Free The Somali Deception Episode II (A Cameron Kincaid Serial) by Daniel Arthur Smith Page A

feet up on the small table that made up his
makeshift security desk.   Rather
than watching the small screen in front of him, he was flipping through a comic
book.   He did not so much as flinch
when Alastair forced the door with his MP-5.   Too many years babysitting the secure
suite had made the man complacent.   Perhaps the guard thought one of the men from the corridor was coming in
to use the restroom, or perhaps he did not hear the door as he was so wrapped
up in the colored pictures of his magazine.   Whatever the reason the guard did not
bother to react did not matter.   Alastair, Pepe, and Cameron would never find out.   Before the door swung wide, the cheap
pressed paper of the comic book was soaked with blood and brains.
    In a mindful instant, the three
men surveyed the hallway before them.   The commandos had studied the floor layout from an acquired set of
blueprints.   Abbo’s suite was supposed
to mirror the harem suite a floor below, so far the
entrance appeared as expected.   They
had entered into a hallway that opened to a larger central room.   Along the hall were two doors.   They expected one to be the bathroom and
the other, they had decided, was a room for the guards.   Cameron flipped the power switch for the
light.   The other switches were at
the far end of the hallway, past the doors, before the central room.   Neutralization or reduction of an
interiors primary light source is a standard commando infiltration tactic prior to a sweep.   Commandos thrive in little to no light and excel in the darkness.   Even Pepe, forced to wear glasses to
read, was at home in the dark.   The
three edged forward.   Light music
rose from another far off room in the suite, as well as deep bellowing
laughter, the unmistakable laughter of Abbo Mohammed.   Cameron slipped into the first side
door, a darkened bathroom, and then, confident no one was hiding inside, eased
back behind Alastair.   Pepe ducked
into the room on his side of the hall and then returned with a nod designating
that space also clear.
    Each planted small charges along
their path.
    The three stopped at the end of
the hallway.   Mere meters away from
where they stood, the edge of the suite met the Dubai night.   The Middle Eastern horizon beyond was crystal clear from this height.
    Cameron had already been through
the harem suite below.   Level 104
had not been modified from the layout they had read.   Since the entrance hall and the two side
rooms matched the plans, Cameron was confident that Abbo’s suite would be
similarly unchanged.   From the
blueprints, they learned that a central room encompassed a large area of the
suite.   To the left would be the
kitchen, dining room, and a few small bedrooms, similar to where Mary led him
to Babette in the floor below.   Wrapping to the right, would be another small bedroom, and then Abbo’s
master bedroom.   The Burj Khalifa
tower utilities and other elevators made up the rest of the floor on the
opposite side of the corridor.
    The number of guards in the
suite was an unknown factor and a major risk.   Striking the lights in the central room
could signal additional guards and unwanted issue.   There had been no immediate response the
clack of Alastair’s spent MP-5, loud even with the attached suppressor.   That was a good sign, yet the burnt odor
already filled the confines of the hallway and would shortly be spreading
through the suite, demanding attention.
    The bellow of Abbo’s laughter
echoed again.   The warlord’s
laughter paired with images of Christine shot a pang through Cameron he did not
recognize.   He wanted to charge the
master bedroom regardless of the plan.
    A greater will seized him.
    The tactician within Cameron
introduced a scenario.
    Cameron had deduced the warlord
must be in the master bedroom, in the bedroom with Christine.   That was the direction Abbo’s laughter
was coming from.   Cameron had been
in the master bedroom below with Mary.