songs would be written and sung about this exploit, no pints hoisted to his name in the pubs of Ulster… and what was left to him was inglorious death… life, in prison or not, was preferable to that sort of death.
Timothy Dennis O'Neil turned to look at his fellow PIRA soldiers and saw the same expression that they saw on his face. Without a spoken agreement, they all nodded. O'Neil safed his rifle and set it on the floor. The others did the same.
Bellow walked over to them to shake their hands.
'Six to Vega, move in now!' Clark called, seeing the picture on the small black-and-white screen.
Oso Vega moved quickly around the corner, his MP-10 up in his hands. There they were, standing with the doc. Tomlinson and Bates pushed them, not too roughly, against the wall. The former covered them while the latter patted them down. Seconds later, two uniformed policemen came in with handcuffs and, to the amazement of the soldiers, read them their legal rights. And just that easily and quietly, this days fighting was over.
CHAPTER 29
The day hadn't ended for Dr. Bellow. Without so much as a drink of water for his dry throat, he hopped into a green-painted British Army truck for the trip back to Hereford. It hadn't ended for those left behind either.
'Hey, baby,' Ding said. He'd finally found his wife outside the hospital, surrounded by a ring of SAS troopers.
Patsy ran the ten steps to him and hugged her husband as tightly as her swollen abdomen allowed.
'You okay?'
She nodded, tears in her eyes. 'You?'
'I'm fine. It was a little exciting there for a while-and we have some people down, but everything's under control now.'
'One of them-somebody killed him, and-'
'I know. He was pointing a weapon at you, and that's why he got himself killed.' Chavez reminded himself that he owed Sergeant Tomlinson a beer for that bit of shooting-in fact, he owed him a lot more than that, but in the community of warriors, this was how such debts were paid. But for now, just holding Patsy in his arms was as far as his thinking went. Tears welled up in his eyes. Ding blinked them away. That wasn't part of his machismo self-image. He wondered what damage this day's events might have had on his wife. She was a healer, not a killer, and yet she'd seen traumatic death so close at hand. Those IRA bastards! he thought. They'd invaded his life, and attacked noncombatants, and killed some of his team members. Somebody had fed them information on how to do it. Somewhere there was an information leak, a bad one, and finding it would be their first priority.
'How's the little guy?' Chavez asked his wife.
'Feels okay, Ding. Really. I'm okay,' Patsy assured him.
'Okay, baby, I have to go do some things now. You're going home.' He pointed to an SAS trooper and waved him over. 'Take her back to the base, okay?'
'Yes, sir,' the sergeant replied. Together they walked her to the parking lot. Sandy Clark was there with John, also hugging and holding hands, and the smart move seemed to be to take them both to John's quarters. An officer from the SAS volunteered, as did a sergeant to ride shotgun, which in this case was not a rhetorical phrase. As usual, once the horse had escaped from the barn, the door would be locked and guarded. But that was a universal human tendency, and in another minute both women were being driven off, a police escort with them as well.
'Where to, Mr. C?' Chavez asked.
'Our friends were taken to the base hospital. Paul is there already. He wants to interview Grady-the leader - when he comes out of surgery. I think we want to be there for that.'
'Roger that, John. Let's get moving.'
Popov was most of the way back to London, listening to his car radio. Whoever was briefing the media knew and talked too much. Then he heard that the leader of the IRA raiders had been captured, and Dmitriy's blood turned to ice. If they had Grady, then they had the man who knew who he was, knew his cover name, knew about the money transfer, knew too damned much. It wasn't time for panic, but it was damned sure time for action.
Popov checked his watch. The banks werestill open. He lifted his cell phone and called Bern. In a minute, he had the correct bank officer on the line and gave him the account number, which the officer called up on his computer. Then Popov gave him the transaction code, and ordered the funds transferred into another account. The officer didn't even express his disappointment that so much money was being removed. Well, the bank had plenty of deposits, didn't it? The Russian was now richer by over five million dollars, but poorer in that the enemy might soon have his cover name and physical description. Popov had to get out of the country. He took the exit to Heathrow and ended up at Terminal Four. Ten minutes later, having returned his rental car, he went in and got the last first- class ticket on a British Airways flight to Chicago. He had to hurry to catch the flight, but made it aboard, where a pretty stewardess conveyed him to his seat, and soon thereafter the 747 left the gate.
'That was quite a mess,' John Brightling observed, muting the TV in his office. Hereford would lead every TV newscast in the world.'They were unlucky,' Henriksen replied. 'But those commandos are pretty good, and if you give them a break, they'll use it. What the hell, four or five of them went down. Nobody's ever pulled that off against a force like this one.'
Brightling knew that Bill's heart was divided on the mission. He had to have at least some sympathy with the people he'd helped to attack. 'Fallout?'
'Well, if they got the leader alive, they're going to sweat him, but these IRA guys don't sing. I mean, they never sing. The only pipeline they could possibly have to us is Dmitriy, and he's a pro. He's moving right now, probably on an airplane to somewhere if I know him. He's got all sorts of false travel documents, credit cards, IDs. So, he's probably safe. John, the KGB knew how to train its people, trust me.'
'If they should get him, would he talk?' Brightling asked.
'That's a risk. Yes, he might well spill his guts,' Henriksen had to admit. 'If he gets back, I'll debrief him on the hazards involved…'
'Would it be a good idea to… well… eliminate him?'
The question embarrassed his boss,Henriksen saw, as he prepared a careful and honest answer: 'Strictly speaking, yes, but there are dangers in that, John. He's a pro. He probably has a mailbox somewhere.' Seeing Brightling's confusion, he explained, 'You guard against the possibility of being killed by writing everything down and putting it in a safe place. If you don't access the box every month or so, the information inside gets distributed according to a prearranged plan. You have a lawyer do that for you. That is a big risk to us, okay? Dead or alive. he can burn us, and in this case, it's more dangerous if he's dead.' Henriksen paused. 'No, we want him alive - and under our control, John.'
'Okay, you handle it, Bill.' Brightling leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. They were too close now to run unnecessary risks. Okay, the Russian would be handled, put under wraps. It might even save Popov's life hell, he thought, it would save his life, wouldn't it? He hoped that the Russian would be properly appreciative. Brightling had to be properly appreciative, too. This Rainbow bunch was crippled now, or at least badly hurt. It had to be. Popov had fulfilled two missions, he'd helped raise the world's consciousness about terrorism, and thus gotten Global Security its contract with the Sydney Olympics. and then he'd helped sting this new counterterror bunch, hopefully enough to take them out of play. The operation was now fully in place and awaited only the right time for activation.
So close, Brightling thought. It was probably normal to have the jitters at moments like this. Confidence was a thing of distance. The farther away you were, the easier it was to think yourself invincible, but then you got close and the dangers grew with their proximity. But that didn't change anything, did it? No, not really. The plan was perfect. They just had to execute it.
Sean Grady came out of surgery at just after eight in the evening, following three and a half hours on the table. The orthopod who'd worked on him was first-rate, Bellow saw. The humerus was fixed in place with a cobalt-steel pin that would be permanent and large enough that in the unlikely event that Grady ever entered an international airport in the future, he'd probably set off the metal detector while stark naked. Luckily for him the
