Chapter 1
“This one in Montana looks to be a more developed camp than the one in Pennsylvania.” Ashlin Carter, Lady Tiger to her teammates, pointed to the most recent satellite photos spread out on the light table.
“See here?” She tapped her index finger on what seemed to be small cabins barely visible under the tall pines.
“If we overlay the thermal images from the shots taken last night, these look to be sleeping bodies.”
“I’ll bet this is some kind of medical facility.” Kira Frost picked up another thermal photograph and laid it on top of one taken a few hours ago. “They are lying in a clinic configuration, and their body temperatures are slightly higher than the others.”
“Good catch, Lady Cougar,” Piper Knight, the only other member of their team who was married, complimented the team doc. “I think you’re right.”
Mia McCormick, known better as Lady Cheetah to the small group of women gathered in the dark room, bent over the backlit table with a magnifying loop.
“I don’t think those are rocks. I think they want us to believe those are boulders.
It is damn good camouflage, but check out what happens when I overlay the thermal images taken last night.
Large animals don’t lie so perfectly side-by-side.
I think those are tents with covers to match the large rocks in that desert area of Utah. ”
“Let me see.” Kira stepped around the glass table with the huge topographical map of the United States strewn end-to-end.
It was underlit, so they could best see hundreds of satellite photos taken in the past twenty-four hours.
She laid her own magnifying glass over the area in question.
Sometimes, the women preferred to go old-school rather than depending on computers.
“Hot damn, Mia. I believe you’re right.”
“About time we caught a break.” Piper stood and stretched her arms above her head and leaned to one side. “I’m ready to call it a day.”
The door to the situation room opened, and bright blue-white light sliced through the darkness.
“Lady Hawk wants to see us in her conference room,” Black Swan Team 2 leader, Kayla Scarlatto, announced.
Known as Lady Lion to her teammates, she looked at her watch.
“I know it’s almost five o’clock and we’ve been at this all day, but they have an update for us. ”
The five women wound their way through the warren of hallways in the Annex building of Homeland Security to the conference room next to the office of the director of Section 7, their boss, Katlin Callahan Wolf.
As soon as they entered, their commanding officer darkened the glass windows so no one could see in.
Katlin flipped her long blonde hair over her shoulder and took a minute to hold the stare of each woman sitting around the table, as though assessing them.
“I know you have been working hard on determining our first target here in the United States, but we have just received reliable intelligence coming out of the CIA that Adeel bin Laden is headed to a terrorist development camp in South Sudan.” Katlin clicked the remote in her hand, and a map of South Sudan appeared on the large flatscreen behind her.
“Both directors of Homeland and the CIA have agreed to increase the reward for any information leading to Adeel bin Laden’s location and eventual death to one million dollars.
That enticement seems to have paid off.”
Holy shit, they’re getting serious, Ashlin thought as she leaned her forearms on the large oak conference table.
Inwardly, she smiled. Were they going to give their team an opportunity to take him out?
Black Swan Team 2 had proven time and time again that a woman could get close to a male target and kill him much faster and just as easily as a man.
That fact had always been the basis for the success of the Black Swan teams. It had taken twenty-six Navy SEALs, two Army helicopters, an interpreter, and a combat dog to take down Adeel’s father, Osama bin Laden.
Could her small team of five women eliminate this newest threat?
Several pictures of Osama bin Laden’s favored son appeared on the screen.
“Adeel is now top of our Most Wanted list.” Katlin glanced over her shoulder at the screen.
“Confirmed by multiple sources, Adeel is currently running several terrorist organizations worldwide. Some say he’s behind almost all of them.
We believe he is forming an Islamic army on every continent.
Due to the open borders here in the United States in recent years, we know for a fact that over a thousand trained Islamic soldiers have illegally entered the United States.
These men are not members of local Islamic communities.
They are hiding, training, planning, and preparing for the next unspeakable Black Swan Event like 9/11…
but much larger. The maps you have been looking at for the past two days are what we consider to be the training camps once the terrorists reach the United States.
