RAVEN ROCK: Are you a soldier?
SHEPHERD ONE: I am.
RAVEN ROCK: For whom?
SHEPHERD ONE: You’re wasting time. Get to the point!
RAVEN ROCK: Can you take out the other three?
SHEPHERD ONE: I’m locked below. The elevator has been disabled and the trapdoor leading to above is heavily guarded.
RAVEN ROCK: If you can get topside, would you be able to use your particular set of skills to take them out?
SHEPHERD ONE: Yes.
This was particularly good news for the president and his team, knowing they had a man on board with an apparent wide range of combat expertise.
SHEPHERD ONE: But again — I’m unable to get topside.
RAVEN ROCK: What about the nuclear payloads?
SHEPHERD ONE: What about them?
RAVEN ROCK: Are they accessible from your location?
SHEPHERD ONE: Yes.
This caused a murmur among the president’s team. If he had access to the weapons, then he could disable them with the aid of Ray Simone.
RAVEN ROCK: If you have access to the weapons, then why doesn’t Hakam send a team after you to ensure their safety?
SHEPHERD ONE: He did, which is why one has been terminated and the other two disabled.
RAVEN ROCK: You need to deactivate those weapons.
SHEPHERD ONE: Unable.
RAVEN ROCK: We can provide you with assistance.
SHEPHERD ONE: How?
RAVEN ROCK: We can divert the altimeter readings that would allow Shepherd One to land.
SHEPHERD ONE: What are you talking about?
RAVEN ROCK: The weapons are equipped with altimeters. The moment Shepherd One reaches an altitude of 10,000 feet, the weapons will detonate. Shepherd One has been jury rigged to never land again.
Another long hesitation, then:
SHEPHERD ONE: Then disabling the weapons would be pointless unless I get topside and take out Hakam’s team. If I can’t do that, if I can’t get topside, then he’ll just run Shepherd One into the ground and achieve the same result.
RAVEN ROCK: We’re running out of time.
SHEPHERD ONE: Then I need to get topside.
RAVEN ROCK: Father Kimball…
… COMMUNICATION TERMINATED…
The president stood just beyond table’s end with his arms folded staring up at the screen. His team sat quietly by.
“What do you think, Al?”
Thornton stood to work the crimps out of his body. He had surely been sitting for far too long. “Whoever this Kimball guy is,” he began, “he’s certainly an asset. But the odds are still in Hakam’s favor.”
The president maintained his focus on the screen as if the outcome of this situation was imprinted on its surface. “But, there’s that solution I’ve been talking about,” he said. “We have a man on board capable of disabling the weapons and taking out Hakam. It’s an option we didn’t have five minutes ago.”
“True. But your optimism, Mr. President, is overruling your reasonability. You have to remember that he’s locked below with no right of entry topside, which he has stated. Otherwise, he probably would have attempted an assault on Hakam’s team by now. That’s problem number one. Problem number two is if he does gain access and fails to take out Hakam’s team, then there’s no doubt that Hakam will send Shepherd One right into the middle of LA.”
“Then let’s hope that Father Kimball succeeds, Al. At least he levels the playing field to a degree, which is all we could hope for since that Hakam was most likely going to detonate those weapons regardless. I’d like to think that our chances of winning have grown from ten percent to fifty percent — a level field.”
“Mr. President,” Doug Craner began, “if I may, the quick termination in communication tells me that Father Kimball is currently trying to make his way topside, or at least trying to find a way before he makes his stand.”
“And your point is, Doug?”
“My point, Mr. President, is if he’s trying to make his way topside at this very moment, then, as you have put it, he has a fifty-fifty chance of succeeding. If he fails, then that means there’s a fifty-percent proposition that Shepherd One will begin its fatal descent within the next fifteen minutes… And we haven’t even begun to evacuate LA.”
The president closed his eyes. His CIA Director was absolutely right.
“You’re right,” he said soberly. “But there’s not much we can do in fifteen minutes, is there? If we inform LA now, it would cause mass hysteria. All we can to at this point and time is pray for one of two things: Either Father Kimball takes out Hakam’s team, or he’s looking for a definite way topside so he can formulate a plan before he engages his opponent, which is what a good soldier would do.”
“Then let’s hope he’s a good soldier who looks before he leaps. But sooner or later we’ll have to consider the evacuation of LA,” added Craner
“I’ll wait until Hakam comes back online — see what he does before I make my decision.”
“Mr. President, that’s nearly two hours away. Do you know how many people we can evacuate by then?”
“If Father Kimball succeeds, then there will be no need to evacuate anyone at all.”
“You’re placing way too much confidence on the marginal possibility that he’ll succeed,” said Thornton. “Doug’s right. We need to start evacuating people now.”
The president mused for a long moment before moving about the table in a slow lap. “Send a message to Father Kimball asking him to contact us immediately,” he requested. “I want to know his agenda.”
“He may be acting on his agenda right now,” stated Thornton, and then more persistently. “And that’s why we need to inform the people of LA right now, Mr. President. And yes, people will die in the crossfire of panic. But others will also find their way out of the blast radius, saving untold lives.”
“If Shepherd One does go down within the next few minutes, and that’s if Father Kimball is engaging Hakam’s team as you suspect, then I hardly see a reason to inform LA. By the time they get the message it’ll be too late; Shepherd One would have already landed on their heads by then.” Burroughs stared back at the screen. “If Father Kimball hasn’t contacted us within the next hour, and if Shepherd One continues to maintain its flight pattern over the city, then we’ll begin the process of evacuation. I’ll concede that we have finally run out of time… and hope. But until then, let’s see what Father Kimball can give us.”
Kimball mounted the steps leading to the trapdoor, pressed the flats of his palms against the entry, and listened. Although he heard nothing, a good soldier always knew enough to never leave a port of entry without positioning a sentry at its post. And most likely an assassin was ready to fire a shot the moment he lifted the door and raised his head.
The advantage, however, was that the site would be occupied by a guard or two while he tried to breach topside from another location, most likely from the rear section so he could work his way forward. All he would have to worry about was their posted position between the aft to the fore of the plane.
Quickly he began to process the numbers: One dead, two disabled, leaving three capable opponents. Hakam was most likely the overseer making the constant rounds between the cockpit and the holding area. The Garrote Assassin and the other able terrorist were probably switching off with one another with one watching over the bishops, while the other scouted the plane. The crippled terrorists were most likely keeping vigil over the trapdoor.
Making his way to the rear of Shepherd One he tried the elevator once again. This time he noted that its ceiling was a solid plating of steel, which would make it impossible to penetrate to the upper level. His only option was the trapdoor. And as much as he loved the use of his knives over a firearm because a knife never ran dry, the successful warfare of edged weaponry always depended upon stealth. If he was to engage his opponents though the trapdoor, then the art of stealth would be gone and his attempt to accomplish the impossible would be nothing more than a futile and desperate exercise. Yet sooner or later he knew he would have to make that move.