In his operations center, Hancock was watching a red dot moving westward across the outline of Romania projected on the screen. A green dot was moving eastward out of the Adriatic on the same latitude.
"Do we have satellite confirmation that we're tracking Jawhar's helicopter?" Hancock asked Dilken.
"Yes, sir. We got a Keyhole look from the KH-14 satellite at the airport it took off from and confirmed that is Jawhar's Bell Jet Ranger. Projecting its course puts it directly on line for the same spot where it went before to meet the Serbs — just north of the Sava River."
"Time to target?" Hancock asked.
"Forty-two minutes for Jawhar. Our team will be there five minutes before that and hold to the west, awaiting your order for final interdiction."
Hancock tapped a well-manicured finger against his upper lip. "I want to get them all on the ground."
"Yes, sir "
Hancock picked up the phone built into the right armrest of the chair and punched in number one. The line bypassed the director's secretary.
"What is it?" The director's tone was abrupt. Hancock had no idea what he had interrupted, but he knew now was the time to cross the Rubicon.
"Sir, we have a developing situation you should be aware of. I'm in the operations center."
"Give me an idea." The director sounded irritated.
"We're tracking two briefcase loads of VZ nerve gas in a helicopter owned by personnel known to affiliate with terrorists. It's heading toward Bosnia, where we believe it's going to be given to the Serbs."
"I'll be there in a minute."
Hancock put the phone down. He leaned back in his seat and stared up at the dots moving on the screen.
"He's made his move," Gereg said. "He must be pretty confident to bring in the director."
Parker was still trying to process what Gereg had told her. "If the brothers kidnapped Terri Dublowski to draw her father in and then Thorpe and I, then that means they're working with Hancock. Especially if he's the one who had Thorpe brought back on active duty." She shook her head. "I can't believe all that."
"Why not?" Gereg didn't seem in the least surprised by that assumption. "Hancock could have arranged it with the brothers through a cut-out. There are quite a few people in the covert world who exist simply to pass information from one group to another. Groups that never want it known they are talking to each other. It is a rather lucrative business for some."
"Akil and Jawhar might not even know who requested they snatch Terri or why. Most likely it was a trade. They got something they wanted in exchange for kidnapping Terri Dublowski."
"And," she continued, "my report from Tel Aviv says that the brothers were forewarned of the Mossad attempt to interdict the VZ. I'm not the only one who has a contact in Israel."
"Are you saying Hancock tipped off Jawhar and Akil about the ambush?"
"It wouldn't surprise me. He wants the glory for himself. It's the way things work in the covert world."
"But Hancock is betraying the brothers now," Parker noted.
" 'Betrayal' is a strong word," Gereg said. "It indicates loyalty in the first place, something I would say our friend Mr. Hancock has never had with anyone or anything except his own interests."
Gereg pointed at the screen. The two dots were closing on a spot along the border between Bosnia and Croatia. "He uses everything for his own purposes. If his DAT team takes down these people and the VZ, he'll be a hero. Plus he'll solve several other problems at the same time. He's already tied me to these brothers and set it up so that I get blamed for tipping Jawhar and Akil off about the Mossad ambush in the Ukraine." She proceeded to tell Parker of the death of Welwood.
"It's a lose-lose situation," Gereg said. "Which is the position Hancock likes to put those he views as enemies in." She pointed at the screen. "We have to hope his DAT team succeeds in stopping the nerve gas, but if they do, then he succeeds."
"He gets away with kidnapping and killing?"
"It isn't the first time and it won't be the last," Gereg said. "Don't you think now that he was behind Takamura's murder? Takamura was killed when he got too close to identifying Jawhar and Akil too quickly."
"If Hancock set all this up, then that makes sense. But who did he use to kill Takamura?"
Gereg frowned. "He wouldn't have used one of his people for that. Not in the States. That would be going too far, even for him."
"Who would he use, then?" Parker pressed.
Gereg stretched out her long legs and leaned back in her chair. "I've been asking myself the same question ever since Welwood was killed in what the police are labeling a traffic accident last week."
"Takamura's was made to look like an accident!" Parker said.
Gereg nodded. "I know. There are a lot of players who would do such a job either for money or an exchange of favors." She pulled another file out of her desk. "Here's my choice. He's used the car accident method several times before on other jobs we know of overseas."
Parker picked it up and opened it. "James O'Callaghan?"
"IRA, but he's been known to freelance to keep his traveling options open."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning he likes to be able to come and go as he wants, and to do that, he needs someone like Hancock pulling some strings in the background."
"Jesus!" Parker exclaimed. "You people are in bed with terrorists everywhere!"
"Not this person." Gereg uncrossed her legs and sat up straight. "This is a nasty business, but I always try to do the right thing, the right way. A lot of people around here don't like that, and—" she stopped as her phone buzzed and she picked it up. She listened for a few seconds, then put it down. "The director's joined Hancock in the CDA operations center. He's making his play."
"Where is Nabi Ulmalhamah?" Thorpe demanded.
They were waiting on Yaron. Rotzinger was seated at one end of the table, appearing even more unhappy than his usual dour look.
"We have been checking on that," Esdras said. "All we have managed to come up with is confirmation that it is one of Prince Yasin's palaces. We don't have a location."
The door opened and a young man came in. He leaned over and whispered in Esdras's ear, then left without looking at either of the other men in the room.
Esdras looked at Thorpe. "Your people have launched three helicopters to interdict Jawhar and Akil. Also, your Delta Force team here in town has gone on alert."
"I don't understand," Thorpe said. "Why a team here in Tel Aviv?"
Esdras shrugged. "Who knows?"
Thorpe stood. "Can you hook me up with them?"
Esdras waved at him to sit down. "They can do nothing staging out of here without our permission. Let us see what develops before we go off, as you Americans, say, half-cocked."
Kiril heard the helicopter long before it flew by, barely twenty feet above the rail line. It was the same type as last time. A Bell Jet Ranger with IFOR markings. He climbed up the embankment as the helicopter banked a quarter mile away and headed back.
Kiril frowned as the chopper gained altitude.
Four miles away, the two Nighthawks and one Apache were hiding below the tree line, hovering just above the Sava River. They were linked by SATCOM to an IFOR AWACS surveillance plane, circling two hundred miles to the south.
The AWACS had the entire area "painted" with radar, as well as having its own uplink to a KH-14 reconnaissance satellite that was feeding it live images of the area. The location of the Jet Ranger was being updated every tenth of a second with an accuracy of within two meters.
Those in the waiting helicopters had no doubt they could run down the Jet Ranger easily. Their orders, however, were to wait until the meet was made and the VZ transferred, then to bag the whole lot.