Free First to Kill by Andrew Peterson

toward the compound, the lead man talking into his mike as he ran.
    “I only saw three guys,” Nathan said. “I got one of them, but the other two are still in the main building. One of them has a rifle and he’s a shooter.”
    Gifford turned away and spoke quietly into his mike. He turned back toward Nathan and Harvey. “I’ll be honest. I was resentful you two were going to be here, but now I’m glad you were. We would’ve made this a night raid otherwise. It’s no secret who’s missing.” Gifford issued a hand signal to the woman SWAT member, and she hustled over to their position. “Cover us.” He addressed Nathan and Harvey. “You two, you’re with me.” Gifford began walking deeper into the forest.
    Nathan exchanged a glance with Harv before following. When they were fifty yards away, Gifford stopped and faced them. He reached into his pocket and gave Nathan a slip of paper with a handwritten phone number on it.
    “Call me in six hours. If you’re willing, I’ve got a special job for you guys tomorrow night.”
     

Chapter  5
    “A tunnel?” Senator Stone McBride’s irritation couldn’t be concealed. Gripping the telephone too tightly, he continued. “And nobody knew about it?”
    Leaf Watson hesitated before answering. “I’m afraid not, sir. I think it’s fair to assume if Special Agent Ortega has seen it, he would’ve reported it.”
    Stone had sent Watson out to California on a red-eye for a firsthand report. Now he couldn’t help but wish he’d gone along with him.
    “I have FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Larry Gifford with me. We’re on speaker, Senator.”
    “Nice to meet you, ASAC Gifford, even under the circumstances.”
    “Thank you, Senator,” Gifford said.
    “Any sign of James Ortega?”
    “No,” Watson said.
    “I want the entire property searched. Bring in whatever resources you need. I want that compound torn apart. Dogs, whatever it takes. I want James Ortega found.”
    “Yes, Senator. I’ll see to it personally.”
    Stone rubbed his eyes. “What about the Semtex?”
    “I’m looking at several pallets of wooden crates stacked head high.”
    “How much?”
    “Just over sixteen hundred pounds.”
    “Did we get all of it?”
    “We’re pretty sure ten crates are missing. About four hundred pounds.”
    “So, let me get this straight,” Stone said. “The raid nets us over three-quarters of a ton of Semtex and the youngest Bridgestone brother, but in the process we lose one of your men, four hundred pounds of Semtex, and the operation’s two ringleaders. Not a great trade-off, I’m afraid.”
    An uneasy silence hung on the other end.
     Larry Gifford broke it. “It could’ve been a lot worse.”
    Waiting for Gifford to continue, Stone said nothing.
    “We had a sniper team on the south rim of the canyon. They saw a compound member with a radio remote, put two and two together, and fired a shot out in front of my SWAT team. Fortunately when the claymores blew, we were on the ground. We could’ve lost a dozen more agents.”
    “Is that the official story?” Stone asked.
    “Yes.”
    “Good, let’s keep it that way.” Stone knew the truth and knew that both Gifford and Watson also knew the truth. His son fired that warning shot. Chalk up another victory for cold-blooded snipers.
    “Tell me about this damned tunnel.”
    Gifford continued. “Before storming the main building, we fired flash bangs and tear gas, but they were long gone. On the inside west wall of the main building, the concrete had been saw cut, then removed with a jackhammer. We found a small room below the slab reinforced with railroad ties. It connects to nearly a mile of thirty-inch diameter concrete pipe. Must have cost a small fortune. They attached skateboard wheels to the undersides of water skis and used them like toboggans to traverse the tunnel.”
    “They didn’t haul four hundred pounds of Semtex through that tunnel yesterday.”
    “We think it was moved several days