The man's jaw dropped as the sight of Dante and he dropped his briefcase. He frantically reached for the automatic stuck in his belt. Dante fired twice, both shots striking the man in the chest and throwing him back against the wall.
Dante acquired new targets, lining up on the back of one of the attackers at the rear of the group. He felt more than saw Danielle step out beside him and open fire.
The four shots sounded like small firecrackers, but the two men at the rear of the pack of killers both stumbled forward when the shots struck them in the back, sending them into the two in front of them. Those two were pushed off balance by the sudden impact of dead weight. Before they could shove their dying comrades away, Dante and Danielle fired again.
The second double tap struck home and those two men fell.
The remaining three shooters quickly spun to face the threat behind them, weapons rising to fill the hallway full of lead. They never saw the hotel room doors open behind them, never saw Tanner and Naomi step out and fire their own silenced pistols into their backs from a distance of ten feet.
Wahid Tamrez and his two men never saw the bullets that killed them.
As the last killer fell, the OUTCAST team was already moving. Danielle ducked back into the linen closet to retrieve her laptop. Dante moved forward, sweeping the elevator lobby, then moving to assist Tanner and Naomi, who swept in to kick away weapons and search the dead would-be assassins.
Several doors along the hall opened as guests poked their heads out, wanting to find out what was going on. Dante shouted, "Get back into your rooms and stay there!"
The resulting doors closing sounded almost like gunshots.
Dante searched the briefcase of the first man he had killed. He spun it around to show Tanner the contents — drug paraphernalia, a bundle of money, and a block of something that had to be drugs, either heroin or cocaine.
"Leave it," Tanner advised. Dante nodded and closed the case.
"Four to Prime," Stephen said on the radio. "Southwest stairwell clear, two tangos down."
"Copy, Four," Tanner said. "Execute Fuzzy Dragon in twenty. We're on our way out."
The stairwell door opened and Liam stepped out. Tanner told him, "Help Six!"
Liam nimbly hopped over the bodies and ran toward the linen closet. He found Danielle coming out of the room carrying their duffel bags. Liam holstered his pistol and grabbed some of the bags from her. He dropped three of them in the hall and carried the other three over to Tanner and the others. By now, five of the bodies had been searched, and the rest were currently being checked. Liam handed a duffel bag each to Tanner, Dante and Naomi, who added the assorted wallets, cell phones and other pocket litter to the bags.
Tanner motioned to the stairwell Liam had just used. "We'll take this one. You and Six join Four."
Liam nodded and ran back to where he had left the bags. Danielle tossed him a towel. He used it to take the pistols he'd taken from the killers in the stairwell out of his pockets and wipe them down before tossing them into the hallway. Picking up all three bags, he and Danielle ran for the other end of the hall and the stairs. They were three quarters of the way there when the piercing shriek of a fire alarm started, prompting them to race down the stairs.
By the time they reached the fourth floor, there were people in the stairwell. Liam saw Stephen waiting for them. He handed the former CIA agent two of the bags and quickly buttoned his coat. At the second floor, there was a steady stream of guests chattering and wondering what was going on.
The three OUTCASTs went with the flow, doing nothing to attract attention. Liam glanced over the rail and saw the bodies of the two men Stephen had killed, but the people were more concerned with escaping the building than seeing what was at the bottom.
They reached the ground floor, the concrete block giving way to glass and a large EXIT sign over the doors. The three OUTCAST operatives spilled out into the parking lot along with the flood of hotel guests and employees.
They continued walking toward the Pajero Sport 4x4. Stephen unlocked the car and after throwing everything into back, he tossed the keys to Liam.
"You're driving. I have a phone call to make."
"Two to Prime," Liam said into his throat microphone as he climbed into the driver's seat. "We're clear of the building."
"Copy, Two," Tanner said. "We're reaching the vehicle now."
"Meet you at the Fort," Liam said, referring to the Castle of Good Hope, which was a short distance away.
"Copy. See you in a few."
Liam started the Pajero and left the parking lot. As he turned onto Hans Strijdom Avenue, he heard Stephen say into his phone.
"Nigel? We need your help."
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Saleh Narsai sipped his coffee and stared out over the ocean. The last day and a half had been exhausting for him and the crew of both his ship and the Saad el Melik. There was no telling when an enemy might move to take the ship, and so he had only slept for thirty minutes in the last day. There was so much to do.
The first step had been the transfer of the necessary materials from the Saad el Melik to the Northstar. Timing the transfers between satellite passes and hiding the goods between the container stacks had been time-consuming. They had done most of the transfer at night with only just enough light to see by.
The second step had been the most nerve-racking, the removal of the warheads from the container. Despite Dr. Masood's assurances that the warhead was safe to move, it had taken several hours of back-breaking work to take both warheads out of the container, using a jury-rigged hoist to lower both to the deck, where they were covered by more tarps.
But still there was more to do. A construction crew from the Saad el Melik had begun the construction of launchers between two container stacks, while a second crew pulled tarps across the spaces to conceal the activity from overhead observation. Masood's team attended to the warheads and the missiles under another set of tarps in another space. The work was hot and brutal, the temperature under the tarps rising as high as a hundred and fifteen degrees during the day, even higher when the crew used wielding torches and other power tools. The work was continuous, stopping only long enough for a quick meal and a shift change after six hours.
On top of all that, Yabaal and his pirate hoodlums were nosing around like cats in a new house, trying to discover what was going on around the ship. They were promised weapons in return for their help, and Narsai would see to it they got their share of automatic rifles, but they sure as hell didn’t need to find out about the nuclear capabilities. While they were fine cover to hide the ICA's involvement in the plot to utilize weapons of mass destruction — let the world think this was just another run-of-the-mill East African pirate attack — Narsai found the Somali warlord to be greedy, arrogant, and bullying. It had taken all of Narsai's limited diplomatic skills to keep Yabaal and his men from going through the containers the moment Riyad had left.
Realizing that he had to placate the warlord, Narsai had allowed "limited plundering" of the center hold containers, where the most valuable cargo was stored. Watching a bunch of semi-savages run around in high-end fashions from Paris, trying to figure out how to use MP3 players and carry 60” TVs to their boats had left Narsai with the belief that their Somali allies were almost useless for anything but stopping bullets.
After that, Yabaal and his men were warned to stay off the Northstar for a couple of days. So far, the pirates had stayed away, but Narsai didn't know how much longer that would last. He'd assigned by a dozen ICA soldiers to guard duty with clear orders to shoot any non-ICA member approaching the ship.