House of Acerbi

“What are you guys talking about?” Alon asked.

“Drones,” Colonel Wilson answered.

“Drones? What about them?”

“We were thinking of flying a bunch of drones over Acerbi’s ranch. It might just trick him into firing off all his surface-to-air missiles before our choppers show up.”

“Not a good idea. A move like that will just alert them to the fact that an attack is imminent.”

“They’ll know we’re coming sooner or later, Alon,” Leo said. “I like the idea. In fact, it’s pretty darn creative. It’s better than being shot out of the air before we’re even over the target … isn’t it?”

“You know, Cardinal, you’ve been hanging around us too long. You’re starting to sound more and more like a soldier every day.”

“I am a soldier, Alon. I just belong to a different army.”

Alon laughed as he clapped Leo on the back. “I hate to disagree with you, Leo, but I think this drone nonsense is a bad idea. Once Acerbi’s men have been alerted to the fact that an attacking force is on the way, we will have lost our element of surprise. Those missiles the scouts discovered scattered around his ranch are probably his primary defense against fighter jets. He probably has other defenses against choppers.”

“Like shoulder-fired missiles?”

“Those would be useless against our choppers,” Wilson said. “All of our Blackhawks have new laser defense technology. We don’t want a repeat of Blackhawk Down. Anyway, it doesn’t really matter, because without helicopters this mission is dead in the water. We need to neutralize those missiles.”

“Well, from what I just heard, it doesn’t sound like anyone has enough of the things to do the job anyway,” Leo said.

“There are a hundred and twenty of them locked inside those two hangars across the field.”

The men turned to see Ariella standing in the doorway behind them.

“What did you say, Ariella?” Lev asked.

“I said the two hangars across the field are full of them. This field was rented from the U.S. government last year by a private company that manufactures them. I just walked over and looked inside one of their hangars. I counted 120.”

The men looked at one another without speaking.

Ariella crossed her arms and waited. “Well, you want to go look at them or what?”

Lev and Ben were already pushing their way through the door as Leo found himself unconsciously following along behind with Colonel Wilson and Alon. Crossing the hot concrete runways, it took twenty minutes for the small procession to make it to the hangars across the field.

Peering through the dusty windows, they saws rows of brand new, gleaming white drones, and it appeared like they were being readied for shipment.

“I thought they just tested these things here,” Wilson said.

Lev was busy brushing the fire off his shirt after smashing his cigar against the hangar window when he was peering inside. “Well, evidently they manufacture them here too, and from the looks of things, these drones are headed for the Navy.” Lev pointed to the USN markings on the wings. “I wonder where all the employees are?”

“The company was forced to close up shop for the duration of your mission for security reasons,” a voice called out behind them.

The surprised group turned to see a short, middle-aged man standing directly behind them. He had a low slung stomach that advertised the fact that he enjoyed his beer, and was wearing a white western shirt, jeans, and a pair of expensive-looking cowboy boots. He was also holding an assault rifle.

“We’re based across the field,” Wilson said quickly. “Military.”

“I know who you are, Colonel Wilson. I’m Jack Beck … CIA. We’ve been guarding the perimeter of this field since you arrived. We had to clear out the folks who own this little airplane business before you all landed. We even had to handcuff the owner for awhile until he settled down. They were some pretty unhappy campers.”

“I can imagine,” Lev said. “They’re going to be positively thrilled when they return and find we’ve taken all of their drones.”

“You don’t say. You got orders for that?”

Wilson smiled at the man. “No sir, but we will.”

“I’d love to know what you people are up to, but even we’ve been left out of the loop. Whatever you’re doing has been classified at the highest levels.” The man paused for a moment as the group stared back at him in silence. “Do you guys know how these things fly?”

Lev and the others adopted blank stares.

“Didn’t think so,” the man said. “Each one of those little puddle jumpers in there has to have its own pilot.”

“But they’re drones,” Lev said.

“Yes, but they’re still flown remotely by pilots sitting in a little control room somewhere. Sometimes they’re flown from thousands of miles away via satellite uplink. The closest control facility is located at an air force base in Tucson, but they’ve only got four little cockpits in a couple of plain-looking trailers. I know … I checked. I used to fly model planes as a kid. I wanted to fly one of these things.”

“They don’t have autopilots?” Wilson asked.

“Nope. They’re not like cruise missiles. You can’t just fire them and forget them.”

Alon pressed his face against the glass and looked at the rows of drones. “I guess that’s that.”

The CIA man chuckled. “I’ll leave you good people to carry on. If you have any problems, just shoot up a flare or something. I’ll be around.”

With that, the stocky man turned and disappeared around the side of the hangar as the group began trudging back across the field in the blistering heat. It was quickly becoming apparent that their plan of attack was beginning to fall apart.

“The drone thing probably wouldn’t have worked anyway,” Alon said. “With them or without them, we’re still going in, but I’m afraid there’ll be a lot of casualties in the first wave of choppers.”

Ben looked up at the hulking figure of Alon walking beside him. The man was talking about the possibility of being killed as if he were planning a trip to the grocery store. “I’m going to ask for some better satellite photos. We may find a weak spot in their defenses we haven’t spotted yet.”

“Well then, Ben, I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is that we just received some new, fine-resolution satellite photos for you to look at. The bad news is that there’s a good possibility none of us will make it out of there alive.”

Ben stopped as the group continued walking across the field, leaving him behind in the 107 degree heat. Looking to the south, toward the border of Mexico, he felt like someone had just poured ice water down his back.

CHAPTER 55

After they crossed the field, Leo kept walking past the hangar. He wanted some time alone, and despite the heat, he was beginning to enjoy the solitude of the desert. Pausing for a moment to check for scorpions, he climbed to the top of a large boulder and sat with his legs folded as he looked out at the magnificent desolation ringing their position. The absurdity of the picture caused him to smile. He wondered what people would think if they saw him all alone out in the desert, perched on top of a big rock with his legs folded beneath him like some kind of ancient shaman. It was a vision straight from the pages of a Carlos Castaneda novel.

Maybe we’re going about this the wrong way, he thought to himself. He was growing increasingly uncomfortable with the military option, and it seemed that every time they had a solution to a problem, something else popped up to block their way forward. Added to this, they hadn’t heard from Daniel since they arrived. It seemed that the code in the Bible had grown strangely silent. There had to be another way to stop Acerbi, but so far the solution seemed just beyond their reach, as if they were feeling their way forward through a thick fog.

Evita’s voice broke the stillness. “Leo!”