Andrew Peterson - Forced to Kill

Their former commander extended his hand. “You’re civilians now. Get your damned hands down.”

Nathan suppressed a smile. “Aye, aye sir.”

“Damn, it’s good to see you two.”

“The same, sir.”

“Harvey, you’re looking fit as ever.”

“Thank you, General.”

“This is my aide, Major Bob Halliday. He’s not a Robert, like me. It actually says Bob on his birth certificate.”

“Major,” Nathan said, pumping his hand. Harvey did the same.

“Please, call me Bob.”

“How was your flight?” Nathan asked.

“Comfortable. It’s a nice ride.” Thorny lowered his voice. “Maybe too comfortable.”

Harv said, “There’s nothing like a cross-country flight in a herky bird’s jump seat.”

“Amen to that. Is your vehicle clean?”

“Yes, we did a sweep of Harv’s Mercedes yesterday. Mine’s in the bat cave as we speak.”

“The bat cave?”

“It’s the nickname for our countermeasures garage.”

Showing no reaction, Thorny said, “Let’s take a drive.”

Three minutes later, Harv turned right onto Pacific Coast Highway and accelerated into traffic. Seconds from touchdown, a commercial jet roared over their sedan.

“Harv, how are the wife and kids? Candace, Lucas, and… shit.”

“It’s Dillon.” Harvey made a left onto Laurel Street. “But ‘shit’ isn’t too far off the mark at times. They’re doing great, thank you for asking. Lucas graduates from high school this year. I think he’s going to enlist. He wants to be a sniper. Army, though.”

“Army? You’re screwing with me.”

“Afraid not, General. He likes the Army.”

“Well, if he must.… I’ll personally follow his career.”

“He’s a good student, OCS material, but he wants to be a sniper. I haven’t discouraged him from pursuing it.”

“You have anything to do with that, Nate?”

“Lucas is a good kid. I had a heart-to-heart talk with him about what it’s really like. For a while, he reconsidered, but I’m pretty sure he’s going to do it.”

“If he’s anything like his old man, he’ll do fine.”

“Thank you, sir,” Harv said.

Nathan looked out the window. Time to change the subject. “I’m going to be frank, General. If Montez is up to his old tricks and operating on U.S. soil, then he needs to be neutralized.”

“Agreed. I can’t think of a better team. Nobody knows Montez better. On the flight out here I reread your debrief.”

Harvey crossed Sixth Avenue, heading for the Cabrillo Bridge.

“I’ll be honest, sir, this is a major skeleton for me. Harv too. I-” Nathan broke off in midsentence. This wasn’t a discussion he wanted to pursue in Major Halliday’s company.

“Don’t worry about Bob,” Thorny said. “He’s had a complete briefing. I didn’t want him involved in the dynamics of this operation unless he knew everything. Bob’s very resourceful.”

“Being the personal aide to the commandant of the Marine Corps has its advantages?” Harv asked.

“Indeed it does,” Halliday replied.

Thorny rolled his window down a little. “So what’s your plan?”

“Harv and I talked about this. Whatever we do, it has to be covert. It can’t be leaked that we’re after him. We’ll only get one shot. If we miss, he’ll disappear forever. We’ll start at Lake Powell, where Kramer’s body was dumped. We’re getting some help from the FBI, but there’s a number of things we want to look into. Where Kramer was staying, and why. Where Montez stayed, if anywhere, and the location he used to torture Kramer. We plan to look into every rented, leased, or stolen boat in the area just prior to Kramer’s death. I doubt Montez is doing much himself, it’s not his style. He’ll have mercenaries doing the heavy lifting. They’ll probably be Hispanic. Maybe they were seen. Harv and I are flying out there this afternoon. In the meantime there’s something you could do for us.”

“Name it.”

“See what you can dig up on Kramer and Montez with any intelligence agencies you have trusted contacts in. Discreetly, if possible.”

“In my circles, there’s no such thing as discreet. Harv, you’ve been awfully quiet.”

“It’s no secret I’d like to see Montez skinned. But we can’t let that compromise our mission, assuming we’ve officially agreed to find him. Have we?”

“Yes,” Nathan said.

“Then you should know,” Thorny said, “this is purely a Marine Intelligence operation, and off the books at that.”

“Sounds familiar,” Harv said under his breath.

“You know the score. It’s your call how it goes down.”

“As in dead or alive?” Nathan asked.

“If the opportunity presents itself, we’d prefer to get Montez alive for obvious reasons. He’s a walking gold mine of military intelligence. We’ve got MIAs all over the globe, some in Central America. We might be able to close some files and give some families closure.”

Harv said, “I guess it wouldn’t break my heart to see Montez get a dose of his own medicine.”

“Look, I’m only asking you to bring him in if the opportunity presents itself. But under no circumstances are you to risk your lives. Clear?”

Nathan’s cell interrupted them. He looked at the screen. Holly .

“General, I’m sorry, but I should take this. It’s SAC Simpson.”

“Go ahead.”

“Hi, Holly, I have you on speaker. Harv, General Robert Hawthorne, and his aide Major Halliday are with me.”

“Hello, gentlemen.”

“Nice to meet you, SAC Simpson.”

“A few hours ago, a woman was kidnapped at gunpoint from the Fashion Valley Mall in San Diego. I think it could be connected to Kramer’s murder.”

“Why is that?” Thorny asked.

“I was doing a search in the NCIC database with the keywords Eastern Europe, Eastern Bloc, Hungary , and attache . I got a positive hit on the abducted woman. Her name is Nichole Dalton. Six years ago, we did a complete background check on her. Ms. Dalton currently works for the NSA as an Eastern Bloc language specialist. Care to guess what one of her languages is?”

“Hungarian,” Thorny said.

Nathan glanced at Harv.

“And she was abducted today? There’s no way that’s a coincidence,” Thorny said. “No way.”

Nathan squinted. A slideshow of a woman being tortured by Montez invaded his thoughts.

“There’s more,” Holly said. “Her two daughters are also missing, presumed kidnapped. The report said they’re eight and nine years old. San Diego PD activated the amber alert system.”

“That’s a bad deal,” Harv said.

It was no secret Nathan held a soft place in his heart for kids. He forced the images aside and tried to stay focused. “We need to find out all we can about any potential Kramer-Dalton connection as soon as possible. Holly, can you send us more info on this? Pictures of Ms. Dalton and her daughters, the police report, and anything else you’ve got?”

“Sure. Can we set up an encrypted fax line at your office?”

Harv jumped in. “No problem, I’ll take care of it within the hour.”

“General Hawthorne,” Holly said. “I hate to tell you this, but there was another victim in this morning’s kidnapping. An off-duty Miramar MP was shot to death while trying to stop Dalton’s attackers.”

“One of my Marines was murdered? I want the details,” Thorny said.

“I’ll forward a copy of the police report to you, General.”

“Well, if I wasn’t before,” Thorny said with venom in his voice, “I am thoroughly pissed off now.”

“Don’t worry, General,” Harv said. “Well get them.”

“Think about what this means,” Nathan said. “If Montez is behind the kidnapping, then he’s here, in San Diego.”