American Assassin: A Thriller Read online

  "Victor," Sergeant Jones said, "what in hell are you doing?"

  "Long-term strategic planning, Sarge."

  "I doubt your pea-sized brain could attempt any such thing."

  "Population control," Victor said, spitting a gob of chew on the ground. "Shoot the nuts off all the hajis and no more baby terrorists. Twenty years from now we declare victory. Brilliant, if I say so myself."

  Sergeant Jones put his hands on his hips. "Put the weapon down, Victor, and step back." The big man did so, and then Sergeant Jones continued in a disappointed voice, "Since all of you appear to be decent shots and Victor here thinks this is a joke, we're going to head back over to the O course where I'm going to run all of you until at least one of you pukes. Our earnest, yet respectful virgin will stay here with Sergeant Smith and attempt to learn the basics of pistol shooting." The big sergeant eyed the group and when no one moved he said, "Well, I guess you ladies would like to do some push-ups first." In a gruff voice he shouted, "Assume the position."

  All six men dropped to the ground and got into the plank position. They were told to start and no one said a word except Victor, who continued to complain as they counted out their punishment.

  While they worked through their push-ups Sergeant Smith began instructing Rapp on the finer points of marksmanship. Rapp listened intently, digesting every word. Sergeant Smith told Rapp to aim for the head this time. He slammed a fresh magazine into the hilt and hit the slide release.

  "When you have a fresh magazine in and hit the slide release, a round is automatically chambered." The sergeant offered Rapp the weapon and said, "The hammer's back. So she's hot. Not every gun is like that, but that's how the Berettas work. Also that red dot right there ... red means dead. So don't point it at anything you're not going to shoot at and always keep that finger off the trigger until you're ready to fire. Got it?"

  Rapp nodded.

  "All right, show me that stance. Keep those feet just so. You're a lefty, so put your right foot a few inches in front of your left. Create the power triangle with your arms and place that dot right in the center of the head. Some guys get all hung up on breathing in versus exhaling, but I don't want you to think about that crap. You're going to need to learn to shoot on the run, so breathing in or out ain't going to work. The main thing right now is how you squeeze that trigger. Notice how I didn't say pull. Don't pull it. Squeeze it straight back and put a round right through the middle of the head this time.

  Rapp did everything he was told and the bullet spat from the end of the suppressor. The muzzle jumped and when it came back down Rapp was staring at a perfectly placed shot.

  "Do it again," Sergeant Smith ordered.

  Rapp squeezed the trigger and the bullet struck the target half an inch to the right of the first one.

  "Again."

  The third shot bridged the first and second. Rapp fell into a rhythm. He didn't rush it, but he didn't take too much time either. It took him less than twenty seconds to empty the rest of the magazine, and when he was done all of the rounds were within a six-inch circle--a jagged hole punched through the face of the paper target. Rapp breathed a sigh of relief.

  Sergeant Smith clapped him on the shoulder and said, "You're coachable, kid. Nice work. Let's try this a few more times."

  Rapp was in the midst of reloading the weapon when by chance he turned his head and looked over his left shoulder. About sixty feet away, in the shadows of a big pine, a man was watching them. With the poor light Rapp couldn't be certain who it was, but he thought it might be the guy he'd seen on the porch earlier in the morning. Rapp turned back to Sergeant Smith and was about to ask him who he was when he thought better of it. It would be a mistake to confuse a little one-on-one instruction with friendship.

  CHAPTER 14

  DR. Lewis walked into the office, offered a faint smile to his visitor, and closed the door behind him. He'd been watching the new recruit intently for the past three days. At twenty-three he was the youngest project they had attempted to run through the program, and from what he'd seen the last few days the man showed a great deal of promise. Before sitting, Lewis glanced down at the notepad and pen sitting in the middle of the desk. Next to them sat a file with Rapp's name written in large black letters. It was impossible to miss and intentionally so. They knew surprisingly little about the man, but then again how much could you really know about someone this young--this untested? If he listened to the irascible Hurley, inexperience was a curse, and if he listened to the more pragmatic Kennedy, it was a blessing. Lewis didn't know who was right, but he had grown tired of listening to them bicker.

