Something had bothered Jake about Wiley’s reluctance to use deadly force on all of the men at Hajjah Palace. It made no sense to leave witnesses — witnesses that had seen them — had seen Baraka.
“Mr. Wiley, what about the men at the palace? They know we were there. Rescued Isabella. They’ll go after Baraka. They’ll kill her.”
“Relax, Jake. I’ve got it covered.”
“If you don’t mind me asking, how?”
“Ever heard of a smart bomb?”
“Sure, but — no way.” Jake said.
“In exactly ten minutes, a smart bomb will strike the Hajjah Palace. Any evidence of our presence will evaporate and no one will be the wiser.”
“Dammit. Don’t you think you should’ve shared that information?”
“You didn’t need to know.”
“So, all that work I just did, arranging the rooms, jumping out the window—”
“All for naught, Jake.”
“Great.” Jake could sense the old man was grinning at his expense.
Jake looked down at the barren terrain. The mountains were almost behind them. In the far distance he could barely trace the outline of the Red Sea shoreline. They’d traveled twenty-five miles in total silence and climbed to an altitude of 12,000 feet when the LOW BATTERY light turned on. Time to retract the propeller and glide. He hoped their altitude was high enough.
“My battery light just came on.” Kaplan broke the silence. “Time to retract.”
“Ours too.” Jake watched Wiley shut down the electric motor and retract the propeller. The engine slowly lowered itself back down into the tail of the glider.
Jake watched as Kaplan lowered his damaged motor. It moved down and stopped. Up a little, then back down and stopped. Jake knew Kaplan was working the mechanism as far down into the fuselage as possible to reduce drag. Jake checked his GPS unit, Kaplan would need his glider as drag-free as possible because they still had fifty miles to travel.
“What did you mean when you said the hard part was yet to come?” Jake asked. “Aren’t we going to make it to the rendezvous point?”
“Unless we get spotted and shot down,” Wiley said. “We’ll make it to the drop. It’s just I’ve never ditched a glider before and we very well might have to put down in the Red Sea.”
Kaplan worked the electric motor as deep into the well as he could before the battery was fully drained. The noise stirred Hunt from her drugged state with a jerk.
“Isabella? Are you awake?”
“Gregg? It wasn’t a dream? You did come after me.”
“Yes I did.” Kaplan said. “But I had help. Jake is with me — and the old man he’s working for now.”
Kaplan explained about the mission in Australia and the trouble Jake caused by shooting Mustaff Bin Yasir. Senator Richard Boden was breathing down Bentley’s neck so the director sent Kaplan to Yemen and physically delivered Jake to El Paso, leaving him with the old man.
“What does the old man do?” She asked.
“I’m not real sure, something with radio frequencies and microwave signals. He’s got a gadget for everything it seems.” Kaplan turned his head around and smiled at Hunt. “If it weren’t for him, we’d never have been able to rescue you. He planned this whole mission.”
“I was afraid I’d never see you again.” Hunt said. “I don’t know how long I was in that place. I started losing track of time. I stopped eating and drinking. I figured they were drugging me. Then a man would ask me questions and hit me.”
Kaplan heard Hunt sobbing. “You’re safe now, Isabella.”
“I never saw him.” She sniffled. “All I know is his breath was like…like…road kill. The stench was nauseating.”
“There were five men in that building, Jake killed the one guarding your room.” Kaplan noticed the outline of the Red Sea becoming more distinct as the first beams of sunlight illuminated the glider’s cockpit. “Jake made it look like you overpowered him and escaped while the others were asleep. They’re as good as dead when their handler finds out you’re gone.”
“Are we talking about the same Jake I know?” Hunt asked. “That doesn’t sound like him at all.”
“No kidding.” Kaplan smiled to himself. “I didn’t think I could ever work with Jake again, but in just two days, Wiley has changed him. Wiley has some sort of control on him. Helped him move past his anger. And the funny thing is, I don’t think Jake has realized it yet.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s more in control. He takes the lead without being told and instinctively knows what to do. And it hasn’t even been a week since he blew Yasir’s head off.”
Kaplan deliberately omitted the details of Jake’s loss of control when he accused Jake of being just like Laurence O’Rourke. Details that Isabella Hunt didn’t need to know. Details no one needed to know. That incident was between Kaplan and Jake. One day Kaplan would make Jake apologize or he would make Jake pay — no one points a gun at him without consequences.
“Gregg.” Wiley’s voice. “I need you to pull up and to the right. Let me take the lead then you can fall in behind me.”
“Roger that.” Kaplan eased back on the stick and turned slightly to the right. The glider’s speed slowed as it gained altitude. To his left he watched Wiley ease the glider underneath his wing and out in the lead. The old man was good.
Kaplan lowered the nose and maneuvered his glider behind Wiley and Jake, keeping no more than about a fifty-foot distance.
A sudden flash from behind caught his attention. “What the hell was that?”
Wiley’s voice came over the headset. “Smart bomb just leveled the palace. The main reason I was in a hurry to get us out of there.”
“What about Baraka? The rest of the village?”
“Relax, Mr. Kaplan. Best thing about a smart bomb is that it only takes out the intended target. The worst thing that happened to the rest of the village was being abruptly awakened from their slumber. Any trace of our extraction has evaporated. And in al Qaeda’s eyes, so has Ms Hunt.”
Kaplan had to admit it, the old man had thought of everything.
“By the way, how’s she doing?” Wiley asked.
Kaplan turned around and noticed Hunt’s eyes blinking. “She’s fading in and out, but she’ll be fine when the effects wear off. She needs medical attention, though.”
“Gregg?” Hunt’s voice weak and slurred. “I was afraid I’d never see you again.”
“It’s okay. We’re together now, that’s all that matters.”
“No, Gregg. Listen. Khan’s…planning an attack…in France.”
Her speech was slurring again. She’d gone through waves of coherence and incoherence ever since they left Hajjah. “Isabella, you can tell me later. Save your strength.” Kaplan said.
“You…don’t…understand. You have…to stop…”
“Shh. It’s going to be okay. You can tell me later. There’s nothing we can do about it right now anyway.”
“There’s something else I want to tell you, need to tell you. She paused several seconds. “I…I—.”
“I know, Isabella.” Kaplan whispered. “Me too.”
CHAPTER 35
Jake was troubled by the last thing Wiley said. “What do you mean, ‘ditch?’ I thought you had this all worked out.”
“I do.” Wiley paused. “More or less.”
“More or less? Care to explain?”
“Like any mission, there’s always a level of uncertainty.” Wiley gave the glider a gentle course correction to the left. “You’ve heard the old adage ‘if all goes according to plan.’ In case you didn’t notice, very little has gone according to plan. We spent way too much time repairing Mr. Kaplan’s glider.”