camp in the Bekaa Valley. She’d just gotten off the phone with David McCarter, who’d called from a covert Mossad medical facility near Nahariya. “We lost a Company op and Calvin needs to be threaded up where some briars tore his leg open, but everyone else pulled through with nicks and scratches.”
“Is Manning coming down from Damascus to hook up with them?” Huntington Wethers inquired.
“No,” Price responded. “He’s rebounded from the concussion but it looks like he has a separated shoulder, so he’ll be out of the combat loop awhile.”
“Looks like?” Delahunt interjected.
“There was a problem with the X-ray machine where he was treated,” Price said. “They went with a best-guess diagnosis and have him in an arm sling. He insisted on pitching in somehow, so we’ve got him flying to Hong Kong to see if he can find out what Kassem’s up to.”
“Are our guys dedicated or what?” Kurtzman marveled.
“Back to the camp raid,” John Kissinger said. “How’d the Snake fare?”
Kissinger, the Farm’s tall, broad-shouldered weaponsmith, had pulled up a chair next to Aaron Kurtzman’s computer station and helped himself to some of Bear’s infamous coffee. The ex-DEA field agent usually didn’t bother with mission briefings but he’d made an exception for this one, anxious to hear how his TCD-100 had performed in its first true test.
“T.J. says you’d better hurry to the patent office,” Price told him. “He says the Snake aced everything it’s programmed for.”
“Uh-oh,” Akira Tokaido sniggered from across the room. “Watch, Cowboy’ll land himself one of those monster defense contracts and that’ll be the last we see of him.”
“You wish,” Kissinger laughed. “It’ll take more than a windfall for you guys to get rid of me.”
“With James and Manning out, we could always ship you out to help Phoenix Force pick up the slack,” Kurtzman suggested.
“No problem there,” Kissinger said.
“We might actually take you up on that,” Price stated.
“Just say the word.”
“Let me get through this first.”
“Sorry,” Kissinger said. “Go ahead, fire. I take it there was more upside to that raid than giving the Snake a thumbs-up.”
“As far as firming up the link between Ahmet and Kassem, there was no hard evidence at the camp, but Phoenix took a couple prisoners and hopefully they’ll get something out of them when they’re questioned.”
“I don’t doubt that,” Wethers said. “And I don’t think we’ll want to know the specifics about the interrogation.”
“You’re probably right,” Price said. “But even if nothing comes out of that, it looks like we might’ve found a few more pieces to the nuclear puzzle.”
“You mean, the rogue state conspiracy?” Delahunt asked.
Price nodded. “Before they took off from the camp, Phoenix managed a quick sweep of the command post and some of the tunnel bunkers,” she explained. “Looks like Hezbollah was storing equipment needed to convert enriched uranium into weapons material.”
“Is it their own equipment or Iran’s?”
“No confirmation yet,” Price replied. “One of the Company ops photoed the equipment. CIA’s going over the downloads as we speak. It won’t surprise me if at least some of the gear is traceable back to Tehran.”
“Sounds like that reporter was on the money, then,” Delahunt said.
“This raid might put us a step ahead of him in terms of breaking it all down,” Price responded. “Besides the equipment, there were plans for an underground UE lab. It might be that Hezbollah was going to do more than just hold on to Iran’s contraband.”
“I take it ‘was’ is the operative word there,” Delahunt said.
“I think so,” Price said. “If you figure Ferris was kidnapped in hopes of keeping a lid on this whole collusion story, these rogue states are out of luck. The cat’s out of the bag, and whatever Ferris doesn’t go public with will probably wind up being ‘leaked.’ There’s no way they’ll be able to proceed. At least not on the sly.”
“You got that right,” Kurtzman ventured. “I can think of at least a couple neighboring countries that’ll take exception to having nukes cooked up in their backyard.”
“It won’t be just them,” Price said. “NATO and the UN will likely weigh in and give the IAEC a lot more teeth in terms of nosing around, and they won’t be just looking at Iran now.”
“What happened to the equipment?” Wethers asked. “I’m guessing there was no room to store it on that Huey Phoenix flew out in.”
“They set charges in some of the key bunkers,” Price said. “They took out the equipment along with a cache of Israeli B-300s,” Price said. “I know they’re inferior to the weapons Ahmet tried to score in La Paz, but I’m surprised they didn’t try to smuggle those into the States instead.”
“It’s a long haul from Lebanon to L.A.,” Kurtzman surmised. “They were probably afraid Mossad would sniff them out before they got them more than a few miles past the border.”
“You’re probably right.”
“Anything else?” Delahunt asked.
Price was about to respond when Hal Brognola entered the Computer Room, looking haggard and agitated. The SOG chief had a cigar out and had apparently already snapped off one end from working it too hard between his fingers. Price had conferred with him prior to briefing the others about the Bekaa Valley operation, so she was concerned there was some new fly in the ointment.
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