Weber was aware of what Derek Jorgensen’s targets were. The last thing he needed was Washington putting in place enhanced security measures to get in his way. He knew that would be changing very soon anyway, but the next strike by Odessa would set many things in motion.
He returned to his office in the West Wing, closing his door in the face of his secretary, who’d planned on trailing him into his office. He reached into his pocket for the key to his desk drawer that remained locked when he wasn’t there. He pulled out a cell phone with security encryption installed on it. Like Ghost, he, too, sent a text. It was to Derek Jorgensen.
Remy: Sie kommen.
They’re coming.
Chapter Forty
Hyatt Regency near Levi’s Stadium
Santa Clara, California
Wagner paced the floor from one interconnected suite to the other on the top floor of the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara. The hotel was the tallest building in close proximity to Levi’s Stadium and provided him a bird’s-eye view of the surrounding area.
Like a football team that relied upon a head coach, multiple assistant coaches, and a field general, the quarterback, Wagner had picked the best available to fill the roles necessary to manage a terrorist operation of this magnitude. It would be one on a scale never seen before in history. This day had been feared by the world’s intelligence agencies and law enforcement personnel for many decades.
Despite their enhanced security measures and contingency planning, they always made one incorrect underlying assumption. They were focused on Middle Eastern or Islamic terrorist groups as the likely attacker. They’d boxed themselves into a single narrative, and they adjusted their defenses accordingly. They never contemplated the kind of professional operation that could only be undertaken with the expertise and skill of nations like China, Russia, and America.
They’d met their match with Odessa. And when it was over, they would insist they’d never rest until they found those responsible. This didn’t worry Wagner in the least because they’d be looking in the wrong direction. Just like in Azerbaijan, he’d see to that.
The sofas in the connecting suites had been moved against the walls, and the two dining tables had been brought into a single room overlooking the Santa Clara Golf & Tennis Club to the east. To the southeast of the Hyatt was Levi’s Stadium, and to the north was the deepest of the salt ponds managed by the Cargill companies adjacent to the southernmost portion of San Francisco Bay.
Hexane had sent their best cyber team from Berlin to prepare the suites to be Wagner’s base of operations. Like the ESPN television producers sitting in a portable building near the stadium, Wagner had arranged before him dozens of television monitors stacked on top of each other against the wall. Hexane had easily hacked into the network feed, providing Wagner access to all of the cameras providing footage for the worldwide broadcast.
In addition, in the other suite, Hexane had created a monitoring station for the stadium’s security surveillance system. Access to the MSA Security servers that surveilled the most technologically advanced sports venue in America was more difficult. Through their expert hackers, they breached the servers’ firewall and were able to observe the entire stadium complex through the eyes of its security personnel.
The Hexane team had additional tasks beyond surveillance. Many of the fans attending the games utilized the seventeen hundred high-tech beacons that were used to give people directions to their seats as well as sending them special alerts about concession stand promotions and security instructions. A smartphone and tablet app guided users throughout their entire experience from the time they entered the parking lot to locating the shortest line in the bathrooms.
MSA had installed an emergency alert warning system to be issued to fans in the event of a developing mass-casualty event. Hexane, upon Wagner’s direction, was prepared to disable the smartphone app. During the darkness of the halftime show, many fans in the upper levels would be unaware of what was happening at the field level. Wagner needed them held in place long enough to deploy the sarin-filled balloons over the stadium. Seconds mattered, which was why he’d put together this extraordinary team of assistant coaches, so to speak.
At the end of the first quarter, as preplanned, Wagner personally touched base with each of the quarterbacks on his field of play. These trusted operatives were assigned to take up precise positions in front of the stadium’s six primary gates. He confirmed they’d not been compromised and that there were no particular obstructions preventing them from striking their targets when prompted.
The underwater bathyscaphe was the most difficult aspect of the attack due to its timing. Wagner’s scientific team had performed countless calculations and run hundreds of computer simulations to determine when the sarin balloons should be deployed and from what angle. The winds that evening were steady and, more importantly, blowing directly from the northwest to the southeast. He couldn’t have asked for a better wind direction from which to deploy these delivery vessels.
He touched base with his snipers located on the roof of the Hyatt. The four gunmen were expert snipers recruited from the KSK after Wagner had left. The shots required of them were relatively easy. The Hyatt looked down upon the stadium, and the distance was less than half a mile. They were outfitted with MTs-116M suppressed sniper rifles made in Russia. Originally developed for law enforcement use, the rifle was highly effective at their distance from the stadium, and the ten-round magazines allowed the shooters the ability to fire multiple shots in rapid succession, ensuring deployment of the sarin into the stadium.
With respect to the halftime show itself, the placement of the fogging devices had been determined by the pyrotechnics company. He’d confirmed with his operatives they’d exchanged the five-gallon containers accompanying the Antari IP-1500 special effects foggers with