A Red Dotted Line (Mike Walton Book 2) Read online

“She’s right,” Mike said. “I’ll make a call.”

  He watched as Ari raced back into the villa. “What are you doing?”

  His question was answered when Ari came back carrying the soldier with the green bandana on his arm. “We owe him much,” Ari said.

  CHAPTER 75

  IMSI Headquarters, New York

  Charles Mapother was in his office with Jonathan Sanchez when Mike called.

  “Yes,” he replied. “Meir Yatom kept me apprised of your progress all along.”

  Mike informed him that Lisa and Rafael both needed immediate medical attention, and that they had the Sheik in custody. That he hadn’t known.

  “What do you need from me?” Having the Sheik in custody was a major bargaining chip. He could ask his friend DNI Richard Phillips pretty much anything, and he would get it.

  Getting a medevac for his and Yatom’s operatives wouldn’t be an issue. Smoothing things out with the Greeks would require a little more work, but it wasn’t Mapother’s problem to solve.

  CHAPTER 75

  Over the Aegean Sea, Greece

  Mike Walton was glad Charles Mapother had come through with his promise to evacuate them rapidly. The private air ambulance that picked them up from Mykonos was a piece of art. It carried all the equipment a real intensive care unit would have. Mike was impressed.

  The three onboard doctors were great and they had already started to treat Rafael’s wounds. As for the mystery Israeli with the green bandana, there was nothing the doctors could do. Lisa’s situation was more critical than Rafael’s but she was now stabilized.

  Mike was holding her hand, trying to console her.

  ........

  Lisa never expected she would kiss her husband again. When the Sheik had soaked her in gasoline, she had thought it was all over. The idea of being burned alive had freaked her out. She wasn’t sure if she was made for this kind of work anymore. With the Sheik in shackles, she had her vengeance.

  Now she felt another kind of pain. Something sharper.

  Guilt.

  Why did Mike’s father jump on top of her? Why did he sacrifice himself? Those bullets had been meant for her.

  For me.

  CHAPTER 76

  IMSI’s Gulfstream, just outside Greek airspace

  Zima couldn’t stop gazing at Eitan. She really liked him. He smiled at her. She waved back.

  Stop it, girl. You ain’t twelve anymore.

  Still, his grin melted her heart.

  They had all boarded the IMSI Gulfstream without incident. She believed Charles Mapother or Meir Yatom might have played a role ensuring there wouldn’t be any problems. Ari had decided to come with them, even though he had been offered a place on the air ambulance. The bullet that had torn through his bicep was still there, and Zima assumed it was painful. He had told Zima and Eitan that he preferred to be treated in Tel Aviv rather than Athens. Zima thought the real reason was that he thought his wingman Eitan needed a chaperone.

  Mike had given the Sheik a pretty good beating. One that he would remember all his life, Zima was sure. Mike’s last kick to the head had cost the Sheik his left eye and half a dozen teeth. But he’d get the best treatment in the United States. Zima had no clue what they’d do with him. Would they send the Sheik to a secret prison to be interrogated for the next five years? Would they put a bullet in his head? Would they want him to stand trial? These questions were way above her pay grade. She’d let someone else worry about them. For now, the Sheik had been sedated and he wouldn’t open his good eye until they were in the United States.

  Their final destination was New York, but they would make a quick stop in Tel Aviv to drop off Ari. Eitan had volunteered to stay with her for the final leg. Smart move.

  EPILOGUE

  Miami, Florida

  Mike and Lisa were on their balcony watching the sun go down. Since their return to the United States four weeks ago, they hadn’t set foot inside the IMSI. Mike made sure to speak with Mapother or his buddy Jonathan Sanchez once every week, but that was it. They both needed the time off. Mike had been told that the Sheik was now being interrogated by a special joint task force of investigators from the United States, Canada and Israel.

  Lisa’s doctor stopped by every day. So far, she was happy with Lisa’s recovery, but she had told Mike this morning that Lisa’s worst injuries weren’t the visible ones.

  Mike hoped his wife had had enough of the field, but he wasn’t going to initiate the discussion. It would have to come from her. To change her mind, he had invited Mapother, Sanchez, Zima and her new boyfriend Eitan for dinner at their newly acquired condo. Miami was an easy flight from New York City, and going away a couple of weekends a month would help him deal with his own issues. Time would tell.

  Their guests arrived at six and they had a marvelous lobster dinner that continued late into the night. Nobody talked business, and Mike was glad to see his wife smiling and laughing. She even blew him a kiss at one point.

  They were all half drunk when Mapother’s phone rang. Mike knew something was very wrong when he saw Mapother’s face turn white. “Of course, sir. I understand,” the IMSI director finally said.

  Everybody had stopped talking. All eyes were on Mapother. “What is it?” Mike asked.

  “Party’s over, I’m afraid,” Mapother replied, walking to the living room. “Mike, you’re heading to Paris tomorrow morning.”

  Was this a joke? “Why would I want to go to Paris?”

  “Turn on the TV.”

  Mike did. And they all watched in horror as coordinated terror attacks killed scores of people in Paris. Again.

  “That’s why, Mike. That is why.”

