“Even more behind schedule. Ward’s absolutely forbidden them, so we have to lay them at night when he’s asleep. Complete pain in the ass. Between the foliage and the dark, mapping them is a nightmare.”

“But you’re almost there?”

“Two nights out,” he said, frowning. “What are you doing here, Mitch? Are those kids slapping you around on the bike? Maybe you should get one of those three-wheeled ones. You’re not exactly a spring chicken anymore.”

“Younger than you, asshole.”

“But nowhere near as beautifully preserved,” Coleman said as they entered the tent that acted as a command center.

Rapp walked to a map detailing the security measures that had been put into place and those yet to come.

“Seriously, Mitch. What are you doing here? I don’t need you to tell me how to do my job.”

“Somebody’s got to,” Rapp joked, dropping into a folding chair and stretching his legs out. “So, you’re comfortable with what you’ve been able to accomplish here?”

“Yeah,” Coleman responded after a few seconds of silence. “We’ve talked about this. You can always do more, but we’re in good shape. There are no roads in or out, so any attacking force would have a tough slog through the jungle just to get here. That also prevents them bringing in anything much heavier than a few shoulder-fired missiles. We’ve got sensors set up that are going to give us good lead time on any attack and drones in the sky twenty-four/seven. Ward would be long gone before anyone even got close.”

“So, no weaknesses.”

“A significant force coming in from the air would be a problem. We’ve got some SAMs but we’re not really set up for that. My assumption is that I’m not going to have to deal with the 82nd Airborne.”

Rapp scanned the map across from him and pointed to the eastern slope that descended from the compound. “What about that? Looks thin.”

Coleman shook his head. “The terrain is working for us there. It’s really steep and funnels into a gully that terminates in a twenty-foot-high cliff maybe a hundred yards from the perimeter wall. Anybody smart enough to get this far wouldn’t be stupid enough to walk into that death trap. We decided it wasn’t a good use of limited resources to focus on it.”

“Actually, that’s exactly where you need to focus your resources.”

Coleman just stared at him for a moment. “Did you trip over your dogs and hit your head? No one’s attacking from that direction.”

Rapp stood and tapped a point on the map about halfway up the gully. “I also want you to run an underground wire here. North to south. Make it span the entire depression.”

“A wire? Attached to what?”

“Nothing.”

The former SEAL’s eyes narrowed. “You know something I don’t.”