101

They changed order before climbing up the shaft.

Marcus was still in the lead, but Callaghan now followed directly behind him. Then came Geoff, and then Jenny, while Pete brought up the rear. They kept their flashlights off and maintained complete silence on the climb, taking care not to let their weapons clang against the ladder or the rock.

At the top of the shaft, Marcus cautiously poked his head up. Seeing no one in the tunnel ahead, he scrambled off the ladder, raised his M4 to provide cover, and whispered for Callaghan to do the same. When they were all in this significantly wider tunnel, they took a moment to again catch their breath and replenish their fluids. After several minutes, Marcus motioned for Callaghan to move to his side since this section was broad enough to proceed two abreast.

Marcus was surprised by how long this stretch was. Rather than just a few hundred yards, he estimated they had walked nearly a mile before reaching an opening back up to civilization. The heat and humidity were also once again in force. They were continually wiping sweat from their brows and hands. They had no resin, nothing to prevent their weapons from slipping, and they had no idea where they were or what they were about to encounter.

More problematic was that they had been incommunicado with Langley for well over an hour. There was no Wi-Fi in the tunnels. No cell phone coverage. Nor could they use satellite phones. Marcus took some degree of comfort in the fact that Dell and her team at the ops center knew that they would be emerging somewhere in the Texas border city of Laredo. While the CIA itself was not permitted legally to operate in the U.S., Navarro had informed him that U.S. Customs and Border Protection had put two helicopters in the air, along with three drones, and were closely monitoring activity on and near the Rio Grande. An FBI hostage rescue team had been deployed in the city and was driving around Laredo in three unmarked box trucks, waiting for a location and instructions. A DSS special weapons and tactics team had also been deployed from Dallas and should now be on-site, along with DEA units. All of them should be able to respond to a distress call within minutes.

The bigger problem was that Marcus still had not received clear rules of engagement from Dell or the Agency’s chief counsel. While he was relieved that they had not run into trouble down in the tunnel, with no way to hear from Langley before they potentially encountered hostile forces guarding the tunnel’s other end, Marcus had to make the call on his own. During one of their water breaks, he informed his colleagues that for legal purposes they had all just officially resigned from the Agency. He told Pete that he should now consider himself a sanctioned DSS officer. So would he. Geoff was DSS anyway. As for Jenny and Callaghan, Marcus took a moment to deputize them into the DSS, even having them raise their right hands and take the DSS oath. He had no idea if any of this would hold up in a court of law. But they all agreed that if they were fired upon on American soil, they were not going to use Tasers. They were going to shoot to kill.

Convinced he had done all he could, Marcus took one more swig of water and steeled himself for the mission ahead. He could not help but think about the last tunnel he’d been in. Just weeks earlier, he had been dragged unconscious through a previously unknown Hezbollah tunnel from Israeli territory deep into Lebanon, far behind enemy lines, into the single most terrifying experience of his life. His escape had been nothing less than the grace of God. He could try to pass it off as the result of good training and cool nerves, but he knew better. It had not, apparently, been his time to die. God had more plans for him on this side of eternity.

Did those plans include Annie? he wondered. The very thought of Annie both inspired and haunted him. Yes, she was praying for him. That much he knew, and for this he was grateful beyond words. But how could she ever forgive him if he did not make it out of this thing alive? Hadn’t she suffered enough pain and loss and loneliness in this life? Didn’t she deserve a fresh start, danger-free, up in those glorious Rocky Mountains he so loved?

Suddenly he felt a jab in the ribs. It was Callaghan. This was no time for daydreaming or second-guesses. It was time to move.

Wiping his forehead one more time, Marcus said a silent prayer. Then he slung his M4 over his back, drew his silenced Glock, and reached up to open the hatch. Doing so made more noise than he’d intended, but there was nothing he could do about it now. Rather than throwing it open, however, he raised it just slightly.

As he did, he saw movement. A bearded man in his twenties whipped around, brandishing an AR-15. Marcus did not hesitate. He fired two shots to the man’s head and one to his chest. The shots made little noise. The man crashing to the floor certainly did.