Smoke and Shadow Read Online Free PDF Page A

warm smile.
"Ladies, we all know how this story ends, so why don't we just play
it out and move on with our lives?"
     
    Shaw smiled back as he gathered up
the files in front of him. "I'll tell you how the story ends,
Baker. It ends with your summary dismissal; effective immediately.
Even if you were mentally sound for field operations, which you
clearly are not based on this debriefing, your disability makes you
useless for field work. You're done in this business, so please
feel free to move on with your life." Then Kevin Shaw turned on his
heel, walked out of the conference room and slammed the door behind
him.
     
    "Bullshit," Trent said to everyone
and no one.
     
    "We can get him back in," Carpenter
said, looking around the table for support. "Ghost has a proven
track record and a long list of contacts in his pocket. I can
smooth things out with Shaw. It will only take a few phone calls
once he's back on his feet..."
     
    Baker shook his
head. "I ’ m not
crawling back to Trident. Not like this." He looked down at his
leg. "Mr. Shaw might be right. It might be time to move
on."
     
    Carpenter was
clearly confused. "What about us? Who ’ s going to run
Nightwatch?"
     
    It took Baker a moment to slide out
of his chair and up to his feet. He still wasn't used to the new
cane. "You've been waiting for your chance for a field command.
This might be your time to step up."
     
    Carpenter looked up at him in
bemusement. "I didn't want it like this. I didn't want my shot to
cost you your career."
     
    Baker was quite
sure Carpenter didn't care if he lived or died, as long as he got
more power in the end, but he gave Carpenter the same warm smile he
offered to Shaw. "It's a cutthroat business, Silence. We do what we
need to do. Let ’ s
go. I ’ ve got some
time to kill before my flight and I need some liquor for pain
management. I ’ ll
let you boys buy me some farewell drinks and tell me how much
you ’ ll miss me."
     
    "Bullshit," Trent said to everyone
and no one.
     
     
     

Chapter Six: The Master Plan
     
    The four operators spent the rest
of the afternoon drinking and mocking each other with the affection
men reserve for their true friends. When it was time for Baker to
catch his flight back to the States, Chu drove him in the Hummer.
The two men rode in silence for a while before Baker spoke, almost
to himself.
     
    "Trent was right. Popanjar was a
setup."
     
    Chu looked torn
between keeping his eyes on the road and looking over at him. "What
about what Silence said? Why would he put himself in
harm ’ s way like
that? Why not just have us ambushed from a safe
location?"
     
    "Popanjar wasn't
the mastermind. He was the bait. Kata ’ ib al-Karbala probably found out
about his fetish toward young boys and blackmailed him with it.
They force him to find a Western devil and entice us with promises
of intelligence. He gets us to the location and we're so
preoccupied with the kid we don't even notice the AKs pointed at
our heads."
     
    Chu sighed like a world-weary
fighter. "And they told Popanjar if he did what he was told, he
would get to live?"
     
    “ Probably, but
deep down he might not have believed it. That would explain the
nervous sweat and the desperate tone. He was looking for a way out
and he couldn ’ t
see one. I didn ’ t
see one either, not for him. He was dead as soon as
Kata ’ ib al-Karbala
found him and the boy. I was just the instrument of his
demise."
     
    "So Carpenter
walked us right into a shit show?" Chu ’ s hands gripped the wheel tighter
than necessary to make the next turn.
     
    "Maybe, he was so blinded by the
promise of a high-value asset that he might have ignored the
warning signs. But there might not have been any signs to see. I
didn't put it together myself until I saw how insistent Popanjar
was to rape the boy in front of us."
     
    "And that's when you shot
him."
     
    "That's when I shot
him."
     
    They drove for a moment, then Baker
saw Chu smile. After a few seconds, his