Morning PT crushed the entire team.  To warm up, the team ran barefoot two miles down the beachfront and then back.  It was a slow, comfortable pace, but everyone knew what was coming next.  With a barbell they took turns doing three repetitions of the power snatch which involved lifting the weight above your head and squatting it.  They increased the weight every three reps until failure.

Then they did the same for the power clean, which was a similar exercise, but the barbell was only brought up to under the chin with a reverse grip.  The power jerk was done for the same repetitions and was also similar, but from under the chin, the barbell was then snapped above the head in one popping motion.  Next was the clean pull.  From the squatting position, the lifter snapped up with the bar held in an overhand grip until he was standing on his toes, and then lowered the bar back to the ground.

Repetitions were increased to five for the front squat.  Again, more plates were added after each repetition.  Holding the barbell under the chin, they did five squats for one set.  Last but not least was Bill’s favorite, the bench press.  About half of the Liquid Sky team puked this time around.  Deckard managed to hold it down but had to wonder what the point was.  They could probably take turns kicking each other in the balls and get the same result.  They wrapped up with a two-mile cool-down run.  Most of them took water bottles and tried to rehydrate as they jogged up and down the beach.

After dragging ass back to his pad, Deckard took a shower, tried to pound down some more water and stretch out.  He found it funny that Liquid Sky was so careful about their operational security, but six physically fit men running and swimming around a residential area was a signature in of itself.  Apparently the guys just told the locals that they participated in adventure racing around the world, sponsored by some jockstrap company or something.

Sitting down on the couch, Deckard began to plan his next move.  He didn’t have any time to waste.  Bill had mentioned during PT that he would be reviewing a series of new contracts to bid on that afternoon.  A comment like that made Deckard wonder how many other teams might actually be out there.  He would have his hands full taking this enterprise down as it was.

Deckard had to hand it to Liquid Sky.  These guys were not fighting some one-sided firefight against chicken-shit terrorists in Tikrit or Ballad.  They were skating the edge, almost for the sport of it.  And they were winning.  They were good, but the lack of discipline would catch up with them.  Back to the operational security again.  The war crimes were not just unprofessional, they also violated OPSEC by creating a signature.  If they were scalping or canoeing bodies on every objective, then eventually someone would put two and two together and realize it was the same team conducting these hits all over the world.

He knew that more than likely, some intel agency somewhere had already done just that and had Liquid Sky on their radar because of it.

The next phase of Deckard’s operation was to find out who this retired General was that Bill was getting his contracts from.  Once he had that name, he could call in the cavalry and get this job over with.  In the meantime, he tried to kick back and relax.  Making the hard sell didn’t work in human intelligence operations.  If he came off as over eager and overplayed his hand, then Bill would figure out what his game was.  He had to take his time, build rapport with each member of the team, and slowly gather each piece of the puzzle.  It was frustrating, but necessary.  Their odds of taking Bill alive in a direct confrontation and forcing the information out of him were slim to say the least.