SAFE HAVENS: Shadow Masters (A Sean Havens Black Ops Novel Book 1) by J.T. Patten Read Free Book Online Page B

“Not me, man. I am just delivering the goods. One of your dudes at the blue building downtown here gave it to me to give to you. So don’t bring your shit on my shoes.”
    “Blue building? What blue building?”
    “Yeah, right. You know, where all you…you…c’mon, you know…your kind comes when they are in Yemen for action. I ain’t a shooter, man. I street lurk, but ain’t no hunter killer. I just stop by the blue building if I have to drop something off or get a kit to stash at a house so you snake eaters have their toys ‘n shit. You really don’t know?”
    “John, look. I never heard of a blue building. To the best of my knowledge there are no shooters in some place I don’t know about. If you are in the game you know I can’t play this hand unless I know who this guy is, what he does, why he is supposedly here, where he entered the country from and when, does he have a physical and digital or virtual footprint. I could get burned real quick.”
    “Look man, I feel ya. Here is the bottom line from where I am standing. There is a ticket, a passport, some cash, and probably some other stuff. We’re understaffed here at this station. Sometimes the dudes that come in here to help are just contractors or old military dudes with the right tickets punched for clearance. They ain’t smart, Mick. They just cleared. Doesn’t mean they know what they are doing just because they were lucky enough to have a full scope lifestyle and CI poly, but chances are this will get you seventy-five percent of the way. Up to you to fake the rest. They train us Farm chickens like that. You do know the Farm?”
    Not needing to be convinced and not willing to indulge the snarky question, Havens was already trying to solve the problem. “Where is this blue building? I will take care of things.”
    John started backing up towards the door, and with his hand on the knob said, “Yeah, right. Man, if you don’t know where the blue building is, you ain’t supposed to know where the blue building is. It ain’t even really blue. Anyway, I said too much, so forget I said that. See ya, wouldn’t wanna be ya. Write your congressman and get some funds appropriated if you don’t like what’s going on here in the Yem. Continuing resolution just boinked you in the ass, Pops. Don’t miss your flight. Gotta go. Leave your shit here and someone will come get it after you leave,” John’s voice slowed and trailed while now eyeing the pistol Havens was tucking in his waistband.
    With that, John exited the room to go back to the streets he worked each day for the intelligence community. Low man on the totem pole caught shit from all sides. Today was just another day. He thought about having a qat chew, but now he had one more task before Havens could leave town. He’d have to move quickly. A text message would save time, but it would also leave a trail. No trails.
    Fuckin’ cowboy shooters. How can you not know the blue building if you are a hardcore. All the hardcore ones go there. Shit, they own the night here.
    As soon as John left, Havens briskly walked the room as if in search of something, hands on hips with a constantly shaking head. The risky cover legend was compounding the stress. Havens wanted to kill someone but knew John had done his part and was not at fault. John was right. He was trained to adapt and make the best of it. Carry on. He never got rattled. But with today’s news about Maggie, he was.
    Havens opened the ticket, figuring he had a better than a fifty-fifty chance of pulling this ruse off. He had to get home as fast as he could. No time to bitch and moan.
    Four more hours before his flight left.
    Havens scanned the ticket, hoping that he would see a lucky mid-point transit that could give him some hope of passing checkpoints and the scrutiny of his background.
    C’mon Dubai, c’mon Dubai.
    His gaze stopped on the destination.
    Kuwait. Well, that’s going to have to work.

Chapter 7
    H avens called Christina