Act of War Read Online Free PDF Page A

position. The last man on their team punctuated the fight by throwing a fragmentation grenade into the attackers’ truck.
    “Grenade!” Harvath yelled. “Go, go, go!”
    Chase stepped on the gas and sped out of the intersection just as the grenade detonated. Windows shattered behind them and a massive column of fire raced up into the night sky. Within seconds, shards of debris rained down on the roof of their SUV like a metallic hailstorm.
    Harvath and Sloane had cut the team who ambushed their Peshmergas in half and had helped them get out of the kill zone. If any of the attackers had survived the grenade attack, they were going to wish they hadn’t. Right now, some very pissed-off Peshmergas would be enacting their revenge. They wouldn’t stop until all of their attackers were dead. Once they were, the Peshmergas would disappear into the night. They’d split up and regroup at their own safe house outside the city. Within twenty-four hours they’d be out of the country. Harvath had no further use for them. They were compromised. He was moving to his contingency plan.
    Somehow, the Peshmergas had been spotted. Did the ISI also know about Harvath, Sloane, and Chase? Did they have another ambush planned? There was no way to know. They had to remain ready for anything. Better yet, they needed to spring their own trap before Yaqub’s ISI handlers could get him to safety. No doubt, they were already on their cell phones summoning reinforcements and putting the entire city on alert.
    Harvath radioed his motorcycle team and plotted their location on his map of Karachi. The ISI wouldn’t be taking Yaqub back to the same safe house. They’d use an alternate. Not that it mattered. Harvath planned to hit their motorcade within the next three blocks. They couldn’t let Yaqub get away.
    They were headed away from the water, deeper into the city. Not a good thing. Too many one-way streets, back alleys, and warehouses where the ISI could vanish. Yaqub would go to ground and the ISI would help keep him hidden. It would be a long time, if ever, before he returnedto his compound in Waziristan. Harvath and his team were only going to get one last chance. He decided to throw everything they had at it.
    Pronouncing the name of the street as best he could, Harvath radioed his Pakistani assets to tell them what he wanted them to do. What they carried in their backpacks was now critical to the survival of the United States.
    Harvath pointed to the street coming up on their right and said, “This one. Here.”
    “Hold on,” Chase replied.
    The tires of the big SUV screeched in protest as it swung around the corner and Chase punched the accelerator once more.
    They were on a parallel street to Yaqub’s motorcade, but they were still behind. Harvath could see traffic in front of them beginning to slow.
    “Hold on,” Chase instructed again.
    Jumping the SUV up onto the sidewalk, he honked his horn and yelled for people to get out of the way.
    As Harvath squinted at his map, the voices of the Pakistanis could be heard over the radio.
    “We’re here!” they replied in unison.
    “Don’t do anything until you see their vehicles. Understood?” he ordered.
    “Understood.”
    Turning his attention to Chase, Harvath said, “Two blocks down we make a left turn and we go hard. Got it?”
    “Got it,” Chase confirmed.
    Two blocks later, Chase jerked the SUV back into the street, pulled a hard left turn, and sped toward their rendezvous with Yaqub’s motorcade. The key was to get there before the ISI agents could get out of their vehicles.
    “They’re coming,” said one of the Pakistanis over the radio. “Very close. Almost here. Almost here,” he continued.
    There was complete radio silence for several moments until one of the Pakistanis commanded his colleague, “Now! Now! Now!”
    Harvath could envision what was happening. Both of the men would have taken off their backpacks. The first man would remove what looked like a large