  Notes

  1 Charles Mapother’s bodyguard Sam Turner did what he had to do. It wasn’t by luck that he was able to detect the threat lurking behind him and his protectee. Scanning to the rear is something that is taught to us from the first day of the national bodyguard course. Awareness and observation are the cores of any security initiative. Any well-trained close protection officer will constantly scan the environment he’s in and apply effective awareness techniques to identify any potential threats to his protectee.

  A single-man detail isn’t the strongest formation, since the bodyguard is responsible for the entire 360-degree perimeter that surrounds him and his client. Normally, the single bodyguard will place himself to the left or right rear of the person he’s protecting but will adjust his position as the environment dictates. Staying within an arm’s reach of the protectee is ideal. If he discovers a threat, the bodyguard will position himself between it and his protectee. But here’s the tricky part; at least it was for me: instead of adopting a tactically sound firing position, the bodyguard needs to make himself as big and tall as possible in order to shield his protectee from the threat. This is much more difficult than it sounds, especially for former counterterrorism guys like me who’ve been trained to seek cover—if possible—or to adapt a fighting stance while engaging a target. When more than one bodyguard is available, the recommended firing position for the bodyguard who stays behind to engage the threat is the Isosceles Stance. That means the bodyguard will face his target squarely with his feet set shoulder width. The bodyguard’s arms are extended and form an isosceles triangle. Not only is it a stable firing position, but it also offers the retreating bodyguard and the protectee the best protection possible.

  ........

  2 When I submitted A Red Dotted Line to my editor, one of his notes was, “He would really shoot like that in a crowded place?”

  Valid question. The answer is yes. Mike Walton definitely would. That doesn’t mean every cop or federal agent would, though. There’s an important distinction between law enforcement officers or military personnel belonging to specialized units and those who aren’t. Here’s why:

  Most police officers only shoot once a year fo
r their annual qualification. If they’re lucky, they’ll fire one hundred rounds per year at a fixed paper target. Some officers are still excellent shots. Having said that, I’ve seen many of my former colleagues uncomfortable with their own firearms. Would they shoot at a moving target in a crowded place like the Grand Central Station? I think not.

  In contrast, officers assigned to a specialized section like the counterterrorism unit I was with will sometimes shoot hundreds of rounds of ammunition in a single day. We will fire at moving targets and our firing drills are exponentially more advanced than the ones regular officers use. Firing at a target twenty meters away from him—even in a crowded place— was no biggie for Mike Walton.

  ........

  3 In my debut novel The Thin Black Line I mentioned that Mike Walton had worked closely with JTF2 during his military career. But what is JTF2? JTF2 stands for Joint Task Force 2 and is the tier 1 special operations unit of the Canadian Forces. The unit was created in 1993 and has continuously evolved to meet modern-day threats.

  JTF2 operators are the product of a nation that values training rather than advancement by weapon technology alone. The unit gained famed while operating with Task Force K-Bar under the command of Rear Admiral Bob Harward, a US Navy Seal. The K-Bar coalition forces are rumored to have killed more than one hundred Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders. Admiral Harward professed that the JTF2 members were his first choice for any “direct action” mission.

  JTF2 operators were often tasked with the protection of Canadian ministers while they were visiting Afghanistan. This is why I decided to use them to protect CSIS deputy assistant-director Joachim Persky in A Red Dotted Line.

  ........

  4 In this chapter, Lisa finds herself in an impossible situation. She’s injured and on her knees with two armed bad guys behind her. One of them is about to handcuff her while the other one is covering his partner by keeping his pistol trained on her. She knows it’s the end if she gets caught. She needs to get out.

  Thankfully, I’ve never experienced this out in the field. However, I was trained on how to escape similar situations. Mind you, the chances of success aren’t high. In fact, I can’t remember one single occasion when I was able to successfully disarm the person trying to handcuff me and neutralize his partner before getting peppered with Simunition FX rounds…

  ........

  5 Mike Walton has to engage four men at close range. He’s armed only with his pistol. His only advantage is that he has the element of surprise. In order to keep it, he needs to neutralize all the threats in a short period of time. Within three seconds, he fires ten rounds and then one more half a second later. He knows he’s getting low on ammo, and he is still uncertain if there are any threats left to deal with. He can’t afford to throw away any rounds, so he performs a tactical magazine change or “tactical reload.” What is it?

  A tactical magazine change is the action of reloading a weapon—in Mike’s case it’s his pistol—that has only fired a few rounds out of its magazine and keeping the original for later use. To execute a tactical reload, the shooter must grab a spare magazine with the thumb and forefinger of his support hand and bring it to the weapon. He then ejects the partially depleted magazine between the index and middle finger of his support hand before inserting the new magazine into the magazine well. The partially used magazine is then secured for later use.

  I know my military and law enforcement friends are currently scratching their heads. A lot of people criticize this technique. It is true that there are disadvantages to using it. It takes longer that a speed reload, and it is highly dependent on manual dexterity. And we all know what happens to our dexterity while under extreme stress. In a normal firefight, I personally wouldn’t do a tactical reload, either. But since Mike is in Russia with no backup and no additional ammunition available to him, I decided the tactical reload was the way to go for this specific situation.

