The Ajax Protocol

CHAPTER 39

It was the afternoon after they'd arrived on the island. The team met again on the veranda. Clusters of purple bougainvillea and white honeysuckle vines climbed the columns in the front of the house. Sunlight slanting through the leaves of the trees cast shadows of light and dark across the lawn in front of the house.

Selena and Nick hadn't told anyone what had happened between them. It didn't seem like the right time.

Lamont set four No. 10 cans on the table. They'd once held tomatoes. Now each one had a six inch length of cord emerging from a gray, putty-like substance that filled the cans to the top.

"This is what I came up with," he said. "I mixed fertilizer and diesel and packed it tight, with some tacks and nails thrown in. I took the powder from a few rounds and mixed it with a little kerosene to soak the fuses. I gotta warn you though, it burns quick. If you actually have to use these things, you'd better get rid of them fast."

"Will they work?" Selena asked.

"Oh, yeah, they'll work. They're nasty. You don't want to get in the way when one goes off."

"Let's hope we don't have to use them," Elizabeth said. She turned to Stephanie. "Any luck, Steph?"

"I was able to link into our computers and activate the cameras inside the house. They made a real mess of things, but they didn't get into the computers and our files. They trashed everything in the offices but they didn't find the escape hatch or get into the Armory. It's probably the best result we could have hoped for. There's nobody there now."

"What about tracking down their base?"

"I'm working on it," Stephanie said.

"All right. Selena, I want you to call the pilot and put him on standby. We'll want to get out of here as soon as we're ready."

"That's a problem," Selena said. "I tried reaching him earlier. No luck, not even an answering machine."

Nick's ear tingled. "If they grabbed him, they know where we are. If I were them, I'd send a team after us. These guys are playing for keeps."

"I checked out the boat down in the bay," Lamont said. Nick could hear the former Navy seal talking as he spoke, a man who loved the sea. "It's a 48 foot Krogen whaleback. Long range, and the tanks are more than 3/4 full. Nice boat. It's solid and the engine is in good shape. We could reach the mainland in 10 or 11 days."

"That's a long time but it's good news," Elizabeth said.

"Do you think we should leave?" Selena asked.

Harker shook her head. "Not yet. Not until we know more."

"It's better to stay here," Ronnie said. "Make them come to us. That way we have home field advantage."

"With a few pistols and some clunky, homemade bombs?" Nick shook his head. "I love your optimism."

"Hey," Lamont said, "what do you mean, clunky?"

"Don't forget the shotgun," Selena said.

They all laughed. Then Nick got serious.

"I don't think they'll wait very long to make their move. I wouldn't."

Ronnie and Lamont both nodded.

"How do you see it going down, Nick?" Ronnie asked.

"I'd come in at night. I'd time it for when the moon is down."

"When is that?" Stephanie asked.

"Around two in the morning."

"Do you think they'll use choppers?" Lamont said.

"I don't think so. Too noisy. It would alert us and it would raise questions. They'd have to come from one of the nearby islands and too many people would see them and wonder what was happening. They'll come in by sea, probably zodiacs from a boat somewhere offshore."

"Where do you think they'll land?"

"Selena, you know the island. If you were going to try and sneak in here on rafts, where would you put in?"

"There aren't many places where you can get in with a boat," she said. "There are coral reefs around the island that would tear the bottom out of a raft. Even if they got to shore, the growth is so thick that they wouldn't find it easy to make their way through. They'd probably come into the bay, where the boat is. There is only one other place that would work. It's down there, on the west side of the island."

She pointed past Emile's house.

"That looks like jungle," Lamont said.

"It is, but there's a path down to the water from the back of Emile's place. He keeps a small boat there that he takes out sometimes when he wants to catch dinner. There's a narrow gap in the reef."

"How thick is that jungle, anyway?" Nick said.

"Thick. It's not much fun. Lots of insects, mosquitoes, big spiders. The ground is rough underfoot. You have to hack your way through with a machete and there's nowhere to go except to the mountain. That's so steep there's not much point to it, unless you're a glutton for punishment."

"Okay, at least our southern flank is secure. And no one is coming up that cliff behind the house. So all we have to worry about is the two sides of the island."

"I could rig up a booby trap," Lamont said. "I could use a couple of these tomato cans."

"You could hook them up to a car battery," Ronnie said. "We did that once in Afghanistan. Surprised the hell out of a bunch of Taliban. Remember, Nick?"

"Right. We turned the tables on them with our own IED."

"We can set them up on the path in from the bay," Lamont said.

"We should use Emile's house as our command post," Nick said. "We'll leave a couple of lights on in the main house because that's where they'll expect us to be, but we can't stay here. There's no place to go. We'd be trapped. I'd rather be able to fade into the trees if we have to. Besides, the caretaker's house is right on the route from the other side of the island. It gives us good positioning."

"Makes sense," Ronnie said.

For the next half hour they worked out details.

"I'd better get working on that IED," Lamont said. He wiped sweat away from his forehead.

"I'll fill Emile in," Selena said.

"Then I guess we're ready," Nick said.