  Moving behind the desk, Lewis sat in the worn leather and wood desk chair and leaned back. The chair emitted a metal squeak. The doctor ignored it and moved his eyes from the subject to the contents sitting on his desk. There were many tools in his trade--little tricks that could be used to test the people he was assigned to evaluate. Some were subtle, others more overt, but all were designed to help him get a better glimpse into the minds of the men they were recruiting. The file on the desk had been a test. Lewis had spent the last five minutes in the basement watching the recruit via a concealed camera. Rapp had sat sphinxlike in the chair. He had glanced at the file only once and then adopted a relaxed posture that spoke of boredom. Lewis didn't know him well enough to gauge whether it was sincere, but there was something about this Mitch Rapp fellow that suggested great possibilities. There was a casualness on the surface that helped mask something far more complex.

  Lewis considered reaching for the notepad and pen. It was a way of establishing authority, and creating stress for the subject. Making him feel the pressure of possibly giving incorrect answers. Lewis decided against it. From what he'd witnessed over the last three days, it was highly unlikely that the ploy would fluster this one. Nothing else had so far.

  Going on a hunch, Hurley clasped his hands behind his head and casually asked, "You know what you're getting yourself into?"

  Rapp looked at him with his dark brown eyes and shrugged as if to say it wasn't worth acknowledging the obvious.

  "I don't read minds," Lewis said, only half serious. "I'm going to need you to verbalize your answers."

  "Hopefully, you're going to turn me into a weapon ... a killer."

  Lewis considered the straightforward answer and then said, "Not me specifically, but in essence, yes, that is what we are going to do."

  Rapp gave a slight nod as if that was just fine with him and continued to look right back into the bright blue eyes of the man who had been watching him from a safe distance.

  "Do you have any reservations?"

  "Not really."

  Lewis placed his palm on the desk, and after staring at the back of his hand for a long moment said, "it would be normal if you did."

  Rapp cracked a thin smile. "I suppose it would."

  "So do you have any reservations?"

  It was a pretty vague question, and Rapp didn't like vague. "In terms of what?"

  "This is a big commitment. Most of your friends are probably taking jobs with Kodak or Xerox."

  More than a few of them were, but Rapp simply nodded.

  Lewis noted that Rapp was not jumping out of his chair trying to please him with earnest answers. Nor was he displaying the open disrespect that many of the candidates would employ as a defense mechanism. He was striking the perfect balance. Lewis decided to skip his standard twenty minutes of preamble and get to the heart of the matter. "Have you ever wondered what it's like to kill a man?"

  Rapp nodded. He had spent more time wondering about it than he would ever admit to this guy, or anybody else.

  "Do you think that's healthy?"

  This time Rapp let out a small laugh.

  Lewis noted the classic deflection technique, but didn't want to seem judgmental, so he smiled along with Rapp. "What's so funny?"

  "I can answer your question six ways, and depending on your mood, you might find all of the answers acceptable, or none of them."<
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  "How do you mean?"

  "It's all in the context."

  "Context is important," Lewis agreed. "Give me an example."

  Rapp thought about it for a moment and then said, "If I'm lying awake at night thinking about killing the guy who broke into my car and ripped me off, it's probably safe to say that I have some anger issues, and a poor grasp of what constitutes just punishment." Rapp put his tanned arm over the back of the chair and looked out the window for a second, wondering how much he should admit. "But if I lie awake at night thinking about sticking a knife through the eye socket of a terrorist who's killed a couple hundred innocent civilians," Rapp shrugged, "I think that's probably not so far out there."

  Lewis appreciated the blunt answer. Wanting a deeper reaction, he asked, "Do you miss your girlfriend?"

  Rapp gave Lewis a disappointed look and shook his head.

  "What's wrong? Did I say something that offended you?"

  "No ... not really..."

  "From the look on your face it would appear that I did."

  "I volunteered for this, but I hate playing all these games."

  "Games?" Lewis asked with an arched brow.

