CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Something twigged on the edges of Wolf’s memory, and he reached for a pocket on his vest. He was almost certain one of the men they’d captured was on the wanted list. He flipped through his intel packet, looking at the playing card size images of people on the most wanted lists. Every man on his team had a similar set of cards, except his had one card extra. The card with the code BL47 printed on top– Blacklist number forty-seven. “I’m gonna check the cards against them.” He nodded to where the tangos sat against the wall.
“Sure thing,” Dude replied, just as Wolf had known he would. Checking the cards was protocol for them, especially when they were hunting in this neck of the woods.
Wolf separated out the cards for known terrorists in the region and stepped up next to the first man. He flipped through them, glancing from the guy’s face to the cards and back again. “Nope, it’s not him.” He showed the card to Abe.
“Agree, it’s not him.” Let them think this was an organized hit and not a rescue mission for Indy. “What about him?” He pointed to the next man in line.
“Yeah, I don’t know, man.” Wolf studied the card, and then the man. “Whatcha think?”
“Nope, you need your eyes tested, Boss. That doesn’t even look remotely like him.” Abe plucked the card out of his hand and held it up next to his face. “See? No resemblance whatsoever.”
Wolf snatched the card back and shoved it under the deck and moved to the next guy. “You’re right.”
They did this song and dance often enough that he knew Abe was expecting the words he’d say next. “I’m getting closer, I feel it.”
Abe sighed heavily as if he were dealing with an idiot. “No. No, you’re not getting close. I’m telling you to have the missus organize you an eye test the second we get home.”
Wolf showed him the picture. “It is him… right?”
“No, put that card down and move on.”
“It could be him.”
“Boss.” Abe moved onto the next guy. “Check this one, because that one ain’t on the list.”
“I’m in charge here,” Wolf reminded him. He glanced from the card to the tango. “Oh yeah, you’re right, that could be him.” He knew full well that this guy wasn’t BL47.
“You sure?” Abe asked.
“No, he’s similar, but not quite a match. Show me the next one,” Wolf ordered.
“You got it.” Abe stopped in front of the last man on the row, the one Indy had tried to kick on the roof. “Lift up your head.” The tango ignored him, and Abe pushed the muzzle of his weapon under his chin. Clearly the threat of a bullet through the windpipe was enough, and the man lifted his head.
“Get him on his feet.” Wolf waited for Abe to do as he asked and leaned forward to study the man’s face.
That’s him. Holy shit. That’s him. Blacklist number forty-seven.
The tango leaned back on his heels and slammed himself forward in an attempt to headbutt Wolf. Even with his hands tied behind his back, he was still trying to jump on him. Wolf leaned his head back and to the side really fast, then kicked out at him, sending him flying across the room. “That’s BL 54, which means his almost double is his brother, aka this one.” He flipped through the cards until he found the one he wanted. “Bag both of them, we’ll bring them with us.” Command would lose their shit when they saw the gift he was bringing home with him. Maybe it would be enough to earn his guys some down time.
Now that he knew for sure who he was dealing with, they needed to take every scrap of intel out of this place. Having this terrorist and his brother in their grasp was too good an opportunity to pass up. He gestured to the safe on the far side of the room. “Who knows the combo to this safe?” Wolf growled. The men they had captured just stared at him.
Seriously? This is what they were going to go with? Selective mutism. Assholes.
“Who knows the combo to the safe?” he demanded again, even though he knew what the outcome would be. Just as he suspected, nobody said anything. If they wouldn’t answer him, then it was time to bring out the big guns: the man who valued honesty over almost everything else. He glanced at Abe and nodded.
Abe gave him a silent chin lift and cleared his throat. “Okay. The next person who doesn’t know the combo to the safe is getting shot in the kneecaps.”
Wolf started counting in his head as the captives glanced from one to the other as if trying to decide if Abe’s threat was serious or not.
One.
Two.
Three.
Abe clipped his M-16 to its sling and allowed the muzzle to drop before fishing out his Glock.
Four.
Five.
Wolf tensed as Abe cleared the rack and pointed the muzzle at the man sitting closest to him. The tango didn’t need to know he hadn’t tabbed off the safety. He wrinkled his nose against the stench when one of the captives pissed themselves, and tapped Abe on the back of the shoulder, gesturing toward the one he was going to take a wild ass guess was the weak link.
Abe strode toward the captive sitting second to last on the row and crouched in front of him. He pressed the muzzle of his weapon against the man’s kneecap and tilted his head to one side.
The captive swallowed hard and spilled the beans, giving them the combination to the safe.
“That better be right,” Abe warned. “If it’s not…” He trailed off and shrugged, letting the captive fill in the blanks for himself.
Wolf went back to the safe and punched in the numbers he’d memorized. Thankfully, the lock clicked and the safe opened. “No more fun today,” he called to Abe. “That combo works.” It pissed him off that threatening people worked better than just asking a question. But he wasn’t here to make besties. He and his team had a job to do. They would do it. Period.
He opened up the safe and his eyes widened when he saw it was stuffed to the brink. “Shit, Benny?”
“Yeah, Boss?”
“Toss me a garbage bag. All this shit ain’t gonna fit in our rucks.” It was way above his pay grade for him to decide what he brought with them and what was left behind. Everything in the safe was classed as intel.
“Here.” Benny handed him a folded black plastic sack. “It’s the only one I have.”
Wolf eyed the body bag Benny had provided and decided it was kind of fitting to use it to carry the Congolese Francs, passports, and everything else which classed as intel. The loss of the contents of this safe would hopefully put a minor dent in the acts of terror the LRA carried out on a daily basis.
“That’s one hell of a big year score for us,” Benny whispered. “Command will have a field day with that lot.”
“Yeah.” Wolf stuffed everything into the body bag, zipped it shut, and put it on his shoulder. “Wrap them up.” He nodded to the captives. “We’re going to exfil, stat.”
“Yes, Sir.”
We saved the girl and won the day.
As they prepped for exfil out of the property, a whoosh followed by a boom snapped their attention to the outside. Wolf peered out the window just in time to see the explosion.
“Shit, RPG.” He flattened himself against the side of the wall. “Move your asses, we got shit coming in.” Fuck, he hoped Kilkenny and his woman were well out of the way. Already he could hear Kristof shouting orders from deeper into the house.
“Is that for us, or did the asshole piss off someone above his pay grade?” Cookie hauled BL47 to his feet while Abe grabbed the man next to him.
“Fuck knows,” Wolf muttered. “Let’s blow this joint before we have to find out.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Copy that.”
“Hooyah.”