“So where did they move it?” DeWitt asked.
Yasmin sighed. “That, my friends, is what we have to find out. My sources say it must have been taken to one of two locations. Both are well outside of the city, but they are in opposite directions, so we must stay here.”
“We’ll do whatever we can,” Murdock said.
Yasmin smiled. “Yes, I have been instructed. But you must be tired. The men can sleep upstairs. The lady will be with me. There are two beds in my room. Oh, I’m sorry. You also must be hungry. I have been stocking up on food.”
“The men will be fine, Yasmin,” Murdock said. “Something in the morning would be good. We know this is a lot of trouble for you. We and the government appreciate it.”
Yasmin sat in a chair, and the two officers and Kat sat nearby.
“Yes, a bit of a problem,” Yasmin said, “but that’s why I’m here. I am a Syrian, but I grew up in Philadelphia. I’ve been here for eight years now, doing what I can. My cover is to teach math in one of the schools. My… my husband was also working with me for the Company, but he was killed three years ago in an operation that went sour. He was not suspected, just an unfortunate who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“No one suspects what you do?” DeWitt asked.
“So far. But I have been deep cover with no activity at all for the past two years. Now I have a chance to help. Yes, I am a trained field agent, as was my husband. We wanted to do something to help bring better relations between the Arab world and the West. We’re not sure that we have.”
“Every little bit helps,” Murdock said. “If we can find that warhead and destroy it, we may be saving the lives of a hundred thousand people. That would be a real contribution.”
Yasmin’s eyes widened. “So many? I heard that the bomb in Chad killed almost thirty thousand. Unthinkable. How could the Russians let such a weapon loose on the world?”
“To our best understanding, the weapon had been stored and hidden in Ukraine, formerly part of Russia, now an independent nation,” DeWitt said. “The government there probably didn’t sell the missile. It probably went into the hands of an unscrupulous person who sold it to the Chinese.”
“That helps me a little. At least a government didn’t loose this terror. Tomorrow morning I will be up early to go meet with my source. I can’t use the telephone. They are closely monitored. I am somewhat suspect since the government knows I was born in the U.S., but it’s routine and thousands of people are monitored. I will be gone when you get up.”
Jefferson and Franklin came in, both breathing hard. Franklin looked at DeWitt and gave a curt nod.
“Mission accomplished, J.G. We drove her six miles more and parked it in a lot with a bunch of other rigs.”
“No problems coming back?”
“No, sir. All is cool,” Jefferson said. “We uptight or on the pad?”
“Some sleeping places upstairs,” DeWitt said. “Better hit them. We don’t know what’s up for tomorrow.”
The two men vanished up a stairway that Yasmin pointed to.
Yasmin stared at Kat for a moment. “I think it’s time for bed for everyone. Kat, that bandage on your leg probably needs to be changed. Let’s go in and take a look.” She waved at the men. “Stay up as long as you want to. Just turn out the lights when you go upstairs.”
They did.
Murdock came awake at 0530 as usual. He had slept fully dressed, except for his boots, as the rest of the men did. He put on his boots, and saw that Ed DeWitt was up and staring out a window.
“She left in a black sedan about an hour ago,” DeWitt said. “I couldn’t sleep.”
“How far do you think they took the warhead?” Murdock asked.
“Forty miles the other side of the suburbs,” De Witt said. “Figures. The government guys must be scared shitless by the hellish device.”
“Might work to our advantage,” Murdock said. “Might mean they wouldn’t protect it with a lot of men, just some buildings and concrete and maybe a mine shaft. They do any mining here?”
“Not much. Some asphalt, gypsum, and phosphate.”
“Hope they don’t stick it down a mine somewhere.”
An hour later downstairs, they discovered a woman in the kitchen ready to make breakfast. Franklin said she’d told him she was “cook” and was ready for their orders.
The SEALs had been warned to stay inside and away from all windows. They ate and then waited, stripping and oiling weapons, but only half of them at a time so they would be ready for any surprise.
Yasmin came back to the house just after 1000. She looked grim as she walked inside. Yasmin motioned for Murdock and DeWitt to come into a small room she used as an office. She wore a dark dress and a hat that she took off and threw across the room.
“Worse than I figured,” she said. “My contact says he knows for sure that the warhead originally came into Damascus on the plane, but then was taken at once to a small munitions factory about thirty miles north of town.”
“So we move again,” Murdock said.
“The worst part is that the munitions plant is on the corner of an Army base used to train volunteers for hazardous duty. They have top-notch fighting men there. Usually about two hundred at a time in training.”
DeWitt scowled. “You’re right. It isn’t a pretty picture. Is there a fence or barbed wire around the Army base?”
“I don’t know. I had hoped it would be an easier target for you. How can you… I mean, with only small arms you have to take on maybe three hundred men.”
“Yasmin,” Murdock said. “Is there any way you could get us a dozen rocket-propelled grenades?”
“The shoulder-launched rockets?” She paused. “I know some counterrevolutionaries who have used them. Let me make a call and inquire about red posters. It’s a key word we sometimes use. That one I can make on the phone.”
While she phoned, Ostercamp set up the SATCOM and contacted Athens. He gave Murdock the handset.
“Yes, Athens. We arrived. Have located the package. Working on some local support. Will move as soon as it’s dark.”
“The contact working?” Admiral Tanning asked.
“Yes. She does a good job. Will contact you after our trip north to the candy factory. Murdock out.”
Yasmin came back with Kat. The two were chattering away like old friends. Yasmin grinned. “Some good news at last. My friends say they can bring us ten, but if you can help them replace them, that would be good.”
“Would money help?” DeWitt asked.
“Incredibly. They have to buy them. The going rate here is a hundred U.S. dollars each. You have Syrian pounds?”
“Right. At sixty pounds for the dollar, that’s six thousand pounds per weapon,” DeWitt said. “Each of our men was given fifteen thousand. So we can cover the cost of sixty thousand pounds.”
“Kat,” Murdock said. “Be our banker. Collect six thousand pounds from each of the men. Get the biggest notes they have.” Murdock took off his thin cloth money belt and gave Kat his six thousand.
“Can they bring the weapons here just after dark?” DeWitt asked.
“I’ll tell them to,” said Yasmin. “Let me get a map and I’ll show you where the munitions factory is to the north. Then we need to figure out some transport for you. We can’t risk stealing another truck. We could all get blown away in a hurry if they caught us.”
“Do you have any friends in the trucking business?” DeWitt asked.
Yasmin laughed. “Oh, yes. I do. And he owes me a big favor. One condition. I get to go along on the raid.”
DeWitt looked at Murdock.