Brad Thor - Full Black

Harvath opened one of his eyelids. The eye failed to dilate. He placed two fingers against the man’s carotid and felt for a pulse. Nothing.

“Fuck,” said Harvath, as he then yelled for the operative outside. “Andy! Andy, damn it!”

Bachmann threw open the door and charged inside, his MP7 drawn from beneath his coat. “What is it?” he said, scanning the barn as he tried to figure out what was happening.

“Get Riley,” Harvath ordered. “Now! Tell her Mansoor has flatlined.”

As a medical student and Winter X Games athlete, Turner had been one of the first recruits into a covert Department of Defense program known as the Athena Project. Its goal was to provide women with the same training male Delta Force operatives received, making it possible to send them into the field alone, on all-female teams, or in various mixed assignments such as Harvath’s Sweden op. The bad guys could often see the men coming but rarely, if ever, suspected women. He had requested Riley, now a trauma surgeon, personally. Having worked with her before, he knew she was exceedingly capable. There were also personal reasons he wanted her along, but those were far from his mind right now.

As Bachmann took out his radio to raise Riley, Harvath cut his prisoner loose and laid him on the floor. Harvath had killed plenty of people in his career, but they’d all been bad guys who had deserved to die. Harvath had killed each of them intentionally. Mansoor Aleem was definitely a bad guy, but Harvath didn’t want him dead. And he definitely didn’t want it to happen because he had screwed up.

With him on the floor, Harvath immediately began CPR. The new guidelines called for doubling the number of chest compressions and not worrying about blowing air into the victim’s airway. “Don’t you die on me, asshole,” he said as he rapidly compressed the man’s chest. “Don’t you die.”

“What happened?” Riley shouted as she ran into the barn and saw Harvath on the floor performing CPR.

“I’ve got no idea,” said Harvath, as he kept focused on his prisoner. “When I came back in, he didn’t have a pulse.”

“Don’t BS me,” she replied as she rushed to his side. “I can’t help him if I don’t know what happened.”

“I just told you I don’t know what happened.”

“Did you hit him?”

“No, damn it,” Harvath snapped.

“If you struck him,” she said, “I need to know exactly where and with how much force.”

“For God’s sake, Riley. I didn’t touch him.”

“Fine,” she said, reaching out to check Mansoor’s pulse. “Stop the compressions for a second.”

Harvath did as he was told and watched as she checked for a pulse. “Anything?”

Riley shook her head. Picking up where Harvath had left off, she continued chest compressions with quick, swift pumps. “We’re going to need to get him to a hospital.”

“The hell we are,” replied Harvath. “We do that and we’re going to have an international incident on our hands.”

“Scot,” she said, as she continued the compressions. “He’s dead.”

“Hypothermia?”

“Hypothermia. Heart attack. What difference does it make?”

Harvath didn’t respond.

“If it’s hypothermia,” Riley added, “that could work in our favor. You’re not dead till you’re warm and dead, but I don’t have the kind of equipment we need to revive him.”

Harvath looked at the bag she had run in with and had tossed on the floor. “What about adrenaline? Can you use a syringe and pump it straight into his heart?”

“Intracardial injection?”

“Whatever you call it. Can you do that?” asked Harvath.

“Sure,” she replied, “but you need to defibrillate the patient as well. We don’t have a defibrillator.”

“Prep the adrenaline,” said Harvath as he waved Bachmann over. When the ex-CIA operative neared, Harvath told him to take over for Riley and keep giving Mansoor chest compressions.

“What are you going to do?” asked Riley.

“Don’t worry. Just hurry up and get that syringe ready.”

As Riley opened her bag and prepped the adrenaline, Harvath drew his Taser and pulled out its cartridge. “A Taser won’t give him the kind of jolt he needs. They’re not built that way,” she said.

Harvath didn’t care. He’d seen people take punches to the chest and have their hearts restart. If he could put enough juice in Mansoor’s body and cause it to convulse violently enough, maybe it would work. Grabbing the Taser from the holster on Bachmann’s belt, he removed its cartridge as well.

When Riley had the syringe ready, she nodded, and Harvath told Bachmann to stop the compressions and stand back. Looking at Riley, he said, “Do it.”

With no time to swab the man’s chest with an alcohol pad, she felt for the fourth intercostal space and pushed the needle through tissue and into his heart. Depressing the plunger, she injected the contents of the syringe into the young man’s ventricle.

When she was finished, she withdrew the needle and stood back. “This won’t work.”

“It has to work,” said Harvath as he kneeled over the body. Riley pointed to where defibrillator paddles would normally be placed and then stood back. “Here we go,” said Harvath, indicating that he was ready.

When Riley nodded, Harvath counted to three and pulled both the Tasers’ triggers at once.

The young Muslim’s body went rigid, his head rolled back, and his back arched off the floor.

Harvath withdrew the Tasers and rocked back on his heels as Mansoor’s body landed with a thud on the dirt-covered barn floor. Riley reached forward and placed two fingers on his neck to see if he had a pulse.

“Anything?”

Riley shook her head. “Scot, this is not going to work.”

Harvath ignored her. “Stand back,” he said.

“Scot.”

“Stand back,” he repeated.

When she was out of the way, Harvath reapplied the Tasers, gave the warning he was about to deploy another charge, and then pulled the triggers.

The prisoner’s body went stiff once more and then came to rest on the floor. “Check his pulse,” Harvath said.

Riley did as he asked. Feeling nothing, she shook her head and scooted back.

“Damn it,” cursed Harvath. “Everybody back up. I’m going to hit him again.”

Riley and Bachmann did as they were told. Placing the Tasers against Mansoor’s left and right chest walls, Harvath applied yet another stun drive of electricity.

As had happened each time previously, the young man’s body convulsed and then dropped back to the dusty barn floor.

“He’s gone,” said Bachmann.

“He doesn’t get to choose when he goes,” snapped Harvath. “I’m not done with him.”

Without any warning this time, Harvath repositioned the Tasers and pulled the triggers. Mansoor’s body stiffened and then dropped back down.

“Check him again,” he said.

Riley moved forward and reached out her fingers. “Nothing.”

“Fuck!” Harvath yelled.

Abandoning the young man’s right and left chest walls, Harvath placed both Tasers directly over Mansoor’s heart and pulled the triggers. When the body fell back to the ground, he did it again, and then again once more.

“Scot,” Bachmann said, but Harvath ignored him. Angry at the prisoner and even more angry with himself, Harvath pulled the triggers two more times.

Riley said something, but Harvath didn’t listen to her either. She put her hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off. It wasn’t until she grabbed his arm just above his triceps in a viselike pinch that she broke the spell.

“Son of a-” he began, as he turned his anger toward Riley.

“He twitched,” she said.