Page 8 of Rising Tiger

“In the wall, immediately to the right of the gate,” the little man replied, reading from a file he had accessed, “there should be a green tile with a white teardrop in the center.”

Harvath searched until he found it. “Got it.”

“Behind it there’s a keypad.”

He pushed on the tile, releasing a lock and allowing it to swing open on an internal hinge. Nicholas read the combination to him.

Harvath punched in the numbers, but nothing happened. In the distance, he could hear the sound of more trucks. They were headed his way. He tried the combination again.Nothing.

“It’s not working,” he said. “Are you sure we’ve got the right combo?”

Nicholas repeated the digits and then added, “Does the pad have power? The keys will be backlit. They should glow when you touch them.”

“Negative,” Harvath responded. “They’re definitely not lighting up.”

“You’re going to have to open it up.”

Harvath glanced in the direction the vehicles were coming from. “I don’t have a lot of time here. Likely hostiles inbound.”

“I can see them on my screen,” Nicholas stated. “It looks like an SUV and two pickups. Don’t worry. Just focus on the keypad.”

That was easy for him to say. “What am I supposed to be doing?”

“There are four screws on the faceplate. Take them out and then you can pop it off.”

Harvath slid a Leatherman multitool from its sheath, found the Phillips head bit, and began to remove the screws.

He was on the last one when its head stripped. “Damn it,” he cursed under his breath.

Switching to the multitool’s blade, he tried to pry the steel faceplate the rest of the way off, but could get it to move only so much.

He tried not to think about the approaching vehicles. They sounded like they were almost on top of him.

Flipping open the needlenose pliers, he grabbed the corner of the plate and began wrenching it away from its base. Finally, he heard a snap, the faceplate came free, and he could see inside the unit.

“Faceplate’s off,” he said over the radio.

“Based on the spec sheet,” offered Nicholas, “that lock runs on four double-A batteries. The first thing you should do is power-cycle the lock and—”

Harvath had already tuned him out. Reaching in, he stripped all four batteries and tossed them aside.

Everything from his night vision to his optics ran on double-As, and he always carried spares. Pulling four of them out of a waterproof holder, he slid them into the unit and tried the combination again.Bingo.

Closing the tile that hid the keypad, he pushed his way through the gate and entered the rubble-strewn courtyard. “I’m in,” he said.

“Good copy,” Nicholas replied. “Stay dark. Those vehicles are almost to you.”

“Roger that,” said Harvath. Flipping his night-vision goggles down, he headed for the door of the main structure.

The keypad was easy to find and, unlike the one at the gate, had power. As soon as he entered the combination, the lock released; he swung back the thick metal door and slipped inside.

His first priority was to clear the structure and make sure it was secure. As he moved from room to room, his weapon up and at the ready, he could see that the CIA guys had left in a hurry. Some clothing still hung in the closets, there were toothbrushes in the bathroom, and a stack of dishes sat in the kitchen sink.

The stench wafting from the garbage can was like something out of a crime scene. There could have been a million dollars hiding in there and Harvath wouldn’t have dared lift the lid—not without some level 4 hot-zone respirator on.

While it would have been the perfect place to hide something valuable, nothing inside the safe house suggested anyone was doing that kind of thinking. Up on the roof, two charred-out burn barrels and a pair of empty jerry cans served only to put an exclamation point on how fast the previous occupants had bugged out.

Risking a glance over the parapet, he looked down onto the street. Several buildings over, he could see the SUV, as well as the two pickups, both of which appeared to be mounted with a .50-caliber machine gun.