Chapter 37
Knuckles heard a soft knock on his door, then the electronic lock spring free. He turned from his laptop, seeing Veep enter
holding the Flipper Max, Brett right behind him. On the screen, Pike said, “You think this’ll work?”
Knuckles said, “Worth a try. Better than flipping the fire alarm, that’s for sure.”
Knuckles and the rest of the team had hustled back to the hotel and had managed to place a small Wi-Fi camera in the corner
at the end of the hall, but it had done no good. The man in the single room had never left, and the rest of the suspected
Iranians had never returned. At 10 p.m. they’d held a virtual planning session on next steps, tossing out ideas to force the
man out of his room. One course of action had been tripping the fire alarm, which would most definitely get the man out and
moving, but Pike rejected the idea.
Shoshana had said, “Why the necessity of seeing him first? Just go get him. I promise he’s bad either way. If he’s not the
Ghost, he’ll know where he is.”
Pike had said, “Carrie, I’ve already told you my left and right limits.”
Shoshana sulked a bit, then said, “Look, the Iranians are here together, and the Ghost came separately. Since only one person
has returned, it’s more than likely your man. If three had come back, and one was missing, I’d think the opposite.”
That had pulled them off topic, with everyone discussing the odds of the mysterious Pit Viper life-form being the Ghost. Eventually, they’d returned to the topic at hand, arguing the merits of patience versus forcing his appearance.
Pike had said, “The fact that the others haven’t returned concerns me. If it is the Ghost, the others haven’t left him on his own. I’m afraid that whoever it is, tonight will be his last night at the hotel.”
For once, Shoshana had agreed, saying, “Don’t paralyze yourself by wanting perfect. Perfect is the enemy of good enough. You
wait until tomorrow, and you’ll miss your opportunity.”
Finally, Jennifer had said, “Why don’t you just knock on the door? Pretend you’re housekeeping or just a lost guest? All you
need to do is get him to open the door.”
Knuckles had looked at Brett and Veep, who’d just shrugged. He’d returned to the computer screen and Jennifer had said, “Maybe
we’re just overthinking the problem.”
After attacking the idea from all different angles, it had survived long enough to become the plan. They’d decided to execute
the operation at 2 a.m., and now Knuckles was conducting final mission preparations with Pike.
Pike said, “You have everything you need to get him over the side?”
“Yea. Full climbing harness for the target, waist harnesses for us. I’ll go over first, Veep and Brett will belay him to me.
More importantly, did you find the greenhouse I was talking about?”
Knuckles had conducted a reconnaissance of the exfil route, an old nature trail that had fallen into disrepair. It meandered
through the edge of the property and was littered with decrepit signs, some staked into the ground, others fallen over, all
describing the various plants and trees along the trail. In the center was what once had been a thriving greenhouse but was
now a crumbling shed littered with shattered pots and cracked glass.
“Yeah, I found it. Aaron and I will meet you there. Jennifer and Shoshana will stay with the vehicle for exfil. You have the
right dosage?”
“Yeah. Should put him out no more than thirty minutes. That’ll give us enough time to search the room, get him to you and back into the safe house before he starts to stir, but not too long that we’ll be dragging around an unconscious body if we need to jump.”
Pike said, “Okay, you have control. Give me a call when you’re about to breach.”
Knuckles watched his men preparing for the hit, a gnawing restlessness eating away at his subconscious. He turned back to
the screen and said, “Pike, what if it’s not him? Do you really want to back off?”
“It’s not a question of what I want. It’s what I’m allowed to do. Why?”
“Well, it seems to me we’re here chasing the Ghost and he’s led us to something that’s right in our mission set. If that guy
who rented the rooms is the commander of Unit 840, he’s here for something bad. Getting the Ghost will stop it, but if he’s
not in the hotel—if he’s in the wind—getting whoever is in that room is second best.”
“I hear you. I’m going to do a complete data dump on Wolffe tomorrow, with everything we know from both the Israelis and us.
He’ll have to take that to the Council for us to continue.”
