by Jack Higgins
“The elections will be called off because of the crisis,” said Rich, “and King Hassan will have to throw out the Americans.”
“That’s only two out of three of Ali’s goals,” said Jade.
“The third comes easily enough. After the blast, Ali will insist on imposing martial law. And he’s head of the armed forces. Hassan may cling to power for a while, but he’ll be finished. He invited the Americans in, remember. Then he showed weakness by planning the elections. The generals who aren’t already on Ali’s side will soon come over to him. It’ll be a coup in all but name.”
“And thousands of people will die,” said Jade.
“Tens of thousands. Unless we find the bomb before it goes off.”
“No pressure then,” said Jade.
Rich nodded. “Let’s just hope it doesn’t go off while we’re there looking for it.”
“I guess the situation couldn’t be much worse,” agreed Jade.
“That’s why you’re not staying,” Dad told her.
Jade didn’t answer. She looked at Rich, and he nodded slightly. This was a discussion they could save for later.
Their helicopter was coming in to land at the edge of one of the runways on the airbase. Huge transport planes were lined up off to one side. The angular nose of a B-2 Stealth Bomber was poking out of a nearby hanger. A Jeep bumped rapidly over the grass towards the helicopter as it touched down.
Inside the Jeep, Jade was surprised to see Chuck White and Kate Hunter, back in their business suits despite the heat, and wearing their dark glasses.
“Looks like they’re on duty,” she said. She meant it as a joke.
But Chance didn’t look like he was joking. “Then the situation just got a whole lot worse,” he said.
“We’ve organised a search of the base,” said Chuck White, as soon as they were in a private briefing room in the main admin block.
“As few people as possible know what’s really going on,” Kate Hunter explained. “But we’re on a tight schedule. We can’t afford to delay or change what’s going on.”
“How long do we have?” asked Chance.
“Nine hours,” said Chuck.
“Nine hours till the bomb goes off?” said Jade. “How do you know?”
“We don’t,” Kate told her. “But nine hours is how long we have to find it and neutralise the threat. Otherwise…” She blew out a long breath.
“I have a team of agents coordinating things from here,” Chuck went on. “The best thing you guys can do is probably get the hell out of here.”
“Can’t we help?” said Rich. “We want to stop this as much as you do.”
“It’s our job now,” Kate told him.
“Darrow is British,” said Jade, “and the threat is to the people of East Araby, even if this is a US base. You could evacuate everyone.”
“Not an option,” said Chuck. “Like Kate told you, we’re on a tight schedule. Any change now, and Crown Prince Ali’s propaganda guys will have a field day. They’ll say that the King is in an untenable position, and the US President is a weak-minded coward.”
“What’s the President got to do with this?” asked Rich, confused. “He’s safe and sound in Washington, isn’t he? I mean, he agrees the funding and aid I suppose, but…” His voice tailed off as he remembered something that Dex had told him when they first met Chuck.
“What is it?” said Jade.
Rich was looking straight at Chuck. “You’re not anything to do with the CIA, are you? Dex told us that. Dad too.”
“That’s right,” said Chuck quietly.
“So what?” said Jade. “They’re National Security or whatever. What difference does it make?”
Rich shook his head. “You’re Secret Service, aren’t you? For some reason you thought Darrow was a threat even before all this.”
“You’ve got a bright kid there, John,” said Chuck.
“But the Secret Service,” said Jade, “don’t they just protect the President?”
“Two smart kids,” said Kate.
Dad was nodding. “Which means?” he prompted them quietly.
“Nine hours,” Jade realised. “The President of the United States is arriving here in nine hours?”
“To show support for the elections. He won’t back off, he won’t change his plans,” Chuck told them. “If he cancels now and the press gets wind of it, it’ll look like he’s abandoning King Hassan, and the elections will lose all credibility. And if we announce that there’s a problem and explain what it is, well, that’s as good as surrendering to Prince Ali’s faction.”
“Which means,” said Kate, “that we have a maximum of nine hours to find a nuclear bomb the size of a small briefcase on an airbase with several hundred buildings and 3,000 personnel. Or else we risk the President getting blown up with then rest of us.”
17
The argument was inevitable, as was the outcome. Neither Jade nor Rich was willing to leave. They both insisted on staying to help look for the bomb.
Chance tried reasoning with them, he tried appealing to them, and he tried yelling at them. Nothing worked.
Finally Jade said to him, “Are you leaving?”
“What?”
“Are you leaving, and going somewhere safe? Or are you staying here on the base to look for the bomb?”
“I’m staying,” Chance admitted.
“Fine. Then so are we,” Jade told him.
“That’s not an option.”
“An option is a choice,” said Rich. “And we’re choosing to stay. Look,” he went on quickly, “why are you staying?”
“Because we have to find that bomb,” Chance told him, “and the more people who are looking, the more chance we have of…” He stopped and sighed as he realised he was beaten.
“We’d better stay and help then,” said Rich.
“Rather than arguing about this,” added Jade, “let’s just do it.”
