David Morrell - The naked edge

As the noise from out there filled the small area, Cavanaugh said, "Thanks, John."

"I feel my job dangling in the wind."

"I owe you. I'm sure it wasn't easy disagreeing with him."

Rutherford looked pained. "Please, remember what he warned you about. You're civilians. Don't make me sorry I trust you."

Cavanaugh solemnly followed him into the communications room.

On the TV monitors, the crowd got bigger.

On one of the screens, a woman carried a large, heavy purse. She hid an object in her hand and periodically looked at it.

"Part of the radiation detection team," someone in the communications room explained.

On another screen, a man held what looked like a smart phone: a pathogen detector.

"Two hundred members of the Homeland Security team are out there, weaving through the crowd, scanning it. But how many diseases can they program their detectors to test for? They can't possibly scan for everything," someone said.

"How big is the crowd?"

"Fifteen thousand."

"And getting larger," an agent said. "What difference does it make if the conference was postponed? As long as they think it's happening, there'll be a riot."

"And maybe worse," Rutherford murmured.

Next to him, Cavanaugh said, "Right now, somebody needs to send agents into that crowd. Make them act like the protestors. Tell them to spread the word, sounding pissed off that the conference was cancelled."

Mosely's gaze was icy as he turned toward Cavanaugh. "And I bet you're dying to get out there and show us how it's done."

Seven-thirty.

On the podium, Carl faced his men and said, "To tell the truth, I'm jealous. You're going to have so much fun, I decided to join you. There are six knapsacks that aren't being used because of the men who opted out. I might as well take one and enjoy myself. Mr. Ramirez is going to put on a knapsack and join the fun also."

Raoul looked up, not having expected to hear that. But to Carl's approval, Raoul concealed his surprise and nodded firmly.

"Has everyone got a watch?" Carl asked.

They did.

"Is your knapsack on? You know where you're going?"

They did, obviously pleased that Carl would be joining them.

"Leave here in groups of six. Split up as soon as possible. New Orleans has an excellent bus system, so you won't have trouble getting to the target area. But those buses are equipped with video surveillance cameras, so sit separately and look out the window, not at the camera. Remember, when it's ten o'clock, take off your knapsack and pull the cord at the side. Make sure you're wearing these finger-tip pads so you don't leave prints when you drop your gun. Everybody clear? Good. Gentlemen, show me how disciplined you are."

Eight.

Mingling with demonstrators across from the conference center, Jamie felt pushed and shoved. The heat of so many bodies increased the humidity, making her sweat. Someone stepped on her shoes. They had steel caps under the leather: standard equipment for protectors. Even so, she felt the jolt. But she was less concerned about damage to her body than she was about someone bumping against the weapons under her blazer, realizing what they were and trying to take them. She kept her elbows tight against her sides, bracing them against her handgun and her knife.

Although the conference wasn't scheduled to start for another hour, the demonstrators were already shouting their complaints about Third World sweatshops, increased pollution, climate change, the vanishing rain forests, the over-fished oceans, and chemicals in the food supply.

"Wait'll the motorcades arrive," someone said. "We'll stop those greedy bastards from getting into the building."

"If we need to, we'll push their cars over," someone else vowed.

Jamie pretended to be listening to her cell phone. She hurriedly lowered it and blurted to the people around her, "My friend says she saw on television that the cars won't be coming."

Someone overheard and asked, "What?"

"They just announced the conference was postponed."

"Bullshit."

"No, it's true," Jamie said, the crowd banging against her. "The chief of police just made an announcement. Something happened at four hotels last night. Smoke and tear gas. The trade ministers were moved out of town."

*

"… ministers were moved out of town," Cavanaugh said.

"Harry, listen to this guy. They cancelled the conference."

"Like hell."

Cavanaugh pointed toward his cell phone. "That's what my friend just told me. He saw it on television."

"A trick. They want us to give up and leave. Close to nine o'clock, those pigs'll arrive in their limos. Bet on it."

Eighty-thirty.

The spreading chaos forced Carl to park a half mile away. Even from that distance, he heard the shouting.

"Sounds like the party started." He grinned at Raoul. "This is what it's all about. Everything else is just waiting."

He and Raoul stepped from the van and made certain their loose shirts covered their weapons.

"Here's your party favor," Carl said, handing Raoul his knapsack. He put on his own.

They followed Magazine Street six blocks north of the convention center. As they neared the shouting, they saw a bus come to a stop. Amid numerous departing passengers, six members of their group emerged, keeping separate as instructed. Like good operators, they never glanced at each other as they took separate directions through the crowd.

"Don't you love it when a plan comes together?" Carl asked Raoul.

Progress became difficult. Carl passed one of his men halfway down the block, exactly where he should be. Although they didn't acknowledge one another, their brief eye contact told Carl how much the man was reassured.

And so it went. Shifting through the crowd, passing various members of his team, Carl verified that everyone was obeying instructions. That gave him reason to believe they would continue to obey.

By nine, he and Raoul reached the conference center, where the crowd was so immense, the protestors so animated that the four-lane boulevard in front was almost totally blocked. Behind barricades, police officers readied themselves to push back.

"Where are the cars?" a demonstrator demanded to his friends. "They should have been here by now!"

Energized by anticipation, Carl continued through the turmoil, buoying his widely separated men with his presence while he made sure they were in place.

Nine-thirty.

Cavanaugh and Jamie pushed through the crowd, reached the back of a large delivery truck, and showed their IDs to a camera above the rear doors. A moment later, one of the doors opened, hands helping them up.

Against the inside wall, armed men were ready in case Cavanaugh and Jamie were not who they claimed or someone charged in after them.

The truck's interior was a compact version of the communications center. Computers, two-way radios, and closed-circuit monitors seemed everywhere. An electronic glow filled the compartment. On the screens, the police and the protestors shoved at each other outside the convention center, but because the police had body armor, helmets, shields, clubs, and tasers, they had more success. The silence of the images contrasted with the tumult outside.

"I told as many as I could about the radio announcement that the conference was postponed," Jamie said.

"We've got plenty of other operators blending with the crowd, spreading the word," an FBI agent said.

"Doesn't seem to be doing any good." Cavanaugh frowned toward the violence on the monitors.

"Wait." An agent pointed.

On one of the screens, Cavanaugh saw the protestors shifting back from the police. On another screen, the shrubs that separated the four lanes of Convention Center Boulevard were becoming visible. Protestors stared both ways along the thoroughfare, baffled that the motorcade hadn't arrived.