by Tom Clancy
“Domingo, this is Colonel Nuncio and Captain Gassman.”
“Good day,” Ding said in his Los Angeles Spanish, shaking hands. Covington did the same, speaking his own language.
“Sniper perch here?” Ding asked at once, tapping the Dive Bomber. “I saw the thing from the parking lot. Some ride. Can I get Homer there unobserved?”
“We’re working on that right now.”
Noonan came in next, his backpack full of electronics gear. “Okay, this looks pretty good for our purposes,” he observed, checking all the TV screens out.
“Our friends have a duplicate facility here.”
“Oops,” Noonan said. “Okay, first, I want to shut down the cell phone nodes.”
“What?” Nuncio asked. “Why?”
“In case our friends have a pal outside with a cell phone to tell them what we’re doing, sir,” Clark answered.
“Ah. Can I help?”
Noonan handled the answer. “Have your people go to each node and have the technicians insert these disks into their computers. There are printed instructions with each.”
“Filipe!” Nuncio turned and snapped his fingers. A moment later his man had the disks and orders, leaving the room with them.
“How deep underground are we?” Noonan asked next.
“No more than five meters.”
“Rebarred concrete overhead?”
“Correct,” the park engineer said.
“Okay, John, our portable radios should work fine.” Then teams -1 and -2 entered the command center. They crowded around the conference table.
“Bad guys and hostages here,” John told them.
“How many?” Eddie Price asked.
“Thirty-five hostages, all kids, two of them in wheelchairs. Those are the two who are not French.”
“Who’s been talking to them?” This was Dr. Bellow.
“I have,” Captain Gassman answered. Bellow grabbed him and walked him to the corner for a quiet chat.
“First of all, overwatch,” Chavez said. “We need to get Homer to the top of that ride . . . unseen . . . How do we do that?”
“There’s people moving around on the TV screens,” Johnston said, turning to look. “Who are they?”
“Park people,” Mike Dennis said. “We have them moving around to make sure all our guests are out.” It was the routine shutdown procedure, albeit many hours off in time.
“Get me some coveralls . . . but I still have to pack my rifle. You have mechanics here?”
“Only about a thousand,” the park manager replied.
“Okay, then that’s what I am, toolbox and all. You have the rides running?”
“No, they’re all shut down.”
“The more things moving, the more they have to watch,” Sergeant Johnston told his boss.
“I like it,” Chavez agreed, looking up at Clark.
“So do I. Mr. Dennis, turn them all on, if you would, please.”
“They have to be started up individually. We can turn them off from here by killing the power, but we can’t turn them on from this position.”
“Then get your people out to do it. Sergeant Johnston will go with your man to the ’coaster. Homer, set up there. Your mission is to gather information and get it to us. Take the rifle and get zeroed.”
“How high will I be?”
“About one hundred forty meters above the ground.”
The sniper reached in his pocket for a calculator and switched it on to make sure it worked. “Fair enough. Where do I change?”
“This way.” The engineer led him out the door and across the hall to an employee dressing room.
“A perch on the other side?” Covington asked.
“Here’s a good one,” Dennis answered. “The virtual reality building. Not anywhere near as high, but direct line of sight to the castle.”
“I’ll put Houston there,” Covington said. “His leg’s still bothering him.”
“Okay, two sniper-observers plus the TV cameras give us pretty good visual coverage of the castle,” Clark said.
“I need to take a leader’s recon to figure the rest out,” Chavez said. “I need a diagram with the camera positions marked on it. So does Peter.”
“When’s Malloy get here?” Covington asked.
“Another hour or so. He’ll have to gas up when he lands. After that, endurance on the chopper is about four hours, figure thirty minutes’ cycle time when he touches down.”
“How far can the cameras see, Mr. Dennis?”
“They cover the parking lot this way pretty good, but not the other side. They could do better with people on top of the castle.”
“What do we know about their equipment?”
“Just the guns. We have that on tape.”
“I want to see those,” Noonan put in. “Right now, if possible.”
Things started moving then. Chavez and Covington got their park maps—they used the same ones sold to park guests, with the camera positions hand-marked with black sticky-dots stolen from a secretary. An electric cart—actually a golf cart—met them out in the corridor and whisked them outside, then back into the park on a surface road. Covington navigated from the map, avoiding camera positions as they made their way along the back-lot areas of Worldpark.
Noonan ran the three videotapes that showed the terrorists own takedown operation. “Ten of ’em, all right, all male, most of them are bearded, all wearing white hats when they executed their attack. Two look like park employees. We have any information on them?”
“Working on it,” Dennis replied.
“You fingerprint them?” Noonan asked, getting a negative head-shake as an answer. “How about photographs?”
“Yes, we all have photo-ID passes to get in.” Dennis held up his.
“That’s something. Let’s get that off to the French police PDQ.”
“Mark!” Dennis waved to his personnel boss.
“We should have gotten uniforms,” Covington said topside.
