OUTCAST Ops: African Firestorm

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

Tanner Wilson sat on a park bench near the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum and waited. It was a cool fall day in the nation's capital, the sky clear and pale blue.

To pass the time, Tanner watched the people around him. Most were too focused on their own business or personal matters to pay much attention to him. He did notice he'd caught the eye of a couple of women as they walked past.

Dressed in a dark overcoat and a three-piece suit, Tanner looked like a government drone taking a mid-morning break from his job. Despite the nonchalance appearance, Tanner was keenly aware of his surroundings, and saw Casey walking toward him long before the Director of Special Projects took a seat on the bench next to him.

"How's the team?" he asked, leaning back again the backrest.

"Good. How’s the warheads?"

"In good hands. Secure hands. Once they've been examined, they'll be dismantled and destroyed."

"The prisoners?" A handful of terrorists had managed to survive the assault, including the man who had tackled Tanner at the launcher, who turned out to be a Pakistani nuclear weapons expert.

"Not your concern."

"Any problems with the cover story?"

A group of people walked by and Casey waited until they had passed before he said, "The story's close enough to the truth. The SEALs are the heroes, and all the press will know is that they retook the Northstar Venture from a band of vicious Somali pirates that killed the entire crew. As for the rest?" He waved a hand. "Better it never be mentioned."

"Any reaction from the North Koreans and the Iranians?"

"Not publicly. Privately, they've been yelling at each other back and forth, each blaming the other for the security leak. It's going to take a couple of months for it to settle down on its own, but by then we'll have a handle on how the operation got as far as it did, and be in a better position to stop them if and when they try again."

A young couple walked past the bench and from the looks they gave one other, they were oblivious to anything around them. Even so, Tanner waited until they were well out of earshot before asking, "And our Somali friend?"

"Axiam is back with his family and waiting for his new helicopter. Do you know how hard it is to find an untraceable Hip?" Casey chuckled softly.

"He deserves it. Without his help, we wouldn't have accomplished what we did."

“Oh, and the Putland military reclaimed Eyl a couple of days ago from what was left of Yabaal’s forces. There won’t be any more pirates based out of there for a while.”

“Until the next warlord that comes along gets it in his head to go pirate.”

Casey nodded absently. "We searched for any survivors off the Saad el Melik. We pulled out a few bodies, but most will never be recovered."

"Do you think Riyad was aboard the Saad el Melik when it went down?"

"We have no reason not to." Casey glanced around before adding, "The UAE is very happy their port wasn't nuked. They found out that a private contractor was involved — though they don’t know the name OUTCAST — and have requested that this contractor receive a five million dollar bonus."

He looked at Tanner to gauge his reaction, which so far was unreadable. "They passed the sum onto the Uncle Sam and our Uncle passed it onto me."

"Any objection to us accepting it? Nay’s always complaining about the old carpeting in our headquarters."

Casey smiled and handed an envelope to Tanner. "The account number and password."

Tanner took the envelope and stuck it inside his overcoat. "Any new problems?"

"Not at the moment."

Tanner stood. "We have a security job for a Canadian company. Their CEO thinks he's being targeted by a radical environmental group, so we'll be babysitting him until Danielle and Naomi run down the threats. If we find anything, we'll turn it over to the authorities and let them handle it."

Casey shrugged. "Sounds a little dull."

"Can't save the world every week and the bills don’t stop coming in."

"True. I just wish it wouldn't need saving every week."

Tanner nodded and looked around. "A lot of bad people out there, just a matter of when and where."

"Think of it as job security."

Tanner snorted. "I'd rather not. But call if you need us to save the world again."

"I'll see you later."

Tanner left Casey alone on the bench and started walking toward the Capitol building.

As he passed the National Museum of the American Indian, Liam fell into step with him. "Well?"

"Everything's good. We even got a bonus. Five million from the UAE."

"Nice." Liam motioned toward the capital. "Think any of them up there will ever know what we did?"

"I doubt it. But we didn't do it for them, did we?"

"No, we didn't."

As they reached Third Street, an SUV pulled up near them. Stephen lowered the driver's window as they approached. "The rest of the team's waiting for us at the airport.”

Tanner checked his watch and climbed into the vehicle. Forty-five minutes to the airport, and another half-hour to get in the air. They would be in Toronto before evening, and on the job before midnight.

While Stephen eased into traffic, Tanner dialed the client's number and prepared to go to work.