Harry then realised they were driving out of town. “Where are we going?”
“To Hassi R’Mel gas and oil fields.”
Now it was Harry’s turn to stare. “I wasn’t aware this was a suicide mission. Do you think we can just drive through the gates like it’s a tourist destination?”
Asher rolled his eyes. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t shoot you right now?”
“It’s not that you shouldn’t. It’s that you couldn’t. You physically couldn’t shoot me right now because you suck at close combat.” Harry wasn’t kidding. “You try pulling a gun on me right now and I will fuck you up.”
Asher glared. He looked so mad he could just about spit. But there was something else in his eyes. Two different kinds of fire. “Is this your idea of foreplay, Harry?” he said gruffly. “You keep threatening me like that, I just might think you’re starting to like me.”
Harry grinned at him, and Asher laughed.
Harry wasn’t sure if this was fun or insane.
Maybe a little of both.
It was also turning him on. The push and pull, the challenge. The physicality. The way Asher smirked, the way he seethed. The way fighting turned Asher on. It was all hot.
So yeah, it was definitely both. Funandinsane.
* * *
They parkedthe car well off the road two miles out from the first entrance gate to the gas field. The entire area was an ocean of desert and waves of sand. They were hidden well enough, except from planes or drones.
“We should come back at night,” Harry suggested. He had Asher’s binoculars aimed at the gates to the gas field. The binoculars were state of the art, high-tech, a very nice piece. They gave distance, range, crystal clear. It was no wonder Asher could shoot a target from this distance.
Asher was too busy typing on his phone. “Just shut up and tell me what you see.”
“One road in,” Harry said. “Perimeter is a chain-link fence, eight-foot high, razor wire on top. Six security cameras I can see: infrared by the look of them. The gate has two security men, one inside the booth, one out. Armed with a G36.”
Asher looked up from his phone. “I respect that.”
Harry resisted the urge to sigh. He also resisted the urge to crack Asher across the head with his own binoculars. “The Heckler & Koch G36 is standard issue rifle of the Algerian special forces.”
Asher nodded. “I know.” He went back to his phone.
Of course he knew.
Were these guards actual military trained soldiers? Harry would have to assume yes.
Asher didn’t seem surprised or worried. “What else do you see?”
“Wait. We have a utility truck entering the premises.”
“Is it marked? Company name?”
“No... Jesus Christ. That huge-ass metal frame vehicles go through isn’t just a gate. It’s a freaking X-ray machine. Military-grade cargo inspection system. The kind they use at seaports and border crossings, only a helluva lot more high-tech. There would be another three heavily armed guards, at least, in that office module next to the gate.”
“Hm.” Asher, again, didn’t seem surprised. “These gas and oil fields are a multibillion-dollar industry, Harry, that makes up a ridiculous percentage of the country’s GDP. What did you think they’d have?”
Harry felt a little foolish when he spelled it out like that. “I don’t know. I’ve never had to think about it before.”
“Never had to scope out a place for a job, Harry? Never had to break in so you could kill someone?”
Harry thought back over the years, over the jobs he’d done. “No. I either intercepted them travelling or as they were arriving or leaving somewhere. Home, usually. Or work. Easier that way.” Harry just realised what Asher had said. He stared at him. “We arenotbreaking into this facility. Absolutely fucking not.”
Asher laughed. “I am many things, Harry. Stupid is not one of them.”