they be released. The SEALs let them go and paid the ultimate price for it. The teen sprinted to his village and within two hours, the SEALs fell under a vicious ambush of mortars, AK-47s, PK machineguns, and RPGs. A quick reaction force of eight more SEALs plus eight Army Special Operations aviators was also shot down. In the end, only one of the original SEALs survived to tell the harrowing tale.
Eric Tucker had hoped never to find himself in that kind of situation. You could say whatever you wanted sitting in a team room half a world away, but killing a civilian, especially a child, would be a tough call to make. This op, though, was critical to the survival of the United States and its civilians, including its own children. The team’s ROE didn’t prevent them from shooting anyone, including a little boy, if it meant preventing their op from being compromised. Adjusting his rifle, Tucker walled off his conscience, sighted in on the child’s head, and gently flicked off his safety.
Twigs seemed to snap as loud as firecrackers as the boy came closer. He was making a beeline for them. What the hell was he doing?
Two feet from their hide, the boy stopped. He was so close that Fordyce could have reached out and touched him. The team didn’t even dare breathe.
The little boy had a cloth bag of some sort strung across his shoulder. Something on the ground had his attention and he bent over to examine it.
Bootprints were the words every team member was thinking. But the little boy hadn’t been examining bootprints. Straightening up, he held a small loop of wire in his hands—a snare. He was out checking his animal traps. But why now? Why so late at night?
It was a question they would have all happily gone without ever having to answer. As long as the kid just reset his trap and went back to wherever he had come from. They didn’t need to know who he was or why he was out here. But once Mr. Murphy brought two bodies into the same orbit, he usually made sure there was a collision. And a collision was exactly what happened.
Preparing to reset his snare, the little boy must have decided to move back a couple of feet. There was no way he could have known what a bad decision that was. He had no idea that Jimi Fordyce was there until he stepped on him.
Whether it was a snake or some other animal didn’t matter. What he had stepped on was alive, and his body instantly reacted.
No sooner had his thin sandal pressed down on Fordyce’s body than his mind screamed danger and his body leaped backward into the air.
His eyes quickly focused on what it was. It was human—at least the eyes appeared to be—but he wasn’t sure about the rest. He had been told the woods were full of demons and all sorts of monsters. He had no desire to stay and figure everything out. His flight mechanism had kicked in and he was already running.
For his part, Fordyce hadn’t even had a chance to grab the boy. Right until the very moment the child stepped on him, he had hoped he would just move an inch or two to the side and walk right past him.
The boy had reacted so quickly, he was just out of arm’s reach when Fordyce attempted to grab him. Now the kid had spun and was on the run.
As Fordyce leaped to his feet to chase him, he thought of reminding his team not to fire. Then suddenly there was a pop, and Fordyce watched as the boy fell to the ground.
CHAPTER 17
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DUBAI
Had the safe house garage been soundproofed, Harvath could have carried out the entire interrogation right there. It had a drain in the center of the floor and a utility sink with a long hose connected to a plastic spray nozzle.
Harvath had debated whether to clean Hanjour up. He had soiled himself inside the Storm Case. Leaving a subject in his own filth was a powerful tactic some interrogators employed. It sent a solid message about who was in charge and how much mercy the subject could expect. Harvath, though, had never been a big fan of the tactic.
While he could be brutal when he needed to be, there was a line from Nietzsche that was never far from his consciousness. Battle not with monsters, lest ye become