Close Quarters by Don Pendleton

Author:Don Pendleton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Worldwide Library
Published: 2012-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Stony Man Farm, Virginia

If there was one thing Hal Brognola had to admit he hated most, it was poor intelligence.

Poor intelligence didn’t do anyone good in this business. The Farm couldn’t make good decisions with poor intelligence; the teams couldn’t operate as safely and efficiently as possible with poor intelligence; and the plans of the enemy certainly couldn’t be subverted if those charged with frustrating them possessed poor intelligence.

Unfortunately, Brognola thought, this entire mission had been filled with poor intelligence.

Price and Brognola, joined by Aaron Kurtzman, were gathered in the ops center of the Annex. Brad Russell sat in courtesy of the satellite video feed they’d set up between the Farm and Paraguay. Although they weren’t accustomed to dealing with outsiders in such operations, Brognola had decided to make an exception where it concerned Russell. First off, the guy had proved his worth several times over already while demonstrating an ability to operate as part of the team, irrespective of the fact he had no real decision-making powers or a direct relationship with Stony Man personnel.

What had most impressed Brognola about Russell, however, was the fact the guy didn’t press them for information. For whatever reason, Russell seemed satisfied with the knowledge he was making a contribution and not whining about jurisdiction or other such nonsense. If Brognola had anything to say about it, and he did, there would be a formal commendation from the President on Russell’s record before they were all through.

“Let’s consider what we have so far,” Barbara Price was saying. “A group of Peace Corps volunteers get snatched by Hezbollah terrorists who are under training from members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Less than twenty-four hours later, Christopher Harland shows up with a wild and cockamamie story about how this has something to do with the IRGC against the imperialistic West, and yet we discover that the Hezbollah is actually involved.

“Now there’s high-tech training going on by a business magnate who’s actually wrapped up with the black market goings-on in Ciudad del Este, all the while brokering high-tech materials for the highest bidders. Before we can even assess that relationship, though, we get information about an intelligence asset who has information about this situation, only when we send our people to investigate do we actually find out there’s a plot to overthrow certain officials, including Ahmadinejad, out of office in the name of Sharia law.”

“It’s like a bad B movie,” Kurtzman remarked.

“In one respect it does make a lot of sense, though,” Russell interjected.

The point got Brognola’s interest. “Go on.”

“Well, if you look at it from the aspect of a lot of nations who’ve recently started to crack down on terrorist organizations, it makes good sense they’d turn to alternate methods of getting supplied whatever they needed, be it guns, drugs, bombs or technology.”

Price nodded. “That’s a good point.”

“Sure is,” Kurtzman added.

Obviously gaining confidence, Russell pressed forward. “Let’s suppose that the well starts to dry up for the usual sources of support for the terrorists, be it due to loss of resources or money or just political pressure.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.