Canadians can take them into custody. They can be there in twenty minutes. Our fighters can keep watch on them until then.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?! The Canadians will never hand them over. Those pricks will be on planes back to wherever they crawled from in a month!”
“Blow them the fuck away and I mean away!”
“Yes, Mr President.”
Akram had seen the jets shooting towards them over the horizon and knew they had been found. The Americans were too late, the plane was already on its way. He called his men on deck who jumped and whooped as the American fighters flew past with inches to spare.
Akram knew it was over when four pulled off and swooped up in the sky. He had seen enough movies to know that they were positioning themselves for an attack. He called his men together and they prayed to Allah as the four missiles evaporated them.
“Avenger, this is Team Leader. I hope you don’t mind but we used four Harpoons, those fuckers are well and truly gone!”
The President slammed the desk as the news came though. “Every one of those boys gets a medal from me. I want them in Corpus tomorrow, Henry.”
“Yes, Mr President.”
“Now find that plane!”
It seemed Deif had one more trick up his sleeve. The pilot of the Hurricane flew less than a hundred feet above the ground. His route carefully calculated to minimize likely sightings which, in the sparsely populated North Eastern states of America, was not difficult. His small GPS device ensured he was within meters of where his route should be and gave him a significant advantage over his predecessors. The route took him inland, before commencing his run to the South, running past New York and turning to the heart of the birth of the American nation, just 77 miles away, to Philadelphia. Although smaller than New York, the city was contained within a smaller area. A 2000 feet airburst over Philadelphia was, according to the calculations, up near the million mark.
Deif had anticipated the evacuation of both New York and Washington and as such, had ruled them out. He wanted to maximize the death toll and Philadelphia, un-evacuated, gave him the largest potential death toll he could achieve.
Chapter 90
Ahmed Hameed had talked until he was blue in the face but nobody was listening. His network had come through and he had tracked down the three other controllers. He had spent the last three hours trying to make them understand the opportunity that lay before them. Firing the devices would end nothing. Not firing them could end everything. As the time neared midnight, the men prepared to leave. They had orders to follow. Deif had been explicit. Unless he told them otherwise, the weapons should be fired.
Ahmed explained again that were Deif there, he would want them not to fire. The opportunity for a true Palestinian nation was at their fingertips. The scoffs of derision at the words of Ben Meir being believed insulted Ahmed. It was one thing to scoff at Ben Meir but these men were now scoffing at him.
He stood up and commanded silence. He gave each of them an ultimatum that, should he be wrong, they should fire their weapons immediately.
All looked at each other and nodded. If Ahmed Hameed wanted to commit suicide, that was his problem. At least two of the men fancied their chances at taking command. And if Ahmed was to be believed, Deif would not be coming back anyway.
Nods around the table gave Ahmed the go ahead. However, he was warned that he had until midnight or else the weapons would be fired.
Ahmed checked his watch. Just 15 minutes remained. Hardly time to get to the border, never mind trying to get through, he thought, as he ran towards the cars parked below. A small crowd followed him and then a convoy was soon tracing its way towards the Israeli border. Its walls loomed large, its watchtowers looming even higher. The snipers that waited for any attempt to break her defenses, watched on silently.
Ben had offered this as rock solid proof. If Ahmed didn’t believe him, he should attempt to cross the border after 11pm. Ben emphasized with a smile that he would be well rewarded.
For the first time in his life, Ahmed Hameed was going to listen to the word of a Jew. He stepped down from his car and walked the final 200 yards towards the gates. He looked back and could see the men who held the fate of a nation in their hands, holding the devices that would send the signals. Their eyes were as much on Ahmed as they were on their watches. They were not going to give him a second to spare. Ahmed picked up the pace and waited for the Israeli to prove his doubts wrong.
Ahmed reached the gates, no bullets had struck him yet. He pushed on the gates and his life ended.
Chapter 91
The President couldn’t sit still. Two million dead. The number was becoming a reality as he paced his office. Before, it had just seemed like a number. He normally dealt in billions, trillions even but that was dollars not human beings. The number was massive. How could he not have ordered the evacuation? He had not only lost any chance of re-election, he had lost his soul.
Henry Preston tried to keep him calm. They still had ten minutes until midnight in Israel.
“Mr President, we still have time.”
“Even if we get to the bomb now, it’ll be so close it’s irrelevant.”
“Sir, the bomb will only detonate if it is triggered correctly. If we get to it before then, we may be OK.”
Henry looked at the screen in the Situation Room. New York was literally swamped with military fighters. New Yorkers must have thought a war had started with the number of jets that were overhead. Air Force F15, F16 and F22s from as far South as South Carolina were joined by F18s from the Carriers Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Harry S Truman.
There was no way the Hurricane could evade such an overwhelming force. There was just no way. It didn’t make sense and in Henry’s book, things didn’t not make sense. He looked again at the map and grabbed the intercom and instructed the search be widened to include Philadelphia and Washington. They couldn’t find him because he was going somewhere else, figured Henry.
Captain John Fuentes had just kicked in his afterburner as he lifted his F-22 raptor off from Langley Air Force Base and was touching Mach 2 as the call came in. He was being reassigned to Philadelphia. He couldn’t help but feel disappointed. The likelihood of anything happening to Philly was low compared to New York or Washington.
Almost as soon as he had pulled back the throttle, Philadelphia appeared below him. He plugged into the E-3 Sentry that was circling far overhead and looking down on the area below. Nothing. He could see nothing that shouldn’t be there.
But looking down, Captain Fuentes did see what millions of dollars worth of equipment couldn’t. He caught sight of a small flash of light, off to his left. It was moving slowly and it was close to the ground. Had it been on the road, he would have thought it was a fast car but there was no road there, just fields. It was certainly faster than any tractor, thought Fuentes, and it was close to the city limits.
His orders were clear. Do not, under any circumstances allow the pilot to see your approach. He powered up and over the object and pulled back, spinning in behind it. Approaching from the rear, he could see why nobody had spotted it. He was merely 50 feet off the deck and painted a green camouflage.
