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Back The Frenchman
Chapters (76)
  1. COVER PAGE
  2. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  3. DEDICATION
  4. AMIN
  5. PARIS
  6. … TWO YEARS LATER
  7. CHAPTER ONE
  8. CHAPTER TWO
  9. CHAPTER THREE
  10. CHAPTER FOUR
  11. CHAPTER FIVE
  12. CHAPTER SIX
  13. CHAPTER SEVEN
  14. CHAPTER EIGHT
  15. CHAPTER NINE
  16. CHAPTER TEN
  17. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  18. CHAPTER TWELVE
  19. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  20. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  21. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  22. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  23. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  24. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  25. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  46. CHAPTER FORTY
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  54. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  55. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  56. CHAPTER FIFTY
  57. CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
  58. CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
  59. CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
  60. CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
  61. CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
  62. CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
  63. CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
  64. CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
  65. CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
  66. CHAPTER SIXTY
  67. CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
  68. CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
  69. CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
  70. CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
  71. CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE
  72. CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX
  73. CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
  74. CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT
  75. CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE
  76. EPILOGUE

He didn’t have to recite the basics to these experienced people, but it was the protocol for briefing on an operation. ‘I want a low-key observation platform around the MERC. Count the cars and trucks, log the rego plates, assess the hierarchy and get them on camera.’

‘We looking for anyone in particular?’ asked Py, his nickname, Templar, thanks to the Crusader tattoo on his back. ‘We got a POI?’

‘No,’ said de Payns. ‘We’ll log traffic in and out of the MERC compound and assess the best human asset, the one who gives the Company the best chance of access.’

De Payns didn’t want to rely on luck. He counted himself lucky that the mission team was headed by Templar.

‘This was from a drone?’ asked Templar, sorting through the photographic prints of the MERC aerial shots. He sat to de Payns’ right at the long briefing desk, his oversized upper body straining through his lightweight sweatshirt. He was one of the best support team operators in Europe, an expert in tricky exfiltrations, workable disguises, breakouts and ambushes. If someone needed to be secretly plucked from the street of a major city and rendered to a safe site, Templar was your man. The only thing he couldn’t do was lie convincingly, which was why he was never assigned approaches and manipulations. He’d be the only support team that de Payns would have on this first mission. The other two operatives would be techs from Y-9—the Bunker’s technical espionage section.

‘The briefing didn’t tell us if a drone took the photos,’ said de Payns, feeling like he could have done with another twelve hours’ sleep. ‘Anyone have an idea?’ he asked, looking from Templar to Clercq, the head of Y-9. Clercq was a grey-haired forty-something who dressed in cargo pants, sneakers and a polo shirt. He was a smoker with silly jokes but he had a fast brain and careful instincts, and de Payns always liked having him on board. Beside him, in jeans and a sweatshirt, was his colleague Thierry Suquet. At twenty-five he could have passed for a university student—in fact, he had been plucked from an engineering PhD at a polytechnic university in Toulouse—but despite his youthful appearance he was an experienced field operative who had worked in clandestine roles all over Europe and the Middle East.