“Are you hurt?”

  “I’m good, just a little sore. Thanks, my friend. I thought my number was up.”

  The Italian grinned. “Cowards die many times before their deaths, but the valiant never taste death but once. That was Julius Caesar, but he was murdered by his friends. Perhaps I should choose a more suitable quote for the occasion.”

  “Yeah, how about no quote at all?”

  Rovere broadened his smile. “Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer.”

  “Domenico, for Christ’s sake, shut up. And thanks again.”

  “You’re welcome. Put your hand over my shoulder. I’ll help you.”

  “The family, were they hit? Are they okay?”

  “They’re unharmed. We’re taking them with us. I assume they’re the Hakims?”

  “Yes, the Colonel’s family.”

  “It’s more than he deserves,” Rovere replied.

  “The family didn’t betray us, Domenico. They’re innocents, and they’ve no business being caught up in this.”

  “You’re right.”

  They retreated across the open ground to the gully, his squad falling back in pairs to cover their comrades.

  “Are you okay?” Cate asked him anxiously. “Are you wounded?”

  “I’m fine, just a few hits to my armored vest, and one to my helmet that dented my pride as much as my head. We need to pull out. The army could arrive at any time.”

  “Did you get him?” Guy asked. The others looked closely at him.

  “Gul won’t be attending the United Nations again, that I can promise you, unless it’s in the next life.”

  “Did you shoot him?”

  “I left him with the gun that killed him in his hand.”

  Welland smiled. “That’ll tie up a few loose ends.”

  “Yeah, time to go. Let’s move, people. Cate, we’ll be at the exfiltration site inside of an hour, would you call in the Black Hawks. You’d better give them the news that we’ve got Hakim’s family with us.”

  “Sure, just give me a few moments.”

  She used the satcom and got through to Alexander. He was running the mission from the Abraham Lincoln. Then she switched off the set.

  “I’m done. We can move out to the site.”

  * * *

  They arrived back on the Abraham Lincoln. The Black Hawks had picked them up on schedule and landed at Mosul, where a Boeing V22 Osprey waited to whisk them out to the carrier for debriefing. The Abraham Lincoln was cruising the Persian Gulf, close to the shores of Iraq and Iran. Talley went straight to the operations room where he described the operation inside Gul’s estate. What he told them caused Admiral Alexander to spend an anxious few hours in signals with the Pentagon and the United Nations, during which time Echo Six were told to stand down and rest. Talley made good use of it, as did Cate. He realized he’d got into a relationship with a tiger.

  “Lie on your back, Talley, I’ll be on top.”

  “But I prefer it the…”

  “Yeah, the other way, plain vanilla. Let me tell you, buddy boy, I like it every which way but loose, and sometimes that too.”

  He lay reluctantly on his back, shivering with ecstasy as she lowered herself over his penis. He started to move, but she stopped him.

  “No, this time, I’ll do the fucking. Just lay back and think of something good.”

  “Like what?”

  She grinned. “Like how lucky you are to have a girl like me who wants to fuck you to a standstill.”

  She was already grinding her hips up and down, sideways, and every other way. He groaned with pleasure.

  “I won’t argue with that.”

  The relief of knowing the most difficult and dangerous mission of their lives was over served as a catalyst to ignite their lust. They screwed endlessly. Finally, when he felt utterly exhausted, and when she truly had fucked him to a standstill, came the knock on the door.”

  “I’m busy,” he shouted. “Come back later.”

  “Admiral’s orders, you’re both to report to the operations room in ten minutes.”

  “Okay, we’ll be there.”

  It took a couple of seconds to sink in.

  “He said ‘both’. That means us. They know we’re in here together,” Cate said.

  “I guess it’s true what they say. There are no secrets on board a ship.”

  “Evidently,” she replied.

  He smiled inwardly, seeing her cheeks had turned a bright shade of red.

  “We’re all in the clear,” Rear Admiral Alexander told them.

  Talley, Cate, Rovere, and Welland; they sat on chairs while he stood in front of the operations board.

  “Did they swallow the story that he shot himself?” Cate asked.

  “When the United Nations General Secretary, Ban Ki-Moon, found out what he’d been up to, I reckon he’d have shot him himself. The Turks are another matter. We had to bring some pressure to bear on them. After all, Gul was well connected. He’s even related to their Prime Minister. But in the end, they looked at his sheet and decided to leave it alone. There’s no future in being labeled as good friends of a crook. So that’s that. I’m arranging for you all to get transport home, and you can take a few more days R&R. I’m sure you all need it.” He looked across at Cate and Talley and smiled. “Some of you more than others, I guess.”

  Cate reddened yet again.

  “You should have had a few weeks vacation, but there’s a mission on the board that takes precedence.”

  “What are you planning to do, Admiral?”

  He looked at Talley. “You mean will I be going back to NATFOR? That’s an easy one, Captain. Would you give up command of a nuclear carrier for anything?”

  “No, Sir, I would not.”

  “Me neither. The replacement for Colonel Hakim has already been notified, and he’ll be in post inside the next two days. You’ll meet him soon enough. By the way, we told the Colonel about his family, and I allowed them to have a few minutes with him.”

  “Yes, Sir, that’s good news. This new mission, what is it, and where?”

