The elevator gave a lurch and began to rise with a shrill whine. Saunders stood between the safety railing overlooking the ocean and the bulk of an AgustaWestland AW101 Merlin helicopter transport riding the elevator up to the flight deck. The wind had freshened in the past several hours, raising the seas in swells and chop.
He read the dispatch as the elevator ground its way up, leaving the cavernous embrace of the hangar deck below. As Mabry watched, he shook his head, then read it a second time. 'Bollocks,' he said at last, then crumpled the message into a ball and flicked it over the railing and into the sea. 'This is a hell of a time to bring this up,' he said.
'Sir,' Mabry said. 'Is there a reply?'
'Negative,' Saunders replied. 'We're operating under radio silence, remember?'
'Sir!'
'This is just a delaying tactic, Mabry. They still want to bring the damned Americans into this.'
'Yes, sir. But… if the report is accurate, sir…'
'It is not!' Saunders snapped. 'It was demonstrated most convincingly years ago that the batteries on those weapons systems degraded without proper maintenance and storage. By now they are quite useless!'
'Yes, sir.'
'Besides, man, consider the source! A shortwave broadcast from the hijacked ship? Shortwavel When they have cell phones and computers with satellite uplinks to the Internet? This… this message GCHQ claims to have intercepted was clearly enemy disinformation, an attempt to thwart any attempt to get close to those vessels with helicopters. And certain elements within the government are using it as an excuse to delay our op.'
The elevator ground to a halt and locked with a shudder felt through the deck. The inboard safety rail dropped, and Saunders strode onto the Ark Royal's flight deck. Behind him, deck personnel swarmed around the Merlin, removing chocks and attaching cables so that a tractor could tow it into position. Four other helicopters, the smaller, sleeker Super Lynx gunships, were already parked on the deck.
The Ark Royal was small as aircraft carriers went — nothing at all like the ponderous, angled-flight-deck nuclear monsters so beloved by the American Navy. In fact, when the Ark Royal had first been launched back in 1981, she and her sister ships had been designated as cruisers for political reasons.
There could be no mistaking the old girl's true design and purpose today, though. Her 183-meter flight deck with its characteristic ski-jump bow ramp for Harrier takeoffs was crowded with the readied gunships and a number of Sea Harriers; deck personnel swarmed everywhere in their color-coded jerseys, readying aircraft for Harrow Storm.
Saunders felt a surge of pride. Damn the politicians! He and his men were about to make bloody history!
And those damned terrorists were never going to know what hit them.
'Attention, passengers and crew of the Atlantis Queen' Khalid said, speaking into the PA system handset. 'The governments of the United States and of Great Britain have continued to trample the rights of the Muslim peoples of the world, to wage war against us in unending crusade, to insult our holy faith, to silence our voice, and to rape our sovereign nations of our natural resources. We are fighting back. It is time now to inform you all that the Atlantis Queen has been commandeered by fighters in the service of Allah and of world jihad. I am Amir Yusef Khalid of the Islamic Jihad International, and all of you are my hostages until the governments of Great Britain and the United States of America surrender to our demands.'
Khalid sat in the captain's chair, delivering his speech. It was amazing, he thought, that he'd been able to go this long without making this announcement, his men hiding in plain sight, as it were, as they seized the ship right under the noses of most of the civilians on board. Westerners, it was quite true, were sheep, easily misdirected, easily herded, easily managed.
Even so, it wouldn't do to underestimate them. Now that he'd transmitted his demands to the Western media, now that news of the double hijacking was appearing on every TV screen in the West, it would only be a matter of time before friends and family of the hostages ashore would begin trying to reach them. Haqqani had disabled the electronics that relayed cell-phone calls and Internet connections to and from the passengers — only on the bridge could they still get CNN — but he could do nothing about direct satellite links, rented satellite phones, and the like.
They'd discussed that possibility in their final planning session, in that dark and filthy cave in Pakistan months ago when Operation Zarqawi had first been conceived. During the al-Qaeda attack on New York and Washington, passengers on board the hijacked aircraft had learned what was happening from people on the ground. In particular, the passengers on Flight 93 had learned of the World Trade Center attacks long before the hijackers could reach Washington, D. C., and the passengers' interference had forced the airliner to crash far short of its goal.
That would not happen this time.
'If all of you remain calm and do what you are told,' he continued, 'no harm will come to you. When Great Britain and America accede to our demands, as they must, we shall depart this ship and all of you will be free to go home.
'However, to guarantee your good behavior and to keep you out of our way, some one hundred passengers and crew members have been taken to a separate pa'rt of the ship and are being held there under guard. They are unharmed, and are being well cared for. I've given orders that they be untied and given mattresses, that they be taken to the toilet facilities in small groups, that they be given food from the galley. If at any time, however, any one of you decides to 'play the hero,' as the Americans like to say, if any of you attempts to interfere with our operation in any way, we shall begin shooting them one at a time in a public place to enforce compliance.
'The rest of you may move around as you wish. I recommerfd that you stay in your staterooms most of the time, but you may go to the restaurants and other public areas on board as you usually do. Exceptions are the mall area on the First Deck, the theater on the First and Second Decks forward, the Promenade Deck outside, and the outside pool areas on the Ninth and Tenth Decks. Anyone who enters those areas will be shot.
'Crew members will continue to carry out their normal duties. You may go anywhere you need to go in the performance of those duties. Exceptions are the bridge, radio room, and security areas on Decks Ten, Eleven, and Twelve, the ship's holds, the theater, and the Promenade and pool deck areas outside. Any crew member who needs to go into any of those areas in pursuance of his duties must approach one of our fighters and ask permission first. Any crew member who enters any forbidden area without permission and an escort will be shot.
'Any attempt to harm or disarm one of our fighters or to communicate with the outside world will result in the deaths of the hostages we have sequestered for safekeeping. So stay out of our way, do not attempt to interfere, and all of you will get out of this alive.' He paused, looking across the bridge at the electronic chart table. Over the past hours, enemy ships and aircraft had steadily been drawing their noose tighter.
'One thing more. At some point within the next day or two, we expect the military forces of Great Britain and the United States to make some sort of demonstration, a hostage rescue attempt. Such an attempt would be quite foolish and doomed to fail, but your governments will feel the need to flex their muscles and try to prove to us how powerful they are.
'We are ready for them. If such an attempt is made, I strongly advise all of you to remain in your staterooms and out of danger. We cannot be held responsible if any of you are caught in the lines of fire between our fighters and hostile forces attempting to board this ship. Any attempt to interfere with our defense of these vessels, or to help an enemy boarding party in any way, or to communicate with them will result in your death and in the death of all of the hostages.
'We shall continue to address you with updates on the situation as necessary. In the meantime, stay out of our way!'
And now, Khalid thought, for the next inevitable step..
'Yes, Dr. Bing,' Rubens said into the telephone receiver. 'We've seen it.'
A wooden panel on his office wall had been opened, revealing a line of six TV monitors. All were on, now, showing the ongoing news from two CNN feeds, plus FOX, CNBC, and the major networks. One monitor now was showing a replay of the shaky footage from the Atlantis Queen, broadcast at just past eight that morning, Eastern Time. The others all showed talking heads. 'It's been playing on every news channel since the transmission came through this morning,' Bing said at the other end of the line. 'God. CNBC already has a fancy computer-graphic logo for their special news bulletin up and running.'
