“This is Exterior Two,” came the voice over his earpiece again. “The SUV and one of the pickups have cleared the tree line and are on their way to the hangar. ETA less than one minute. The remaining truck has stopped before the clearing and the men are getting out. Looks like I was right. They’re going to set up in the woods as cover. We’re in good position to take them out. Permission to use deadly force if necessary to keep them from reinforcing the incursion team?”

Rapp wanted to take as many of them alive as possible, but the perimeter force wasn’t of much concern. They’d just be soldiers. Whoever was directing this operation was almost certainly in the SUV. That was the person he was interested in talking to.

“If necessary, Exterior Two. Permission granted.”

“Copy that. The truck and the SUV are pulling up to the bay doors. Stand by… Okay, the men in the back of the pickup have what looks like a battering ram. Actually, I think it’s just a log with ropes tied around it, but it’s big enough to go through that door pretty easy. The occupants of the SUV are stepping out… two of them. The one who came out of the back seems to be giving the orders.”

“Can you give me a description?” Rapp said, crouching behind a generator that was his designated position.

“Negative. African. Fatigues. Nothing stands out.”

“Roger that,” Rapp said as a loud clang echoed through the hangar. The first blow against the door.

“They’re pulling the vehicles back toward the trees. The men at the hangar don’t have rifles. Some are carrying what could be handguns, but I’m not sure. Might just be flashlights.”

“Copy,” Rapp said.

Not entirely unexpected. They would have no reason to believe the hangar was anything but empty. The goal would be for Ward to arrive not realizing anything was amiss. He would be rushed inside, where he and his people would be immediately overwhelmed. Providing the men trying to get through the door with weapons would endanger Ward. When guns were involved, accidents had a way of happening.

The door held longer than expected, finally bursting open on the fifth strike. Men began flowing through the opening with what indeed turned out to be flashlights. One on the left located a switch box on the wall and attempted to turn on the lights, but Rapp’s people had rerouted the circuit. The Africans didn’t seem overly bothered, continuing to flow through the door and fan out, playing their flashlights over the building’s interior and the private jet it contained. If any of them noticed the four small cylinders on the floor, none gave any indication.