Two hours later, Rich was getting frustrated and nervous. He and Jade had been assigned a part of the living areas to search. There wasn’t time for a full sweep, so their job was to knock on the doors of rooms in the barracks where the US airmen lived.
If anyone was in, they showed Darrow’s photograph and asked if they’d seen him or anyone else unfamiliar in the last twenty-four hours. If there was no answer, Rich and Jade checked for signs of entry. If there were none, then they noted the address and a team would use a master key to gain access and do a check later.
If there were signs of a forced entry, then Rich and Jade were to find the nearest phone and call in immediately for a back-up team.
To get through the rooms quicker, they split up and worked independently, but it was a thankless and fruitless task, ticking off each room on a list as they checked it. Then they moved on to the next accommodation block.
It was Jade who spotted him. To Rich, it was just a distant figure— another US airman walking across the end of one of the runways. It looked like he’d just come from the main hangers and was on his way back to the main gates.
“That’s him!” said Jade. “It’s Darrow.”
“You can’t tell from this distance,” Rich told her.
“I can. I spent enough time with that creep, and it’s definitely him. Look at the way he walks, the way he’s looking round to check no one’s watching.”
“Maybe.” Rich wasn’t convinced.
“I’m sure it is. Keep an eye on him. Don’t let him out of your sight.”
“Why? Where are you going?”
“I’m going to find Dad or Ardman or someone,” said Jade.
“Or a phone.”
“We call in, and they’ll just think I’m a silly girl who’s jumping to conclusions.”
“Well…”
“See!” she exclaimed. “You think so too!”
Rich looked at his sister. Sure, she could be annoying, but one thing she wasn’t was a silly girl who jumped to conclusions. He nodded. “If you’re so sure, why do I have to wa
tch him? Why can’t I go for help and do the cavalry bit and be a hero?”
Jade sighed. “Because I saw him and if I’m wrong I’ll take the heat. And more important, I’m faster than you.”
Rich couldn’t argue with that. “OK. Be as quick as you can, and I’ll keep tabs on him.”
“Just don’t let him see you,” Jade warned.
“As if.”
Rich watched the uniformed figure that Jade insisted was Darrow walk across the end of a runway. In a few moments he would disappear among a group of maintenance and storage buildings. Rich glanced back at Jade, about to tell her he’d follow the figure. But Jade was already running towards the main administration block.
It took Jade nearly ten minutes to find Ardman, who was deep in conversation with Dex about the possible options. A white board on the wall of the office had a possible evacuation schedule drawn up. There were various timings, some crossed out. But even from a glance, Jade saw that the quickest evacuation plan would still take three days.
“You’re sure it was Darrow?” asked Ardman as soon as Jade finished speaking.
She was still trying to catch her breath from running. “Not certain,” she gasped. “But pretty sure. Maybe eighty per cent.”
“Good enough for me,” said Halford. “You go; I’ll slow you down with this damned leg. I’ll call John and let him know.”
They had barely left the building when a Jeep roared up beside them. Jade was surprised to see her dad at the wheel.
“Get in!” he yelled. “Dex tells me you’ve spotted Darrow.”
“Maybe,” said Jade, leaping into the back of the Jeep. She pointed. “That way.”
“Where’s Rich?” Chance called over his shoulder as accelerated across the airfield.
“Don’t ask,” said Ardman from the passenger seat.
“He’s following Darrow,” shouted Jade above the noise of the engine. “So we don’t lose him.”
“You sent Rich after an SAS-trained psycho-killer?” Chance yelled back.
“He’s only following him. I told him to stay out of sight and not do anything daft.”
Ardman made a point of inspecting his fingernails.
“This is your brother we’re talking about,” Chance yelled back at Jade. “And you think he won’t do anything daft?”
“What were we supposed to do—just let Darrow walk away? Rich will be all right.”
“I hope so. If Darrow spots Rich, the poor guy’s in big trouble!”
The Jeep bounced angrily across the edge of runway as Chance floored the accelerator.
Rich kept to the shadows at the side of the buildings. He’d managed to get close enough to the man he was following to see that it really could be Darrow.
“Nice one, Jade,” he murmured as he followed the figure between two brick-built storehouses.
The man paused and looked back, but Rich managed to duck into a doorway. He waited a moment, then peered cautiously round the edge of the wall. He caught the man’s profile as he turned away. His cap was pulled down low over his eyes and he was wearing sunglasses, but it was definitely Darrow.
The question was, Rich thought, did he have the bomb with him? Or had he already planted it? He didn’t seem to be carrying anything, so he’d probably already left it somewhere.
Rich hoped Jade wouldn’t be long. Once out from this mini-maze of buildings, they’d be on the main road off the base, just five minutes’ walk from the main gate.
If Darrow had a fake pass that could get him into the base, he’d be able to get out too. Should Rich follow him off the base? Would he have a car parked by the gate somewhere, or an accomplice waiting outside? Maybe Prince Ali himself would be somewhere nearby, though more likely he was miles away—partly as an alibi, and partly to be well out of the blast area…
Turning all these things over in his mind, Rich rounded another corner into a narrow alley.
