“And you understood what was said?”
He said, “Yes.”
The Ghost shook his head, then raised the pistol, saying, “I wish you hadn’t told me that.”
Chapter 80
I decided not to continue flying east, but instead to conduct a grid search farther north in an area near a large lake called Roca. It actually split the border, with Chile on one side and Argentina on the other, and I’d initially thought it was too close for them to have picked, but we were running out of options. The northern end, in Chile, had a couple of spots that might allow a helo to land.
The pilot turned us around, heading west towards Argentina, and Veep said, “Pike! Pike! I have a ping on the cell phone.”
I raced over to him and saw the Ghost’s phone number on the screen. I said, “Is it locked?”
“Yes.”
“Interrogate it. Find a location.”
Thirty seconds later, he had a grid. I transferred it to the tablet map and saw it was at the south end of the lake, in Argentinian territory. Shoshana saw it and said, “They never left the country.”
I said, “Maybe. Maybe he threw it out of the helicopter. Either way, everyone kit up.”
Aaron, Veep, and Jennifer started putting on their parachutes, and I said, “I’m going to show Shoshana how to work the hatch. This jump is going to be tight. Veep, you’re the jumpmaster, and you carry a bundle. Everyone else is jumping slick, weapons only.”
Veep was probably the best free-fall parachutist on my team, with a preternatural skill like a bird, so I was going to make him carry our breachingcharges, extra magazines, night vision, radios for the Rock Star Bird, and other kit, letting the rest of us jump with just a parachute and a rifle.
They started moving, and I went to the back of the plane and showed Shoshana how the clamshell worked. I said, “We’re going out at five thousand feet, so no worries about oxygen, but it’s going to get windy as shit in here.”
She said, “I remember.”
I said, “Keep track of that cell phone after we’re gone. If it moves, give us a call.” She nodded and I left her there to get familiar with the system. I moved to the FLIR display, waiting on the flyover.
The plane went over the grid and I saw a heat source in the tree line right where the grid plotted. I couldn’t tell what it was, but it was most definitely hot. I panned the camera and found the helicopter on an island in the middle of a river coming out of the lake. I went back to the map and found the island on it, seeing it was about two hundred meters by four hundred.
Big enough to jump into.
I called everyone over, showed them the DZ and said, “Plenty of space. Just watch the trees in the south and the helo in the north. Veep, start JMPI, then talk to the pilots. I’m jocking up.”
I threw on my chute as fast as I could, laced in my Sig Sauer MCX through the harness down my left side, and had Aaron conduct a jumpmaster inspection, saying, “I hope you Israelis know what you’re doing.”
He smiled, going through the parachute harness and container looking for anything that would cause a malfunction. He finished and said, “Good to go. At least if I were jumping it. Don’t know about you.”
Veep came back from the cockpit, saying, “We’re lowering altitude right now. He’s making a loop. The DZ’s pretty tight, and we’re going out pretty low, so I’m calling two passes. You and Jennifer first, then me and Aaron.”
I nodded and said, “How long?”
“Less than three minutes. We’re on final now.”
I moved to the hole in the floor and said to Shoshana, “Open it up.”
She inserted what looked like a winch handle into a recess in a cabinet and began cranking, the clamshell splitting open below us and a piece ofsteel lowering from the cabin floor, forming a slide. Veep bent down while she cranked, checking all edges to make sure there wasn’t anything sticking out that would catch our equipment.
Since the parachute infiltration capability was an afterthought, to say the least, we wouldn’t be exiting off a ramp or out a door in a heroic leap, but instead would sit at the top of a small stainless-steel sheet of metal connecting the bottom of the floor with the hull of the aircraft. When given the word, you’d push off just like a kid on a slide and rocket out the back of the aircraft. The procedure was a little slow, since we couldn’t exit one, two, three like jumping out a door, which is why Veep was making it two passes.
The cold from the open clamshell exploded into the cabin and Veep looked towards the cockpit. He saw the copilot signal and said, “Thirty seconds. Jumper in the door.”
Jennifer looked at me and lowered her goggles, cursing under her breath. She took a seat, her legs dangling below her on the slide. Eyes on the cockpit, Veep said, “Fifteen seconds.”
I gave Jennifer a thumbs-up, but she just gritted her teeth in return, pulling her neck gaiter over her nose and ears.
