have access to something of value? They’d be getting to the bottom of all of it soon enough.
In the meantime, Chase stayed with the cell’s cannon fodder and watched war porn. One of the jihadists got up at one point to get tea and actually brought back an extra glass for the newcomer. It was a good sign; a sign of respect. Quietly, Chase hoped that it meant that they had begun to accept him. Their willingness to believe he was one of them would affect how successful the interrogations would be once they had been deposited in whatever black site Harvath had arranged for them.
Chase knew exactly what was in store for him. Very likely, he was going to get Tasered when the assault team hit the safe house. He’d be FlexCuff’d and hooded. If he resisted, which he planned on doing quite vehemently, he’d get a tune-up, which meant he’d be slapped around.
After they were tossed in the truck with the other cell members and spirited back to the farm, Harvath would line them up in the barn and have their clothes cut away from their bodies with EMT shears. They’d then receive the same “packaging” all extraordinary rendition prisoners had been receiving since 9/11.
After being fitted