Court took it with his own gloved hand. “Older every day. How you doing, Travers?”
He shrugged. “This shit beats a real job.”
Court looked at Jenner, still by the makeshift map table, who looked back at him disapprovingly. “Your boss doesn’t like me. You might want to keep your distance for your own good.”
“Walt doesn’t know your softer side.” He laughed. “Dude. What in the hell happened to you? You look like you fell off the back of a bus and got ran over by a shit wagon.”
Other team members climbed aboard around them now. Court said, “Chris, promise me one thing. You see a big monster dude, anywhere around the target, six foot nine or so, you shoot his ass from standoff distance. I’m not smart enough to stay out of his reach.”
“Six-nine? Yeah, I can hit that at a mile and a half.”
“You better hope you’re a mile and a half away when you see him. That guy is fucking scary.”
Travers swiveled his head to Court. “You mean something scares the Gray Man?”
“Everything scares me. That’s why I’m still here.”
Zack climbed in and slapped Travers on the back. “Christopher! Ready to rock ’n’ roll?”
“Yeah, boss.”
Brewer stepped up to the helo now, but she did not climb in.
Zack of course knew she wasn’t going along into combat, but he extended a gloved hand to help her aboard anyway, just to be sarcastic.
She ignored it. “I’ve got to get back to Castle Enrick. Destroy that aircraft so I don’t regret that decision.”
Hightower said, “Yes, ma’am. We’ll save all those unappreciative suits at your fancy party. No sweat. Enjoy the champagne and finger sandwiches.”
She turned away and climbed into the other helo.
Zack turned to Court now and shouted over the sound of the turbines spooling up. “You know what the worst part of this shit is?”
“What’s that?”
“If we all die, nobody’s going to even notice I got killed. Everybody will be like ‘Oh shit, the Gray Man got fragged by some Russkies in Scotland.’ Nobody’s going to remember ole Zack getting popped.”
“Watch my back. Keep me alive. Problem solved, Romantic.”
“Night Train.”
Court cocked his head. “What’s that?”
“Night Train. My new code name. What do you think of that?”
“When did it change?”
“It hasn’t, officially, but Matt is thinking it over.”
“Good luck with that, Romantic,” Court said. He looked down at his aching left hand, the tight wrappings on it, and he thought about Zoya.
CHAPTER 59
As the Ground Branch team augmented with the two Poison Apple assets flew towards their target, there was an important piece of intelligence that they were missing.
Jenner and his team fully expected to encounter a sizable force of Russian Bratva gangster shooters, but they had no idea the target location also contained thirty GRU Spetsnaz-trained mercenaries.
There was an incredible force multiplier effect involved in dealing with a cohesive unit of men as opposed to a group of thugs of the same number. Thirty special operators who’d trained together and had fought together in the past posed a formidable, perhaps insurmountable, obstacle to the success of the CIA paramilitary mission here.
But without this knowledge the Direct Action Penetrator touched down behind a grove of trees two kilometers from the church and the airfield, ensuring that no one at the target location could hear it. Ten men leapt out and began moving up towards their destination through light rain and heavy mist.
Court was near the back at this stage; he wouldn’t take the front until they arrived at the door to the church. For now he just jogged along through the heavy vapor, holding his slung rifle up with one hand. Trudging their way through short grass, he and the others came upon a flock of sheep. They moved through the animals, guns high in front of them.
Court ran along with Hightower, Greer, Stapleton, Lorenzi, McClane, Jenner, Travers, a guy Court thought he heard someone call Partridge, and some other asshole Court didn’t know at all.
They made their way higher on the hill, saw the graveyard through the heavy mist in front of them, and dispersed left and right.
Lorenzi and McClane were the two snipers on the team, and once they crested the rise of the hill, they dropped down behind a low stone wall, took up positions, and looked through their 416s’ scopes, scanning the stained-glass windows of the church, just forty yards away.
As Zack, Court, and the rest of the team crouched and moved through the tombstones, they slowed and took knees when they heard their headsets come alive.