Free Tracks by Niv Kaplan Page A

cat reached the door before
Natasha could gather her things.  He held the door as Natasha strode on
out.  The other woman remained, packing her laptop .   
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER
FOUR
     
    Retired colonel Joe Harley, ex-Special Air Service of the British Army, ran the meanest,
toughest covert operation under British law, with the roughest band of closely
knit, ex-SAS men, ever assembled.
    Neither the man, nor his unit,
could be reached.  No one would admit they existed.
    Mai-Li had been after Harley’s
unit for over a year since it was well known within Center walls that they were
the only group with the means - and bold enough - to enter Kashmir.  She
needed to convince Harley to assist in flushing out and destroying the Lambda-B
organization, thought to be responsible for a vast majority of child labor
violations in South Asia.
    Being SAS and personally acquainted
with the colonel was only a pre-requisite to being accepted into Harley’s
unit.  Rumor had it that once over the rigorous training period he had
designed and personally supervised, one was expected to perform a “wet”
mission, on his own, in trouble spots such as Gaza, the West Bank, Sri Lanka,
Southern Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq to name just a few.
    Joe Harley would assign a
particular task for the trainee and expect him to perform to the letter. 
Anything less than a perfect result would disqualify even the most experienced
SAS person from Harley’s unit, which in three years of operation still had less
than thirty members.
    Such acceptance missions
involved an array of covert operations behind hostile lines, no less dangerous
or complicated than a typical Harley mission performed by the accepted
members.  It required sense, courage, extreme physical endurance, and
above all loyalty to the plan and to the cause.  The candidate had to
stick with the plan no matter the obstacles.  It was Harley’s opinion that
not even veteran SAS men, whom he, of course, held in the highest regard, were
automatically suited for such jobs and one had to prove his worth in
actions.  These actions were, more often than not, inhuman and he had to
check and make sure that even the toughest regiment men were up to the task.
    Approached by the highest
echelons of British Intelligence, Harley, then about to retire as SAS brigade
commander, accepted the challenge put to him.  Replacing his military
allegiance with civilian spy rings, he was promised a free hand by government
circles mandated by the Prime Minister’s office.   
    It was rumored he had
unlimited budgets and a license to kill.
    Mai-Li prevailed where even
Black Jack and Sam failed, managing to secure fifteen minutes with the elusive
legend during his annual visit to CIA headquarters at Langley, Virginia.
    A British avenue to Harley was
out of the question since few in the UK knew - or were willing to admit - such
a unit existed.  After two trips to Whitehall, Mai-Li knew she was chasing
ghosts so she turned to a CIA operative who had cooperated with her in Hong
Kong.  She had managed to verify Harley’s existence and the fact that once
a year he visited Langley, the one and only place outside the UK he felt he
owed for part of his own training.
    Those visits, three to date,
were focused and brief, no more than a full day, structured around exchange of
operational views.  In essence, Harley would lecture to a chosen few,
describing some of his tactics and methods without disclosing any specific
operational details.
    Mai-Li’s fifteen minutes were
secured by a CIA operative, one Ralph Page, who was amongst the chosen few
attending the visit, a man who had personally trained Harley at Langley and had
remained somewhat of a confidante.
    Mai-Li’s Hong Kong
acquaintance knew that man and asked for a favor.  She was rushed to
Langley to explain and convince Page the matter needed such extreme attention.
    Page was