‘Yeah. I just hope we can get to New York in time to do something — and that we actually can do something.’
‘Got to try, haven’t we? Won’t be setting much of an example for the kid if we don’t.’
‘Maybe, though when most parents worry about being a good role model it’s usually about whether they eat too much junk food, not how many terrorist attacks they’ve stopped!’ She watched as the other fighter drew closer. ‘Huh, I just realised something.’
‘What?’
‘What I’m doing — it actually fits with Revelation. The woman who took refuge high in the wilderness was pregnant, and according to the text she was given “two wings of a great eagle”. I’m pregnant, this wilderness is about as high as you can get, and this plane is an Eagle! Maybe there’s something to the prophecy after all.’
‘Hope not,’ Eddie said. ‘Wasn’t she called the Woman of the Apocalypse? That’s what we’re trying to avoid!’
‘Ah. Yeah. Good point. That’s what I get for trying to be smart.’ The other F-15 was now near enough for her to make out the figure in its rear seat; she waved at him, getting the same gesture in return. The sight made her smile, before her mood fell again. ‘Do you think we’ll be able to stop him?’
‘Course we will,’ said Eddie. Even over the radio, he had recognised the gloom in her voice and adopted a more upbeat tone to counter it. ‘We stopped Simeon and Anna; we can find Cross too.’
‘You stopped Simeon,’ she pointed out. ‘The only reason Anna didn’t kill everybody in St Peter’s Square is because Cross tricked her. Yes, I found her, but I didn’t reach her in time. If her statue hadn’t been a fake…’
‘Doesn’t matter,’ he insisted. ‘It’s the results that count. You know how you said you’d been seeing a shrink to figure out if everything you’d done was worth it? Well, this proves it is. We saved thousands of lives today — and Christ knows how many more in the past. We’ve stopped wars, Nina. You’ve stopped ’em. And yeah, I know we’ve both lost people we cared about because of it… but we might have lost a lot more if we hadn’t. Like you told me in the tunnel, this is what you do. And it is all worth it.’
Nina smiled, accepting his words as truth and feeling that a weight had been lifted from her. ‘Thanks, honey. I didn’t need to pay for a shrink after all, did I?’
‘Just call me Dr Frasier Chase.’ She could almost see his grin even across the gap between the two fighters.
The aircraft moved into position behind the KC-135, Nina’s the first to connect to the refuelling boom extending from beneath its tail. The procedure was completed quickly and cleanly. The Saudi F-15 then took its place before both Eagles, now fully fuelled, dropped away from the tanker. ‘You ready?’ Eddie asked.
‘Not entirely, but…’ Nina took a deep breath, then gave him a thumbs-up. ‘Let’s make everything worth it.’
The F-15s ignited their afterburners. Side by side, they raced into the empty sky.
37
The two military jets touched down at LaGuardia airport, much to the surprise of observers and the infuriation of those waiting to land as the airspace was cleared for their arrival. Nina and Eddie were quickly ushered to a waiting helicopter, taking a moment to embrace and kiss before boarding. Seretse was waiting inside the cabin. ‘Welcome home,’ he said, shaking their hands.
‘Good to be back,’ Nina replied. ‘Although I really, really need a pee! Four hours strapped into a chair is no fun at all.’
‘Some people pay good money for that,’ Eddie said with a smirk as he took his seat. ‘Any news on Cross?’
Seretse shook his head. ‘Nothing yet.’
Nina fastened her seat belt as the chopper wound up to take-off speed. ‘Are we going to the UN?’
‘No, Brooklyn.’
‘Brooklyn? What the hell’s in Brooklyn?’
‘A surprising amount,’ Seretse replied with a faint smile. ‘I know that as a lifelong resident of Manhattan, you may find that difficult to comprehend.’
She huffed. ‘Funny man.’
‘But the regional headquarters of the Secret Service are located there,’ the diplomat went on, ‘and they are in charge of security outside the United Nations complex, so that is where we are going. Hopefully you will be able to provide them with useful information.’
‘Let’s hope.’ She looked out of the window. The helicopter cleared the boundary of LaGuardia, heading south-west across the relatively low-rise sprawl of Queens towards Brooklyn. The towers of Manhattan rose on the far side of the East River. Her home; but it was again under threat.
The flight did not take long. The chopper touched down in Brooklyn Heights’ Columbus Park, a convoy of black SUVs waiting to whisk them to the Secret Service offices a short distance away on Adams Street. Seretse took a phone call as they arrived. ‘Air Force One has just landed at JFK,’ he told Eddie and Nina as they went inside. ‘In light of the threat, President Cole will be taken to the United Nations by helicopter rather than in a motorcade.’
‘That’s good,’ said Nina, relieved.
‘A number of the world leaders are travelling there by road, though,’ he continued, dampening her mood. ‘They are still at risk.’
Eddie shook his head. ‘If Cross hates the UN so much, he’ll make the attack when they’re all there. They’ll be like his Pokémon — gotta catch ’em all.’ Seretse and Nina exchanged puzzled looks. ‘Oh, come on. Nina, you’ll have to learn something about pop culture once the baby’s born!’
‘I can’t wait,’ she lied. ‘You’re right, though. He’ll want all the kings of the world to witness the fall of Babylon — and if he can kill them afterwards, so much the better to bring about the apocalypse. But he’ll probably have a hard time getting close enough to do that.’
‘No probably about it,’ said a new voice. A broad-shouldered, harried-looking bald man in his fifties marched to meet the group, the coiled cable behind one ear giving away that he was a member of the Secret Service. ‘Dr Wilde, I’m John Talsorian, USSS special agent in charge of diplomatic security at the General Assembly.’
‘USSS SAIC?’ said Eddie. ‘That’s a lot of esses.’
Talsorian gave him the briefest of dismissive glances. ‘Mr Seretse, good to see you again. If you’ll come to the briefing room?’
‘You sound confident about your security,’ said Nina as they headed through the building.
‘The place is locked down,’ he replied firmly. ‘We were already on high alert even before this threat warning, and now it’s been taken to maximum. Nobody can get within three blocks of the UN without being checked by either the Secret Service or the NYPD. The FDR drive is closed, NYPD river patrol has the East River fully covered, and we’ve got helicopters flying circuits watching all the rooftops. Beyond that, if anything tries to breach the city’s airspace, there are Air National Guard F-16s ready to scramble from Atlantic City; they can intercept in six minutes.’
‘What about submarines?’ Eddie asked him, deadpan. ‘A mini-sub could get into the UN basement through the old fire hydrant pipes. I know, ’cause I was there when it did.’
Talsorian’s expression was now one of outright contempt. ‘Who are you again?’
‘This is my husband, Eddie Chase,’ Nina said. ‘And you should listen to what he has to say — well, most of it. He’s already saved thousands of lives just this morning, so he knows what he’s talking about.’
The Secret Service agent seemed unconvinced, but he said nothing, instead bringing the group into a crowded room. Roughly half its occupants were in conservative dark suits, the others in tactical gear. A pair of large screens mounted on one wall displayed a map of the area around the United Nations complex — and a photograph of Ezekiel Cross. ‘All right, listen up,’ said Talsorian as he stood before the screens, facing his agents. ‘This is Nina Wilde; you may have heard of her, she’s a famous archaeologist, but right now that’s not important. What matters is that she has information about the man we’re looking for. Dr Wilde?’