Extreme Arsenal. Don Pendleton
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Название: Extreme Arsenal
Автор: Don Pendleton
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Морские приключения
Серия: Gold Eagle Stonyman
isbn: 9781474023733
isbn:
“You know, it’s usually Striker or Carl who can’t take a decent vacation without getting into a war,” Price responded.
“I felt left out,” McCarter quipped. He then broke into an account of the men he’d encountered and the murder of the old Hispanic man.
“We’ve been running a check on the victim. Interpol’s firewall is giving Aaron’s team a headache,” Price said. “The name we entered activated their cyber-security and clamped things down tightly.”
“Bloody inconvenient of them,” McCarter snapped.
Price sighed. “It’s for the best. The firewall is under their witness protection protocols. It should be too tough to crack.”
McCarter frowned. “That’s why he seemed so familiar.”
“You might know who it is?” Price asked.
“Try Roberto DaCosta,” McCarter suggested.
Price muffled the receiver and passed on the information. McCarter waited, knowing it wouldn’t take long.
“David?” Price asked.
“What’d you find out?”
“Roberto DaCosta was a Catholic bishop from El Salvador. He testified against the old Organización Democráticia Nacionalista—ORDEN—regime and the ESA. Able Team once pulled security for him against one of their teams,” Price responded. “It was a brutal, dirty mission.”
McCarter frowned. “Well, I was too late to help him out. ORDEN…Did they hire American mercenaries?”
“Why do you ask?” Price inquired.
“They spoke English and they sounded American,” McCarter responded.
“They have recruited experts from all around the world, but right now, ESA is pretty much a dead issue,” Price responded. “Most of them are either dead, deported or serving jail time. Again, a lot of ORDEN and their death squads went down hard under Able.”
“Maybe someone had a plan to undeport,” McCarter replied.
“Someone’s trying to make a comeback?”
“Start the guys rattling cages,” McCarter answered. “I’m going to check out a few more things on this side of the pond.”
“Do you want Phoenix over there?” Price asked.
McCarter shook his head. “No. They could be put to better use working in tandem with Carl and his boys until we pick something up.”
“All right. I’ll make sure one of Hal’s irregulars is on the case to get your pistols back,” Price responded. “Do you need to acquire some weapons?”
“I’ve got the evaluation Glocks.”
“Really? I never thought you’d be happy with the new Glock,” Price responded.
McCarter patted the gun stuffed into his waistband. “It’s not that I have to be happy. If I’m going to trust this gun to protect my boys, then I have to trust it to protect my arse.”
“I’ll mark this day in history,” Price joked.
McCarter chuckled. “I’ll never hear the end of this, will I?”
“Nope.”
“I’ll be in touch,” he told her.
“You’ll leave your phone on?” Price asked.
“Yeah, I’ll keep my phone on. If you don’t reach me, leave a voice message,” McCarter replied. He hung up.
CHAPTER TWO
“Black seven on red eight.” McCarter’s voice cut through the darkness.
Christopher Reasoner looked up from his table, solitaire cards splayed out. “It doesn’t count as a win if you get help, David.”
McCarter, in a knee-length black peacoat, stepped from the shadows. He looked like a floating head in the darkness beyond the pale cone of light thrown down by the desk lamp. “Like you’d have noticed?”
Reasoner moved the stack over under the red eight, then placed a blotter sheet on top of them. “What’s up, David?”
“I’m looking for a ship that came in a while back, say within the past week,” McCarter replied. “They paid to be left alone.”
“You know as a dock authority, I’m supposed to subject all craft to a search,” Reasoner answered. He laced his fingers together and gave the SAS veteran his most honest look.
McCarter clucked his tongue and shook his head. “Chris, don’t give me that crap. Someone came in. They didn’t do any offloading. I’m thinking, they came from South America.”
“David, you’re hurting my feelings. When have I ever been duplicitous with you?” Reasoner asked.
McCarter rolled his eyes then leaned forward. He motioned with his finger for Reasoner to come closer. The man glanced toward the door. McCarter tilted his head, a warm friendly smile setting the dock man to ease. Reasoner bent nearer to McCarter, then felt a hand clamp over the back of his head. Before he could resist, his face hammered down into the blotter and he felt his nose crunch sickeningly.
“Bloody hell!” Reasoner howled, streams of blood pouring from his nose like a waterfall.
McCarter yanked the man’s head down into the table once more and Reasoner’s eyes crossed from the pain. The official’s fingers clawed at the rough green construction paper, crumpling it as his tormentor hauled him up, glaring at him angrily.
“Listen, you little tosser,” McCarter snarled. “The people on that ship shot at me and nearly shot a close friend.”
Reasoner coughed. Red droplets spattered and disappeared on the heavy wool of McCarter’s coat. “Oh, fuck me…”
McCarter pushed Reasoner’s face into the puddle of blood forming on the crumpled blotter. He applied his full weight to Reasoner’s neck, and the official kicked at the smooth concrete floor.
“My neck!” Reasoner sputtered. “You’re breaking my bloody neck!”
McCarter sighed and leaned back, letting Reasoner sit up again. “You were a whiny bitch back at the regiment. How long does it take to grow a pair?”
Reasoner reached for a drawer, then heard the snick of a safety. He froze and looked down the nearly half-inch diameter black hole of a muzzle. “I’m getting a box of tissues for my face, you right bastard!”
McCarter nodded, his aim unwavering. “Go ahead and get the box. If you touch anything else, though…”
“You’ll kill me?” Reasoner asked.
McCarter СКАЧАТЬ