“That was close,” said Sam, sitting forward in her chair trying to see where the UAV had gone.
By the open door, Cardinal was swearing up a storm. For the second time in only a few minutes, he’d almost been thrown out of the helicopter by Yuri’s sudden sharp turns in the air.
Sam asked, “Gordon, can you see the UAV from back there?”
Cardinal took a deep breath to calm his racing heart, popped his head out the open door, and looked around. A second later, he spotted the UAV already a kilometer away, banking over in the sky. “Got it,” said Cardinal. “Looks like it’s coming around again.”
“Is it friendly?” asked Yuri.
“Looks like it’s a fully loaded Predator, so I’d have to say it’s American,” replied Cardinal.
“Yeah, but is it friendly?” queried Sam.
“I don’t think we’ll know until it opens fire.”
50
Almost eight thousand kilometers away, the image of Yuri’s massive helicopter filled the screen as the Predator popped up from behind a tall mountain and flew towards a small convoy of vehicles making its way towards the border.
“What the hell was that?” said President Kempt, looking around the room at his advisers.
“An old Russian helicopter by the looks of it,” replied Patterson.
“Is it hostile?” asked the vice president.
“Doubtful. It looks more like a transport or heavy-lift helicopter than an attack helicopter,” replied Patterson.
A moment later, the UAV’s cameras focused on the convoy.
Kempt leaned forward and studied the image. It was Houston, of that he had no doubt; however, his gut was telling him to be wary. He said to Dan Leonard, “Dan, can we share this feed with Jack O’Reilly and his people?”
Leonard looked over at a young Air Force captain, who nodded her head. It took her less than ten seconds to get the UAV’s live feed transferred on a secure line to a screen in O’Reilly’s office.
“Put me on speakerphone,” said President Kempt.
“You’re on, sir,” replied a technician.
“General O’Reilly, this is the President of the United States on the line, do you recognize my voice?”
“Loud and clear,” answered O’Reilly.
“General, I want you to take a good look at the live image being sent back to us via a UAV in the skies over Albania and tell me what you see.”
“Sir, can you have your people zoom in on the convoy and then have the camera pan around?” asked O’Reilly.
“One second,” replied Kempt, while the orders were given over the phone to the UAV operators in Bulgaria.
Kempt could hear other voices over the line besides O’Reilly’s having a short but animated discussion.
“Sir, the first four vehicles are deemed to be hostile,” said O’Reilly over the line. “The Land Rover following right behind the armored truck has one of my men in it. The woman driving the Rover is not one of mine but is probably a friendly. We believe that the semi-trailer is being driven by another one of my men and that the MI-10 helicopter flying overhead is under the control of my people.”
“Very good, General. Now that your people have caught up with David Houston, what do you believe they will attempt to do next?”
The line went quiet for a second and then O’Reilly spoke. “Sir, if Houston has the anthrax with him, they’ll go after the anthrax.”
Kempt stood up and ran a hand through his short, gray hair. “General, are you sure?”
“Positive,” replied O’Reilly firmly.
Kempt looked over at Patterson. “ETA for the Special Forces team?”
“Ten minutes.”
Kempt knew that every second counted. There was no way to judge what a man like David Houston might do. He might be crazy enough to release the anthrax into the air before anyone could stop him. The weight of the office had never seemed to weigh so heavily on his shoulders.
Kempt took a long, deep breath, set his hands on the table and looked down at the speakerphone and said, “Okay then, Jack, what can we do to help your people?”
51
McMasters furiously smashed his hands on the dash and called Houston’s secretary. Why Houston couldn’t answer his own calls, especially at a time like this, galled McMasters.
Before Houston could say a word, McMasters said angrily, “The bastards have the semi-trailer in their possession and are right behind me.”
“Are you sure?” asked Houston.
“Sir, I watched them take the rig and, until Mitchell shot out my camera, I could see him right behind me.”
“What are you going to do about it?”
“What am I going to do about it? Not a lot, right now. It’s not as if we have a lot of room to maneuver on this road, do we? Also, we may have another problem. Did you see the UAV which flew over the convoy a minute ago?”
“Yes,” replied Houston tersely.
“Well, it’s a safe bet that it’s an American UAV.”
“Will they fire on us?”
“If they can get off a clean shot, yes, they will.”
Houston suggested, “Perhaps we should split up and make it harder for them to take us out.”
“No, sir, that’s the worst thing we could do right now,” replied McMasters. “As long as we have the weaponized anthrax with us, they won’t risk attacking us for fear of releasing it into the air.”
“Okay then, what do you recommend we do?”
“It’s obvious that they know you’re behind all of this. There’s only one thing you can do. Tell them to back off, or we’ll release the anthrax.”
“I will,” replied Houston, realizing that his plan was now in tatters. If he could make it to Venezuela, at least he would be beyond the reach of the U.S. authorities.
Houston said, “Keep Mitchell behind you while I make the call.”
Vice President Grant felt his phone buzz in his jacket. Taking it out, his eyes widened when he saw who was calling him. He snapped his fingers in the air to get everyone’s attention in the room. A second later, Grant answered the call.
“Good evening, Dave, or is it already morning in D.C.?” asked Houston.
“It’s the morning, Mister Houston,” replied Grant without hiding his disdain for his former friend.
“There’s no need to be so hostile, Dave. We’ve been friends for years. I would hate for our friendship to end over this misunderstanding.”
“Misunderstanding?” snapped Grant. “Mister, you’ve got one hell of a lot of explaining to do.”
“Dave, let’s not waste any more time chatting. I know you know what I’m up to. If you had played your cards right, you could have been a part of this.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not a traitorous SOB like you.”
“Another aging boy scout,” said Houston contemptuously.
Grant fought to control his volcanic temper. “What do you want, Houston?”
“Call off your cavalry and give me your word that you won’t try to stop me. I have a plane waiting for me in Montenegro, and I intend to get on it. You will let it take off and make no attempt to force it to land at a U.S. military base in Europe or on U.S. soil. If you do this, everything will be okay. If you don’t back off or try to stop me in any way, I’ll order the anthrax to be released into the air. There’s a nice southeasterly breeze coming off the Adriatic today. If I were to release the anthrax, in a matter of hours most of Albania would be infected. By the end of the day, millions of people in Macedonia and Greece will be affected as well. Do you honestly want that to happen? Now, do the right thing, Dave. I’ll give you one minute to call off your dogs.”