Path Of The Assassin

“For the same reasons we’ve already discussed. Eventually, the town will turn a profit and provide a steady stream of income. Secondly, with all the itinerant labor brought in to work the fields, it’s the perfect cover for moving terrorism recruits in and out for training. And finally, the success of the oasis development program makes Hashim Nidal’s host look good, and that goes a long way in helping to ensure Gadhafi’s continuing blanket of asylum.”

“Being the boss of your own town in the middle of the desert must carry with it a certain amount of political weight too.”

“The CIA predicts that the towns will develop into their own little fiefdoms. In the long run, they might turn out to be more of a headache for Gadhafi than he ever imagined.”

“For now, at least one of those towns looks like it’s going to be a headache for us. What’s the plan?”

Morrell gathered up all but the most relevant Ubari Sand Sea oasis satellite photos and placed them back in the envelope. “The name of Nidal’s town is the Hijrah Oasis. Hijrah is an Arabic term that refers to-”

“The Prophet Muhammad’s journey from Mecca to Medina. It means ‘to leave a place of persecution in search of sanctuary or religious freedom.’”

“Then you also should know that the term can mean ‘leaving a bad way of life for a better or more righteous way,’ which is how we think it is being applied in this case. Nidal has brought in a very radical fundamentalist cleric to run the mosque. Either Gadhafi doesn’t know about it, or doesn’t care, but it’s another reason we think this whole thing is going to come back to bite him in the ass eventually.”

“As far as I’m concerned, Gadhafi can go screw himself. I’m in this for Nidal.”

“As are we,” replied Morrell, who used a wax pencil to circle a building on one of the photos. “But we also want his training camp taken out.”

“Are you sure that’s it?”

“No, and that’s another one of our problems. We haven’t had enough time to do extended reconnaissance. We’re going to need to get in there and recon it ourselves. The last thing we want to do is take out a hospital or an orphanage or something. Gadhafi would have a field day with that one and milk the worldwide PR for all it was worth. We need to be able to pinpoint where the training is happening and, if possible, what they’re training for.”

“Sounds like a pretty tall order to me.”

“Tall order or not, that’s our mission.”

“It seems the parameters of this operation are being stretched a bit.”

“Harvath, like I’ve told you before, if you don’t like it, you’re free to leave at any time. As a matter of fact, there’s an exit right there,” said Morrell as he tipped his wax pencil in the direction of the forward cabin door.

“You’re not getting rid of me that easily, Ricky. Besides, I want to see Nidal taken out just as badly as you do. Let’s get down to brass tacks. I’ve got three questions. How do we get in? How do we do it? How do we get out?”

“Our infiltration is still in flux.”

“What do you mean in flux?”

“Originally, we thought we’d go in via Algeria’s border with Libya, but Gadhafi’s all of a sudden doing military exercises in that area.”

“Do you think there’s a connection?”

“No. He does these border defense drills all the time. This is just bad timing. We’re still working on it. If the Algerian angle falls through, I’ve got a backup.”

“Such as?”

“We’ve still got several hours until we get there,” said Morrell. “Let’s see what shakes out between now and then.”

“What about taking out Nidal?”

“It’s by the book, just like we trained. Meg Cassidy will ID him, and the snipers will earn their checks. Simple as that.”

Harvath wished things were that simple in the real world. He could see from Morrell’s face that he was worried too, but Harvath let it slide for now. There was no sense putting any more stress on Morrell than was obviously already there. Instead, Harvath asked for an answer to his third question. “And how do we get out?”

“If we’re able to insert via helicopter from Algeria, that’s the same way we’ll do the extraction.”

“And if not?”

“We’ve got a contingent of FAVs at an airbase in Sicily. I’ve already dispatched several of my men to load them onto a C-130 and drop them into the Ubari Sand Sea, not far from the Hijrah Oasis.”