Knuckles paused, knowing Pike’s heart, but also knowing the pressure and restraints Pike was under. He said, “That’s not what
I meant. If this guy is here with the Iranians, it might very well be a fleeting target. It shouldn’t matter if it was the
Ghost that got us here or some other Taskforce intelligence. We’re here, and we can stop whatever they have planned.”
He saw Pike exhale, and knew his next words pained him to say. “I have my orders.”
“Pike, Shoshana’s never wrong. She’s scary as shit, but she’s never made a bad call when it comes to evil intent. You’ve seen
it. I’ve seen it. If she says these guys are on the warpath, you know they are.”
Pike rubbed his face, then said, “I get it. Trust me, I know, but we have to play this by the rules.”
“The Iranians don’t play by the same rules. They aren’t going to wait politely for us to get permission.”
Pike remained silent, and Knuckles could see him thinking. Finally, he said, “Look, use your best judgment. If it’s not the
Ghost, but you see something indicating hostile intent . . . use your best judgment.”
And Knuckles knew an enormous weight had now been placed on his shoulders. The call was now his and his alone.
He said, “See you in under thirty.”
He closed the laptop screen, turned to the team and said, “You guys ready to get some?”
Brett said, “Oh, yeah. I heard that last part. Are we backing off if it’s not the Ghost?”
“Don’t know. Depends on what we see.”
Veep put in an earpiece, saying, “Comms check.”
Knuckles and Brett followed suit, making sure they could talk, and Knuckles said, “No change to the plan. Veep, you knock.
If it’s the Ghost, let him close the door and get settled. Brett, you have breach, I’m two-man, Veep you follow with the tranquilizer.
Execute on my command.”
They nodded and Knuckles shouldered a pack, saying, “Showtime. Veep, lead the way.”
They exited the room into the hallway, finding it empty as expected. Veep led them to a stairwell at the end of the hall,
and they went down two flights, to the second floor. He cracked the door, glanced out, then whispered, “Clear,” and entered
the hallway. He jogged past two doors and stopped on the third, glancing back at Knuckles.
Knuckles and Brett pressed against the hallway wall, and Knuckles nodded. Veep raised his hand, paused, then gave the door
four sharp raps. Knuckles held his breath.
Nothing happened.
Veep glanced at Knuckles and he motioned his head towards the door. Veep knocked a second time and waited. No response.
Veep sidled back to Knuckles and said, “I can’t even hear movement in there. Maybe he’s a heavy sleeper.”
Knuckles shook his head, saying, “None of these guys are going to be heavy sleepers. He’s awake. Knock again.”
Veep returned to the door, and Brett said, “Maybe he left. Somehow avoided the camera.”
Knuckles unslung his backpack and dug through it, pulling out what looked like a 1980s cell phone or old World War II handset.
Called a radar scope, the device was designed to find living organisms through walls by detecting motion.
Any motion was good enough, to include the simple act of breathing.
In certain cases, a heartbeat alone was enough to trigger a positive finding.
Veep rapped his knuckles against the door one more time and waited. Knuckles put the device against the wall and began sliding
it, as if he were trying to find a stud. Knuckles stopped, looked at the screen, then back at Veep. Veep shrugged.
Knuckles motioned to him and he returned. Knuckles said, “He’s inside, against the far wall, lying down. I’m thinking he’s
hiding behind the bed. He’s not going to come to the door.”
Brett looked at the picture the scope provided, a linear object glowing red along the floor. He said, “Hiding? Hell that’s
enough proof of guilt.”
Knuckles said, “It’s not hostile intent.”
Veep looked up from the screen, saying, “Recock for tomorrow? He’s got to eat sometime.”
Knuckles said nothing for a moment, thinking. He’d expected a black-and-white choice: either the man who answered the door
was the Ghost, or he was not. He hadn’t considered the third option, that nobody would come. Pike’s words echoed in his mind:
hostile intent. By hiding behind the bed, wasn’t the man showing hostile intent? Or at least trying to hide hostile intent? He went from
Pike’s orders to Shoshana’s admonition about preventing death. About his team being more willing to sacrifice lives than break
the rules.
He said, “No. We go now. Brett, make breach.”