“They are in the D.C. area, drawn from local bunkers. The only reason they weren’t used in the first attack was the lack of pilots to control them. Now my crews are free to take on this new mission, and I have reserve pilots I can now call on with a little time to prepare.”
“Very little time, Abdul-Shahid. What you suggest cannot be delayed.” He paused while considering the plan. “Very well,” the fat Russian general finally said. “I will have target information on the stealth drones to you within twelve hours. I must send in assets to make sure we have the precise location. You will only get one opportunity at this.”
Almasi stared at the man with cold, dark eyes. “That will be acceptable, Nikolay. Give the Americans a little breathing room and let them think the worst is over. Then I’ll hit them again. It will be the final nail in their coffin.”
“Or in ours, my radical friend. Soon we will know which.”
Chapter 24
“Are you sure of this?” Xander said, staring agape at the sheet of paper that had just been handed to him.
“It came from the tap Almasi placed on the bunkers back at the Center. It’s faint and was hard to trace, but the NSA gives it a ninety-percent credibility rating.”
“Karachi… not Islamabad?”
“It’s about as far from the capital as he could go. Still, the location appears to be right in the heart of the city.”
“You even know which building?” Xander was in a mild state of shock. He tried his best to keep his expectations under control, but he was fighting a losing battle. And seeing the ecstatic expressions on the faces of his team members, as well as on Tiffany Collins, didn’t help.
“We’ve got the son-of-a-bitch,” Hugh Barden exclaimed.
“And Jonas may be there, too,” Billy threw in.
“If only,” said Karen.
Xander looked at the even expression on the face of Nathan Hall. “But you said he’s in the city. Is it possible to drop a huge-ass bomb on his head and get this over with?”
Hall shook his head. Xander was anticipating what came next. “He picked the best — or worse — possible location, depending on which side you’re on. First of all, he’s in the middle of the second most populous city in the world, and having a massive bunker-buster blow out a crater a quarter-mile in diameter will probably not go over very well with the locals.”
“They started this!” Jeremy Fenton pointed out.
“Almasi did, not the people of Karachi. Even then, there are other considerations. His compound is sandwiched between a hospital and school. The inevitable collateral damage is something the brass won’t accept.”
“Then we go in,” said Jeremy Fenton. “I’m sure you have RPAs in the region, or ones that can be placed there in a reasonable timeframe.”
“The military — not DARPA — has units over there,” Nathan said, just before a wicked smile stretched his lips. “And we also have five Goliaths aboard the carrier Gerald R. Ford.”
Hugh slapped the older man on the back, a little too forcefully. “So there you have it! We go in all stealthy and shit and take them out before they know what’s happening.”
“Karachi is located on the Arabian Sea,” Tiffany offered. “Where’s the aircraft carrier now, Nathan?”
The man tried to look calm, but failed miserably. “About five hundred miles south, steaming north at thirty-five knots.”
“You bastard!” Xander said. “You already have the op underway.”
“It was worth keeping it under wraps just to see your expressions. Yes, we’re a go. Five of you will pilot the G’s, and an additional twenty-five JEN-Tech Panther IV’s will provide support and backup guided by the military pilots.”
“I’m glad to see my babies are on our side this time,” Billy said. “You know how hard it was to fire on them yesterday?”
“They’re great machines,” Nathan said.
“Yeah, but we made mincemeat out of them with the Goliaths. You know how humbling that is?”
“Let’s hope the Goliaths can to do the same to Almasi’s drones,” Karen said. “You know he’ll have defensive cover. And to another point: you said you have five Goliaths. There are six of us. So who gets left out in the cold? As the only woman on the team, I sincerely hope it ain’t me. You guys wouldn’t survive the sexual discrimination lawsuit I’d slap on… well, everyone!”
Nathan came to the rescue, much to Xander’s relief. “Since Mr. Moore has the most combat experience from his tenure at the RDC, I suggest he take the lead and the rest of you draw straws. That way we can avoid any potential lawsuits, and the remaining team member can lead the Panther squadron.”
When no one protested — for real or in jest — Nathan’s face turned deadly serious. “The Gerald R. Ford will be on station in twelve hours. We launch shortly thereafter. We’re getting close to shutting this thing down, yet there’s no telling what that bastard Almasi has planned next. Whatever it is, we can’t let him carry it out. This has to be the decisive battle. America can’t take much more of this.”
Chapter 25
“Ready up! We drop in five minutes.” Xander’s voice echoed off the cold steel walls of the aircraft hangar, which by that time had grown deathly quiet. He walked along the rows of pilot pods, nodding at the young men and women at their stations, offering quick words of encouragement.
On the screens were thirty different views from inside the C-130 Hercules cargo transport. The drones were still hooked to chargers, yet their cameras were active. In an amazing feat of courage and daring, the huge cargo plane had managed to lift off the deck of the aircraft carrier — the largest plane capable of a carrier-launch. Now, within minutes, the tail of the Hercules would open and the contents of its cargo bay would be dumped out the back.
Xander’s team was ready, as were the twenty-four military drone pilots manning the JEN-Tech Panthers — with Billy Jenkins in command. Since it was made up entirely of UAVs his company manufactured, Billy had volunteered to lead the Panther squadron. Karen Prado thanked him by laying a wet kiss on his lips.
As the transport plane dropped to twenty-thousand feet over the glistening blue waters of the Arabian Sea, Xander slipped into his pilot pod and flexed his fingers. They were about to do something that had never been done before, but in theory should work. The cargo of drones was to be literally dumped out the back, power off and left to freefall. At five thousand feet, the motors would switch on and the fourth-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 SoC flight controllers within the Panthers would take over, providing gyroscopic stabilization within seconds of activation. The Goliaths were much larger units and would be affected more by wind drag. They also operated using a different flight control board, yet the results should be the same.
If the drones weren’t able to stabilize within the narrow altitude window, they would unceremoniously splash into the water below, bringing a quick end to the ambitious operation. Yet this was the only way the Panthers could reach the target with enough of a battery charge to last an hour on station. The Goliaths had more than enough power to have flown from the carrier all the way to the mainland, but there were only five of them, and with such a spur-of-the-moment operation as this one, no one was fully aware what they might encounter, either on the way to or at Almasi’s compound.
Another UAV — this one a sixty-foot wingspan spy drone — was aloft at over eighty thousand feet, and would provide the command links with the NSA satellite tasked to the mission.
Satellite imaging had also provided the pilots with a fairly detailed layout of Almasi’s compound. Like most residences of the wealthy in the Middle East, this one was isolated from the poor masses by a twenty-foot high, white-washed concrete wall, with one main entrance for motor vehicles and two smaller doors for pedestrian traffic.