“I think the first thing we need to come to terms with is how many assassins we want to assign to each target,” said Brian. “A lot of our preparations wil depend on that, I think.”
“You read my mind,” Alan said with an ironic nod. “Herb, you mentioned last week that the consensus among your col eagues was that we should work in teams of two. Where do you come down on that now? Stil thinking the same way?”
“It’s the theory of the OWL becoming a HAWK. It’s not as mysterious as the lone-wolf assassin going deep undercover and doing the job from A to Z, but it makes more sense from a pure espionage point of view. The way it works is this. Al our assassins are designated as numbered OWLs; OWL #1, OWL #2, and so on. Almost every assignment requires two OWLs. The first OWL infiltrates a target area and gets settled: rents an apartment, gets a car, learns the lay of the land, does whatever preparatory work is needed, and makes contact with anyone we deem important to the operation. He is the one who handles any and al communication to and from headquarters.
“The second OWL fol ows, contacts the first OWL, and together they gather information, plan the assassination, and decide who wil be the assassin. That person, the assassin, is thereafter referred to as the HAWK. He’s invisible. If he can’t be made, the plan can’t be foiled. That’s the theory.”
Herb drank coffee and shrugged. “If we go with the OWL and the HAWK, we must train them as a team. Two assassins. The better they know each other, the better their chemistry. The better their chemistry, the more they can depend on each other.”
“And once the job is done?”
“We always extract the HAWK first thing. Same day, if possible,” Herb said rather adamantly. “This is an absolute must. The OWL, on the other hand, we might keep in place if his cover isn’t in jeopardy. That might be the smartest thing to do. It gives us a knowledgeable undercover agent in enemy territory. That’s a game-day decision.”
“I like it,” Brian said, his head bobbing in agreement. “What do you think Alan?”
Alan nodded. “We go with the experts on this one. The OWL and the HAWK it is. Two man teams. One target. How does this affect our selection process, gentlemen?”
“It adds an additional step, to be sure,” Brian said, “we’l need additional criteria once we get around to interviewing potential candidates. Natural y, we’l need to look for qualities that favor a team player over a lone wolf. I’l work with Harry Neumann on the new profile, and he can run the initial evaluation. Once we have that number pared down, Herb and I wil get involved in putting together a working list. That’s when we bring you in, Alan, for the final cal s.”
“I’l have Harry set this recruitment operation up here and set up a private cal center. Time to put some faces with some names,” Alan said. Then he looked across the table at Marie Chavez. “How’d you and Brian do this weekend in El Paso?”
“It’s not paradise, but I think we’re onto something,” Marie answered. “Take a look at these.”
She passed around three wel -organized stacks of photos taking Alan and Herb through the training site, facility by facility, parcel by parcel. “It’s got most of what we need, including a fairly wel -maintained airstrip and plenty of excess acres for firing ranges and high explosive training. The nearest neighbor is 5.2 miles away and hidden by rol ing hil s and enough mesquite to populate Rhode Island. The question is, do we real y need 25,000 acres? If we’re kicking this thing off with ten or twelve potential candidates and three or four instructors, we could probably do with a lot less.”
“The spread has been vacant and unoccupied for a few years. The owner, Jon Byner, is primarily interested in us doing some repairs and maintenance. From what we saw, that’s only a low-six-figure expense, nothing to real y worry about,”
Brian added.
“No argument there,” Marie agreed, “and better too much acreage than too little.”