  Acknowledgements

  I have the greatest job in the word, and I wouldn’t have it without you. I read every email, Facebook post, or Tweet you send my way, and I do my absolute best to respond right away. I love interacting with my readers and I always welcome comments or suggestions. If you aren’t following me on Facebook yet, you definitely should. Find me at Facebook.com/SimonGervaisAuthor and on Twitter at @GervaisBooks. There are lots of cool prizes to win and you’ll get frequent updates on my upcoming novels.

  I’d like to thank my editor Lou Aronica for believing in me. It’s good to know that I have someone talented like you in my corner. Your availability means a lot. Thanks to my fantastic literary agent Eric Myers at Dystel & Goderich. Eric and I have become good friends. Signing with him gave me the boost I needed to really believe in my work. Thanks for your support, my friend. I owe you one!

  I’d like to show my gratitude to New York Times bestselling authors Nelson DeMille, Steve Berry, Ben Coes, Peter James, and Marc Cameron for reading my book. I couldn’t be more appreciative. If you enjoy my Mike Walton series and for some reason you’ve never read these fabulous authors, you really should pick up their books. They are all exceptional.

  Most of all, I’d like to thank my beautiful wife who juggles being a doctor, businesswoman, wife, and mother to our two wonderful children. You inspire me every day. I love you.

  About the Author

  Simon Gervais is a former federal agent who was tasked with guarding foreign heads of state visiting Canada. Among many others, he served on the protection details of Queen Elizabeth II, US President Barack Obama, and Chinese President Hu Jianto. He has also protected the families of three different Canadian prime ministers. Prior to this, Simon spent five years in an anti-terrorism unit and was deployed in many European and Middle Eastern countries. He now writes full-time and is a member of the International Thriller Writers organization. He is the author of one previous Mike Walton novel, The Thin Black Line, which was an international bestseller, and the Mike Walton novella, A Long Gray Line. He lives in Ottawa with his wife and two children. Find Simon online at SimonGervaisBooks.com, facebook.com/SimonGervaisAuthor, and Twitter.com/GervaisBooks.

  Also by Simon Gervais:

  Mike Walton had experienced terrorism from every angle. As a covert field operations officer, he thought he’d seen it all. But that was before terrorism struck him directly at home. Suffering devastating physical injury and unthinkable personal loss, Mike had one of two choices: give up or fight back. And giving up wasn’t in his constitution.

  Mike and his wife Lisa – a medical doctor and fellow counter-terrorism expert – are recruited by the International Market Stabilization Institute, a privately funded organization operating outside official channels to protect North America’s financial interests. The strikes that destroyed Mike and Lisa’s household – the work of Sheik Al-Assad – are bringing the Western economy to its knees. And they are only the beginning. If the Sheik succeeds, the world will change forever, and the next attack is just around the corner. Mike and Lisa must lead a hastily assembled team to Europe to stop the madness before time runs out.

  Rippling with tension, raging with action, and replete with the kinds of details only a true counter-terrorism insider can provide, The Thin Black Line is a nonstop thriller of the first order.

  Here’s an excerpt:

  Macdonald-Cartier International Airport

  To: Inspector Robert McFiella OIC/RCMP APOFU

  From: Inspector Myles Gregory OIC INSET Ottawa

  Robert,

  We just got a report from Ben Cohen of Air Canada Security that four Middle Eastern passengers purchased last-minute tickets for Air Canada Flight 7662 Ottawa–Washington, DC. They were booked separately but by the same travel agency. Their names were run through our databases, but nothing came up.

  Knowing that you have two air marshals onboard this flight, we checked the rest of the passenger list for anything suspicious and found that two Saudi nationals are also on t
he flight, and they only have one-way tickets. Both are in Canada under student visas that will expire in two days. Their names are Muhammad Hassan and Masri Fadl. Technically, they’re still in Canada legally, but I contacted our INSET team in Toronto to follow them on arrival for the next forty-eight hours to see if they will depart Canada or not.

  To help your officers identify them, I’ve attached the passport pictures of Hassan and Fadl, as well as their seat assignments for Flight 7662.

  Myles

  The note was short but to the point. The threat level for their flight to Washington, DC, had been upgraded to “High.” As a member of the federal air marshal program of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Sergeant Mike Powell was used to this kind of message.

  More often than not, the passengers mentioned in these notes had triggered an early warning detector embedded within the airline reservation software. Whether they had paid for their tickets with cash, had purchased one-way fares, or had done a multitude of other things the computers were looking for, it didn’t matter to Mike. He would treat this piece of information seriously. He always did.

  As he stood in the main terminal of Ottawa International Airport, his eyes were in constant motion. The long hallways were packed with passengers, as everybody was either going back home or visiting family for the Easter weekend. On his left he’d noticed an army captain with a black backpack sipping a cup of chain-restaurant coffee. To his right, a nice family with three young children was eating their breakfast burritos while chatting about their upcoming trip. The excited laughs of the children brought a rare smile to Mike’s lips as he remembered his daughter, Melissa, doing the same thing three weeks ago prior to their flight to Mexico.