Lantini looked down at his Whisper and pulled it from the duffle bag that he had hidden in a spider hole covered with palm fronds.
No. He couldn’t give a rat’s ass about Zachary Garrett or even Matt Garrett. But he did believe in God and that redemption was possible. It was his soul he was most concerned about. Frankly, he didn’t care so much about what the country was enduring. In a way, he agreed with the man with the pistol to his head who was orchestrating most of this with Ballantine.
Lantini handled the rifle and laughed. “First it was Ollie North, then the Rolling Stones, and now…”
He heard a noise about 50 meters away.
Lantini was kneeling in a tight stand of sugarcane growing inside the fort. His field of vision was a 270-degree arc that included the sleeping quarters, five of the six guard posts, and the cinderblock hut in which the Central Committee had been planning.
The first of the attendees for the meeting were beginning to appear. Something was happening, and it was decision time, both for Sung and for Lantini.
Lantini’s only question was, how much did he allow to happen? Put differently, how much more should he allow to happen?
As he slowly sighted the weapon, he determined that what happened in the United States was no longer his concern.
This was about survival.
The Russian walked into view and Lantini pulled the trigger. A silent subsonic bullet hit his skull, flattened and tumbled through his brain. Next was the Russian’s interpreter.
Like a traffic accident, the others slowed and gawked in the open field, unsure of what was happening, providing superb targets for Lantini’s self-taught marksmanship.
Doing the math, Lantini determined that he had killed the bulk, if not all, of the foreigners, save Sue Kim and Tae Il Sung, who were in the planning hut. He kept his weapon trained on the pile of bodies as he used his peripheral vision to slowly stalk the command center.
Lowering his weapon, he opened the door and saw Sung and Kim sitting at the table.
Lantini nodded as Sung stared at the different weapon hanging by a sling across Lantini’s chest.
As Sung began to push back from the table, Lantini shot the North Korean in the heart.
He spared Sue Kim, looked at her, and said, “We’re done.”
As they began to exit, Sung’s cell phone rang, and they stopped in the doorway of the cinderblock bunker.
“I’ll get that,” Lantini said.
CHAPTER 68
“Dead?” Matt said the words as if he couldn’t believe them, and saying them made them seem all the more unbelievable. No, there must be some mistake.
“Yes, Matt. I’m sorry.”
“If Meredith is dead, I know only one person who would have motive to kill her,” Matt said.
“It looks like a murder-suicide kind of thing. Maybe a spurned lover.” Palmer didn’t sound convinced.
“That might be what it looks like,” Matt said, staring again at Hellerman, “but the vice president here can tell us exactly what happened, can’t you, sir?”
“Matt, I’m glad you’re okay, and Zachary, too. How wonderful it is to have Zachary back,” Hellerman said.
“Don’t patronize me, you murdering son of a bitch.” Matt took a bold step toward Hellerman.
Alvin Jessup kept his eyes squarely on Matt and moved a bit closer to Hellerman. “Don’t do it, man. I don’t know what your beef is, but I will have to kill you if you threaten the vice president.”
“Alvin, what would you do if I told you I had proof that he had full knowledge and helped plan all the events of the last few days?”
“I’d say you were smoking some serious shit, brother,” Jessup said. The staff began to whisper the low rumble of disbelief.
“What about you, Hellerman? Isn’t this part of your Rebuild America Program? Blow up a few buildings, destroy a mall or two, and then launch a few nukes to get us really concerned?”
“You’re crazy, Garrett. You’ve gone completely mad. Alvin, arrest this man,” Hellerman ordered.
“I’m afraid I have to agree, Matt. You’re a bit stressed right now,” Palmer said. Matt watched as Alvin Jessup pulled handcuffs from his belt and unshackled them.
“Wait!” Zachary broke his silence.
The entire room focused on Matt’s brother, standing by his side.
“Wait. Matt’s right. And I remember you,” Zachary said, pointing at Hellerman. “You were a Reserve military intelligence officer during the Gulf War, weren’t you?”
Hellerman looked amused. “Of course I was. I believe we even met there, but enough of this foolishness. We’ve got a war to fight.”
“That’s right,” Matt interrupted, “this is your war.”
“Arrest him,” Hellerman said, flipping his hand at Matt.
“No, wait,” Zachary said. “Matt’s right. This is Hellerman’s war. I captured Ballantine during the war and brought him back to the military intelligence center in Saudi. I was being debriefed in the next room and saw them together. I overheard Ballantine and Hellerman discussing this. Something about a tape that Ballantine had of Hellerman talking to Ambassador Sandford.”
“This is crazy. Arrest them both, Alvin!” Hellerman spat.
Jessup took a step back, looked at his boss, and then back at Zachary, as if to say, You’ve got thirty seconds to convince me.
“Keep going,” Palmer said, surprising everyone.
“Then, after Ballantine captured me at Lake Moncrief, I heard him say that Hellerman was to give the backup launch code if things went badly tonight.”
“Launch code? What else could there be to launch?” Palmer asked. “We got all the UAVs and destroyed the Queen Bee. We confirmed that an hour ago.”
“Something about a ground invasion,” Zachary said. “I remember hearing at Moncrief that there is a ground invasion to follow the Predator attacks.”
“Give me a break,” Hellerman said. “Are you going to listen to these nut cases? For all we know, they’re the ones who are in on this thing.”
Hellerman dramatically paused a second, holding his hand up as if he were remembering something.
“Wait a minute. I caught Jeremiah nosing around in my basement earlier today.”
Jeremiah’s eyes popped wide, “Say what?”
“Alvin, check Jeremiah’s pockets.”
Jessup stepped toward Jeremiah and said, “Empty your pockets carefully.”
Jeremiah glared at him, pulling a set of keys from his right hip pocket.
“Haven’t seen those in days,” Hellerman said. “Just what the hell have you been up to, commander?”
Jeremiah, an African American in a white man’s mansion being framed for something he didn’t do. At least he could have been original, Jeremiah thought.
“Easy target, huh, veep?” Jeremiah said. “Black dude and all.”
Jeremiah paused, and pulled a small cell phone from his pocket.
“Watch it,” Jessup said.
“I’m not as stupid as I look,” Jeremiah replied.
“Hands out,” Jessup said as he began placing the handcuffs on Jeremiah. Jessup escorted Jeremiah to the side.
Jeremiah? Matt’s mind spun. Jeremiah was a mid-level action officer and a good guy at that. There was no way he could be the plant. Didn’t make sense. A diversion.
“Sir, I’ve got a tape right here,” Matt said to Palmer. “This proves what Zachary just said. This tape is a conversation between Hellerman and Sandford where he tells her to inform Hussein that it’s okay to invade Kuwait.”