"Tebezza has been raided."
Massarde frowned. "What are you talking about?"
"About nine o'clock, my communications section received an emergency alert from the mine's security system," explained Kazim. "A few minutes later, the Tebezza radio operator announced an all-clear, saying the alarm went off due to a faulty electrical circuit."
"Sounds innocent enough."
"Only on the surface. I do not trust seemingly innocent situations. I ordered one of my air force fighters to make a reconnaissance flight over the area. The pilot radioed that an unidentified jet transport plane was sitting on Tebezza's airstrip. The same type of French airbus, I might add, that snatched the American from the Gao airport."
Massarde's face turned sober with sudden concern. "Your pilot was positive of this?"
Kazim nodded. "Since no aircraft can land at Tebezza without my authority, I ordered my pilot to destroy it. He acknowledged and launched his attack. He reported a hit on the target in almost the same instant his radio went dead."
"Good God, man, it could have been a commercial airliner that simply made an emergency landing."
"Commercial airliners do not fly the skies without markings."
"I think you're overreacting."
"Then explain why my pilot did not return to his base."
"Mechanical malfunction?" Massarde shrugged. "It could have suffered any number of problems."
"I prefer to believe he was shot down by the force that raided the mines."
"You don't know that."
"Nonetheless, I've ordered a fighter squadron over the area and sent in an elite security force by helicopter to check out the situation."
"What of O'Bannion?" asked Massarde. "Hasn't he contacted you?"
"No response, nothing. Forty minutes after they denied an emergency, all communication with Tebezza went silent."
Massarde mulled over Kazim's report, but was lost for answers. "Why raid the mines?" he asked finally. "For what purpose?"
"Most likely the gold," Kazim replied.
"Stupid to steal ore. We remove all pure gold to our South Pacific depository as soon as it's processed. The last shipment was two days ago. A band of thieves with half a brain between them would attempt to hijack it during transport."
"For the moment, I have no theories," Kazim confessed. He held up his watch. "My forces should be landing on the plateau above the mines about now. We'll have answers within the hour."
"If what you say is true, something strange is happening," Massarde murmured.
"We have to consider the possibility that the same United Nations commando team that struck my air force base in Gao is responsible for the raid on Tebezza."
"Gao was a different operation. Why return and strike Tebezza? Under whose orders?"
Kazim finished off his gin and poured another. "Hala Kamil? Perhaps word leaked out about the abduction of Dr. Hopper and his party. So she sent in her tactical team to rescue them."
"Impossible," said Massarde, shaking his head. "Unless your men talked."
"My men know they would die if they betrayed my trust," Kazim said coldly. "If there was a leak, it came from your end."
Massarde gave Kazim a benign stare. "Stupid of us to argue. We can't alter the past, but we can control the future."
"In what way?"
"You said your pilot claimed a hit on the airliner."
"His final words."
"Then we can assume the raiding party's only means of escape from Mali has been eliminated."
"Providing damage to their aircraft was severe enough."
Massarde rose and turned to face a large plaster contour map of the Sahara that stretched on the wall behind his desk. "If you were in command of the raiders and your plane was destroyed, how would you see your situation?"
"All but hopeless."
"What are your options?"
Kazim came over and tapped his glass against the plaster map. "There are no options but one. Cut and run for the Algerian border."
"Can they make it?" asked Massarde.
"Assuming their vehicles are intact and fueled, they should be able to cross over into Algeria sometime around dawn."
Massarde looked at him. "Can you catch and destroy them before they reach the border?"
"Our night fighting systems are limited. I might shave them down a bit, but to wipe them out I would need daylight."
"Then you will be too late."
Kazim took a cigar from a ceramic humidor, lit it, and sipped from his gin. "Let us be practical. We're looking at the Tanezrouft, the most desolate and remote part of the Sahara. The Algerian military rarely sends a patrol into the uninhabited region along the border. And why should they. They have no quarrel with Mali, and we have none with them. My security forces can easily strike 100 miles inside our northern neighbor without detection."
Massarde looked sharply at Kazim. "Should it turn out to be a rescue mission by the UN forces, none of Hopper's people or my engineers and their families can be allowed to escape. If only one gets through to expose Fort Foureau or Tebezza, you and I are finished as business partners."
The beginnings of a smile widened across the General's face. "Not to worry yourself, Yves my friend. We have too good a thing going to allow a few prying samaritans to pull the rug from under us. I promise you that by tomorrow at noon they will all be carrion for the vultures, every last one of them."
After Kazim had left, Massarde spoke briefly into his intercom. A few seconds later Ismail Yerli entered the room.
"You heard and observed on the monitor?" asked Massarde.
Yerli nodded. "Amazing the man can be so cunning and yet so stupid at the same time."
"You read Kazim quite accurately. You can see you won't have an easy time keeping a leash on him."
"When does he expect me to join his entourage?"
"I'll introduce you this evening at a dinner party I'm hosting in honor of President Tahir."
"With the situation at Tebezza in a critical stage, isn't Kazim too occupied to show?"
Massarde smiled. "The great lion of Mali is never too busy to attend an elegant dinner put on by a Frenchman."
Sitting in his small command center office in the UN building in New York, General Bock read the report relayed by a United Nations communications satellite by Colonel Levant. There was a grave expression on his aging face as he picked up a secure phone and called Admiral Sandecker's private number. The Admiral's answering machine beeped and Bock left a terse message. Sandecker was back to him within eight minutes.
"I've just received an unpleasant report from Colonel Levant," Bock announced.
"What's the situation?" Sandecker asked flatly:
"Aircraft of the Malian air force destroyed their transport plane on the ground. They are cut off and trapped."
"What of the rescue operation at the mine?"
"It went off as planned. All foreign nationals still alive were placed under medical care and evacuated. Levant reported his casualties as light."
"Are they currently under attack?"
"Not as yet. But it is only a matter of hours before forces of General Kazim close in."
"Do they have an optional escape route?"
"The Colonel was quite clear in stating their only hope lay in reaching the Algerian border before daylight."
"Not much of a choice," Sandecker said grimly.
"I suspect it was a red herring."
"Why do you say that?"
"He sent his report over an open frequency. Kazim's communications operators were sure to pick it up."
Sandecker paused to take notes. "You think Colonel Levant is heading on a different tack than he advertised?"
"I was hoping you'd tell me," said Bock.
"Clairvoyance is not one of my strong points."
"There was a message to you in Levant's report from your man, Pitt."
"Dirk." There was sudden warmth in Sandecker's voice, and a touch of reverence. Leave it to Pitt to come up with an unthinkable scheme. "What is the message?"