The boy looked scared. Really scared.
“All right,” said the Snow Maiden. “Here we go!” She and Chen Yi helped Chopra back to his feet.
And that’s when the old man fainted.
Brent and Lakota had sat on the floor, sipping tea and eating rice, beans, and a lamb dish that Brent had found a bit too spicy for his tastes, but he’d eaten it nonetheless. Juma was, as expected, a gracious and painfully ceremonial host who spent several hours discussing his family’s history, his commitment to restoring Dubai back to power, and the extensive needs of his militia. It was clear to him that the JSF had arrived to strike a deal of sorts, and he was not shy in making his demands. Ironically, he never asked why Brent and his team were in the country. He’d assumed that it was all about him, as a man in his position might be wont to do.
The conversation had then drifted to Brent and Lakota, and he’d asked them pointed questions about their lives in the United States, why they’d joined the military, and what thoughts they had about the war and when it all might end.
Both were noncommittal in their responses, trying to feed the man what he wanted to hear. Ironically, he called them out on that, and Brent had been forced to apologize. For the better part of two minutes, Brent went on a rant of everything he thought was wrong about the war and the military.
Juma had grinned. “Now that is the truth!”
Finally, growing weary of any more delays, and believing they had indulged Juma enough, Brent got down to business. “We’re actually here because we’re after a woman who might have access to your vaults. She’s captured a man named Manoj Chopra.”
Juma’s mouth fell open. “Chopra? I thought he was dead. I thought the Russians were using his name to try to contact me. Maybe that was him all along. We could never verify…”
“She has Chopra, and she also has Hussein, son of the late sheikh and heir to Dubai.”
“My cousin. We all thought he was dead. I heard rumors of his sisters being alive. Why didn’t you tell me this immediately?” Juma glanced around the room, his thoughts obviously racing, his eyes widening.
Brent winced. “I didn’t want to offend you or dismiss your hospitality.”
Juma rose quickly to his feet. “Who is this woman you’re after?”
“We can brief you, provide all the intelligence we have, but we need a commitment. We brought in a small team to fly under the radar. We need your militia.”
“Of course, you have it!”
“All right, then—”
Brent didn’t finish his sentence.
What felt like an earthquake rocked the entire room, dust trickling down from the ceiling, the floor feeling as though it were about to buckle. A bookcase behind Juma began shaking, the books spilling to the floor.
One of Juma’s men came charging into the room. “Sir, gunships! Troops! We’re under attack!”
“Get to the big guns!”
As Brent and Lakota donned their helmets and sealed their suits, Juma bounded after his men, seizing a rifle propped up near the doorway.
When they reached the bombed-out entrance, they spotted a pair of gunships arcing across the night sky.
Brent’s camera zoomed in and the computer immediately identified the aircraft. Data windows opened along the margins of his display. They were looking at a pair of PAH-6 Cheetahs, the main attack helicopter of the European Federation. They were dark, sleek, futuristic-looking birds that boasted hydrogen-powered turbo shafts, shrouded tail rotors, and HOT-3 optically tracked laser-guided missiles with tandem warheads to minimize collateral damage.
A rotating three-dimensional image with engine cutaways glowed alongside the windows, but Brent didn’t need the virtual picture — the real-life picture was clear enough. The gunships streaked through the night as though riding on rails, suggesting they could outmaneuver anything thrown at them. Brent had seen these choppers only a few times during joint operations with the Euros, and he’d certainly never found himself poised beneath their gunners’ sights.
“What the hell are the Euros doing here?” shouted Lakota.
“Good question!” Brent cried. “But the damn uplink is still down. Try hailing those birds.”
“On it,” she replied.
“He’s coming around,” hollered Juma, pointing at the sky and ushering them back behind a pair of fallen columns as the recoil-less autocannons on both choppers came alive, hundreds of rounds of caseless ammunition pounding into the ground as the militiamen scrambled for cover. Juma had said he had about two hundred in Dubai at the moment, two hundred on the island, and the rest scattered across the other islands and in the mid-desert areas. It seemed the Euros were intent on exterminating this piece of Juma’s network. “Come on!” the man cried.
“Sir, Voeckler says the WAN uplink’s not down — it’s being jammed,” reported Lakota. “Can’t get through. And no response from those pilots.”
Brent ducked behind the rocks and called up his roster. He tapped Daugherty. Their suits used the most sophisticated encryption technology on the planet, and that paid off because the LAN still worked and Daugherty answered the call. “I’m here, Ghost Lead.”
“Euros have some gunships here over the island,” Brent reported.
“Just going to call you. Troop transports landing about five clicks north of the tower. They’re deploying. Got a few heavy lifters dropping some armor. Not sure how many dismounts yet. Captain, what is this? The Euros got our backs now?”
“I don’t know. But they’re attacking the militia, which in my book makes them the enemy.”
“Sir, are you ordering us to attack them?”
“Negative, but you’ll return fire if fired upon.”
“Roger that.”
Brent grabbed Lakota by the arm. “We need to get back.”
She’d been listening in and nodded.
A strange whirring and fluctuating hiss grew louder and was amplified by the suit’s sensors. Brent craned his head in time to watch the entire entrance to the compound — piles of rubble, really — explode into more fountains of rock and other jagged debris as the gunship’s pilot cut loose another missile, effectively sealing off the main entrance to Juma’s base.
Two pickup trucks rolled into view with fifty-caliber machine guns mounted in their flatbeds. The men behind those fifties swung the barrels around and, howling at the gunships, directed their fire skyward as brass casings jingled and arced over the sides. Every third round was a tracer, slashing red hot against the night, and both men adjusted their fire, doing what they could to counterattack an overwhelming and technologically superior force. The engines, screams, and gunfire rose in a blaring crescendo as the gunners kept firing. Brent remembered what had happened to the two trucks in Sandhurst, and he doubted this situation would end any better.
As expected, the Cheetahs responded in kind, diving boldly and directly into the onslaught, their pilots launching missiles at each of the pickup trucks.
Brent couldn’t take his eyes off the scene as the gunners tried to bail out before those missiles struck, but they were too late, both enveloped by fireballs, as were the drivers.
“What are they doing?” Juma demanded. “I thought you Americans were allied with them!”
“So did I!” Brent retorted.
And as quickly as the attack began, it ended, with both birds turning tail and heading southeast toward Dubai.
“Why are they leaving?” asked Lakota.
“I don’t know,” muttered Brent. “Call Daugherty.”
She did. Brent told Juma they needed transport back to the vault and a contingent of men to come with them.
“I’ll lead them myself.”
One of Juma’s lieutenants came dashing up with a cell phone and thrust it into Juma’s hand. The conversation went quickly, and when it was finished, Juma said, “Some of my men attacked a convoy near Al Malaiha. Three trucks are still headed south. Also, there’s been another skirmish south of Dubai, along the coast. I don’t know what that’s about. My men did not recognize any of the forces there. Can you contact your people?”