Chapter 60
You and Brett are headed to DC. I want you on the first commercial flight available.”
He said, “What happened?”
I looked at Brett and he just nodded, telling me he already knew why he was leaving. I said, “Brett will fill you in on the
way, but you’re going to stop a Quds Force attack in DC.”
“You’re shitting me.”
“Nope. Go pack your stuff.”
“Wolffe okay’ed this? I thought he wasn’t too hot on me helping.”
“Let me worry about Wolffe. You just need to get to the Taskforce as soon as possible. Take this computer with you.”
Knuckles glanced at Brett, then said, “Give me the Rock Star Bird, and I’ll get there quicker.”
I chuckled and said, “Good try, but we’re going to need that punching holes in the sky tomorrow. We still have a mission down
here.”
He said, “Okay, but you’re pulling off two franchise players for this mash-up from the Island of Misfit Toys. You sure you
want to leave this mission in the hands of a psycho with an attitude problem?”
I saw Shoshana glower and chuckled, saying, “Trust me, we’ll be okay. You’ll have your hands full in DC.” He turned to go
and I said, “Knuckles, the men you’re chasing murdered Sheriff Marley. DC will want you to be second fiddle, but if you have
a shot, take it. No mercy.”
Knuckles face hardened. He said, “My pleasure.”
Brett unplugged the computer from the host connected to the Taskforce and they both left the room, passing Veep as he arrived.
He held the door open for them, then said, “What did I miss?”
I said, “A lot. Is the Bird ready?”
“Yeah. Takeoff at eight a.m. No issues.”
I said, “Good.” Before I could say anything else, Shoshana interrupted, saying, “What is this Island of Misfit Toys? If you
don’t want our help, I’ll contact the Kidon team. They landed an hour ago, and I’m thinking it might be better if we joined
our own side for this.”
I said, “Too late for that. You’ve already committed to be with me, and I need your skill because I’m sending Knuckles and
Brett on another threat. One that’s in the United States.”
She shook her head, saying, “Then what was that about being misfits? Why the slur?”
I wanted to kick Knuckles in the nuts. “Slur? What are you talking about? Knuckles just paid you a compliment. The Island
of Misfit Toys is a story of a group of heroes that save Christmas. It’s an iconic holiday thing in the US. I guess that’s
why you don’t know it.”
She looked at Jennifer, who nodded earnestly. Jennifer wouldn’t lie, and the story was somewhat true, so Shoshana bought it.
She thought a minute, then said, “Okay, you told Veep something had changed. What is it?”
I said, “Everyone take a gander at that screen. It’s a Signal chat with a terrorist in the United States. That’s what Knuckles
is going to track down. We’re still focused here.”
The remainder of the team coalesced around the screen while Aaron came over to me. He whispered, “What is the story of the
Misfits?”
I said, “It’s a children’s show called Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
He shook his head and said, “I’ll have to look that up later.”
“If you do, don’t let Shoshana see it.”
He smiled and said, “I understand. She’s not good with the teasing.”
I said, “So true, but I meant what I said about your skill. There’s no way I would let Knuckles leave if I didn’t have absolute trust in Shoshana and yourself.”
He patted my shoulder and said, “I know, I know. Trust me, she feels the same way. There’s no way she would have invited you
into our safe house in Iguazú if it weren’t true.”
Shoshana turned from the screen and said something in Hebrew. Aaron answered, then rushed over to the screen. I knew what
they were reading. I’d toyed with keeping the part about Palestine out of sight from the Israelis, but decided that starting
to act duplicitously with an ally would just lead to bad outcomes. Now wasn’t the time to play hide-the-intel.
They both returned to me, Shoshana saying, “Pike, you didn’t say anything about an attack in Israel. They have a third one
planned for what they’re calling Palestine.”
I said, “I literally learned that five seconds before you walked in the door. Creed finally cracked the computer.”
She said, “This changes everything. We must join the Kidon team. I know I told you we would help you, but we cannot do that any longer.”
I said, “You leave now and we’ll both miss the target here. You think that Kidon team that landed an hour ago is going to
be able to get up to speed on this? The only reason you know about it is precisely because you and I worked together today.”
Shoshana said, “Pike, I’m sorry, we can’t stay with you. We need to let my command know about this.”
I said, “My command will let your command know. Nothing is going to be hidden, and there’s nothing you can do for Israel from
here. Well, there is one thing: you can stop them here, and maybe get the intel to stop them there. You leave now and you
may not do either.”
