Read Online Threatcon Delta by Andrew Britton - Free Book Online

rooms,” Harper told him. “That said, we do not have visuals on several chambers and listening devices tell us nothing. He might be communicating with others by handwriting.”
    “The Alamo is in San Antonio,” Kealey said thoughtfully. “That would be a hell of a target.”
    “Agreed,” Harper said. “It’s right in the middle of the city, accessible on all sides, heavy with bus tours. There’s also the River Walk, the top tourist attraction in Texas. One of our think tank guys said it would be a coup back home to turn it red with blood, like the Nile.”
    “Payback some thirty-three hundred years later?”
    “These boys have long memories,” Harper pointed out. “They’re still pissed about the Crusades, about El Cid tossing them out of Spain. And there are other moving parts here.”
    “Such as?”
    “There are two local DEA offices that have been long, sharp knives pointed at Hernandez’s side, preventing a full-scale expansion into Texas,” Harper said. “One is the El Paso division where Yerby was assigned and the other is the San Antonio District Office. There’s concern that Hernandez used himself as bait to see what key assets showed up and to take them down.”
    “So he may have enlisted a terrorist group to help him and not the other way around?”
    “Possible. Very possible.”
    “Which means we need to find al-Shenawi.”
    Harper nodded.
    Kealey had been to San Antonio about a decade before and liked it, a small-size city with big-size character. Kealey had also been on cold-trail hunts and he liked those, too. There was an inescapable thrill knowing you could pretty much go where you wanted, talk to whoever you chose, knowing that a phone call would back up your right to do so.
    But he sat there staring at the photos without seeing them. He didn’t want to do this . . . not even to get the doctor who had recruited so many terrible killers.
    Kealey looked up. “Jon, this is gonna sound cold, but I’m done with all this.”
    “So you’ve told me. Then why’d you come?”
    “An old friend asked me to. And he sent a helicopter.”
    “I’ll send you to Texas in a jet,” Harper said with a grin. The smile faded quickly. “You knew the old friend would ask you to do more. I repeat: Why did you come?”
    Kealey thought for a moment. “I honestly don’t know. I’ve got my pension and I liked it where I was. Everything you’re telling me—it’s nothing new. Washington has known the cartels were making a push into Texas and has done next to nothing to seriously amp up border security. Washington has known that terrorists were looking to hook up with drug czars for years and has done next to nothing to infiltrate the cartels. No HUMINT where we need it.”
    “Agreed.”
    “Now I’m supposed to fix that?”
    “DEA has run a few names up the flagpole but no one with Middle Eastern savvy, except you. If you don’t go, we may just be sending agents to an ambush.”
    “Jesus, Jon. Guilt?”
    “I have to try,” Harper said. “We’ve got one, possibly two nasty men within our borders. Finding the doctor could lead us to Hernandez.”
    “Do you think he’s still here as well?”
    “We don’t know,” Harper admitted. “What we don’t know is staggering, in fact. The surveillance of Hernandez was hazy. He’s not stupid. He traveled by night and kept to wooded areas. He apparently moved around by tunnels as well. For all we know, the meeting was about getting him to Iran for sanctuary. There may be a drug war percolating in the south. Mexico is not so well informed. But here’s something my gut and the circumstantial evidence tells me: We have a perfect storm to take out two monsters.”
    “Texas has FBI, DHS people. Experienced ones.”
    “They do. Top people. They want to be set loose.”
    “But they aren’t getting the go-ahead,” Kealey said.
    Harper gave him a look that said, Of course not. A mob of angry, vengeful agents standing shoulder to shoulder with bayonets