If they were going to live through the next few minutes, they had two options. Hide and hope the attackers didn’t make their way over to them, or run to the Cirrus and get airborne before the gunmen saw them.
Performing calculations and risk assessments in his head, he made a call. “You’re right. Let’s head to the plane.”
The trio sprinted to the Cirrus. Max grabbed the chock off the pavement, opened his door and let Renee throw herself into the rear seat. Trent hopped next to Max in front. Max started it up as fast as he could.
“They see us yet?”
“Not yet, I don’t think.”
The aircraft’s parking spot on the ramp had been near the runway midpoint. He cursed to himself. With a runway this short, three passengers and a high-density altitude, he would need to use the full field for takeoff. But as soon as he started taxiing, he was sure to draw the gunmen’s attention. He didn’t have a choice.
Max throttled the engine and they began rolling forward on the taxiway, towards the far end of the runway.
“What about now? Are they following us?”
“I can’t tell,” Trent replied, careening his neck and looking back through the side windows of the plane.
Renee leaned forward from the backseat and opened Trent’s door, peeking her head out to look behind them. She immediately flung herself back in and latched the door.
“Hurry up,” was all she said, her face pale.
Max tapped the brakes to slow down in the turn, then pressed forward on the right pedal to bring the aircraft around to face the runway centerline, switching his flaps to fifty percent.
To his horror, he saw not one but two pickup trucks racing towards him down the taxiway. They were still a good half-mile away, but that would change fast. Still turning, Max immediately pushed the throttle all the way forward, felt and heard the 310-horsepower engine ramp up.
The airspeed was picking up. Fifty. Sixty.
He glanced to his left and watched the pickup trucks change bearing and turn as they overshot their mark. He could make out silent yellow flashes of gunfire in his peripheral vision.
He pulled back on the stick as the Cirrus hit its seventy-knot takeoff speed.
The ground dropped beneath them, and Max banked sharply away, climbing and accelerating to safety.
Renee squeezed Max’s shoulder. His heart was pounding. The geometry had been in their favor, but barely. The gunmen had been only a few seconds away from having a much better shot.
Trent put on his headset and keyed his mike. “Someone really needs to teach those mooks how to lead the target.”
Chapter 15
They landed at David Wayne Hooks Airport, near Houston, less than an hour later. After talking about it during the flight, Max made the decision that they would not call Wilkes to check in.
At this point, they didn’t know who they could trust.
They got fuel at Gill Aviation, the local FBO, and Max checked over the weather, still deciding where they should go next. Trent used the showers and changed into a pair of spare clothes Max lent him. Renee sipped hot tea while working on her computer in an empty pilot’s lounge. The two men joined her in there after a while, and Max closed the door.
Max figured that Wilkes had probably been calling and texting each of their phones after the attack, but Renee had mandated keeping all cell phones off until now. She didn’t want the devices pinging cell towers along their route. Despite her confidence in the security program she had installed on their hardware, none of them were one hundred percent sure how the hit team had located Rojas.
Renee said, “I ran some checks. I’m ninety-nine point nine percent sure that it wasn’t us. It’s extremely unlikely that anyone could have been eavesdropping on our calls or tracking our devices.”
Trent looked at Max. “How well do you know Wilkes?”
Max shook his head. “I don’t see it. Why would he have us go through all that down in Mexico, just to set us up?”
“Then who talked?”
Max said, “I don’t know.”
“Ian Williams knew about Wilkes’s Mexican agent. And now a professional hit team takes out an interrogation unit and their prisoner on American soil. Both of these events have Wilkes as the tie-in. So I ask you again, how well do you know him?”
Max shook his head. “I’m not disagreeing with you that there’s a leak. I’ll grant you it’s possible that Wilkes was even responsible for it. But since we don’t know how many people were read in to both operations, none of us can say that with any confidence.”
Renee spoke gently. “What do you think, then?”
Max said, “I suspect that if Wilkes was hunting a mole, he might have let them get some information on purpose.”
Trent looked sideways at Max.
Renee said, “Why would he do that?”
“You remember last summer in Florida, Renee. Wilkes didn’t tell us the whole truth until we absolutely needed to know. As good as Caleb Wilkes is at his job, he views his assets as expendable. He told me that he wanted to find out why the Sinaloa cartel and Pakistani intelligence were working together. What if that wasn’t his real objective? Or what if it wasn’t his only objective?”
Max saw Renee’s eyes moving as she worked through the problem. “You think he’s purposely allowing leaks of our operation to occur so that he can achieve a different objective. What, then?”
“I can think of three reasons. One is what’s called a blue-dye operation.”
Trent massaged his tired eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “Enough with this spook shit… this is why I said no to the CIA recruiter when I retired from the Army. I just want to shoot bad guys. Not have to wonder if they’re really bad guys or not… ”
Renee said, “I’ll bite. What’s a blue-dye operation?”
“It’s when you have a leak and don’t know where it is, but you’re able to see your adversary’s reaction, or maybe even what information they receive. So you insert multiple variations of some important story into the information stream. Whichever variation shows up in your enemy’s inbox, that’s the version your mole heard. You can use this technique to narrow down your field of suspects.”
“But it requires you to provide information to a mole.”
“Among others, yes. Normally one would provide information that isn’t harmful to an ongoing operation. But the juiciest worms make the best bait.”
Renee said, “You said there were three reasons why Wilkes would knowingly leak information. What are the other two?”
“The second reason is that he may already know who the mole is. He could be intentionally leaking information to suggest to the mole’s handlers that the mole is still reliable, with the eventual intention of using the mole to provide false or misleading information.”
Trent said, “I’m gonna say that’s not what’s going on here, based on the fact that we almost just got blown up. He wouldn’t have done that intentionally. Right?”
Max nodded. “Agreed. I highly doubt Wilkes would have knowingly risked an attack on Rojas.”
Renee said, “And the third reason?”
“I could be wrong about the whole thing. Wilkes could be the enemy.”
The group turned their attention to the buzzing phone on Renee’s armrest. She had powered it up while they were talking.
She looked at the caller ID. “It’s him. Wilkes.”
Max lifted up the phone and answered.
“Where have you been? Are you with the others?”