'What?' Payne asked, trying to focus on what was said. 'Which exit?'
Jones pointed toward the tower above them. Of all the buildings, it had the least amount of work done. Nothing more than a steel and concrete skeleton rising five hundred feet into the sky. Not even a third of its intended height. 'Up there somewhere.'
Payne glanced up. Most of the building was hidden from view, blocked by a large overhang that would eventually support the atrium in the mall. Right now there was no glass, just an empty space that opened to the heavens above. 'How'd he get there?'
'Construction elevator. No way he walked it. Snipers need to control their breathing to get a precise shot. That doesn't happen if you're out of breath.'
'So he's just sitting up there, waiting to pick us off?'
'Probably.'
'Which means he
'Probably not.'
'Then we have to leave him,' Payne said with regret. 'At this point it's all about the math. Bombs can kill a lot more people than the sniper, so we have to focus on the bombs.'
Jones nodded in agreement. 'Where do you want me?'
'Take building three. I'll warn the men, then slip around back to building two.'
Jones turned to leave, then suddenly stopped. 'Hey, Jon.'
'Yeah?'
'If you find Schmidt, don't focus on the past. Don't hesitate.'
Payne shook his head. 'Don't worry. I won't.'
46
They surged toward Mecca like a dust storm sweeping in from the desert. It started with a slow trickle, a few hundred people who left Tent City right after their required duties, closely followed by a flood of 2.4 million pilgrims, all of them looking to fulfill their hajj obligations.
Payne saw them in the distance on Pedestrian Road, the main route from Mount Arafat, as he rode up the construction elevator attached to the eastern end of Hajar (building two). The crowd's movement was like a ticking clock, for he knew Schmidt would coordinate his attack with their arrival. Thankfully, they were still a mile away, which gave Payne twenty minutes to find the explosives and render them useless.
Floors whizzed by as the open-air elevator continued to rise. One hand on the remote control and one hand on his gun, Payne slowed his ascent as he approached the top floor, more than eight hundred feet above the plaza. Before exiting, he scanned the rooftop, focusing on the corners, making sure he wasn't walking into an ambush.
'Checking roof two,' he whispered.
Every few minutes his earpiece would buzz with the latest update from his squad. So far, no luck in any of the towers. No sightings. No discoveries. No explosives. Nothing but two dead soldiers and nothing to show for it.
Time was running out.
Payne took a deep breath and sprinted across the beige roof, trying to reach the mechanical penthouse as quickly as possible. Although this building was currently the tallest one in Mecca, he was surrounded by eight tower cranes that could easily conceal a sniper. Sliding to a stop behind a stack of decorative stones, he turned back and stared at the closest mast, which rose two hundred feet above him and had a working arm capable of lifting twenty tons. Thankfully, no one was up there, but it was the type of machine that could lift a massive water tank and move it into place.
'Going in,' he whispered.
The access door was thick and unlocked. He turned the handle and eased it open six inches, just enough space to glance inside. A set of metal stairs descended into shadows. The only light was the sun, peeking over his shoulder. Time was precious, so he didn't hesitate. He slipped through the gap and closed the door. He was instantly swallowed by darkness.
Instincts told him he had nothing to fear, that Schmidt and his men wouldn't be sitting in the dark, waiting to strike. Manpower was too valuable. So Payne slid his hand along the wall until he found a switch. One flick of his finger and the room filled with fluorescent light.
Gun in hand, he eased down the stairs, step by step, scanning his path for booby traps. From there, he shifted his focus to the room itself. Equipment and supplies were scattered along the perimeter wall, nothing that posed a threat or seemed out of place. Then, and only then, did he turn his attention inward, focusing on the object that dominated the center of the room.
The water tank was the size of a small bus. Supported by steel cables attached to the building's frame, it appeared to hover in space. Payne was familiar with the basic principles of tuned mass dampers-skyscrapers sometimes swayed several feet in the wind, and TMDs were designed to counteract that, acting like a pendulum- but he had never seen one like this.
If Schmidt had filled one of these with jet fuel, an explosion would be catastrophic. Not only from the force of the blast, but also the lingering effects of the burning fuel, which would pour over the roof like a waterfall of fire, dousing millions of pilgrims, literally melting them in the streets. The prolonged heat would be so intense that the steel columns in the tower would start to melt and buckle. Couple that with the added sway from the disabled TMD and a pancake effect would occur. One floor would fall upon the next, which would fall upon the next, until the whole building collapsed in a pile of rubble. Just like the World Trade Center.
The impact and the debris and the panic and the fire would turn the Great Mosque into a war zone. No one would be safe. No one would be protected. Chaos would run rampant in the city.
It would be the worst man-made disaster in history.
Payne tried to block those thoughts from his mind as he searched the room for explosives. It didn't take long to find one. Made out of C-4, it was molded to the northern side of the tank and armed with a timed detonator. At first glance it appeared to be a simple design, one he could disarm by separating the explosive from the device, but Payne knew things weren't always as they seemed, especially in the world of munitions.
Who knew what kind of trigger was concealed?
Just to be safe, he decided to get a second opinion.
'Device located. I repeat, device located in building two.'
There was a slight delay before Jones's voice filled his earpiece. 'Location?'
'Attached to a water tank in the mechanical penthouse.'
A crackle of updates filled his ear as the remaining soldiers scrambled to check the penthouse tanks in their assigned buildings. Once things calmed down, Jones spoke again.
'Type of device?'
'C-four. Armed with a timed detonator.'
'How much time?'
Payne stared at the mechanism. 'Good question. The timer is covered in the housing.'
'Any triggers?'
'You tell me.'
Jones paused. 'Sorry, I can't see any from here.'
'No shit. I meant, what should I be looking for?'
'You're in the penthouse, right? Don't worry about mercury switches or tilt detonators. There's too much sway up (here to risk it.'
'What would you use?'
'A hidden tripwire. I'd attach it to the water tank from the back of the casing. That way, if someone removed the device, it would detonate.'
Payne looked closer and spotted everything that Jones had described. A thin green wire dangled out of the device, affixed to the tank with some kind of epoxy. 'Okay. I found one.'
'You did? Then you owe me lunch because I just saved your ass.'
'Not a problem. Tell me what to do and the falafel are (in me.'
'Do you have any tools? A screwdriver? Anything like I hat?'
Payne smiled. He reached up his sleeve and pulled a blade from its sheath. 'I have a knife.'
