Free James Acton 01 - The Protocol by J Robert Kennedy

cars.
    Acton frowned. He knew his passport would be on a watch list and couldn’t afford to have it scanned at the border crossing. Before he could open his mouth, his driver turned in his seat to face him. “Perhaps, señor doesn’t want to be seen crossing the border?”
    How’d he guess? Acton nodded.
    “No problema, señor!” said the driver smiling broadly, revealing four beautiful teeth. “For a price, I can get you across, no problema!”
    Acton sighed and pulled out his wallet. Is it illegal to sneak back into your own country?
     
     
    New York City, New York
     
    “B.D?”
    Dawson looked up from his laptop at Red. They were in a hotel room in New York, waiting for Acton. They knew from the phone conversation he had earlier that this was where he was heading; his friend Milton had booked a ticket to New York shortly after the call. They had arrived only a few hours ago as an advance team and had set up a base of operations in a hotel overlooking the airport. The remaining team members were being transported with their equipment by a C17 and would arrive within a couple of hours. “Yeah?”
    “Can I ask you something, off the record?”
    Dawson already didn’t like where this was headed, but Red and he had been through too much too many times to deny him at least the privilege of asking the question. It didn’t guarantee an answer however. “Go ahead.”
    “Off the record,” Red said, then hesitated. “Shit, B.D, those were just kids!”
    Dawson’s jaw steeled. “You don’t think I know that?” Red was about to say something else when Dawson raised his finger to stop him. “We had our orders and Control confirmed them over the comm during the mission. We follow orders, that’s what we do. We don’t know who those kids were or what they were doing, but Control must have had a reason.”
    “I know but—”
    “Remember Yemen?”
    “What, when you got hoofed in the balls?”
    Dawson allowed himself one chuckle. “Same mission, earlier in it. Who were the H.T.’s?”
    Red nodded. “Kids. Teenagers.”
    “Exactly. And they had no problem trying to kill us and we had no problem killing them. And remember nine-eleven? How old were those bastards? Mostly early-twenties? The world is a harsh place, my friend. It’s up to us to try to clean it up a little for Bryson.”
    Red smiled at the mention of his kid. “I’m never letting him out of the country.”His computer beeped at him, demanding his attention. “B.D., we have a hit in the airline reservation system.”
    “What is it?” Dawson rose from the chair he was sitting on and walked over to a table where Red had several laptops set up.
    Red spun one so Dawson could see the display. “Acton has just booked a flight from Phoenix to New York, leaving in an hour.”
    “Using his own ID? That’s pretty bold. Can you hack the security system and get some eyes on him?”
    “Just give me a minute.” Red’s fingers flew over the keyboard and several minutes later they were looking at the airport security cameras. After a few minutes of scanning Dawson leaned in and hit a couple of keys, backing up to a camera angle that had just flipped by.
    “There he is,” said Dawson, pointing to the security check lineup. “Zoom in on him.”
    Red highlighted the image of Acton to enlarge it. They watched him empty his pockets as he went through security. He set the alarm off and was scanned manually with the wand. Security had him remove his belt and go back through. After he cleared, he put his belt back on then picked up what appeared to be a wallet, watch, and keys. He then walked out of view of the camera.
    “Did he check any luggage?” asked Dawson.
    Red looked up the baggage claim info in the reservation system. “No, no luggage.”
    “And he doesn’t have a carry-on,” said Dawson. “Where the hell is the package?” He began to pace the room. “Backtrack his movements through the airport, see if he handed it off to anyone.”
    Red