Now escorted by no less than four Eurofighter Typhoons, the VC-25 shredded its way into the western sky leaving a no-nonsense roar of power in its wake. It burned noisily away from the attack site and headed to cruising altitude.
With the danger behind them, Scott ordered an immediate check on all systems while Jennings got busy on the radio. Brooke rose to his feet, gave the Colonel a solid pat on his shoulder and headed back into the cabin.
“Dad?”
Alex was sitting down beside Agent McGee. Both looked pale.
“It’s fine, darling. We’re through it.”
“What the hell was it?”
“We don’t know, but I’ll tell you one thing — whatever sons of bitches just tried to bring me, my plane and my girl down are going wish they’d never been born.”
CHAPTER FORTY
Lea looked at Hawke and saw he was watching Vermaak closely as the aircraft’s Pratt & Whitney turboshaft engine pulled them up to altitude. Kruger was up front with the pilot, and the only trace of what was left of Giancarlo Zito was smeared over the tail boom at the rear of the chopper.
Hawke turned to her and smiled, but she didn’t return it.
“What’s the matter?” he asked.
“Kruger’s going to throw us out this frigging helo in about five minutes. That’s what’s wrong.”
“Don’t be silly,” he said, giving her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “We’ve never been beaten yet and it’s not going to start now.”
Lea peered out at England, thousands of feet below. “If it starts now it’s going to bloody stop now too. Listen… about the letter I got in Dublin.”
“You said you weren’t ready, Lea.”
“I’m not, but I can’t die not knowing what it says, Joe!”
He was silent for a long time, then he said, “This is your decision.”
“I’ve made up my mind. I’m going to read it, but I want to be alone.”
“What about Smiler over there?” Hawke said, indicating Vermaak.
*“I mean it, Joe.”
Hawke understood. He kissed her on the cheek and moved to the next seat. Vermaak gave him a suspicious glance. “View’s better this side,” the Englishman said with a cheery grin.
Vermaak sniffed and slumped back down in his seat.
Lea reached inside her jacket pocket and pulled out the letter she had found in the box of Maggie Donovan’s things back at her brother’s house in Dublin. She stared at the handwriting on the front of the envelope, and whispered: Maggie, I’m so scared of what I might find inside…
With the chopper rumbling through some light turbulence, she ran her finger under the envelope seal and pulled the letter from the inside. She held in her hands a piece of small, neatly folded note paper and could see through the paper that it was written in the same shaky handwriting that was on the front of the envelope. Now, her hands started to shake as she gently opened the note and began to read Maggie’s words, scrawled in blue ink on the delicate white paper.
Halfway to the main house, Ryan could hardly believe what they had all just witnessed in the sky above their heads. Air Force One had narrowly escaped total destruction and a good part of the mansion was nothing more than burning ruins. Before flying away to escort the President’s plane, the typhoons had blasted the top half of the mansion with SAMs, and now they helplessly watched as an AgustaWestland chopper powered up into the air and turned to the east.
They saw two men moving toward them across the airfield.
“Holy shit!” Kim cried out. “That’s Vincent and Mack!”
They sprinted over to them.
“Holy crap,” Ryan said. “What happened to you two?”
“I’m not sure…” Mack rubbed his head. “I was standing there listening to this proper tadger going on about the end of the world and then Lea did the whole ‘hold-aloft-your-magic-sword’ thing and then the next minute it felt like I was shagging a toaster.”
Reaper looked confused. “We got electrocuted.”
“Ah,” Kim said. “Now I understand.”
“What about Joe and Lea?” Scarlet said, staring over Reaper’s shoulder for any sign of them.
The Frenchman shook his head. “I regained conciousness just in time to see Kruger piling them both into the Agusta.”
“Aye,” Mack said. “Fuckers were airborne before either of us could do a thing.”
“Bastards!” Devlin said.
Sheer desperation forced Ryan to run his hand over his face. Everything had gone wrong. They had failed to stop Kruger and Zito from leaving the country and now it looked like Hawke and Lea were hostages.
“So what do we do now?” Kim said.
“We go after our fuckin’ mates, is what,” Mack said. The Scot gave the young Londoner a stern look. “Right, Ryan?”
Ryan took a deep breath, unable to keep his eyes away from the hangar where he had killed the man. “You got it,” he said at last. “Let’s end this.”
Reaper led the others to a carpark at the side of the hangar where a man was pulling into a space marked AVIONIC TECHNICIAN. The Frenchman padded over to him and tapped him on the shoulder.
“Excusez-moi, Monsieur.”
“Eh?”
Reaper’s shovel-fist smashed into the man’s face and knocked him to the ground. “Where are the keys to that shiny helicopter over there?” He pointed to the blue and white Eurocopter EC130 parked outside.
“Oh, God no,” Ryan said.
Kim looked worried. “What’s the problem?”
“The last time Reap flew us in a chopper was in Peru and we all vowed never again.”
“Keys,” Reaper repeated, ignoring Ryan’s comment. “Where?”
“In the office,” the technician said, his voice quivering.
“Take us there.”
The man led them to the office and handed the keys over. He started to speak but Reaper punched him again, and this time hard enough to end the debate.
“Bon… let’s get after them!”
“You can’t be serious?” Kim said.
“He’s always serious,” said Ryan.
“True story,” Scarlet said.
Reaper fired the chopper up and raised the collective, slowly lifting the machine off the ground and pushing up into the sky. “What was the AgustaWestland’s registration number, Ryan?”
Ryan gave the number, burned into his eidetic memory during the fight with Bruno.
“Scarlet, start tracing the number and see if the flight path is on a live tracker website,” Reaper said.
“All over it like a donkey on a waffle, Reap.”
“Bon.” He swooped the chopper over the top of Horak’s burning mansion and turned it to the east in pursuit of the fleeing AgustaWestland.
“They would never let themselves be tracked that way!” Kim protested.
“No, he’s right,” Devlin said. “They have to have the transponder switched on for safety reasons. If they turn it off they’re inviting a mid-air collision.”
Reaper spoke through the headset, “In the meantime, everyone else try and keep an eye on it, non? If Hawke gets control of that chopper he’s going to need back-up when he brings it down.”
Reaper looked into the sky and saw the AgustaWestland slowly vanishing in the sky to the east. Things had looked better for the ECHO team, but he took a deep breath and raised the collective.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
With the letter held tightly in her hands, Lea closed her eyes and tried to work up enough courage to read it. She had kept it in the pocket next to her heart since Dublin but now it was time. When she opened her eyes again, she saw her hands were trembling. She fought against it and started to read the letter.
My Dearest Lea,