“Yeah, haste makes waste, doesn’t it, Peter?” Chavez was peering around a corner, smelling the food from the concession stand. It made him a little hungry. “Getting in there’s going to be fun, man.”
“Quite,” Covington agreed.
The castle certainly looked real enough, over fifty meters square and about the same in height. Mainly it was empty space, the blueprints had told them, but there were both a staircase and elevator to the flat roof, and sooner or later the bad guys would put someone there, if they had half a brain amongst them. Well, that was the job for the snipers. Homer Johnston and Sam Houston would have fairly easy direct shots, four hundred meters from one side and a mere one-sixty or so from the other.
“How big do those windows look to you?”
“Big enough, Ding.”
“Yeah, I think so, too.” And already a plan was coming together in the two minds. “I hope Malloy is well rested.”
Sergeant Homer Johnston, now wearing park coveralls over his ninja suit, popped out of the ground fifty meters from the Dive Bomber. The ride was even more intimidating this close. He walked toward it, escorted by a park employee who was also a ride operator for this attraction.
“I can take you to the top and stop the car there.”
“Great.” It sure looked like a long way to climb, even though there were regular steps heading up. They walked under the canopied entrance, past the crowd-control bars, and Johnston sat in the lead seat on the right side, his gun case on the seat next to his. “Go,” he told the operator. The ride up the first hill was slow—deliberately so, designed that way to scare the bejeebers out of the riders, and that gave Johnston another insight into the mind of a terrorist, he thought with a wry smile. The gang of ten three-seat cars stopped just at the crest. Johnston wriggled out, taking his gun case with him. This he set in an equipment bay, opening it to extract a rubber mat, and a ghillie blanket to drape over himself. Last came his rifle and binoculars. He took his time, setting the mat down—the decki
ng here was perforated steel, and lying there would soon become uncomfortable. He deployed the blanket atop his prone frame. It was essentially a light fishing net covered with green plastic leaves, whose purpose was to break up his outline. Then he set up his rifle on its bipod, and took out his green-plastic-coated binoculars. His personal radio microphone dangled in front of his lips.
“Rifle Two-One to command.”
“This is Six,” Clark responded.
“Rifle Two-One in place, Six. I have a good perch here. I can see the whole roof of the castle and the doors to the elevator and stairwell. Good line of sight to the back, too. Not a bad spot, sir.”
“Good. Keep us posted.”
“Roger that, boss. Out.” Sergeant Johnston propped himself up on his elbows and watched the area through his 7×50 binoculars. The sun was warm. He’d have to get used to that. Johnston thought for a moment and reached for his canteen. Just then the car he’d ridden up wheeled forward and then dropped from sight. He heard the steel overhead wheels roll along the metal tubing and wondered what it was like to ride the damned thing. Probably right up there with skydiving, something he knew how to do, but didn’t much care for, airborne-ranger training or not. There was something nice about having your fucking feet on the fucking ground, and you couldn’t shoot a rifle while falling through the air at a hundred-thirty knots, could you? He directed his binoculars at a window . . . they were flat on the bottom but curved into a point at the top, like in a real castle, and made of clear glass segments held together with leaded strips. Maybe hard to shoot through, he thought, though getting a shot at this angle would not be easy . . . no, if he got a shot, he’d have to take it on someone outside. That would be easy. He got behind the rifle scope and punched the laser-rangefinder button, selecting the middle of the courtyard as his point of aim. Then he punched a few numbers into his calculator to allow for the vertical drop, came up with an adjusted range setting, and turned the elevation knob on the scope the right number of clicks. The direct line of sight was three hundred eighty-nine meters. Nice and close if he had to take a shot.
“Yes, Minister,” Dr. Bellow said. He was sitting in a comfortable chair—Mike Dennis’s—and staring at the wall. There was now a pair of photographs for him to stare at—they were unknowns, because Tim Noonan didn’t have them in his computer, and neither the French nor the Spanish police had turned either into a name with a history attached. Both had apartments a few miles away, and both were being thoroughly tossed now, and phone records checked as well, to see where they’d called.
“They want this Jackal fellow out, do they?” the French Minister of Justice asked.
“Along with some others, but he would seem to be their primary objective, yes.”
“My government will not negotiate with these creatures!” the Minister insisted.
“Yes, sir, I understand that. Giving over the prisoners is generally not an option, but every situation is different, and I need to know what leeway, if any, you will give me as a negotiating position. That could include taking this Sanchez guy out of prison and bringing him here as . . . well, as bait for the criminals we have surrounded here.”
“Do you recommend that?” the Minister asked.
“I am not sure yet. I haven’t spoken with them, and until I do I cannot get a feel for what they’re all about. For the moment, I must assume that we are dealing with serious, dedicated people who are willing to kill hostages.”
“Children?”
“Yes, Minister, we must consider that a real threat,” the doctor told him. That generated a silence that lasted for a full ten seconds by the wall clock Bellow was staring at.
“I must consider this. I will call you later.”
“Thank you, sir.” Bellow hung up the phone and looked up at Clark.
“So?”
