“Standing by.”
“It looks like we can safely say-” began Nicholas, who then stopped midsentence and shouted, “South! He just swung across four lanes of traffic. He’s taking the 405 south.”
“Son of a-” Harvath cursed beneath his breath as he tried to maneuver. He was boxed in and had to slow down dramatically in order to find a gap and change lanes. The traffic was so tight that he almost missed the exit.
Once he had fully merged onto the 405, Sarhan parked himself in the far right-hand lane, and despite how fast the other cars were going, he kept his vehicle at fifty miles an hour.
Harvath was about to ask what the hell the guy was up to, when Nicholas reported that Sarhan was apparently preparing to exit for the Howard Hughes Parkway. Harvath continued to follow at a safe distance.
Moments later, Nicholas said, “The TOC has relocated the two missing vehicles.”
“Good,” replied Harvath. “Where?”
“Surface streets fifteen and twenty-two miles away, respectively.”
“What about the other two?”
“One of them is on the Century Freeway headed west and the other one looks set to join it. It’s merging onto the Century from the Harbor Freeway.”
Harvath could picture the entire map in his mind’s eye and he now knew where they were headed. “Get the Old Man on the line right now.”
It was only a matter of seconds, but it felt like minutes to Harvath. Finally Carlton clicked in and said, “What do you have?”
“I know where they’re headed.”
“Where?”
“LAX,” replied Harvath.
The Old Man snapped his fingers at someone, probably indicating he wanted a map of some sort, and said, “Los Angeles International? Are you sure?”
“Unless they’re all meeting up for a fishing charter out of Marina Del Rey, that’s where they’re headed. Sarhan has already gotten off the 405 and any moment is going to start doing his final SDRs on the surface streets that lead to the airport.”
“We’ve got vehicle descriptions, plates, even eyes on. Do you want to alert LAPD and have them stopped before they can get too close to the airport?”
It was a very tough call and one Harvath didn’t completely want the responsibility of making. If LAX was a target, the sooner they were stopped, the better. But if it wasn’t, if these men were doing nothing more than returning to their cities of operation, then pulling them over would ruin everything. They would know they’d been blown and the one and only lead Harvath and his team had would be lost.
“Scot,” the Old Man repeated. “It’s up to you. If you want to pull the trigger on these guys, I’ll make the call to the LAPD myself.”
Harvath knew what they had to do. “No,” he replied. “We need to let them go.”
“And if the airport is the target?”
“Then they need to be ready. Call DHS and tell them they need to conduct an immediate shift change.”
The Old Man understood what Harvath was calling for. When credible threats to U.S. airports were raised, the Department of Homeland Security swapped out regular TSA employees with specially trained, former military Special Operations personnel. They would be dressed exactly the same as the TSA agents, but that’s where any similarities ended.
Realizing that air marshals should only handle planes and not airports, a highly secretive and secure training facility had been established near Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. There, counterterrorism exercises were run against a host of realistic airport structures-terminals, baggage claim areas, even an airport hotel. In addition to operators posing as uniformed TSA agents, there was also a highly lethal plainclothes contingent dressed to look like passengers.
When the government wanted to be ready for a threat, but not to broadcast it to the public, and especially not to the bad guys, this was how it was handled. The only problem in this case, though, was the timing.
“There’s no way DHS can do a shift change in time,” said Carlton.
Harvath caught a glimpse of Sarhan’s car as it turned a block ahead of him and replied, “Tell them they don’t have a choice.”
CHAPTER 52
Harvath’s assumption that Sarhan was headed for LAX was confirmed when the man’s circuitous route ended with his pulling into the parking structure adjacent to Terminal One.
“Can you tap into any of the garage cameras?” asked Harvath as he sped up.
“It’ll take a few minutes,” said Nicholas.
“Hurry up,” replied Harvath as he swerved around the car in front of him and pinned the accelerator. “I need to know where he is and what he’s doing. For all we know, he’s going to switch vehicles.”
“I’m going as fast as I can.”
Instead of entering the parking structure on the upper-deck departures level like Sarhan, Harvath chose one of the arrival-level entrances. Snatching his ticket from the dispenser, he pulled in and began scanning for the blue Nissan.
“Where is he, Nicholas?”
“Stand by. Still waiting for access to the camera system.”
Human nature being what it was, most people wanted to park close to the terminal and have less distance to walk. Harvath easily found a parking space near the garage exit and parked there. If Sarhan was planning on driving out of the terminal, he’d have to drive right by Harvath’s vehicle.
No sooner had that thought entered Harvath’s mind than he realized that if Sarhan did have a backup vehicle, it didn’t necessarily have to be in this parking structure. He could easily walk out, hop on the shuttle, and head to the long-term lot, where he could have another car waiting. It seemed a bit far-fetched to Harvath, but anything was possible.
“We’ve got garage video,” Nicholas said, interrupting his thoughts.
“Do you see his car?”
“Negative. He may have already parked.”
“Are you scanning the parked cars or just the ones that are moving?” asked Harvath.
“Both, but there are only so many cameras. You can’t get a perfect view of every single vehicle.”
“Have DHS make sure Sarhan’s picture gets to all of the parking lot attendants at the airport. If anyone sees him, make sure they call it in. Tell them not to do anything else, but call it in.”
“Got it,” said Nicholas, whose voice trailed off for a moment as something caught his eye. “I’ve also got a blue Nissan Sentra.”
“Where?”
“Second floor.”
Harvath was already out of his car and heading for the nearest stairwell as Nicholas gave him the precise location of the car.
“Is the license plate a match?” he asked as he opened the stairwell door.
“I can’t see it. I can’t even get a partial.”
“Is he in the car or has he already gotten out?”
Nicholas took a moment and then replied. “Unless he’s taking a nap, the car appears to be empty.”
“Find him. Check all the other cameras. Roll back the footage. Do whatever you have to do.”
“We’re working on accessing the recorded footage now.”
“And make sure nobody moves in on Sarhan or any of his people unless I say so,” said Harvath.
“That may be a problem.”
Harvath was about to open the door to the second level. “What do you mean, that may be a problem?”
