Page 108 of Dead Fall

Hookah flicked some ash into his coffee can and changed the subject. “You’re not over here just fighting the good fight. What are you? One of the alphabets in the soup? Wait, don’t answer that. Let me guess. CIA?”

Harvath shook his head. “I’m just a guy here to do a job.”

Hookah laughed. “Justa guy. Okay, I won’t push it. Your secret’s safe with me.”

“There’s no secret.”

Hookah took another drag and gave Harvath an exaggerated wink. “Right. No secret. I got it.”

Harvath nodded and let it drop.

They sat for several moments with neither man speaking. Up above, you could hear the occasional pigeon. Outside, the stream rippled as it moved past the mill and its old wooden wheel.

Hookah exhaled a curl of blue smoke and asked, “Any new thoughts on how we might handle the Ravens?”

“I spent a good chunk of the drive here thinking about it,” said Harvath. “But I’m not sure how good any of the ideas are.”

“I’m all ears,” the man responded.

“The Ravens have been conducting their assaults completely unopposed. They post security at each end of a village because it’s good tactics, not because they’re expecting any trouble. If I had to guess, I’d say those guys are the least switched on.

“Pulling security is likely the most boring assignment the Ravens hand out. It’s also one of their weakest links—four men at each end, normally with no line of sight to any of their teammates, and only connected via radio.”

“Agreed.”

“The security unit at the back of the convoy already knows what’s behind them. That’s not where the mystery is. The mystery is what’s at the other end of the village and what might be headed their way. That security team is going to be playing things tighter. All things being equal, I’d want to take on the team covering the rear. I think they’re going to be the most relaxed.”

“Also agreed,” replied Hookah.

“But the minute the bullets start flying, these guys are going to be on the radio alerting their teammates. Even if they were all standing around, leaning on their jeep having a smoke, if we took out three of them and tried to kneecap the fourth, he’d be calling it in, and we’re screwed.”

“What if we rammed them? What if we came flying out of nowhere, took them completely by surprise, and T-boned their vehicle?”

Harvath shook his head. “They’d have to all be sitting inside of it and you’d have to hope that you hit them so hard, they’d be seeing stars and were too dazed to get on their radios. That’s just too much left to chance.”

“You got any other ideas?”

“When they loot a village, two guys go into each house while the Humvee with the .50-cal and the cargo truck wait outside. If we could get into one of the houses before them, we might be able to grab one of the guys, spirit him out the back, and take him someplace to interrogate.”

“What about his partner?” Hookah asked.

“We’d have to kill that guy and make it look like the house was booby-trapped. There’d have to be a big enough explosion that the Ravens would assume both men had been killed in the blast. That way, they wouldn’t be worried that we had snatched the first guy. The minute they suspect we have one of their people, they’re going to go into panic mode and lock everything down. The only hope we have of breaching their safe house, once we have it pinpointed, is for them not to know we’re coming.”

“So, for the moment, this continues to be a goat rodeo.”

“Yep,” said Harvath, peering back out toward the road.

“Keep your thinking cap on,” replied Hookah as he dropped his cigarette butt into the coffee can. “I’m going to get something to eat. You want anything?”

Harvath shook his head. He had grabbed a bottle of water and an MRE before starting his watch. He’d be good until Jacks relieved him.

When Jacks did take over, Harvath was glad to get up and stretch his legs. He mixed up some coffee and used a flameless heater to warm it up. It wasn’t piping hot, but it was better than nothing and he was glad to get a boost of caffeine.

As he drank, he did a thorough review of his gear, double-checking that all his magazines were topped up and making sure that everything else on his battle belt and his chest rig were secure.

Once that was complete, he decided to put his feet up for a bit. Therewas no telling what the night would bring, and the evening would soon be upon them.

Unrolling his sleeping bag in the bed of the truck, he made himself comfortable. He checked to make sure that he was still getting a good cell signal and then shut his eyes. Even with the coffee in his system, he could still slow his breathing down and get himself into a rejuvenating, meditative state. It wasn’t the same as a good solid nap, but it did have its advantages—one of them being that sometimes he did fall asleep, which was exactly what happened.

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