averaging almost exactly eighty-five kilometres per hour.’
‘Fine,’ Richter said. ‘What’s its disposition – where are the escorting cars?’
Lacomte addressed the question to one of the radio operators, who replied at once in rapid French. Lacomte translated. ‘The Mercedes saloons have been swapping positions fairly regularly, but generally they have one in front of the lorry and one behind, about a hundred metres distant. The limousine has always been the last vehicle in the group, sometimes as much as a mile behind.’ The radio operator spoke again and Lacomte paused to listen. ‘They’ve just changed places again. It looks as if their standard procedure is for both cars to accelerate in front of the lorry if they see any sign of problems ahead.’
‘How far ahead do they go?’ Richter asked.
Lacomte waited for a response from the radioman before replying. ‘It looks like about one kilometre. Why?’
‘Just an idea. What do you think they’ll do when they see our little accident?’
Lacomte shrugged. ‘If they do what they’ve done up to now, the two saloons will accelerate ahead to investigate it.’
‘Exactly,’ Richter replied. ‘We’re not really interested in the cars – it’s the lorry and the limousine that we want, so let’s isolate them.’
‘How?’ Colin Dekker asked.
‘First,’ Richter asked Lacomte, ‘have you got radio links with the lorry drivers?’
‘Of course.’
‘Good. Let’s revise our original plan. We don’t use the articulated lorries to block the autoroute in front of the convoy. We use one to block the autoroute in front of the lorry, but behind the two saloons, and the other to shut the back door, to block the road behind the limousine. I don’t want that car doing a U-turn and vanishing somewhere in northern France.’
They considered this for a few moments. ‘That’s better,’ said Dekker. ‘Separating the cars from the truck makes good sense, and might avoid some problems. But we still need to rig an accident or something else to entice the saloons ahead.’
‘Time is running out,’ Lacomte interrupted, looking at his watch. ‘If we are to implement this change we will have to do it quickly. I will have to re-brief the lorry drivers and the road crew by radio, and the convoy is probably now only around a hundred and ten kilometres away. That’s just over an hour.’
‘How’s this?’ Richter said. ‘Our lorries are waiting at the parking area in the Foret de Samoussy, near Laon?’
‘If they aren’t there now they will be within about five minutes,’ Lacomte replied.
The radio operator interrupted again. ‘
Lacomte nodded, glanced at the autoroute map on the inside rear door of the Trafic and checked his watch. ‘They’ve speeded up a bit. That puts the convoy due north of Chalons-sur-Marne, with about one hundred kilometres to run. Carry on,’ he said, looking at Richter.
‘Your plan was to get the lorries moving ahead of the convoy, block the road and wait for it to arrive, yes?’ Lacomte nodded. ‘Change the orders,’ Richter said. ‘Tell the first driver to move out as soon as the Russian lorry has passed the parking area, and the second to pull out after the limousine. When they get to the ambush site, the Mercedes saloons will probably accelerate ahead. Once the driver of the first lorry sees them do that, he should pass the Russian artic, get about a hundred yards ahead of it but still behind the two cars, and then brake hard, slewing the lorry across both lanes of the carriageway and the hard shoulder. That shouldn’t be a problem, should it?’
Lacomte smiled slightly and shook his head. ‘No. That particular driver spends most of his spare time racing trucks on international circuits – that’s why we selected him for this job. It will not be a problem. And the second lorry will block the road in the same way, but behind the limousine?’
‘Exactly.’
‘What happens if the escort cars don’t accelerate in front of the lorry?’ Dekker asked.
‘Then we’re back where we started,’ Richter said. ‘No worse off than before.’
Erulin spoke up. ‘I would like the two lorry drivers out of their cabs as soon as possible after they have stopped,’ he said. ‘They should be briefed to climb over the central reservation, cross the southbound carriageway and lie flat in the scrubland off the autoroute. I don’t want them in the firing line.’
Lacomte nodded. ‘Agreed. They’re wearing orange jackets, as you requested, so you can identify them.’
‘
Lacomte noted the position on his map. ‘They’re now north-west of Chalons,’ he said.
‘So what do we use for our accident?’ asked Dekker.
‘How about your Transit?’ Richter suggested. ‘As long as the Queen wouldn’t mind.’
‘Hopefully,’ Dekker said, ‘she won’t find out.’
Richter turned to Lacomte. ‘How’s this? The lorries proceed as we’ve just discussed. Your vehicle can be positioned on the hard shoulder to the east of the ambush site, well out of the way, with the bonnet open as if you’ve had a breakdown. We position the SAS van at the ambush site, slewed sideways across the right-hand lane, so that it looks as if it’s been involved in an accident. Lieutenant Erulin’s Trafic can be parked on the hard shoulder just behind it, blue lights flashing. The hazard warning lights on both vehicles should be switched on, warning triangles displayed, and a line of cones placed so that traffic is forced into the outside lane.’ Richter paused. ‘Just a normal, daily, minor accident on the autoroute.’
‘That should work,’ said Lacomte. ‘Any criticisms or suggestions?’
‘Only one,’ Tony Herron said. ‘We won’t need the rescue vehicles or any of the other personnel we were going to use for the big accident, so I suggest you withdraw them. The less friendly bodies there are out there the better, in my opinion.’
Lacomte nodded, turned to the radio operators and began issuing detailed instructions as everyone else climbed out of the van. Dekker nodded to Erulin and they walked off together, still discussing their force dispositions. After a couple of minutes the SAS officer came back. ‘Right,’ he said. ‘I think we have agreement. Erulin will position seven of his men on this side of the autoroute, at about one-hundred-metre intervals, and the other three on the south side of the central reservation, closer to where we’ll park the Transit.’
Tony Herron interrupted. ‘Isn’t one hundred metres rather wide spacing?’ he asked.
‘I couldn’t agree more,’ Dekker said, ‘and if you can show me exactly where each of the vehicles is going to stop, we’ll tighten up the spacing. We’ve got to hedge our bets. By covering nearly one kilometre with that separation we’re hoping that we’ll have at least one sniper within about fifty metres of each vehicle. The plan is that, once the vehicles have stopped, the
‘They’ll probably be seen when they move,’ Richter said.
‘A risk we have to take. What Erulin is hoping is that the convoy drivers will be looking ahead, at the two vans, and not into the scrubland beside the autoroute.’
Lacomte left the back of his van and walked over to them. ‘They’re approaching Reims,’ he said. ‘They passed the Aire de Reims-Champagne six minutes ago.’
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Fifty-five minutes later the last of the designated Army and Air Force helicopters was in position at the Pentagon heliport and on the paved terrace between the Pentagon building and the Potomac River. JEEP cardholders are specially selected military officers and civilians who are capable of running the United States during and after a nuclear war. They are required to be on permanent stand-by and in peacetime hold regular exercises to ensure that they can always get themselves to their designated collection points. There are two categories of JEEP cardholders – One and Two – reflecting the relative importance of the individuals concerned.
The first group of forty-four elite men and women, the government officials, scientists and technicians who