  “Yeah, the next one.” He sounded for the first time, tired and old; and worried. “You know the US government uses more and more security companies, employing former soldiers to carry out dangerous tasks inside the countries they’re helping out?”

  “You mean mercenaries, Sir?”

  He smiled. “Don’t use that word, Captain. The Pentagon will have a heart attack. They’re called security men. They’ve grown in numbers lately, to the extent that they’ve become whole armies in some cases, private armies. The difference to our military is that these armies are up for sale. You’ll be coming back to Iraq. When our people pulled out, they left vacuums that one of the local politicians has seen fit to fill with security men. He’s become a warlord in his own right, and it’s our former soldiers who’re helping him. He has to be stopped.”

  Talley was puzzled. “A couple of questions, Sir. I’m no longer a member of NATFOR. You transferred me back to the US Navy.”

  “Already taken care of, Son. Your transfer was cancelled, and you’re back working for NATFOR, as is Captain Walker.”

  Cate looked up sharply. “Me? But I didn’t ask. I was only on attachment with Colonel Hakim as a…”

  “It’s done, Captain. I recommended you be put on the staff of NATFOR. I reckon they need someone like you to get them through the coming months. It’ll be tricky, with the treachery and failures of Colonel Hakim, the new guy will have his work cut out keeping the unit in order. You’ll still have your seniority in the Navy, that will keep building, but you’re working directly for NATO now.”

  She inclined her head. “Understood, Sir.”

  But Talley hadn’t finished. “I still don’t understand, Sir, these security people. Just because they’ve joined a local politician’s payroll, doesn’t seem like a reason to go in and take them down.”

  Alexander nodded gravely. “That’s true, but it’s not that simple. This politician, actually he’s a government minister as well, and is known to be a stooge of the Iranians. The guy bankrolling him is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. They’re planning an operation to carve up Northern Iraq between the Iranians and the Kurds. And Northern Iraq means most of their oil. If they get what they want, the Iranians will steal the country, or most of it, and bankrupt the rest. Your job will be to stop them. But I’ll fill you in on the details when you’re back. You’ll jump off from the Abraham Lincoln, and we’ll give you whatever support you need. You’ll need more men, too. We’re reforming Delta Six. If they’re ready, they’ll be joining you.”

  He saw Talley begin to mouth an objection.

  “Yeah, I know they screwed up the last time. But this time, it’ll be different. That’s all. You go and get some rest. Dismissed.”

  They stood to attention and saluted. Talley walked back through the passages of the carrier to his cabin with Cate next to him.

  “Where shall we go?”

  “Go? Sorry, I lost you.”

  “For our R&R. It seems the Admiral knows everything about us.”

  “It’s what he’s paid for. Where would you like to go, Abe?”

  My wife, or is she my former wife? I don’t know. I want to go to San Diego and look up the guy who cuckolded me and flatten his nose. Trouble is he’s a senior naval officer. There’s no future in that. I need to see my kids as well, but there’s so little time, I’d only be there for a few hours. They’ll likely be frightened and confused. I need a good long session with them to thrash things out.

  “Where would you like to go, Cate?”

  “Venice.”

  “Venice? What the hell for?”

  She smiled a lascivious smile. “I’m insatiable, you know that now. Venice is where Casanova screwed half the female population. I want to find out what his secret was.”

  “You want to screw half the population of Venice?”

  “No, just you, but I want to feel as if I have.”

  Someone cleared his throat, and they both looked around. Domenico Rovere was right behind them, his face red with embarrassment.

  “What is it, Domenico?”

  “I, er, I’m not…”

  Talley grinned. “You know, that’s the first time you’ve been stuck for a quote, my friend. I’ll have to remember that little trick.”

  This time, Cate laughed out loud. “Domenico, you’re still red. How could you, you’re Italian? Casanova must be turning in his grave.”

  “I have to go back to the operations room. I think I forgot something.”

  He turned and almost ran back. They smiled at each other and carried on walking. They reached the wardroom and took lunch to a vacant table. All through the meal, Talley found he couldn’t take his mind off the next mission. What Admiral Alexander had outlined was a bleak picture. Cate soon noticed his silence.

  “What is it? What’s wrong, Talley? You’ve hardly said a word.”

  He forced himself to concentrate. “Sorry. I was thinking about things. Our last mission, we finally got to the guy at the top and took him out.”

  She nodded. “Yes, it was a tidy solution.”

  “Except for Gul.”

  She grinned. “Except for him, that’s true. Does it worry you that we killed him?”

  That I killed him. She’s just trying to shift some of the guilt.

  “Not at all, I’d do it again if somehow he’d survived. But it’s the next one.”

  “You’re worried that we may have to kill this Iraqi politician?”

  “No, it’s the guy at the top that worries me.”

  “The head of the American security company, or the Iraqi politician?”

  “Neither of them is the man at the top. I was talking about the guy who pays the bills.”

  Then she understood. “I see what you mean,” she whispered. “Ahmadinejad.”

  “Yes, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. What if he’s the target?”

  She didn’t reply at first. Then he heard her whisper.

  “Shit!”

 

 

  Eric Meyer, Raid on Somalia

 

 

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