We’re sure there are more, but that’s not why you’re sitting around my conference table. ”
The map on the huge screen focused in on the valley between Bor and Papiu, South Sudan.
“Intelligence received a few hours ago has the preparation camps in this area. It’s the last stop before they head to the United States.
They are shipping men in from all over the world for final training.
Yes, China, Indonesia, Iran, North Korea, anywhere that Western ways threaten the strict, literal interpretation of scripture in the Islamic way of life.
Here, they teach them to become devout in their fundamentalist beliefs to the point that they will fight to the death.
It’s almost as though they are brainwashing them.
In these camps, they refine their English speech and reading skills by having them read our own military manuals.
They study our strategies and tactics of fighting from the battalion level, right down to six- and eight-man special operations fire teams. These men know us better than we know ourselves.
And they know how to counter every single move we make. ”
Next, a grainy video of Adeel bin Laden speaking appeared behind Katlin.
“He’s confirming that his plan is to continue his father’s goals,” Katlin paraphrased as he spoke, “he’s telling them that it is Allah’s mandate that they bring Sharia law to the entire world, starting with the United States of America, the most vile country in the world.
It is their belief that when the great and almighty US falls, the rest of the westernized world will soon follow.
Thus, their greatest concentration is now on the United States.
He’s telling them that our open borders policy was a divine signal directly from Allah that this was their time. The attack is near.”
Katlin pointed at the screen behind her.
“I want you Ladies wheels up tonight, headed for South Sudan. We need eyes on the ground. I want you to recon these camps. Figure out the best way to infiltrate. Are there women in there? Cooks? Nurses? Some of these look well-established. If we can get in there and kill Adeel bin Laden, cut off the head of the snake, maybe we can stop their catastrophic plans for the United States.”
“Ma’am, this kind of recon is not really what we’re best at,” Kira voiced what Ashlin was thinking.
“I know what you’re good at, but more importantly, I trust you,” Katlin countered.
She glanced at the floor before she continued, “I trust your team more than any other team in the section.” She touched her head.
“It took me months to recover after my traumatic brain injury when Black Swan Team 1 was placed on a mission with an all-male team. It’s going to take more time before I have complete confidence in any male team, the way I trust you five women.
This mission requires the best, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s you. ”
Katlin clicked off the screen behind her. “Ladies, go home and get some sleep. You’re wheels up in the night. As always, operations will feed you our latest intelligence while you’re in the air.”
All five women from Team 2 stood and headed to the door, but before it could be opened, Katlin added, “Your contact in Juba will be Bishop James at Holy Trinity Catholic Church. Don’t be surprised if you go into the valley dressed as nuns.
” She looked directly at Mia. “You might need to clean up your language a little. Bishop James and my uncle, Bishop Francis, attended seminary together. I don’t need to hear how vulgar my Ladies are. ”
“Yes, ma’am.” Mia had the good sense to look sheepish.
Ashlin’s smart watch notified her it was ten fifty as she pulled the brush through her shoulder-length hair, following it with a hairdryer.
She had ten minutes to finish drying her locks before she had to be in front of her computer for her video call with Clint.
She’d make it. She was almost done. She just needed to pull out the last few damned waves so her dark red hair would lie flat.
She had a full fifteen minutes to talk to him before she and her team would need to leave for the secret Black Swan jet sitting in a hangar protected by Marines at Quantico, Virginia, only a few hundred feet from the President’s own Marine One helicopters.
Fortunately, all five women had agreed to stay at the condo on DuPont Circle, which had been gifted to them by Katlin Callahan Wolf after everyone on Black Swan Team 1 had married or taken on permanent lovers.
They had all accepted other positions after leaving the military.
Piper usually stayed in Georgetown with her husband, Kenner Lane, who worked for the Holt agency’s Washington D.C.
office, but she had decided to stay with the other four since the mission would start within hours after they’d finished work.