"This way." The engineer led him out the door and across the hall to an employee dressing room.
"A perch on the other side?" Covington asked.
"Here's a good one," Dennis answered. "The virtual reality building. Not anywhere near as high, but direct line of sight to the castle."
"I'll put Houston there," Covington said. "His leg's still bothering him."
"Okay, two sniper-observers plus the TV cameras give us pretty good visual coverage of the castle," Clark said.
"I need to take a leader's recon to figure the rest out," Chavez said. "I need a diagram with the camera positions marked on it. So does Peter."
"When's Malloy get here?" Covington asked.
"Another hour or so. He'll have to gas up when he lands. After that, endurance on the chopper is about four hours, figure thirty minutes cycle time when he touches down."
"How far can the cameras see, Mr. Dennis?"
"They cover the parking lot this way pretty good, but not the other side. They could do better with people on top of the castle."
"What do we know about their equipment?"
"Just the guns. We have that on tape."
"I want to see those," Noonan put in. "Right now, if possible."
Things started moving then. Chavez and Covington got their park maps-they used the same ones sold to park guests, with the camera positions hand-marked with black sticky-dots stolen from a secretary. An electric cart-actually a golf cart-met them out in the corridor and whisked them outside, then back into the park on a surface road. Covington navigated from the map, avoiding camera positions as they made their way along the back-lot areas of Worldpark.Noonan ran the three videotapes that showed the terrorists own takedown operation. "Ten of 'em, all right, all male, most of them are bearded, all wearing white hats when they executed their attack. Two look like park employees. We have any information on them?"
"Working on it," Dennis replied.
"You fingerprint them?" Noonan asked, getting a negative headshake as an answer. "How about photographs?"
"Yes, we all have photo-ID passes to get in." Dennis held up his.
"That's something. Let's get that off to the French police PDQ."
"Mark!" Dennis waved to his personnel boss.
"We should have gotten uniforms," Covington said topside.
"Yeah, haste makes waste, doesn't it, Peter?" Chavez was peering around a corner, smelling the food from the concession stand. It made him a little hungry. "Getting in there's going to be fun, man."
"Quite," Covington agreed.
The castle certainly looked real enough, over fifty meters square and about the same in height. Mainly it was empty space, the blueprints had told them, but there were both a staircase and elevator to the flat roof, and sooner or later the bad guys would put someone there, if they had half a brain amongst them. Well, that. was the job for the snipers. Homer Johnston and Sam Houston would have fairly easy direct shots, four hundred meters from one side,gad a mere one-sixty or so from the other.
"How big do those windows look to you?"
"Big enough, Ding."
"Yeah, I think so, too." And already a plan was coming together in the two minds. "I hope Malloy is well rested."
Sergeant Homer Johnston, now wearing park coveralls over his ninja suit, popped out of the ground fifty meters from the Dive Bomber. The ride was even more intimidating this close. He walked toward it, escorted by a park employee who was also a ride operator for this attraction.
"I can take you to the top and stop the car there."
"Great." It sure looked like a long way to climb, even though there were regular steps heading up. They walked under the canopied entrance, past the crowd-control bars, and Johnston sat in the lead seat on the right side, his gun case on the seat next to his. "Go," he told the operator. The rideup the first hill was slow-deliberately so, designed that way to scare the bejeebers out of the riders, and that gave Johnston another insight into the mind of a terrorist, he thought with a wry smile. The gang of ten three seat cars stopped just at the crest. Johnston wriggled out, taking his gun case with him. This he set in an equipment bay, opening it to extract a rubber mat, and a ghillie blanket to drape over himself. Last came his rifle and binoculars. He took his time, setting the mat down-the decking here was perforated steel, and lying there would soon become uncomfortable. He deployed the blanket atop his prone frame. It was essentially a light fishing net covered with green plastic leaves, whose purpose was to break up his outline. Then he set up his rifle on its bipod, and took out his green-plastic-coated binoculars. His personal radio microphone dangled in front of his lips.
"Rifle Two-One to command."
"This is Six," Clark responded.
"Rifle Two-One in place, Six. I have a good perch here. I can see the whole roof of the castle and the doors to the elevator and stairwell. Good line of sight to the back, too. Not a bad spot, sir."
"Good. Keep us posted."
"Roger that, boss. Out." Sergeant Johnston propped himself up on his elbows and watched the area through his 7x50 binoculars. The sun was warm. He'd have to get used to that. Johnston thought for a moment and reached for his canteen. Just then the car he'd ridden up wheeled forward and then dropped from sight. He heard the steel overhead wheels roll along the metal tubing and wondered what it was like to ride the damned thing. Probably right up there with skydiving, something he knew how to do, but didn't much care for, airborne-ranger training or not. There was something nice about having your fucking feet on the fucking ground, and you couldn't shoot a rifle while falling through the air at a hundred thirty knots, could you? He directed his binoculars at a window… they were flat on the bottom but curved into a point at the top, like in a real castle, and made of clear glass segments held together with leaded strips. Maybe hard to shoot through, he thought, though getting a shot at this angle would not be easy… no, if he got a shot, he'd have to take it on someone outside. That would be easy. He got behind the rifle scope and punched the laser-rangefinder button, selecting the middle of the courtyard as his point of aim. Then he punched a few numbers into his calculator to allow for the vertical drop, came up with an adjusted range setting, and turned the elevation knob on the scope the right number of clicks. The direct line of sight was three hundred eighty-nine meters. Nice and close if he had to take a shot.
"Yes, Minister," Dr. Bellow said. He was sitting in a comfortable chair-Mike Dennis's-and staring at the wall. There was now a pair of photographs for him to stare at they were unknowns, because Tim Noonan didn't have them in his computer, and neither the French nor the Spanish police had turned either into a name with a history attached. Both had apartments a few miles away, and both were being thoroughly tossed now, and phone records checked as well, to see where they'd called.
"They want this Jackal fellow out, do they?" the French Minister of Justice asked.
"Along with some others, but he would seem to be their primary objective, yes."
"My government will not negotiate with these creatures!" the Minister insisted.
"Yes, sir, I understand that. Giving over the prisoners is generally not an option, but every situation is different, and I need to know what leeway, if any, you will give me as a negotiating position. That could include taking this Sanchez guy out of prison and bringing him here as… well, as bait for the criminals we have surrounded here."
"Do you recommend that?" the Minister asked.
"I am not sure yet. I haven't spoken with them, and until I do I cannot get a feel for what they're all about. For the moment, I must assume that we are dealing with serious, dedicated people who are willing to kill hostages."
"Children?"
"Yes, Minister, we must consider that a real threat," the doctor told him. That generated a silence that lasted for a full ten seconds by the wall clock Bellow was staring at.