Search and Destroy by JT Sawyer (top non fiction books of all time .TXT) 📗

hill. Shepard crouch-walked back to the dirt trail that led to his stolen Honda a mile to the west.

As he jogged back in the dark, he ran through the mental checklist of the growing number of names on his list. Some of them were already scratched out, while another figure had just been added.

There was still work to be done.

Men to hunt down.

Their reckoning was coming.

And before it was over, he knew there would be blood spilled far beyond the borders of this state.

1

Langley, Virginia, Four Weeks Earlier

Cal always marveled at the view from the seventh floor at CIA headquarters, feeling like the serene cobalt sky outside was in such stark contrast to what his employer represented. He was grateful that a seasoned former operator like Neil Patterson was holding the reins as Director of Clandestine Affairs from this lofty perch, and that the man was still grounded in the realities of what agents like Cal went through in the field.

Shepard looked around the spacious office then over at his boss, who had just sat down at his desk. “I’m going to miss these weekly meetings. They remind me of old times when you were my team leader.”

Patterson chuckled, waving a hand at his room. “Except I’ve come to prefer this setting over a musty cave in Helmand Province or the sub-Saharan.”

“You’ve gone soft on me.”

“Too much time doing briefings in DC will do that.”

“That just creates a different edge, is all. Still, it must be a challenge sitting before a committee of policy police all the time, knowing you can’t just twist off someone’s head when they disagree with you.”

“With civility comes great responsibility and self-control, my friend,” said the older man with a hint of sarcasm.

“I seem to recall when you recruited me sixteen years ago out of ASU, you talked about righting the wrongs of the world…saying that the work we were going to do would require civility to be stripped away at times.”

“Well, those were different times for sure, and the administration back then provided more operational freedom on our early missions in Afghanistan and the Middle East.” Patterson winced slightly as he stood up.

“That old injury acting up today?”

Patterson frowned, thrusting his thumb at different joints. “Which one, the knee replacements or the fused cervical vertebrae?”

“Well, looks like Langley won’t be using you in any of their recruitment brochures.”

He pulled his broad shoulders back, arching his head up and stretching. “You on the other hand…you’re almost like a refurbished car that’s gotten a factory tune-up with eight months back here working as a civilian contractor. I bet you’re not chewin’ on Ibuprofen every morning like you used to.”

With the physical and mental trauma that took its toll on field operators, Patterson knew the troublesome terrain that his star agent was headed for if he didn’t take a break, which was why he had assigned Shepard to work for a Virginia-based defense contractor for the past eight months.

After Cal received a traumatic shoulder wound from a firefight during a mission in Algeria last winter, the man was flown home to recuperate and undergo physical therapy. Patterson thought the timing fortuitous, since Cal could still provide consulting services for a new threat-detection software called Perseus that was being developed by computer engineer Stephen Burke.

Shepard would be the perfect fit with his years of field experience and trigger-time battling some of the world’s most notorious terrorists and assassins, and would provide the vital human intelligence component that would keep the ever-cerebral Burke grounded in reality.

Known only to a handful of people at Langley, Shepard was one of a small group of operators from the Special Activities Division who comprised an elite search-and-destroy (SD) unit with the sole focus of hunting down other assassins.

Beyond their training in covert ops, the SD members all received an additional sixteen weeks of combatives and close-quarters training followed by nearly two months of advanced survival and evasion skills in order to operate unsupported behind enemy lines for extended periods. Patterson and the other co-founder of the unit, Ryan Foley, placed a heavy emphasis on fieldcraft and advanced urban sniping and concealment to create the ultimate self-reliant hunter of men. In its first year in operations abroad, Shepard’s SD unit racked up more confirmed kills than all of the other clandestine units combined within that same region.

Once Burke’s security clearance was approved by Patterson and the National Director of Intelligence who oversaw all of the U.S. intelligence agencies, Burke was given full access to Shepard’s wealth of knowledge on target acquisition, staging methods, weapon selection, human-asset recruitment, and evasion methods.

The two men seemed to feed off of each other, with Burke providing insights into the technological side of things that Shepard had been relying on for years overseas while the weathered field agent gave a glimpse into the methodologies of a master assassin-hunter. By the end of their third month of working together, it was evident to Patterson that Burke and Shepard had become good friends.

“So, are you looking forward to returning to fieldwork again?”

“All except the part about me being apart from Cassie for months at a time. I got kinda spoiled being home for so long.”

“Well, once your contract ends with Perseus, you’ll have ten days to regroup, then you’ll join your team…this time in Nigeria, unless things drastically change between now and then.”

“‘Regroup’…something I should know about?”

“That’s code, bonehead, for a short vacation with your expectant wife. You’ve earned it, and Cassie probably won’t argue the point either. God knows when you’ll be back stateside for an extended period, so just enjoy the time.”

“Aye, aye.” He gave a two-fingered salute. “I do appreciate it. I really do.”

“So, Burke is nearly done with Perseus. Hard to believe it was almost two years ago that I met with him about the project.” He leaned back, settling his gaze on Shepard. “I hope it wasn’t too grueling working for a civilian outfit.”

“His staff are top-notch and highly motivated—some of the finest tech people