  "You're a shrink, right?" Rapp didn't give him a chance to answer. "You've been watching me for the past three days. I've noticed that you seem to be paying a lot of attention to me. More so than the others. You choose your words carefully, and you've undoubtedly read that file that's sitting on your desk. You know why I'm here."

  Lewis hid his surprise that Rapp had guessed his profession. "It's my job to ask questions."

  "But why would you ask if I miss her? Don't you think that's pretty obvious?"

  "So that's why you're here?"

  "I'm not here because I miss her. I miss my father, who died when I was thirteen. I miss my grandparents, and someday I'll miss my mom when she dies, and maybe if I get to know you, I'll miss you, too. That's part of life. I'm here for a very obvious reason. One that I'm sure you're already aware of."

  Lewis noted how he had taken charge of the conversation, but was willing to let this play out. "Revenge?"

  "I prefer retribution, but it all depends on the definition you choose."

  Lewis was pleased that he'd made the distinction. He was intimately familiar with the difference between the two words. "I'd like to hear your definition."

  "Revenge is more wild, less calculated ... deeply personal."

  "And retribution?"

  Rapp thought about it for a moment and then answered in a very clear voice. "Retribution is a punishment that is morally right and fully deserved."

  "And the men who conspired to bring down Pam Am 103?"

  Rapp leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees, and said, "Every last one of them deserves to die."

  Lewis looked at the file on the desk and asked, "You're Catholic?"

  "Yes."

  "So how do you square this with your Lord? Your idea of retribution doesn't exactly conform to the turn-the-other-cheek preaching of Jesus Christ."

  "Nice try." Rapp grinned.

  "How do you mean?"

  "I'll tell you a little secret about me. I'm not the most patient guy. I have a lot to learn, and I'm eager to learn it, so when you start to hit me with selective theology you might get my back up a bit."

  "Selective?" Lewis asked.

  "Yeah. I've never understood the intellectual dishonesty of people who say the Bible is the word of God and then choose to pull verses only from the New Testament, for example. Turning the other cheek is one of their favorites, and they use it, while ignoring a dozen Old Testament verses and a few New Testament verses that say the men who brought down that plane deserve to die."

  Lewis conceded with a nod. "So, if it comes to it ... you don't think you'd have a problem taking another man's life?"

  "That depends."

  "On what?"

  "Who the guy is, and more important, what he's guilty of."

  CHAPTER 15

  WHEN the sun rose for the fifth day they were one man short. It was Dick. Rapp didn't know the guy's real name, much less where he was from or where he was going, so it was hard to feel too bad when the guy stepped out of formation during a grueling set of up-downs in the hot afternoon sun. He simply approached one of the instructors, announced his intention, and the two men shook hands. Just like that the guy was done. Free of the pain, the sweating, the burning muscles, the tired eyes, and the battered ego. It all seemed too easy, and that's what scared the crap out of Rapp.

  It made him briefly wonder if he was capable of pussing out. All it would take was a down moment. A bad spell, a cold, or a fever or another sleepless night. One misstep and he could be the one shaking hands and packing his bag. While falling asleep that night, Rapp focused on the positive. There was one man fewer to compete with. They kept saying it wasn't a competition, but Rapp wasn't so sure. If it wasn't a competition, why did they count or clock everything they did? The image of the fellow recruit bowing out after five days put Rapp on guard against a moment of personal weakness. It refocused him by showing just how rapidly this journey could come to a very unsatisfying end.

  Rapp awoke tired but ready to push ahead. He was the first one on the line and was stretching his neck and shoulders waiting for the others when he noticed the two instructors having what looked like an unpleasant conversation. When everyone was finally on the line, Sergeant Jones stepped forward and with a disappointed look on his face said, "One of you screwed up real bad last night."

  Rapp began racking his brain trying to think of any mistakes he'd made.

