Brad Thor - Path Of The Assassin

The wind picked up, and rough sheets of sand blew across the narrow streets of the oasis town. The workers wrapped their kaffiyeh headdresses across their faces to keep the sand out of their mouths and noses. Over the plastic earpiece wedged deep within his ear, Harvath heard one of the operatives say, “We’ve got an inbound aircraft.”

As Harvath turned his eyes to the north, he could make out the lights of a small plane off in the distance. A moment later, the landing strip lit up like a Christmas tree. The man taken into custody in Helsinki had indicated that the Saudi would be arriving via private jet and he was right on time. That meant Hashim Nidal couldn’t be far behind.

One of the sniper teams quietly hailed Meg and asked her to call out various points and distances around the tent. Meg pressed her face against the rubber blinders of the starlight scope and synced with both spotters to make sure they were on the same page. She didn’t dare remove the device from her face. Her vision was now acclimated to the greenish glow, and the last thing she wanted to do was expose her eyes to any of the blowing sand. The mission could not afford her missing the target.

She was still scanning the area around the tent when another voice came over the team’s earpieces and said, “Two convoys approaching target area.”

Meg knew that one of the convoys approaching from the direction of the airstrip would belong to the Saudi, while the other would most likely belong to Nidal. She noticed her hands were shaking, and she tried to steady them by resting her elbows on the boulder in front of her.

“You okay?” asked Harvath, whose eyes were also glued to the scene unfolding through his starlight scope.

“A little nervous.”

“That’s good. It’s to be expected. Just ID Nidal to the snipers the way we practiced it. You’re going to do fine.”

“I hope so. I want this to be over with.”

“It will be soon enough. Don’t worry. It looks like the convoys are about to enter the perimeter.”

The voice came back over their earpieces. “Convoys entering perimeter. All teams stand by.”

Two sets of Land Rovers came to a stop twenty meters away from the tent. As the doors to the vehicles opened, another gust of wind erupted, sending sharp blasts of sand in all directions. The men momentarily retreated into their vehicles until the wind passed, then reemerged with their kaffiyehs drawn tightly across their faces, like the guards and workers.

“Wild Onion, have you identified the target?” came the voice of one of the spotters over Meg’s earpiece.

As Meg was from Chicago, Morrell had assigned her a code name based on what the Native Americans had originally called the Windy City.

“Target not yet identified,” said Meg as she strained to get a better view through her starlight scope.

Seconds passed and the men moved toward the tent, their bodies bent against the force of the wind and blowing sand.

“Wild Onion,” came the voice again. “Do you have the target?”

“Negative. Target not yet identified.”

The men had now covered half the distance to the tent and would be inside within the next ten seconds.

“Wild Onion. You must identify the target before they’re out of view.”

“I’m trying,” said Meg desperately, more to herself than anyone else. “They’re all dressed alike and I can’t see their faces.”

“It’s no good,” said Harvath over his throat mike as he watched the men finish filing into the tent.

“Target pool out of view,” came the voice of one of the sniper team spotters. “Awaiting instructions.”

“Damnit,” hissed Morrell over the team’s earpieces. “Stand by.”

Meg pulled the starlight scope from her face and slid down against the large boulder. “I blew it,” she said.

Harvath slid down next to her and put a hand on her shoulder. “You didn’t blow anything. Nobody could have called that shot. Their faces were completely covered.”

“So what do we do now?”

“You don’t want to know.”

“Yes, I do,” said Meg as she wiped the perspiration from her palms onto her fatigues.

“I think Morrell’s probably got no choice but to light that tent up like a roman candle.”

“If he does, how are we going to know for sure we got Nidal?”

“We might never know for sure, but we also might never get another chance like this.”

“In Chicago, you told me you wouldn’t just fire missiles into a bunch of people. You said you couldn’t. You said you had to know for sure you got him.”

“If Morrell decides to take out that tent, I would have to agree with him. It’s a good tactical decision.”

“But there’s innocent people in there.”

“Meg, calm down. The people in that tent are anything but innocent.”

“Are you absolutely sure about that? Do you know for a fact that the people helping set that tent up and who are probably serving a meal inside right now aren’t some hapless workers from the oasis town?”

“No, but this is a numbers game. We have to be willing to sacrifice a few for the benefit of the many. And better it be a few of theirs, than many of ours.”

“What about their families?”

Harvath was beginning to lose his patience. “What about your family? What if Hashim Nidal had been responsible for killing someone you cared about? How about your assistant, Judy? Do you want to let this guy slip through our fingers again only to hurt more innocent people than we might?”

“Of course not. But I want to know we did everything we could to nail him before another innocent person dies.”

“Well, you can sleep like an angel. Your conscience is clear. We did do everything we could.”

“No we didn’t.”

“What are you talking about?” said Harvath.

“It doesn’t matter if Nidal’s face is wrapped up tight. After what he tried to do to me on that plane, I’d know him just by his eyes.”

“You can’t make out anybody’s eyes from up here.”

“You’re right. But, from down there I could,” said Meg as she pointed her index finger over the water of the oasis and toward the tent.

This is, without a doubt, the mother of all bad ideas, said Harvath to himself as he and Meg Cassidy crept around the outer edge of the oasis toward the tent. Meg had convinced Morrell of her plan in no time. Of course it wasn’t a very tough sell. It seemed Morrell would sacrifice anybody and anything to accomplish his mission.

Harvath had gone along with Meg’s idea for one simple reason. If they had chosen to stay back and annihilate the tent from a distance, there would been no way of confirming that they had actually taken Hashim Nidal out. Sure, everyone inside would be dead, but what if Nidal had had a change of heart at the last minute and had sent someone else to conduct the meeting in his place? The other thing that bothered Harvath was that he was not so sure Nidal was who everybody thought he was.

It only took Harvath about two seconds longer than Morrell to realize that they didn’t have any other choice, and so he made his way with Meg into the darkness.

They were under cover of the two sniper teams the entire way. Their circuit took a painfully long time and was made even worse by the intermittent wind that kicked up enormous clouds of sand.

They had been creeping around the edge of the lush oasis, using the thick groves of palm trees for cover, when fifty meters away from their objective, Harvath held up his hand for Meg to stop. With two fingers, he pointed at his own eyes and then motioned toward the front of the tent. Meg shook her head No. It was no good. She wouldn’t be able to identify Nidal from this distance, not even with their night scopes. She wanted to be closer. She signaled Harvath that they should sneak nearer to the tent. Harvath immediately shook his head. Negative. They were already much closer than he had wanted to get.