One Rough Man - Brad Taylor [165]
“Jennifer, listen to me. Carlos is about to kill a lot of people. We’re the only ones who can stop him. And I mean we are the only ones who can stop him. You and me. You saved my life, and I don’t mean just today. There’s got to be a reason for that. I don’t want to die any more than you do, but I’m the one that’s here, and I’m the one that’s got the skill to kill that asshole. You know I can’t promise nothing bad’s gonna happen, but if it does, you need to believe it was worth it. Okay?”
She sighed. “Yeah, okay. Just don’t do anything stupid. Please. Before you jump off of a building, remember you can’t fly. Can you do that? For me?”
“Sure. But you need a better analogy, because I can fly.”
“Smartass,” she said. “Good luck.”
98
The tech man got Lucas’s attention. “He’s right here in Sarajevo. About three klicks from the airport and moving east.”
About fucking time. He addressed the entire team. “Listen up. We aren’t going to do any fancy work over here. If we execute, it’ll be a simple frontal assault, but hopefully it won’t come to that. Mason’s team’s in-country, and presumably tracking Pike right now. The last thing I want to do is screw up an operation he’s already executing.”
One of the men cut in. “So we’re just backup for Mason?”
“Maybe, maybe not. I can’t get in touch with Mason or his team, and I don’t want to lose the targets again. If we can’t link up with them, we’ll get a fix on the beacon and hit Pike and the girl ourselves.”
He saw the team start to grin, apparently anticipating an easy kill and the bonus that went along with it. “Don’t get a hard-on yet. I’ve told you what happened in D.C. Remember that. This isn’t a cake-walk. We close in on him and take him out with overwhelming force. I’m not risking another complicated operation. We smoke him and the girl, then immediately head back here and catch the first thing flying home.”
Lucas gave the team a minute to break their weapons out and kit up, then said, “All right. Let’s move. Remember what I said. You might think you’re a killer, but this guy really is.”
Twenty minutes later, Lucas’s team idled in the parking lot of a restaurant on the northern end of Sarajevo. They had traveled the entire length of the city, the cars spreading out on the surface roads in an attempt to contact Mason and his team by both cell phone and radio. They had failed, and now Lucas had a choice to make. I can spend my time trying to find Mason, or I can spend my time trying to kill Pike.
He decided to execute the mission with the second-tier team, since he had no idea how long Pike’s beacon would last. Batteries might be going dead while I sit here with my thumb up my ass. Lose that, and the whole game’s over. He’d worry about Mason later. In fact, he wouldn’t worry about Mason at all. He’d failed, and now, as in the past, Lucas would be forced to clean up the mess. He liked to think he was being logical, but the truth was he wanted Pike. Wanted to be the one who twisted the knife. And make no mistake, Pike wasn’t going to die easy. Not anymore. As he saw it, all of his troubles centered on one man. The ongoing investigation that had forced him to flee the U.S. was precisely the result of this asshole’s evading Lucas’s net. The thought rankled him. Made him eager for the hunt.
He watched the beacon track on the computer in his lap and committed the team.
“Target’s on the move. He’s headed this way. By the speed of the beacon, he’s mounted. We’ll wait here until he dismounts. Once he’s stationary, we’ll roll. This car will lead, passing up his location. The trail car will follow, stopping short. On my command—I say again, on my command—we’ll execute the mission. Nobody, and I mean nobody, will fire until I give the command. Once that command is given, everyone with a shot needs to fire. Is that understood?”
Lucas waited, hearing confirmation from every member of the team. “Okay. Good. I’ll call once he stops. We’ll take a look at the terrain, form a quick plan, then move.”
Superimposed over the