The Insider Threat

I looked at the map and said, “Okay, we’re bumping the kill zone one road to the south. See Kinangop? See where it curves? He hits that and he’ll trail it back to Kangethe and home. Hopefully.”

I looked at Brett. “Start moving. Stage on Joseph Kangethe Road where Kinangop dead-ends into it.”

Je

We had maybe three minutes.

She repeated, “What about the security following him?”

“Retro interdicts him. He’s the only one that’s clean. Retro, can you penetrate inside Toi?”

“Yeah. I can get in. I’ll stick out, but that’s not the problem. I take out the security and everybody’s going to see.”

I said, “Retro, don’t take him out. Just stop him. Is he well dressed?”

“Yeah, he’s in a suit.”

“Okay, act like you’re lost. Act like a tourist. Stop him as a nice-looking Kenyan and ask for directions. We only need seconds. Get a gap between him and the target.”

Je

Brett stopped the van, saying, “We’re here.”

I said, “All elements, we’re staged. Koko, penetrate into Toi with Retro. Split when he moves to the security man. Same profile. Prevent the target from ru

I didn’t want to do that, because a single white female walking around out here was like dropping bloody chunks of meat into shark-infested water. I heard nothing for a moment, then Je

“Okay, okay, stay on him. Nothing’s changed.”

“He’s speed-walking now. I say again, he’s moving fast through the stalls. He’s headed west, not south.”

My first thought was Abort.

I looked at the map, seeing my plan of action was way off. I said, “He’ll hit Suna Road, then go south. This is it. Retro, interdict security. Je

He goosed the engine and we went flying past our projected kill zone. Knuckles said, “We’re not going to make it in time. He’ll be through the intersection before we get there.”

“Nothing I can do about possibles. We’ll deal with the situation when we get there.” I keyed the radio. “Je

Je

From Retro, I heard mumbled conversation. He couldn’t talk, and had keyed the mike to let me know he was executing.

Brett raced up Kinangop, luckily the only car on the road, the weak headlights from the van providing barely enough illumination for the speed we were going.

Je

Retro came on. “Security’s broken contact. He got sick of me, and he’s moving west.”

Blaine’s orders flicked through my head. The drugs are set. I should really let him go.

I saw the intersection of Suma and Kinangop just as Je

What else can happen? Where’s my luck?

“Retro, get to Koko, now. Break, break, Koko, we’re ten seconds out. Keep moving south. Call if you need help.”

She said nothing, but I could feel her wrath at my words. Knuckles said, “Pike, maybe we should . . .”

Before he could finish his sentence, something flashed in front of our headlights like a bad horror-movie strobe effect. There one second, gone the next. I strained my eyes outside the window, and finally saw my vaunted luck. It was a tall African, waving his arms to get us to stop.

The leader.

You’re kidding me. About time.

“Brett, see if we can help that man out.”

He gri

We heaved him into the back of the van, Knuckles keeping the juice going while I stabilized him. Knuckles slammed the door shut and Brett called the dismounted team. “Retro, Koko, status.”

Retro said, “I got her. I’m with her, but the thugs are still following. They’re blocking our ability to get back into Toi. You want me to escalate?”

Meaning, Can I draw my weapon?

I said, “Negative. Let’s see if we can’t get you out clean.”

Brett hit the gas while I flex-tied the leader, his head rolling left and right. I pulled out the manila envelope from under his shirt, a flip phone and notebook spilling to the floor of the van. Jackpot. Knuckles readied a syringe and the target began flopping up and down, like a fish trying to get back into the water. I used my weight to hold him down and Knuckles hit him with the sedative. He thrashed a bit more, then his eyes rolled back into his head.

Brett slammed through the intersection, ripping right hard enough to fling us into the side. He said, “I got them, I got them.”

I leaned forward and saw Retro walking quickly with Je

Retro said, “Is that you to my front?”

“Yeah, we’re going to roll right up. Get to us and get in. If they start ru

Brett pulled abreast, the headlights on the group thirty meters away. Je

Je

Brett swerved onto the main road in front of the mall, and I got smacked in the shoulder by Je

“Call if I’m in trouble? Call if I’m in trouble? Really? That’s why I called.”

I said, “Hey, I knew Retro had your back.”

Knuckles said, “Don’t blame me; I tried to get him to help.”

I said, “What? In the hotel you said I was on the verge of compromising the mission because I thought Je

She muttered something and I turned to Brett, telling him to get rolling toward the support crew in the storage garage. I started to call Blaine, then paused, saying, “Everyone listen. No matter what Blaine asks, this went perfectly, okay?”

Knuckles said, “Why?”

Je

All i

16

Sitting at the long makeshift table, Jacob caught the Chechen and another man studying him. He ignored them, waiting on Ringo’s team to arrive for di

Expecting to learn the art of the suicide bomber, they’d done nothing of the sort. The mornings were spent working with the tools of the shahid, but it was nothing like Jacob had been expecting, like from the movies, with detonators and ticking red numbers. They mostly worked with chemicals. Learning how to break a cylinder of glass inside a plastic container. Then how to break the next one. Beyond that, they learned to hide and remove small wooden dowels inside the shell of a smartphone, then hook them to plastic tubing before inserting them into sleeves of clay.