him.
Slay said, To go through it once more, the Hawker was delivering Ali Selim to Rubat. He s down there now, staying on a luxury dhow owned by the sheikh who loaned him the Hawker that got him out of England.
Have you had any dealings with him?
Only secondhand. My partner, Hakim, turned out to be Al Qaeda, and Ali Selim ordered him to kill me.
Why would he do that?
I can only imagine he d discovered I was the Raptor pilot who d been giving him problems in Afghanistan.
So what happened?
Hakim beat up my mechanic, Feisal, because he refused to help him, and was about to blow my head off with an AK-47 when I shot him dead. We dumped the body, but Ali Selim remains a problem. The Sultan is extremely sick, with only a medical man keeping him alive. The Council of Elders are old fogies who get no respect from the lower orders. Most of them work for Rashid Oil, so they enjoy a good standard of living, but Al Qaeda has a strong following.
What about the military? Holley asked.
There s only Rubat town and port to bother about, so a sort of police militia is in charge, run by a Colonel Khazid. He and his men are totally controlled by Al Qaeda. What are we talking about here?
Well, I don t know what anyone else wants to do, said Holley, but I intend to fly down there as soon as possible to retrieve Sara Gideon.
You think you can do that?
If it s going to be done, now is the time. Sara is in the air on her way, fast asleep, not knowing what s happening. Now Roper tells me Ali Selim hasn t been crowing about this, hasn t phoned in to say he s got her, and she s destined to be the most valuable kidnap victim of all time. He s got her, in the sense that Owen Rashid and Legrande have her on the Lear, but they won t arrive in Rubat for a while. My Falcon is one of the fastest planes around. I ll have the advantage of surprise. Ali Selim s keeping quiet about where he is, but doesn t realize that we know. That should count for a lot.
Well, I wouldn t land at Rubat if I were you. Hazar would be much more sensible.
Then we d drive down to Rubat?
Good God, no, it would take forever, and the roads are hell. We ll use one of my Scorpions. It s only half an hour in one of those, and we do it so regularly, we re not even checked. So when are you coming?
Holley turned to Roper. You didn t tell Ferguson that we were going to lift Legrande and Kelly. Have you told him about these developments?
No, I haven t, because it would mean Henry Frankel and the Cabinet Office and the Prime Minister all getting their political knickers in a twist. And the newspapers, who don t give a damn about anything except their front pages, would all spew the story worldwide. Then the government would tell the Gideon Bank that they can t pay to get her back because it would set a precedent, and that would be the ministerial cherry on the cake.
He swung his chair round to look up at his screens, and Holley said, We d better check that my plane is fueled.
Roper turned. Good God, are you still here? I ordered your Falcon filled up at Farley Field within ten minutes of hearing she d been taken. I asked the armorer to sort out the weaponry you re likely to need Semtex, timers, all the usual toys.
You re a gem, Dillon told him. I always said it.
Just one thing more, since we re circumventing every avenue of government. I d just like to say, as a crippled veteran who s seen it all, that I don t give a stuff for Owen Rashid and Henri Legrande, and my opinion of Ali Selim is even lower. Blow them away, and let s get rid of these people once and for all. I want to see Sara Gideon back here in this computer room, bright and cheerful and unsullied. That s what it s all about.
And that s what you re going to get. Holley turned to Dillon. Let s get moving, Sean. And they hurried out.
FOURTEEN
Roper called in to Greg Slay to tell him of the Falcon s departure. After that, he left Dillon and Holley alone for the long flight. It was five hours later that he called them and discovered Dillon was doing the flying.
What s Daniel up to? he asked.
Checking the weaponry.
He s taking it hard, I think.
Wouldn t you? Dillon shook his head.
He adores Sara Gideon. I ve never seen such a change in a man.
How are you doing?
Wonderfully well. This latest Falcon is a fantastic plane with phenomenal speed, so we re catching up enough to say we could be landing at Hazar around an hour after they ve landed at Rubat.
Holley had come in, wearing desert fatigues, moved into the copilot s seat and put on the headphones. How are things, Giles?
Not as good as they are for you. Dillon tells me that you re eating up the miles.
That s what we need, but our greatest strength will be the total surprise when we come knocking on the door. It will be close to midnight, Holley told him.
Dillon cut in, Any word from Ferguson?
Not a one. They ll be too busy putting the world to rights and having a good dinner. I ve checked at Rosedene on Harry. His fever is improving, so the penicillin is doing its work.
And Jean Talbot?
She s post-operative, but Bellamy s pleased with her and says the operation was a success.
Give her my best, Dillon said.
You can do that yourself, Sean, when you two get back with Sara.
You think that s a given, do you?
It always has been. I can t see you coming back without her. I ll do my best to keep Ferguson off your back. I gave him a call, reported on Harry, and said he was best left alone.
Take care, Holley called and turned to Dillon.
Have yourself a break, and I ll take over again. Have a cup of tea and a sandwich or something. Have a look at the weaponry the armorer selected for us and check them out. There s enough for Greg Slay if he wants to come to the party, too.
Not much doubt of that, as he s flying us into Rubat. He ll play his part in the rest of it, I m sure.
Holley said, It s like going back into the past, to what happened to Rosaleen in Belfast when I killed the four men who d raped her. His face was bleak and hard. If anything bad has happened to Sara, I ll have Ali Selim s life if it s the last thing I do on earth.
We re getting close now and you re feeling stressed. Dillon patted him on the shoulder. Just take it easy, Daniel, relax. Put the plane on autopilot, let it fly itself for a while, and watch the stars come out. We re going to pull this off, I promise you.
The Learjet was passing through considerable turbulence, Owen Rashid at the controls. He eased the column forward and went down three thousand feet, finding things calmer, and Henri Legrande joined him on the flight deck.
How is Sara Gideon? Owen asked.
Henri sat down in the copilot s seat. Sleeping very peacefully. I ve looked Seconal up on the laptop in the cabin. What I read confirms that the effect lasts eight hours. It seems that when the subjects come back to life, as it were, they re in good shape and able to operate physically and so on, but they ve no memory of what s happened. They need to be told it s eight hours on.
That must be hard to grasp, Owen said.
I would think so, Henri said. No news from our lord and master? I wonder what he s up to?