She looked torn, glancing at Aaron for guidance. He said, “I believe Pike is right. The path to Israel runs through the terrorists
here. If we leave, we start over.”
She glanced back at me and I said, “You implied I don’t respect your skills, but you don’t have to ask me if it’s true or not. Read me right now. Tell me I’m against you, because the truth is I need you more than you need me. But if you leave my team right now, we’re both going to lose.”
She floated her weird gaze over me like she had a dozen times before. Each time it had been disconcerting, like she was penetrating
my soul, but I took it. She nodded and said, “Okay, Pike. I will stay for the time being, but if something changes with my
command, we’re leaving. What now?”
Behind me, Jennifer said, “Pike, George Wolffe is on the screen. He wants to talk.”
I thought, Great. Just in time for more fighting. This is turning into a crisis circus.
I held a finger up to the Israelis and went to the computer, taking a seat.
Wolffe said, “Have you seen the raw intel we got off of that computer?”
“Yes, sir. I have the whole team here discussing it. Well, the whole team minus Brett and Knuckles.”
“Where are they? Do you have a lead on your target?”
“No. I sent them to you because we have a lead on your target.”
“Pike, we talked about that already. We’ve got it under control here.”
I needed to sell him on Knuckles coming, but didn’t mention the Sheriff Marley angle, because I knew he’d realize I had an
emotional interest in the target set. I said, “Do you? Is that why you’re calling me at midnight? It sounds like you could
use the help, and I have the Israelis here.” I turned to Shoshana and Aaron and said, “They’re part of the team now, so I
could spare the manpower.”
“Pike, the Taskforce isn’t authorized to operate on US soil. It’s a waste of manpower.”
I’d thought about that problem since our last discussion, and had a half-baked answer. “Look, all Knuckles is going to do
is an exercise, just like we did in Charleston. He’ll test some kit with Creed, and if he gets lucky, he’ll solve your problem.
That’s all you need to tell the Oversight Council. Let him operate.”
“If he isn’t going to execute a target, what’s he going to do that we can’t? I don’t need a gunslinger that isn’t allowed
to shoot taking up space here.”
I said, “Look, sir, we know four things more than we did an hour ago: one, the terrorist is Iranian because they’re speaking in Farsi. Two, the target set is in Washington, DC, three, it involves a truck, and four, the Iranian is working with Americans who don’t know what they’ve been hired to do.”
Wolffe nodded, saying, “I got that and we’re already tracking on it. All of that intel has been fed into the system.”
“Well, let Knuckles take a crack at it when he gets there. I promise he’ll lap whatever you’ve found while he’s in the air,
probably within about an hour of him arriving. Hell, he’s already done that down here.”
Wolffe sighed, but I could see what I thought was relief on his face. He didn’t think the dipshits in the three-letter agencies
were going to solve the problem either. He said, “Okay, let him come. How are you looking down there?”
I said, “Not as good as you. The computer didn’t have their master plan on it. All we got was that last text.”
Shoshana cleared her voice in a theatrical way, and I exhaled, saying, “You saw the data about Syria and Palestine, right?”
“Yes, of course. CIA is talking to Mossad right now, but it’s not a lot to go on.”
I flicked my eyes to Shoshana and she gave me a slight smile. I said, “I understand, but just knowing there’s an attack coming
is something we didn’t have before. I’ll bet Mossad is better at this tracking shit in their country than we are in ours.”
“What are your plans?”
I told him what I had planned with the aircraft, ending with, “Maybe we should call off the state visit until we develop this
a little bit more.”
“That’s not happening. They’re already on the ground, and there’s no way the National Command Authority will run scared from
a nebulous threat, and I promise Israel feels the same way. We both pummeled the hell out of Iran and we’re not going to look
like we’re scared of the results.”
I exhaled and said, “Well then, let’s hope that bravado keeps them alive, because we’re out of leads right now.”
He said, “What about the van you found?”
“I kept eyes on it with the team for about six hours today. Nobody’s come back to get it, and I don’t think they are going to at this point. They know its radioactive.”
He exhaled and said, “The ceremony isn’t until eleven a.m. tomorrow, so you’ve got some time left. What are you going to do?”
I looked at the team all watching me, turned back to the screen and said, “Get some sleep and pray. It’s up to them to make
a mistake now.”