"Here’s some night vision goggles-perfect for night jumps," Ravi continued, picking up more items. "A combat knife, an acid spray, a flashlight, a magnetic lock."

Ravi paused until Robert had stored all of his equipment. "Anything else?" Robert asked. There was still a box sitting unopened on the table.

Ravi smiled. "I picked these up from your special cache in Jerusalem shortly before we left to get you."

He produced a handheld computer and a specialized grapnel from the box. "Wow!" Robert exclaimed, looking over his grapnel. "I haven’t used this puppy since that covert op in China."

"That was a good mission, wasn’t it?" Ravi commented. It was also the last mission they had been on together-the last mission before Ravi had to take a desk job.

"Yeah," Robert agreed, "those were the days."

While Robert got everything squared away, Ravi went to the cockpit. When he came back out, he said, "We’ll be dropping you off in a few hours."

"Say, one more question."

"Yeah?" Ravi asked.

"Give it to me straight, Ravi. Is this a 10 percenter?" Robert asked.

Ravi recognized that Robert was using the term the CIA used when it felt a mission had about a 90 percent chance of failure. Usually failure didn’t automatically mean death. This time it almost assuredly did. Ravi nodded sorrowfully and said, "Yes. Yes, I’m afraid so."

It wasn’t bad enough that he would be headed for a desk job soon; they seemed to be trying to kill him off before he got the chance. Robert gave him a wry grin. "So, what are these guys going to be doing while I’m risking life and limb?" Robert asked concerning the Israeli commandos.

"The Chosen have a back-up device concealed in a hidden bunker near their main base. If you manage to stop the launch, they can trigger it from that location. It’s their job to make sure to take the Chosen’s back-up out of commission," Ravi answered.

"Okay, I’ll just be looking over these blueprints until then," Robert told him.

Ravi handed Robert a sandwich and headed back into the cockpit as Robert meticulously poured over every detail. The information was very detailed, very useful and very up to date.

As he ate his sandwich, Robert noticed that there were only three automated doors in the entire base: one at the entrance, one leading to the central power core (the dome shaped building) and one leading to some sort of important arsenal. Each of the doors had duplicate controls on the inside and outside.

While he was studying, one of the commandos leaned over to his commander and spoke in Hebrew. Robert listened carefully and watched out of the corner of his eye. The man said, "The great and powerful CIA sends us into a barracks while their star goes into a launching pad."

His superior gave him a disapproving look. Robert didn’t look up; he only responded in Hebrew, "I don’t envy you your mission, since it will be difficult. Maybe you could try not to covet mine since it will also be hard."

The commando in charge smiled and wished Robert well. The other kept his eyes on the floor for most of the rest of the flight.

Eventually, Ravi came back and helped Robert put on a parachute. "Before you leave," Ravi started, "I have a lead on your… personal project."

Robert’s ears perked up. All of his good friends in the agency knew about his certain piece of personal business. They kept an ear out, but since it wasn’t an official agency investigation, they couldn’t do that much. "What did you find out?" Robert asked.

"I found out that the group that set up the killing call themselves the Patricians," Ravi answered.

"You’re a good agent, Ravi-and a friend," Robert said.

"If anyone can pull off a 10 percenter, it’s you, so don’t die out there," Ravi said. "I want you to nail the Patricians when you get back."

The back doors of the cargo bay made a dull mechanical sound as they sluggishly opened. Wind whipped about the seven men. "I will get back," Robert told him. "I have to now."

With that, Robert and the Israeli commandos jumped out of the airplane. Their black parachutes would be almost unobservable in the night sky. On the way down, the commandos sniped down four guards standing in the entrance. After landing, they all detached their parachutes and buried them in the desert sands.

Robert attached his silencer to his gun as he approached the entrance. The Israelis waved good-bye to Robert as they left to locate the Chosen’s bunker. Robert didn’t envy them their task-the bunker wasn’t just home to their failsafe to launch the nuclear missile, it also served to train and to house many of their members. In all probability, at least one of those men would not be going home.

Robert activated one of his communications scramblers and left it near the door on the inside so that any potential terrorists outside wouldn’t be able to communicate with their companions inside. That being done, he scanned the corridor ahead of him. It led a short distance to an elevator. Robert mentally steeled himself-he was a trained assassin and he knew he could handle the mission ahead of him. With his thoughts echoing in his head, Robert sprinted down the hallway, entered the elevator and tapped the down button. The elevator noisily whined down to the bottom level. The doors opened to a very surprised terrorist, who quickly received a bullet through the heart from Robert. Before exiting the elevator, Robert removed his night vision goggles and hung them on his side. He didn’t want to be blinded when entering a well-lit room.

Robert sent two bullets ripping through the elevator controls (he could repair it later, but he didn’t want anyone from the outside to be able to get in) and reflected on the blueprint layouts. The hall in front of him turned and led to a control room. According to Ravi, that room monitored and controlled every alarm in the base.

Robert walked to the end of the hallway and carefully peered around the corner. Two guards stood in front of the entrance to the room-no one else in sight. He deftly shot them both as he came around the corner. Then he burst into the room and immediately assessed the situation. There were ten people-at least two armed and one sitting near to what could be an alarm. One of the armed men was walking towards the door, having seen the guards outside fall. The other was still seated, but also preparing to rise. Into a flurry of shouts, screams and crashing furniture, Robert coolly and deftly "minimized" the two armed men, as they say, while swiftly moving left to right. One of the technicians shouted, "Quick! Get him!" He was pointing at the man at the console Robert suspected to contain the alarm. No sooner had Robert taken care of that threat than one of the others went for one of the fallen weapons. Robert shot him, too.

Robert looked at the man who had warned him and asked, "Amir?"

The man nodded. Robert told him to pick up the guards’ weapons and use them to cover the others. In the meantime, Robert ordered all of those left to gather in one particular corner. It would make them easier to shoot if they got out of line. He then made his way to the terminal and scanned the bloodstained screen as Amir kept a vigilant eye on the prisoners. Robert interfaced his computer with the base computer. The powerful computational chip contained at the core of his device quickly gave Robert full access. He checked the system for anything related to the missile. This computer could do nothing dealing with the missile except confirm which room it was in. That was exactly what Robert expected: the missile and its launcher were both being controlled by a separate computer (and undoubtedly on a separate power source).

Robert used his computer to disable all of the alarms then he pulled the bodies of the two door guards inside. While the computer worked on the alarm system, Amir asked Robert, "What do we do now?"