Triplecross. Don Pendleton

will be attractive to Gera and Jamali, either strategically or symbolically.”

      “What’s our goal?” McCarter asked.

      “You’re to chip away at the enemy until the threat posed by Gera and Jamali has been eliminated,” Brognola answered. “As long as those two are stirring up trouble in their bid to control the region, the threat of full-scale, even nuclear, war between Pakistan and India remains real. It’s our hope that you can neutralize the two generals. If you can render their forces incapable of mounting further campaigns against one another or the border, then we can step in with UN support and renegotiate the ceasefire.”

      “Everybody join hands,” Lyons scoffed, “and sing ‘We Are the World.’”

      “Something like that,” Brognola said, frowning. “Look, I realize we’re asking a lot of both teams. Phoenix has before it a particularly broad mission, and we have no idea just how deep the EarthGard connection may go.”

      “Something about that name bothers me,” Lyons said. “It sounds like that ‘green’ hippie group we took down a while back.”

      “There is evidence that EarthGard has ties to some radical environmentalist concerns,” Kurtzman said, “at least so far as their charitable and political giving goes. But nothing about the company we’ve learned to this point indicates anything along the lines of eco-terrorism or anything like that.”

      “Still,” Lyons conceded cautiously, “I don’t like it. But I guess I don’t have to. We’re on it, Hal.”

      “And we’re moving out,” McCarter said. “Priority target list received.”

      “Good hunting, David,” said Price.

      “We’ll do our best,” said the Phoenix Force leader. He nodded to James and, a moment later, the satellite image cut to static and then a blue override screen.

      “Phoenix will be more or less on its own,” Brognola told those in the conference room, “beyond the reach of either India or Pakistan until they get closer to resolving the military threat in Kashmir.

      “Here in Washington, I’ll be running interference for you and coordinating through Barb to make sure the locals know you have the highest federal authority. But that’s no guarantee you won’t meet with at least some resistance from ‘friendly’ authorities.”

      “No worries, Hal,” Blancanales said. “We’ve played the game before. We’ll try not to break too much that you might have to pay for.”

      “It isn’t you I worry about, Pol,” Brognola said. He cast a meaningful glance in Lyons’s direction. The big ex-cop chose that moment to study an imaginary spot on the ceiling, whistling tunelessly to himself.

      “We’ll keep you informed, Hal,” Price said.

      “Good,” Brognola said. “Good luck, Able. Keep an eye on them, Barb.” He cut the connection.

      “Let’s move, boys,” Lyons said, standing. “We’ve wasted enough time on our behinds.”

      “Jack will be waiting for you at the landing pad area,” Price directed. “Cowboy has prepared a full complement of gear from the armory.”

      “That’s what I like to hear,” Lyons returned. He strode out of the room with Blancanales close behind. Price moved to follow, but before she did she stopped and watched Schwarz. The electronics expert looked left, looked right and then leaned over the table. He then clipped the red-dot sight to Kurtzman’s coffee mug.

      “I’d check the windage and elevation on that before you fire it,” Schwarz said, grinning. He left quickly.

      As she walked down the hall after the chuckling Schwarz, Price thought she heard Kurtzman talking to himself in the conference room.

      “Swift and terrible,” Kurtzman muttered to himself. “Swift and terrible.”

      CHAPTER THREE

      Twin Forks, Utah

      The black GMC Suburban waiting at the tiny airfield was a rental from a national chain that Carl Lyons recognized. He assumed that a local courier, coordinating through the Farm, had arranged for the vehicle to be left for them. In both hands he carried heavy black duffel bags, as did Schwarz and Blancanales. Each was full of weapons and ammunition, including loaded magazines, grenades and other explosives. When Lyons reached the truck he set the bags down in the gravel and began searching the nearest wheel well.

      The magnetic key box was in the second well he tried. He slipped the key out of the box and put the magnetic holder back where he had found it. An electronic fob was included. He used it to unlock the truck.

      “The exciting life of a covert counterterrorist,” Schwarz said as he walked up and dropped his bags.

      “Be sure to drop the one with the C4 charges in it extra hard, Gadgets,” Lyons said.

      “Good thing the detonators are in the other bag,” the electronic genius said without missing a beat.

      “Thrill as they carry heavy things from their plane to their car!” Blancanales intoned, imitating a movie announcer.

      The “plane” in this case was a Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey, on loan from Special Forces. The VTOL troop carrier was armed with a 7.62 mm GAU-17 minigun. The retractable cannon was belly-mounted and featured a video-equipped remote-control slaved to a display on Jack Grimaldi’s helmet, much like the nose-cannon setup used by Apache gunship crews. The multibarrel cannon was more or less stock, as Cowboy Kissinger referred to it, but the Stony Man armorer had worked with Schwarz to adapt the video and camera equipment so that Grimaldi could fire the minigun while piloting the Osprey.

      The massive twin-rotor craft was capable of transporting far more than just the three men of Able Team and their gear, but portions of the interior cargo space had been converted to include auxiliary fuel tanks. These and the weight of the heavy multibarrel cannon in the ship’s belly reduced the aircraft’s cargo capacity considerably. It was still more than sufficient, though, to get Able Team and their weapons where the three men needed to go...and it had the range to move them around the country with speed and maneuverability.

      “Everybody get your gear in order,” Lyons said, although the instructions were unnecessary. The three men of Able Team had executed enough missions together that they could work together without speaking, practically reading each other’s minds. Lyons put two fingers to the transceiver in his ear. “Comm check. Check one, check two.”

      “I read you,” Grimaldi said in the Osprey. “Check-ins will be by the book, gentlemen. Your transceivers should give you enough range that I can live vicariously through your adventures while I sit here warming the pilot’s seat.”

      “Roger that, Jack,” Lyons said. “Pol? Gadgets?”

      “Loud and clear,” Blancanales said. “Of course, you’re also standing next to me.”

      “Two by four,” Schwarz said.

      “Don’t you mean five by five?”

      “A two by four is what it would take to knock you down,” Schwarz said.

      Lyons looked at him. “Gadgets,” he said, “I never know what the hell you’re talking about.”

      “Story of my life,” Schwarz answered.

      “Get in the truck, Gadgets,” Lyons said.

      For this mission, Able Team was operating under full cover of their Justice Department credentials. They wore civilian clothes—Lyons, his familiar bomber jacket and jeans, Schwarz, a T-shirt and cargo pants with a windbreaker, and Blancanales, khaki slacks with a button-down shirt and a blazer. Their weapons were their usual individual kit. Each of them had a spring-assist folding combat dagger. Blancanales carried a Beretta 92-F and an M-4 carbine, while Schwarz wore a shoulder holster that carried his Beretta 93R machine pistol. Lyons, for his part,