Choke Point

THIRTY-TWO

Three weeks prior to the mission, Pepper had been told by one of the doctors at Womack Army Medical Center that he had high cholesterol and needed to change his diet. His LDL was 167, his HDL 138, but his charisma was off the charts. The doc had barely smiled over that personal assessment and had told him if he didn’t change his ways and his numbers got worse, he’d wind up with a medical discharge and die of a heart attack.

‘But what about all the PT I’m doing?’

‘Won’t matter if you keep eating Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut and potato chips. And oh, yes, your triglycerides are very high as well. I take it you like your beer?’

‘Like barely covers it. I’m married to beer.’

‘Well, you’re getting a divorce.’

‘Aw, hell, you might as well kill me now!’

That meeting and those numbers occurred to Pepper while they were in the warehouse because, for just a moment, he felt palpitations, a heart flutter, something a little questionable in his chest, like he’d pressed on the gas pedal a little too hard and had flooded the engine.

He swore to himself, blew it off, and called it stress, then glanced back to Ross as the guard who’d been standing next to them shut the warehouse door and left.

One guard remained at the far end, directly opposite that wall of plastic-wrapped shipments at the loading docks. Pepper led Ross around to the first pallet, got on his knees and fished out the PXD.

Ross took the wedge, and they got to work as a slight ache began to splinter across Pepper’s chest.

30K was literally salivating with the desire to knife the guard who was shifting alongside the pallets, toward where he and Kozak where crouched down, waiting and listening.

There were times when being a Ghost, being swift and silent, no footprint as the major tirelessly argued, was infuriating. Sometimes, well, okay, most times, he simply wanted to sever a carotid artery and send his foes stumbling and gurgling to their deaths –

Instead of hiding from them like cowards.

Okay, so their tactics weren’t supposed to be cowardly; they were audacious, cunning, and in the end, far deadlier than going in like barbarians swinging hammers high above their heads.

But sometimes being a dumb-ass barbarian was a hell of a lot more fun.

He took a deep breath. Go with the flow. You’re a Ghost. Just vanish …

The guard walked past them, then suddenly swung around and hurried off, passing down one of the far aisles. ‘Hey, I’ve just thought of something,’ he cried to his friends. ‘The backup systems for the cameras and sensors aren’t working. Did you notice that? Are the batteries all dead? That can’t be …’

Using a small razor knife he’d retrieved from his pack, Kozak cut a thin seam in the plastic wrap that went right through one of the boxes. Through that seam he inserted another of their GPS tracking beacons.

And then he tapped a few commands on his smartphone, linking it to his Cross-Com while also sending the X-ray’s images to 30K’s HUD.

30K took one look at those X-rays, faced Kozak, and mouthed the word Damn!

Kozak shook a fist, having a Christmas morning moment himself.

With the guard a few aisles down now, 30K gestured toward the door: Let’s get the hell out of here!

The boxes that Ross and Pepper X-rayed contained a combination of parts for the refinery and bricks of cocaine, perhaps one hundred or more distributed throughout the shipment. He and Pepper were able to tag two pallets before slipping back out of the warehouse. Ross ordered Maziq to turn the power back on, then he and Pepper met up with 30K and Kozak behind the old medical supply building.

‘What’d you get?’ he asked Kozak.

‘We should go back to the church,’ Kozak began. ‘That way you can sit down before I tell you.’

‘Spit it out, son,’ Pepper said impatiently.

‘SA-24 Igla-S MANPADS.’

Those numbers and words might be gibberish to the average civilian, but to Ross and his Ghosts, they represented an alarming and deadly find.

‘Aw, hell,’ Ross said. ‘How many?’

Kozak grimaced. ‘By my count: one hundred and twenty-six.’

Ross began to shake his head; that was way more than he’d expected. ‘You’re right then. We need to get back to the church.’

‘You know what this means, don’t you, sir?’ asked Kozak.

‘I’ll tell you what it means,’ Pepper began.

‘Not here, guys,’ said Ross. ‘Saddle up. Let’s go.’

Ross led them back up the shoreline road and toward the church. His thoughts raced ahead as he considered the length and breadth of this alliance between the FARC and Hamid’s group, the Bedayat jadeda.