Gary Ponzo - A Touch of Revenge

Buck looked around and saw his team loosen their grips on their weapons. It was subtle, but it was there. They weren’t about to kill one of their own. Not over this.

Matt nodded to the rest of his team and watched them fall in behind him.

“I’m taking my suspect into custody,” Matt said. He eyed the soldiers surrounding their leader. “You guys follow him,” Matt said as he pulled Semir down the path. “He’ll get you killed before sundown.”

It was late afternoon by the time the team arrived at the county sheriff’s office. The complex was a one story block building with a gravel parking lot and a flagpole jutting out from a circle of red bricks. You had to pass Old Glory on the way into the building which made Matt smile, reminding him of the entrance to the Baltimore field office. Except this was no FBI building. This was merely a small satellite office to the main sheriff’s office in Globe. Twelve hundred square feet of block walls and linoleum flooring. They didn’t even have a receptionist to answer phones.

Steele, Tommy and Luke entered first while Matt kept a grip on Semir’s arm. Luke opened the single jail cell and Matt shoved Semir into the empty space before turning to see Julie Bracco by herself, cleaning sandwich crumbs from the vacant receptionist’s desk.

“What are you doing here?” Matt asked.

Julie rolled her eyes and gestured toward the closed door to the inner office. “Guess who’s back playing sheriff?”

“Are you kidding me?” Matt said. He noticed the frustration in Julie’s eyes and wanted to retract his comment the second it left his mouth.

“Listen,” Julie crumbled up the sandwich wrapper with more muscle than necessary, “do you really think he’s going to sit at home nursing a wounded shoulder while a terrorist is out there trying to kill him?”

She turned to throw the wrapper in the garbage and Matt followed. He wedged himself in front of her and held her arms to face him. She was a rock. Her body trembled in his grasp, but she kept her composure. Matt crouched down to be at eye level. “Jule,” he said with his most professional face, “we’ll get this done just like we always do. Understand?”

Julie’s face tightened. It seemed to be the same fight she’d always contended with as an FBI agent’s wife-be brave, but not naive.

“I understand,” she said, stepping out of his grasp. Then she tried to act busy cleaning the remaining lunch items on the desk.

Matt let her go. He made eye contact with Steele and saw compassion on her face. As if thanking him for trying to settle Julie’s nerves. He smiled back at her.

Nick had two large computer monitors side by side squeezing out the small globe and adjacent Arizona and American flags to the brink of his desk. Two tall filing cabinets sat against one wall while a scattering of folding chairs took up the rest of the space in the office.

With his sling hugging his left arm to his chest, the fingers on his right hand plucked the keys of his computer keyboard. He had Google Earth humming on the left screen, scanning for something out of place in the Payson area. Barzani was close by and somehow Nick needed to find him first, before he became another statistical accomplishment of Barzani’s revenge crusade. His mind felt slowed by the lingering effects of the anesthesia, but he kept grinding out ideas, piece by piece.

He heard the commotion in the outer office and figured the team had returned.

Tommy was the first to barge into the inner office like he was the governor. “Don’t you know when to lay low?” Tommy said, stopping in front of Nick’s desk and folding his arms.

“I guess not,” Nick said.

A massive black bear hung on the wall, stuffed and staring down at them with a mouthful of sharp teeth.

Tommy pointed at the animal. “That something you-”

“It was there before I got here,” Nick said, lifting his attention from the computer screens and watching Jennifer Steele, Luke and Matt come into his office.

“Well,” Matt said, “you can cross Semir off the list.”

“Tell me about it,” Nick said.

They did.

Jennifer Steele brought Nick up to speed with her and Luke’s liberation of Matt and Tommy from Buck Martin and his Iron Mountain team. Matt added the capture of Semir and explained the battering Buck gave the kid.

“He okay?” Nick asked.

“He’s fine,” Matt said. “Luke bandaged him up on the ride over here.”

Tommy dug a purple toothpick in his mouth. “So are you gonna tell me about this Barzani guy?”

“Well,” Nick said, leaning back in his chair, “he’s smart. He graduated from Georgetown with a Political Science degree. That’s where he met Kharrazi. When Kharrazi had his … uh, car accident,” Nick tried to keep the satisfaction from his face, “Barzani took over. The thing is, he’s not as brash as Kharrazi, but he’s more progressive. He’s very tech savvy. He’ll keep his hands clean and let some of his underlings do the dirty work.”

“So this Barzani guy sets up camp here just to kill you?” Tommy asked.

Of course it was the perfect question to ask and if an eavesdropper were to listen to Tommy’s inquisitiveness they might mistake it for dumb curiosity. But Nick knew nothing could be further from the truth. Tommy might have dropped out of high school, but he could read a situation better than any Harvard psychology professor. It was one of Tommy’s true gifts. He’d been underestimated his whole life and loved every minute of it.

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” Nick said. “Why did he send his nephew to take a shot at me? If he was serious, he would’ve sent a true sniper.”

“This guy a religious fanatic?”

“No, these guys aren’t jihadists. They’re on a mission. There are over twenty million Kurds living in Turkey, Iran and Iraq. They’re the largest ethnic group in the world without a country. They want to declare a portion of Kurdistan a sovereign nation for Kurds.”

“So, what’s wrong with that?” Tommy jabbed his toothpick in between two molars.

“What’s wrong is Turkey asked for the U.N. to send troops to help subdue the KSF from ravaging villages. The Kurds want the U.S. to withdraw its troops so they can take control.”

Tommy sucked on his toothpick seemed to take it all in.

Nick turned to Matt and sighed. “I spoke with Trish Tanner.”

Matt’s lip curled into a disgusted look of anger. Dave Tanner was one of their teammates and they’d spent years chasing terrorists together. “How is she?”

Nick shook his head. “Not good. She was upset and spitting some creative words my way.” Nick rubbed the back of his neck and looked up at Matt. “She begged me to kill Barzani. She said, do it for Dave.”

“Who’s Dave?” Tommy asked.

“Dave Tanner,” Nick said. “You knew him, he was part of our team back in Baltimore. He was murdered last night.”

“Damn,” Tommy said. “They’re turning the table on you guys, making you the targets this time.”

“Yeah,” Nick said. He looked around the room at the rest of his current team and assessed their chances of catching Barzani. He needed help, but he didn’t know from where.

Nick looked at Matt. “You still have the password to the counterterrorist team’s file?”

Matt shook his head. “Not since we came here.”

“Shit,” Nick grumbled.

“Call Walt,” Matt said. “He’ll give it to you.”

Nick considered the idea when a voice came from the doorway. “Someone looking for me?”

A large, dark-skinned man stood with his arm around Julie, who beamed her delight at his presence. Walt Jackson strode into the room like a giant leopard, moving his six-foot-five frame with the elegance of an Olympic athlete. Which he was before he became the Special Agent in Charge of the Baltimore field office. He held a brown brief bag under his arm.