“The Ponte Felcino Mosque is under tight security,” he said. “Getting in won’t be easy.”
“No, it won’t. But the probability of them being housed inside the old factory is more practical, since the Italian government has been keeping the mosque under close surveillance ever since it was raided a few years ago for terrorist insurgency. And it is for this reason we believe the clerics wouldn’t risk the future sovereignty of the temple, if this was discovered.” The cardinal turned and labored away from the edge of the stage, his steps choppy, and took his rightful seat next to the papal throne. “Therefore, you will begin with the factory,” he said.
Leviticus bowed his head. “Understood.”
“Leviticus, please be discreet in your dealings as much as possible. War is war, we understand this. But if something tragic should occur, then the Vatican will have no choice but to disavow any knowledge of the Knights since we cannot afford any unwanted attention toward the Church.”
Again: “Understood.”
“Then bring them back, my friend. And with the blessing of God,” he gave the sign of the cross, “and with the blessing of the Society of Seven, be it known that the Church holds faith in those who believe in true righteousness.”
Leviticus got to a knee and placed a closed fist over his heart. “Loyalty above all else,” he said, “except Honor.”
The cardinals stood, an act of homage, each man placing a closed fist over their hearts. In unison they praised the Vatican Knight in perfect concert. “Loyalty above all else,” they said, “except Honor.”
Leviticus stood, turned, and walked away from the cardinals with his footsteps echoing off the ancient stone walls in haunting cadence.
Dr. Simone took careful effort to avoid the roving laser grid inside the unit by precisely cutting an oblong hole in the case with a laser that allowed minimal passage to the underside port of the altimeter, which led to its processing unit. With a mechanical arm and its automated hand, the end of the relay connection was carefully guided by the hand-clamps which inserted the cable from the facility’s mainframe to the altimeter, securing a linkup.
Immediately the large screen against the wall showed a series of binary numbers, a primitive code, the series easily altered or manipulated to raise or lower the altitude range. The code was a simplistic form of figures provided by the BlackBerry’s minimal capability to supply complex data to the CPU.
With the seasoned skill of a programmer, the binary code was reconfigured with mock courses running on the screen to see if the newly encoded instructions could lower the altitude score. On the monitor it did, going as low as one foot above sea level. The CPU in the weapon continued to maintain its memory read.
He then reconfigured the data to be programmed into the altimeter and hesitated before depressing the ‘SEND’ button. Although the unit was considered dead because the activation code was never fully entered, and with the exception of setting the weapon off by breaking the snare of the roving laser grid, which was not going to happen, he couldn’t help wonder if there was another catch hidden somewhere within. Something he didn’t know about.
Taking in a long breath and letting it out with an equally long sigh. He looked around the lab, which was as vacant.
And then he pressed the button, the informational relay going through.
The numbers in the altimeter’s readout window started to move downward from the 10,000 foot mark and rapidly picked up pace, the digits then moving so fast they could not be discernible from one numeral to the next. And then the pace slowed at a hundred feet and more so at ninety. It finally stopped at ten feet above sea level.
Simone smiled and nodded in approval. “Gotcha,” he said. He immediately contacted the president.
“I can’t fully disable the weapons,” said Simone from the viewing monitor, “but I can certainly reconfigure the data to well below the ten-thousand-foot mark so that Shepherd One can land at LAX.”
The president sat with his hands and fingers tented, his eyes staring with a marginal spark of hope. “How?” he asked.
“All this time I’ve been looking at the approach by attacking the main CPU in the device when I should have been looking at it from other points as well — white wall, black paint; black wall, white paint.”
The president appeared mystified. “What?”
“I’ve approached this from the wrong angle,” he said. “Instead of disabling the weapon’s CPU system, why not modify the readings on the altimeter?”
The president eased forward in his seat. “Can it be done?”
On the screen Simone presented a brash smile. “I’ve already done it,” he told him. “I brought the readings down to ten feet. And LAX is one hundred twenty-six glorious feet above sea level.”
“I see,” said the president, falling back. “But how do you propose to do that, Ray, when the units you need to reconfigure are flying over LA?”
Simone’s smile abruptly left him. He’d been so enthusiastic about his discovery that he forgot a way to apply the breakthrough.
“Ray?”
“I would have to send the data to someone on board,” he said. “And they would have to connect a laptop to the unit. At that point I would forward the programming that would feed the figures to the altimeter’s CPU.”
“And who do you propose that be, Ray, since everyone on board is being held captive? You think maybe a terrorist would oblige us?”
Simone did not like the condescending tone of the president’s voice, and answered with his own brand of guided annoyance. “Mr. President, you asked me to find that Achilles’ Heel, which I did. Right now I have come up with the answer to land Shepherd One at LAX without the consequences of the nukes going off. If I’ve failed you, then I apologize for my lack of effort to find the proper solution.”
Burroughs raised his hands, as if conceding. “Listen, Ray, I didn’t mean for it to come out the way it did, so please don’t take it personally. Everybody here is in stress mode and even though I appreciate your efforts, the fact remains that your findings cannot be applied unless someone on board Shepherd One can do it manually, correct?”
“That’s correct — yes.”
“So tell me, is there another way to alter the readings on the altimeters?”
“Not unless somebody onboard does it.”
“And there within lies the problem,” said the president. “We have no one on board.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Attorney General Dean Hamilton issued a demand to maneuver the Feds into key positions along the United States and Mexico border, as well as locations in California, which included the LAX Tower.
At the moment Shepherd One was 30,000 feet in the air, a perceptible dot in the sky, in a constant state of circling. Approaches to reopen a second round of interaction between the insurgents and the Commander-in-Chief have proven unsuccessful, with Hakam refusing to open a channel of communication since the initial exchange was terminated two hours before.
At the top of the glassed-in Control tower, Federal agents Wilcox and Sanford examined the vacant tarmac knowing the terminals were ready to combust with angry flyers that had been delayed for an indeterminate period of time.