— and sprang into clear air like a leaping salmon. It crashed into the back of the next wave, reacquired the same immense target shape—
— and leaped again. This time the torpedo hit at a slight angle. Dynamic forces caused it to turn and race north inside the body of a wave, sensing huge ships both left and right. It turned left, springing into the air yet again, but this time it hit the next wave hard enough to detonate its contact fuse.
“That was close!” Rykov said.
“No, not close, perhaps a thousand meters, but probably more.” The Captain leaned into the control room. “Slow to five knots, down to thirty meters.”
“We hit it?”
“I don't know, sir,” the operator said. “He went shallow in a hurry, and the fish went charging up after him, circled around some—” the sonarman traced his finger on the display. “Then it exploded here, close to where the Akula disappeared into the surface noise. Can't say — no break-up noises, sir, I have to call it a miss.”
“Bearing and distance to the target?” Dubinin asked.
“Roughly nine thousand meters, bearing zero-five-zero,” the Starpom replied. “What is the plan now, Captain?”
“We will locate and destroy the target,” said Captain First Rank Valentin Borissovich Dubinin.
“But—”
“We have been attacked. Those bastards tried to kill us!”
“That was an aerial weapon,” the executive officer pointed out.
“I heard no airplane. We have been attacked. We will defend ourselves.”
“Well?”
Inspector Pat O'Day was making furious notes. American Airlines, like all the major carriers, had its ticket information on computer. With a ticket number and flight numbers, he could track anyone down. “Okay,” he told the woman on the other end. “Wait a minute.” O'Day turned. “Dan, there were only six first-class tickets on that flight from Denver to Dallas-Fort Worth, the flight was nearly empty — but it hasn't taken off yet because of ice and snow in Dallas. We have the names for two other first-class passengers who changed to a Miami flight. Now, the Dallas connection was for Mexico City. The two who changed through Miami were also booked on a DC-10 out of Miami into Mexico City. That plane's off, one hour out of Mexico.”
“Turn it around?”
“They say they can't because of fuel.”
“One hour — Christ!” Murray swore.
O'Day ran a large hand over his face. As scared as everyone else in America — more so, since everyone in the command center had informed reason to be frightened — Inspector Patrick Sean O'Day was trying mightily to set everything aside and concentrate on whatever he had at hand. It was too slim and too circumstantial to be considered hard evidence as yet. He'd seen too many coincidences in his twenty years with the Bureau. He'd also seen major cases break on thinner stuff than this. You ran with what you had, and they had this.
“Dan, I—”
A messenger came in from the Records Division. She handed over two files to Murray. The deputy assistant director opened the Russell file first, rummaging for the Athens photo. Next he took out the most recent photo of Ismael Qati. He set both next to the passport photos just faxed in from Denver.
“What do you think, Pat?”
“The passport one of this guy still looks thin for Mr. Qati… cheekbones and eyes are right, mustache isn't. He's losing hair, too, if this is him…”
“Go with the eyes?”
“The eyes are right, Dan, the nose — yeah, it's him. Who's this other mutt?”
“No names, just these frames from Athens. Fair skin, dark hair, well-groomed. Haircut's right, hairline is right.” He checked the descriptive data on the license and passport. “Height, little guy, build — it fits, Pat.”
“I agree, I agree about eighty percent worth, man. Who's the Legal Attache in Mexico City?”
“Bernie Montgomery — shit! he's in town to meet with Bill.”
“Try Langley?”
“Yeah.” Murray lifted his CIA line. “Where's Ryan?”
“Right here, Dan. What gives?”
“We have something. First, a guy named Marvin Russell, Sioux Indian, member of the Warrior Society, he dropped out of sight last year, somewhere in Europe, we thought. He turned up with his throat cut in Denver today. There were two people with him, they flew out. One, we have a picture but no name. The other may be Ismael Qati.”
That bastard! “Where are they?”
“We think they're aboard an American Airlines flight from Miami to Mexico City, first-class tickets, about an hour out from the terminal.”
“And you think there's a connection?”
“A vehicle registered to Marvin Russell, a/k/a Robert Friend of Roggen, Colorado, was on the stadium grounds. We have fake IDs from two people, probably Qati and the unknown subject, recovered from the murder scene. There's plenty enough to arrest on suspicion of murder.”
Yeah, Jack thought. Had the situation not been so horrible, Ryan would have laughed at that. “Murder, eh? You going to try and make the arrest?”
“Unless you have a better idea.”
Ryan was quiet for a moment. “Maybe I do. Hold on for a minute.” He lifted another phone and dialed the United States Embassy in Mexico City. “This is Ryan calling for the Station Chief. Tony? Jack Ryan here. Is Clark still there? Good, put him on.”
“Jesus, Jack, what the hell is—” Ryan cut him off.
“Shut up, John. I have something for you to do. We have two people coming in to the airport there on an American flight from Miami, due in about an hour. We'll fax you the photos in a few minutes. We think they might be involved in this.”
“So, it's a terrorist gig?”
“Best thing we have, John. We want those two, and we want them fast.”
“Might be a problem from the local cops, Jack,” Clark warned. “I can't exactly have a shoot-out down here.”
“Is the ambassador in?”
“I think so.”
“Transfer me over and stand by.”
“Right.”
“Ambassador's office,” a female voice said.
“This is CIA Headquarters, and I need the Ambassador right now!”
“Surely.” The secretary was a cool one, Ryan thought.
“Yeah, what is it?”
“Mr. Ambassador, this is Jack Ryan, Deputy Director of CIA—”
“This is an open phone line.”
“I know that! Shut up and listen. There are two people coming into Mexico City airport in an American Airlines flight from Miami. We need to pick them up and get them back here just as fast as we can.”
“Our people?”
“No, we think they're terrorists.”
“That means arresting them, clearing it through the local legal system and—”
“We don't have time for that!”
“Ryan, we can't strong-arm these people, they won't stand for it.”
“Mr. Ambassador, I want you to call the President of Mexico right now, and I want you to tell him that we need his cooperation — it's life-and-death, okay? If he doesn't agree immediately, I want you to tell him this, and I need you to write it down. Tell him that we know about his retirement plan. Okay? Use those exact words, We know about his retirement plan.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that you say exactly that, do you understand?”