End of Days (Pike Logan #16)(5)
Shoshana said, “That’s not going to happen. If I find them, I’m going to kill them.”
Jeremy drew back and said, “No, you won’t. You operate under our parameters. We don’t want to start an international war here. That’s the mission. Can you do that?”
Shoshana started to spit something out and Aaron touched her hand again, saying, “We can do that. What do you have?”
Jeremy went from Shoshana to Aaron, then said, “The riser to the paraglider was cut intentionally. The rescue parachute on the pilot’s back was nothing but dirty laundry. Inside of it was a note. It was intentional, no doubt, and the note says it’s going to get worse.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a single sheet of paper. On it was a facsimile of what had been found on the bodies.
Aaron took it, seeing,
You attack us with impunity in Syria and Iraq from the air, like cowards. And now we attack you man to man. Our reach is long, and our patience is infinite. This man is not the first to die, and it will not be the last, Little Satan. Tell the Great Satan they are next.
Aaron looked up and said, “Who is it? The Iranians?”
“We honestly don’t know. The pilot is an Iraqi expat who earned refugee status in Switzerland. After digging into his past we’ve found some contacts with Keta’ib Hezbollah, but the money train isn’t there. We have tracers on all of their accounts. Keta’ib Hezbollah paying for a man to learn to paraglide and then killing a Ramsad is something we would have found. At least we think we would have. Something else is going on here. And we want you to find out what that is. Which is why there is no lethal authority.”
He turned to Shoshana and said, “You want to find the man who killed your mentor, and I get that, but he is dead. He blasted into the earth just like Gideon. We want to know what’s happening. Some in the Knesset and the military are already demanding action against Iran, but we want to make sure it really is Iran before we end up in a war we didn’t want. And we can’t use anyone in Europe to do it, because they penetrated us somehow. Whoever it is sure as shit isn’t a militia in Iraq. It’s something else. That’s what we want to know.”
Shoshana nodded, but he could see her mind spinning. He said, “Can you do that?”
She said, “Yes. But we’ll need some support.”
“Can’t happen. You guys are on your own. We’ll give you a complete data dump on what we have, front any costs, and you’ll report back to us, but there will be no contact with any other Caesarea personnel. Sorry. We don’t know where the leak happened or how they planned this attack. We’re not sure who has been penetrated. If we use Caesarea personnel there now, it might automatically be a compromise, just because they’ve identified them as such.”
Shoshana smiled at that and said, “I’d expect nothing less. So we’re on our own?”
“Yes.”
“Can we get our own support, or is that something that’s too big of a shit storm, too?”
“What do you mean? What support?”
“Well, we have to go to America in two days for a wedding. Is that okay?”
Jeremy looked at Aaron, then back at her, saying, “The wedding can wait. Your country is calling.”
Aaron knew where Shoshana was going. He said, “You’ve given us a mission with no support. We’re going to the wedding.”
Perplexed, Jeremy said, “What’s a damn wedding got to do with this?”
Shoshana leaned into him, getting face-to-face. She tried to be calm, but the anger leaking out was a visceral thing. She said, “I’ll find the killer of Gideon. Not for you or Israel, but for me. And the wedding is how I will do it. I need passports for four individuals.”
Chapter 4
I stared at Jennifer in her white dress, slowly walking up the path to my position next to the minister. She reached it, smiled at me, and then took my hand. The minister smiled as well, happy to be here on a warm June day for the wedding. I glanced at the gate to the Ashley Hall grounds and saw it shaking, like someone was trying to barge in. The gate broke, and three terrorists entered, screaming and firing weapons.
Jennifer ripped off the lace of her dress, exposing three hand grenades held in place by their pins.
Wait, what? Who would attach a grenade to themselves by the damn pin?
She pulled two, threw them at the gate, and then . . .
And then . . .
A voice entered my head. “Pike!”
I felt a slap to my belly and was brought out of my Walter Mitty daydream.
Jennifer glared at me and said, “What in the world are you doing?”
Sheepishly, I said, “Nothing. Sorry. Where were we?”
She glared at me and said, “We’re rehearsing our wedding!”
I saw Amena with the rings, going from foot to foot, embarrassed for me, and my best man Knuckles looking at me like I’d had a stroke.
I said, “Uh huh . . . Got it. Let’s keep going.”
Jennifer looked like she wanted to gut me, but turned with all sweetness and light to the minister. Amena snuck up behind me, pulled my pant leg, and said, “You’re really terrible at this.”
I said, “You wouldn’t be any better.”
She laughed and said, “Oh yeah I would.”