It took about twenty seconds before the men had dispersed into what Rapp calculated to be an optimal spread. It was possible that a few were out of range, but if he waited much longer, a number of the men would penetrate the building far enough to flank some of his people. He ran a thumb over the detonator, but hesitated. These were worker bees. Where was the queen?

He was rewarded a moment later when a man strode regally through the doorway, barking orders in Swahili. Rapp waited until he approached the first Taser unit and then depressed the button. Showers of sparks were accompanied by a sound reminiscent of spattering grease, and a moment later most of the incursion team was down. The unit closest to him misfired, leaving a few more men standing than he’d hoped, but the fact that they weren’t armed made them a minimal threat.

“Lights!” Rapp said into his throat mike and then replaced his night vision monocular with a pair of dark sunglasses. After the agreed-upon two-second delay, powerful overhead lights bathed the space in a fluorescent glare.

One African came even with Rapp’s position, squinting and raising an arm to shade his eyes. He was close enough that Rapp could have extended a leg to trip him, but it wouldn’t have been wise to expose any flesh with the quiet puffs of tranquilizer darts sounding throughout the hangar. Instead, he waited for the man—boy really—to go by and used his own dart gun to shoot him in the ass. He made it about another ten steps before stumbling and going down on his face.

“Clear!” someone shouted. That was followed by similar shouts around the hangar. Rapp loaded another dart and came out from behind the generator, swinging the unfamiliar weapon smoothly in front of him, looking for any movement that his men might have missed. Snipers were covering from the rafters, but it didn’t look like they’d be necessary. What little movement existed was just the weak flailing of the electrocuted or drugged.

“Exterior teams,” Rapp said into his comm. “Give me a sitrep.”

“This is Exterior One,” came the immediate reply. “We’re secure with no injuries to our team. On the other side, we have two fatal gunshot wounds and one man who got hit with multiple darts and is having some kind of seizure. Two escaped into the woods. We have people in pursuit.”

“Copy that. Keep me apprised of any problems.”

Rapp pulled off his sunglasses, wiping the sweat from his eyes and looking at the men littered across the floor. He’d lost track of the man who had been giving orders, but he turned out to be easy to find. Gray hair at the temples and fatigues that were free of holes and bloodstains.