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wakes up he can give us some answers, Romeo pointed out. And we d better do it
quickly.
Rick, who s sitting with Joey while you re here? Troy asked. I know you didn t
leave him alone.
A buddy who owes me a lifetime of favors. They won t be able to budge him
unless they blow up the chair he s in.
And we re pretty sure our inside source is still safe?
Rick nodded.
Then let s get our act together.
62
Jungle Inferno
Now they were in final countdown mode, reviewing the details one last time.
They d planned and discussed and memorized but Romeo always wanted that one last
run-through.
Okay. Romeo had diagrams laid out on the rough wooden table they used for
eating. Let s get to it, Rick.
They d obtained diagrams of Walter Reed and sucked every detail of the layout and
scheduling from Rick when he came back from seeing Joey.
Here s what we ve got. He pointed to a segment on the diagram outlined in red.
Here s where Joey s being kept, with twenty-four hour monitoring. Anything that has
to do with him must go through the charge nurse. Her desk is in the central part of the
area.
How often do they move him? Say, for x-rays or tests, Troy asked again.
Not too often. I was there almost all day and any testing they did was in the room,
with portable equipment. His finger traced another red line. Here are the elevators.
They re just off to the side of the nurses desk. Joey s room is behind. If we do this
properly we can have him out before we get asked too many questions.
Dan looked around him. I ve got the fake doctor s orders. They ll pass muster if no
one looks too closely.
Rick had taken photos of the chart with his cell phone and sent them to Dan from
the room.
Good, good. Dan consulted a list on the pad in front of him. Troy, Rick s given
us a good list of the equipment in his brother s room. How are we coming on that?
Arsenault had been a medic in the Navy and responsible for medical support on his
SEAL team. He made notes on his own pad of paper.
Got almost all of it. Mike and I will be fitting out the van as soon as we land in
DC.
And the medicines listed on the chart?
All set. I called our usual source and they ll arrive here when the chopper comes to
pick us up.
Romeo turned to D Antoni. Mike, you ll waylay the doc right here. His finger
stabbed a spot on the diagram. And neutralize him. Expect any problems?
Mike snorted. No sweat. But you guys better be set to go the minute I show up in
the room.
Arsenault glared at him. We ll be ready. Aren t we always?
All right, then. Dan shifted the papers to slide another on top. As usual, my
brother s flying the copter. He ll take us to DC where the vehicles are and we can get
the van ready. Then he ll be waiting at the Discount Records Warehouse.
They all smiled grimly at the use of the name. Phoenix had purchased the
abandoned warehouse to give them a place separate from their main operation. They d
left the faded Discount Records sign up but a twelve-foot-high chain link fence topped
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Desiree Holt
with razor wire surrounded the property and big signs ordered Keep out, this means
you. They d modified the inside of the building to contain four different vehicles and
the helicopter and the entire place was booby-trapped, the sensors and codes known
only to the four men.
Rick, you ll be up in the room with Joey, Dan continued. As soon as Mike gets
the doc out of the way, he and Troy will show up in scrubs with orders for an MRI.
That s one test they can t do in the room.
Are you sure it s safe to unhook him from all that stuff to move him? Rick asked.
No problem, Troy answered. We ll leave the IVs in place and it won t be more
than a few minutes before we get him hooked up to everything else in the van.
I ll be waiting at the ambulance exit with the van, Dan said. We ll only have
seconds once the elevator hits the ground floor, so don t dawdle.
They all looked at each other, thinking the same thing. They d done operations like
this one dozens of times, always with precise planning and timing. But those had all
been for people none of them had emotional ties to. This one was for Joey. The four men
had been friends since college and Joey had been the little brother to all of them. The
reality that he was now a highly trained sniper didn t change the fact that to them he d
always be the kid with the freckles, and feet and hands he needed to grow into. It made
them all the more determined to pull this off.
All right. When we get him back here we ll work out the shifts. Tonight we ll do
one last check of the electronics and the perimeter security. Dan picked up the papers
from the table and held his hands out for the notes everyone had made. Got it in your
heads? Good.
He dumped all the papers in the fireplace and set a match to them. Mike went to the
kitchen cupboard took down a bottle of bourbon and four shot glasses. They all raised
their filled glasses in the signal of a toast. This would be the last drink any of them
would take for a very long time.
* * * * *
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