Free Ready to Kill by Andrew Peterson Page B

nodded.
    “Outstanding.”
    “Sorry you guys got dragged out here.”
    “Are you kidding? We love deploying.”
    “How long have you been here?”
    “Corporal Ramirez and Sergeant Birdsall have been with you since the LZ. The rest of us have been up here for the last twelve hours.”
    “Are you serious? We were followed?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “We never saw or heard anyone.”
    Lyle smiled. “No sir, you wouldn’t have.”
    “How’d they beat our TI sweeps?” Harv asked.
    “When you stopped for thermals, they ducked behind trees to hide their signatures.”
    Harv shook his head. “We were too predictable.”
    “No, sir. Rammy and Bird lost you several times and had to reacquire. You weren’t easy to track.”
    As if on cue, two more men rounded the summit from the north, making Lyle’s group a squad-sized unit.
    Very tight , Nathan thought. “You guys find anyone up here?”
    “Yes, sir, he arrived five hours ago. He made a good approach, but we bagged him. He’s been tight-lipped. Says he won’t talk to anyone but one of you. We haven’t interrogated him. Our orders were to secure him and maintain a perimeter until you arrived.”
    Lyle looked to his left and issued a hand signal. Two of Lyle’s men appeared, and sandwiched between them was a third man who appeared to have his hands secured behind his back. The man didn’t seem nervous, just the opposite. Dressed in a woodland combat uniform with a light coating of face paint on his exposed skin, he walked with confidence.
    The moment of truth had arrived.
    They were about to meet the mysterious messenger from the embassy.
    A ray of moonlight hit the man’s face, and Harv took a step forward. “Viper? Is that you?” he asked in Spanish.
    “Mayo!”
    Harv embraced him. No words were spoken.
    Nathan smiled at hearing Harv’s old nickname. During their Echo operations, Harv had procured an entire case of the little squeeze packs. He used to put mayonnaise on everything, even his hot dogs. The kilo teams settled on Rojo for Nathan. Red. Back then, his hair had lacked any traces of gray.
    Lyle pulled a knife, cut the disposable binds around Viper’s wrists, and gave him his handgun back.
    Viper tucked the gun into his holster.
    “I apologize for cuffing you,” Lyle said, “but we had to be sure you weren’t a threat.”
    “It’s okay,” Viper said. “No harm done.”
    “You speak English,” Harv said.
    “A lot has changed over the years.”
    The two marines who’d brought Viper over lowered their handguns and withdrew.
    “It’s good to see you again,” Nathan said. He too gave the man a hug. Being a good ten inches shorter, Viper nearly disappeared inside Nathan’s grasp. They couldn’t reminisce in front of the present company, but Viper had played a critical role in Nathan’s rescue.
    “I need to get on the SATCOM and update our status,” Lyle said.
    “How do you do that?” Harv asked. “I didn’t see a dish.”
    “We use a backpack unit for LEO birds. We can type or dictate messages into a terminal, and the unit sends an ultra-short encrypted burst.”
    Nathan wondered how many low-earth-orbit satellites the US military had . . . probably dozens. Joint Special Operations Command had many resources at its disposal.
    Harv said, “So the burst transmission minimizes your RF signature.”
    “Exactly, sir. It’s not foolproof and can be jammed, but the unit rotates frequencies in that event. We’re currently in a dark period until the next bird clears the horizon. We usually have a twelve- to thirteen-minute window before it drops back down. We can talk to JSOC in real time with an HEO bird if we have to, but that’s not as stealthy, and it depletes the batteries faster. I’ll give you guys some time alone.”
    Nathan said, “Thank you, Sergeant. Do we need to move out?”
    “Not just yet, sir. I’ll let you know what JSOC comes back with.”
    They waited until Lyle rejoined his men.
    “Damn, it’s really good to see