“So, they don’t know what to do. Neither do I yet. Look, John, we’re up against a number of unknowns here. We do not know much about the terrorists. No religious motivation, they’re not Islamic fundamentalists. So I can’t use religion or God or ethics against them. If they’re ideological Marxists, they’re going to be ruthless bastards. So far they haven’t been really communicative. If I can’t talk to them, I got bupkis.”
“Okay, so, what’s our play?”
“Put ’em in the dark for starters.”
Clark turned: “Mr. Dennis?”
“Yes?”
“Can we cut the electricity to the castle?”
“Yes,” the park engineer answered for his boss.
“Do it, doc?” John asked Bellow, getting a nod. “Okay, pull the plug now.”
“Fair enough.” The engineer sat at a computer terminal and worked the mouse to select the power-control program. In a few seconds, he isolated the castle and clicked the button to turn their electricity off.
“Let’s see how long this takes,” Bellow said quietly.
It took five seconds. Dennis’s phone rang.
“Yes?” the park manager said into the speakerphone.
“Why did you do that?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean. The lights went off.”
Dr. Bellow leaned over the speaker. “I am Dr. Bellow. Who am I talking to?”
“I am One. I am in control of Worldpark. Who are you?”
“My name is Paul Bellow, and I have been asked to speak with you.”
“Ah, you are the negotiator, then. Excellent. Turn the lights back on immediately.”
“Before we do that,” Bellow said calmly, “I would like to know who you are. You have my name. I do not have yours.”
“I told you that. I am One. You will call me Mr. One,” the voice replied evenly, devoid of excitement or anger.
“Okay, Mr. One, if you insist, you can call me Paul.”
“Turn the electricity back on, Paul.”
“In return for which you will do what, Mr. One?”
“In return for which I will abstain from killing a child—for the moment,” the voice added coldly.
“You do not sound like a barbarian, Mr. One, and the taking of a child’s life is a barbaric act—and also one calculated to make your position more difficult, not less so.”
“Paul, I have told you what I require. Do it immediately.” And then the line went dead.
“Oh, shit,” Bellow breathed. “He knows the playbook.”
“Bad?”
Bellow nodded. “Bad. He knows what we’re going to try to do, on my side, I mean.”
“Andre,” René called from his desk. “Select a child.”
He’d already done that, and pointed to the little Dutch girl, Anna, in her wheelchair, wearing her special-access button. René nodded his approval. So, the other side had a physician talking to him. The name Paul Bellow meant nothing to him, but the man would be a Spanish psychiatrist, probably one experienced or at least trained in negotiations. His job would be to weaken their resolve, ultimately to get them to surrender and so condemn themselves to life in prison. Well, he’d have to see about that. René checked his watch and decided to wait ten minutes.
Malloy eased back on the cyclic control, flaring his helicopter for landing where the fuel truck was parked. There were five soldiers there, one of them waving orange-plastic wands. In another few seconds, the Night Hawk touched down. Malloy killed the engines, and watched the rotor slow as Sergeant Nance opened the side door and hopped out.
“Time for some crew rest?” Lieutenant Harrison asked over the intercom.
“Right,” Malloy snorted, opening his door to climb down. He walked to what looked like an officer standing a few yards away, answering his salute when he got there to shake hands. Malloy had an urgent request to make.
“The trick will be to get close enough,” Covington said.
“Yeah.” Chavez nodded. They’d circulated carefully to the other side of the castle now. They could hear the Dive Bomber ride running behind them. There was a good forty meters of open ground all around the cast
le, doubtless planned by the main architect of the park to give the structure primacy of place. It did that, but it didn’t give Ding and Peter much to work with. Both men took their time, examining everything from the little man-made streams to the bridges over them. They could see the windows into the command center where the terrorists were, and the line of sight was just too damned good, even before they considered the task of racing up the interior stairs—and those were probably covered by men with guns.
“They don’t make it easy for us, do they?” Covington observed.
“Well, that’s not their job, is it?”
“How’s the recon going?” Clark asked over the encrypted radio circuit.
“Pretty well done, Mr. C,” Chavez replied. “Malloy in yet?”
“Just landed.”
“Good, ’cuz we’re gonna need him if we gotta go in.”
“Two groups, up and down,” Covington added. “But we need something to tell us about that room.”
The Spanish officer, an army major, nodded instant agreement and waved to some people in the helicopter hangar. They trotted over, got their orders, and trotted back. With that done, Malloy headed to the hangar, too. He needed a men’s room. Sergeant Nance, he saw, was heading back with two thermos jugs. Good man, the Marine thought, he knew how important coffee was at a time like this.
“That camera is dead. They shot it out,” Dennis said. “We have a tape of him doing it.”
“Show me,” Noonan commanded.
The layout of the room was not unlike this one, Tim Noonan saw in the fifty seconds of tape they had. The children had been herded to the corner opposite the camera. Maybe they’d even stay there. It was not much, but it was something. “Anything else? Audio systems in the room, a microphone or something?”
“No,” Dennis replied. “We have phones for that.”
