Silent Assassin(56)
“I said connect me, Private. That’s an order.” Sanders didn’t like it, but an order was an order.
“Camp Hero has been breached by a hostile force. Requesting immediate response.”
From where she was sitting, Sanders heard nothing on the other end. There must have been silence in fact, because after a few seconds Major Donnell said, “Requesting immediate response on Camp Hero.”
“Has anyone else been contacted regarding this matter?” The voice came out loud enough for Sanders to make it out.
“No,” said Donnell.
“Keep it that way,” said the voice. “Responders will be en route shortly.”
CHAPTER 30
Long Island Coast, January 29
Morgan convened with the other members of Zeta tac team on the upper deck, where the passengers and the captive crew were slowly trickling out.
“Smooth move getting rid of that bomb,” said Spartan. “Hell of a throwing arm you got there.” Morgan shrugged.
“There is such a thing as defusing,” said Diesel, grinning. Out of the corner of his eye, Morgan saw the little girl, Alison, running to hug her mother and father, who had just come outside. Many people were huddled together, crying, while others seemed energized by the relief of being alive.
Morgan looked down and saw their prisoner, slumped on the ground looking relieved, clutching his broken, bleeding leg. He walked over to him with a sense of purpose.
“You know,” Morgan said, looking down at the man, “there was something your friend said to me below decks. About something else that’s going down tonight.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, wincing in pain. His hands were still above his head, tied fast to the railing of the ship.
“I’m sure,” said Morgan. He bent down, putting his hands under the man’s arms. “Get up.”
“Where are we going?” he asked, concerned, but still using his one good leg to push himself up.
“Better to ask where you’re going,” he said. Then he heaved the man over the railing. With his hand still cuffed, his arm cracked audibly from the sudden impact of his full weight, but the cuffs managed to hold him up, dangling over the side. He screamed.
“Cobra, what the hell are you doing?” demanded Bishop.
“Questioning the prisoner,” he said. Then, to the man hanging overboard, he yelled, “Where’s Novokoff?”
The man just grunted in pain. “I do not know! I swear!”
“That’s mighty cold water down there,” said Morgan. “And I don’t know how long those handcuffs are going to hold you. If the bones in your hand break, I get the feeling it’ll slip right out, which means you take a little dip in the drink.”
“Pull me up! Please!” The man dangled helplessly over the water.
“Cobra, pull him up!” cried Bishop. “Rogue, Spartan, help me out here.” Then again to Morgan, “He’ll be questioned once we’ve brought him in.”
“We killed one of Novokoff’s men near our bomb,” said Morgan, blocking their way from pulling the man up. “He said something. He said we couldn’t beat him. That we wouldn’t be able to stop him. And I think this bastard knows what that’s about.” Morgan looked over the railing at the dangling man. “Tell me what I want to know!”
“He’ll kill me!” the man said. “Novokoff will kill me if I say anything.”
“I’ll kill you,” said Morgan.
The man looked at the others, Bishop, Spartan, Rogue, and Diesel, all of whom were looking over the railing down at him. Spartan turned to wave people in the crowd away. “You cannot let him do this!” said the man. “Stop him!”
No one made a move to help him. “See?” said Morgan. “Turns out I can do this. And no one’s going to question one missing goon. Now talk.”
“Okay! Okay! He was planning something else. Something soon,” said the man.
“What is it? When does it go down?”
“I don’t know! He did not tell anyone who was not assisting him directly. But he referred to it as his primary mission tonight.”
“Primary? What the hell could be more primary than this? Bloch, are you receiving? Guy says Novokoff is planning another strike tonight.”
“I know,” she said over the comm.
“What do you mean, you know? How?”
“Because it started fifteen minutes ago. I just got the call. He’s invaded a top-secret installation. He’s after something. Something far more deadly than anything he’s had in his hands so far.”
“Shit,” said Morgan. “Where is this installation?”