Read Online Shadow of Death by David M. Salkin - Free Book Online

near El Gato’s fortress mansion on the hilltop. From there, you will hump full combat packs into the jungle, where you will set up camp, undetected, until we’re ready to move. You’ll need food and water for a week, as well as your choice of weapons and breaching explosives. There’s no way to get you into Mexico with your combat equipment and not have El Gato find out unless it’s totally covert. You’ll have control communications here with Dex Murphy. He’ll be coordinating with the Mexican Marines as well as keeping tabs on me, hopefully. If they smell a rat, you’ll be looking at pictures of me on Google next.”
    Moose made a face. “So why go in that way? They may kill you for a hundred reasons, including their own entertainment. Why not just come with us?”
    “While I appreciate your concern, it’s what I do. You’re good at combat, I’m good at spying and bullshitting. I was tops in my bullshitting class at Fictional University, and it had excellent students. Part of the deal with Mexico was grabbing El Gato. We need him alive if at all possible. If we just assault the house, we’ll never get him. Just like El Chapo had a mile-long tunnel out of jail, you can be sure that El Gato has tunnels, helicopters, and maybe a spaceship to avoid capture. I need to get in close before you hit the house. It won’t be any worse than half the shit I’ve done.”
    Apo’s tone became more serious. “Besides, capturing El Gato is only half the mission. We’re not going to Mexico just to be part of their war on drugs. We need to find that package. I have more intel on that, and it isn’t good news.”
    Apo changed the slide on the screen. A large object appeared, but no one knew what they were looking at. It was the size of large, rectangular truck engine, with coils of thick metal wire wrapped around it, like wire around a pencil.
    Jon took a guess. “Transformer?”
    “You’re close. Anyone else?”
    They all studied it in silence. It looked like it was part electronic, part computer, and part engine.
    “This is an electromagnetic pulse weapon, or EMP. This one here is ours. It’s called CHAMP. Stands for Counter-electronics High Power Microwave Advanced Missile Project. We’ve been working on it for years, just like the Russians, Israelis, and Chinese. The air force admitted to having one in May last year. Basically, you can destroy your enemy’s electronic equipment instantaneously without any collateral damage. The way the air force intends to use it is against military targets—planes, communications, radar installations, you name it. But if used against a city, it would cause massive power failures on the grid and destroy everything from phones to computers. Basically, it would move a civilization back a couple hundred years.”
    “Unless you’re Amish,” said Ray Jensen quietly. He had grown up in rural Pennsylvania not far from “Amish Country” in Lancaster. “They probably wouldn’t even notice.”
    Apo chuckled. “Excellent point. We should bring them in on this for post-electro-apocalypse lessons. So anyway, we received a tip from the Mossad. One of their agents in Iran says the Iranians shipped one of these to Syria for an attack on the US. It obviously coincides with my firsthand observation while in Syria. Now, the president doesn’t want anything to derail his new treaty with Iran, and he says Israel is fabricating the story because they have their own reasons for wrecking the treaty. I have been adamant in my recommendation to listen to the Israeli intelligence, based on my own experiences in Syria, and have been told to stand down. The president heard my report and chose to ignore it.”
    “Doesn’t that give you a warm fuzzy?” asked Ripper sarcastically.
    Apo paused for a long exhale. “Look guys—I know we don’t do politics, and this is above our pay grade, but I had friends die to gather what I consider to be important intelligence. This isn’t the first time my