Part 5 (1/2)
”s.h.i.+t. s.h.i.+t, s.h.i.+t, s.h.i.+t,” he muttered.
He unbuckled himself from his gun chair and hurried back into the main cabin, thinking fast.
Then it hit him.
He keyed his headset radio. ”Sky Monster. Take us vertical. As vertical as you can go.”
”What? What are you doing?”
”I'll be in the rear hold.”
Sky Monster pulled back on the yoke and theHalicarna.s.sus went noseup into the sky.
Climbing, climbing, climbing...
The Interceptor gave chase, zooming upward after it.
Battling the slope, Jack staggered into the rear hold, clipped a safety rope to his belt, and opened the rear loading ramp.
Air rushed into the hold, and beyond the entryway, he saw the Interceptor immediately behind them-beneath them-framed by the deep blue ocean.
It fired.
Sizzlinghot tracer bulletsentered the hold, smacking into the girders all around Jack- sping!sping!sping!-just as he kicked a release lever-the release lever that held his LSV harnessed in place.
The springloaded harness retracted instantly, whipsnapping away, and the light strike vehicle rolled out the back of the plane and fell out into the sky.
Seen from the outside, it must have looked very odd indeed.
The Halicarna.s.sus soaring upward with the J9 behind and below it, when suddenly the LSV-an entire car-came dropping out of the Hali and...
...sailed past the J9, the Chinese fighter banking at the last moment, just getting out of the way.
Its pilot grinned, proud of his reflexes.
Reflexes, however, that weren't fast enough to evade or avoid the second LSV that came tumbling out of the Halicarna.s.sus 's rear hold a moment later!
The second falling LSV smashed squarely into the fighter's nose, causing the whole Interceptor to just drop out of the sky. It plummeted to the ocean, ejecting its pilot a moment before it and the car entered the water with twin gigantic splashes.
High above it, the Halicarna.s.sus righted itself, retracted its rear ramp, and flew off to the northwest, safe and away.
”Huntsman,”Sky Monster's voice came over the intercom.”Where to now?”
Standing in the hold, Jack recalled Wizard's message. ”WILL MEET YOU AT GREAT TOWER.”
He keyed the intercom. ”Dubai, Sky Monster. Set a course for Dubai.”
BACK AT West's farm, Chinese troops stood guard at every gate.
The two majors, Black Dragon and Rapier, waited formally on the front porch as a helicopter touched down on the dusty turnaround in front of them.
Two figures emerged from the chopper, an older American man shadowed by his bodyguard, a twentysomething US Marine of AsianAmerican extraction.
The older man walked casually up onto the porch, unchecked by any of the guards.
No one dared stop him. They all knew who he was and the considerable power he wielded.
He was a Pentagon player, an American colonel in his late fifties, and he was fit, extremely fit, with a barrel chest and hard blue eyes. His hair was blond but graying, his features weathered and creased. In stance and bearing, he could have pa.s.sed for Jack West twenty years from now.
His Marine bodyguard, ever alert, went by the call sign Switchblade. He looked like a human attack dog.
Black Dragon greeted the senior man with a bow.
”Sir,” the Chinese major said. ”They have escaped. We brought enormous force and executed our landings perfectly. But they, well, they were-”
”They were prepared,” the senior man said. ”They were prepared for this eventuality.”
He strolled past the two majors and entered the farmhouse.
He ambled slowly through West's abandoned home, taking it in, pausing every so often to examine some trinket closely-a framed photograph on the wall of West with Lily and Zoe at a waterslide park on a shelf a ballet trophy that belonged to Lily. He lingered longest over a photo of the Great Pyramid at Giza.
Black Dragon, Rapier, and the bodyguard, Switchblade, followed him at a discreet distance, waiting patiently for whatever instructions he might have.
The senior man picked up the photo of West, Lily, and Zoe at the waterslide park. The three of them appeared happy, smiling for the camera, grinning in the suns.h.i.+ne.
”Very good, Jack...” the senior man said, staring at the photo. ”You got away from me this time. You're still wary enough of the world to have a getaway plan. But you're slipping. You detected us late and you know it.”
The senior man gazed at the smiling faces in the photo and his lip curled into a snarl. ”Oh, Jack, you've become domesticated. Happy even. Andthat is your weakness. It will be your downfall.”
He dropped the photo, let it shatter against the floor, then turned to the two majors: ”Black Dragon. Call Colonel Mao. Tell him we have not yet acquired the Firestone. But that need not stop him from advancing at his end. Tell him to commence his interrogation of Professor Epper, with extreme prejudice.”
”As you command.” Black Dragon bowed and stepped a few yards away to speak into his satphone.
The senior man watched as he did this. After a minute or so, Black Dragon hung up and returned. ”Colonel Mao sends his regards and says that he will do as you order.”
”Thank you,” the senior man said. ”Now, if you wouldn't mind, Black Dragon, shoot yourself in the head.”
”What!”
”Shoot yourself in the head. Jack West escaped because of your hamfisted a.s.sault. He saw you coming and so got away. I cannot tolerate failure on this mission. You were responsible and so you must pay the ultimate penalty.”
Black Dragon stammered. ”I...no, I cannot do tha-”
”Rapier,” the senior man said.
Quick as a whip, the big man named Rapier drew his pistol and fired it into the Chinese major's temple. Blood sprayed. Black Dragon collapsed to the floor of Jack West's living room, dead.
The senior man hardly even blinked.
He turned away casually. ”Thank you, Rapier. Now, call our people at Diego Garcia. Tell them to initiate blanket satellite surveillance of the entire southern hemisphere. Target is an aerial contact, Boeing 747, black with stealth profile. Use all aerial signatures to locate it: transponder, contrail wake, infrared, the lot. Find that plane. And when you do, let me know. I'm eager to reunite Captain West with his Jamaican friend.”