  "We have rules for a reason. At this point you don't need to understand these rules, you just need to follow them." He paused to look each of them in the eye. "You have all been repeatedly warned to not divulge any personal information. Now ... we're realistic enough to understand that you boys will discover certain things about each other. Some of you have a slight accent, so it's pretty easy to figure out what part of the country you come from. As far as prior military experience, we haven't busted your balls over debating the healthy rivalry between the services, but last night, someone crossed the line." He stopped and looked at the ground. In a disappointed voice he said, "The one thing you are never supposed to do is tell someone your real name."

  Rapp heard someone farther down the line mumble something under his breath, but he couldn't tell who it was, and considering the mood of the two instructors, he didn't dare look.

  "You are all smart enough to know this, and you were all warned what would happen if you slipped up on this one. This isn't a fucking summer camp. This is serious shit," Sergeant Jones said in a disappointed voice. He looked to the far end of the line and said, "Bill, pack your shit. You're gone."

  The man they called Bill, whom Rapp had pegged as the hot-shooting Navy SEAL from Texas, took one step forward and shook his head at the harsh punishment he'd just received. He looked as if he was going to say something and then caught himself. Sergeant Jones started moving and told Bill to follow him back to the barn. Sergeant Smith stepped in to lead them in PT, but before he could start Bill turned back to the group.

  "Victor, you're a real asshole. I told you I didn't want to talk, but you just wouldn't leave it alone." Looking at Sergeant Jones, he asked, "Why isn't he getting the boot as well?"

  "Keep moving. We'll talk about it in the barn."

  "This is bullshit. He told me who he was and where he was from. Same as me," Bill complained.

  Victor laughed. "I gave you a fake name, you stupid hick."

  "Why the hell would you do that?" one of the guys farther down the line asked Victor.

  "Asshole," someone else grumbled.

  "You guys should all be thanking me," Victor said in an easy voice. "One less guy to worry about."

  Sergeant Smith silenced all of them with a growling order to assume the position. "The next one of you who opens his pie hole is gone. Now push 'em out."

  Rapp dropped his chest down to the dewy grass and pus
hed straight up, quietly counting out each push-up as he went. He'd done so many in the past five days that they were becoming second nature--almost like breathing. Somewhere past number forty and before number fifty, Rapp began feeling some serious ill will toward Victor. If only the big jackass would stumble and break an ankle. He was too risky to have around. For the rest of the morning, as they ran from one thing to the next, Rapp couldn't shake the feeling that he and Victor were on a collision course. With Dick quitting and Bill getting the boot, that meant two fewer people to run interference. Victor could focus more of his time on pestering Rapp.

  The long run was actually nice, since Victor was the slowest of the group. They were spared his running mouth. When breakfast rolled around they all gave him the cold shoulder. It didn't matter to Victor, though. He stayed chatty, continuing to dole out insults and the occasional wise-ass comment that the instructors seemed to take better than they should have. They spent an hour on the obstacle course and another hour on the pistol range before heading back in for lunch. The attitude among the recruits was decidedly sour. It was as if they had a traitor in their midst. After lunch they went over field-stripping various handguns, and then it was announced that they were heading into the barn for a little hand-to-hand combat.

  For Rapp it was his first time back on the mat since the day he'd arrived. He had wondered where the mean old cuss had gone, and had almost asked Sergeant Smith, but the guy wasn't exactly keen on sharing information. Jones and Smith paired the men up. Since there were five, someone had to be the odd man out and it turned out to be Rapp. The rules were simple: no blows to the head or groin. Choke holds were encouraged, but they warned the men to be careful not to crush anyone's larynx. If you wanted out all you had to do was tap the mat. Right before they started the blond-haired shrink quietly slipped into the barn.

  The first two men up were Roy and Glenn. Rapp hadn't figured out where either of them was from, and wasn't about to ask. Like all of them, the two men were dark-featured, with black hair, brown eyes, and tan skin. Roy was five-ten and Glenn was perhaps an inch taller. Rapp guessed they were both around twenty-seven. He was not overly impressed with their fighting styles. They both used standard judo techniques. Lots of holds and throws, but nothing that could be used to incapacitate an enemy in one quick flurry. Technically, they were sound, and they were both tough enough, and in good enough shape, to draw out a lengthy, tiring, boring match.