The alley was empty. There was no sign of Darrow.
Rich swore under his breath, and ran to the end of the alley. He looked one way, then the other. Still no sign of Darrow. In fact, there was no sign of anyone. Just another narrow passage between two red brick buildings.
How could that happen? Rich was turning in bewilderment. He checked both ways again. The distance was just too great. There was no way that Darrow could have sprinted to the end of the passage that fast. The walls were flat and unbroken—no doorways or even windows.
It was just impossible. There was nowhere at all to hide, even if Darrow had spotted he was being followed. The passageway was only about a metre and a half wide. If Rich spread his arms, they’d touch the sides. He could probably brace himself between the two walls and climb up between them.
“Oh…” Rich felt suddenly cold as the possibility occurred to him.
He looked up.
Just in time to see Darrow braced between the two walls above his head. Just in time to see Darrow pull his feet away from one wall and drop towards Rich with the force of a sledgehammer.
The boy let out a yell of surprise as Darrow dropped towards him. But Darrow wasn’t worried. He’d just have to make this quick, in case anyone had heard. The boy was quick and he was resourceful—Darrow knew that from experience. And he mustn’t forget this was John Chance’s son.
For old times’ sake, then, Darrow decided he might let the boy live. All he needed was a few minutes to get away.
The boy leaped aside as Darrow fell, but Darrow’s boot crunched into his shoulder and sent him sprawling. He tried to get up, but Darrow was already on him. Darrow drew back his fist, but the constricted space was a disadvantage now and he couldn’t get a good swing. His elbow jarred painfully on the brickwork, and the blow landed on the boy’s chest.
It was enough to knock him down again and Darrow leaped at the kid, pinning him down with his knee as he prepared for the final punch. The kid was wriggling and fighting, and Darrow’s next punch missed altogether, slamming into the concrete paving and painfully grazing his knuckles.
“Hold still!” said Darrow.
But the kid rolled violently the other way, sending Darrow pitching sideways. He was off balance as the kid kicked out, knocking him over. Darrow’s cap and sunglasses fell to the ground.
Still, Darrow wasn’t too worried. He was stronger, heavier, faster. He leaped back to his feet, turning to face the boy.
A fist slammed into Darrow’s jaw. It surprised him more than hurt him. Then the boy lowered his head and charged. His shoulder caught Darrow in the stomach and sent him reeling, but he held on to the boy, dragging him down with him.
Somehow the boy was behind Darrow now, pinning him down with his knee jammed in his back. That was a mistake. Darrow grinned, knowing the kid couldn’t see his face, and would have no warning as he prepared to heave himself upwards and throw the kidhim off. He imagined the boy slamming into the brick wall, maybe cracking his skull against it. Darrow braced himself.
Then everything changed.
Something cold and metallic jammed painfully into Darrow’s cheek. He tried to turn to see what it was, but the boy grabbed his short hair.
“Hold still, or I’ll blow your head off.”
He sounded serious. But there was no way…Was there? The cold metal dug into Darrow’s skin—a gun?
“Don’t be stupid,” said Darrow, keeping his voice calm. “They’d never trust a kid like you with a gun.”
“Want to bet?”
Darrow laughed. He braced himself. It was a good bluff, but now Rich would pay for it big time.
Then he heard the unmistakeable click-clack sound of a gun being cocked, right by his ear.
Darrow froze.
Jade was out of the Jeep before it stopped moving.
“He was heading for those buildings,” she said.
“The main gate is just beyond, it’s a short cut,” Ardman told her. “Unless Rich managed to slow him down somehow we may be too late.”
“They’ll stop him at the gate,” said Chance.
“I hope.”
“If they recognise him,” said Ardman. He didn’t sound optimistic.
Then they all heard the shout of surprise and fear from ahead of them.
“That was Rich!” Jade was sprinting for the buildings.
There was a narrow alley between them. She was sure the cry had come from there. She raced along, guessing each turn as she sprinted through the warren of alleys and passages. Finally, she turned into a passageway and skidded to a halt in surprise.
Chance and Ardman were close behind. They, too, stopped as they took in the scene in front of them.
Darrow was lying face down on the ground. Rich was holding the stainless steel ballpoint pen he’d been using to mark their progress in the search of the rooms. He had the blunt end of it pressed hard into Darrow’s cheek.
In his other hand he was holding the metal beetle he’d won on the Hook-a-Duck game at Boscombe Heights. The one that made the annoying click-clack noise.
“Like I said,” Chance told them, “the poor guy’s in big trouble.” He walked slowly over to where Darrow was lying and drew a pistol from inside his jacket. “And believe me, Darrow, your trouble’s only just beginning.”
18
Darrow wasn’t talking, but from the air tickets in his jacket pocket, Ardman knew they had till at least four o’clock that afternoon before the bomb was due to go off. The main airport wasn’t far from the US base and Darrow would want to be well away before the explosion. The tickets, Ardman was amused to see, were booked in the name of Hilary Ardman.
It didn’t give them much time. The bomb might be set to explode soon after Darrow’s flight departed, but chances were he’d left a margin of error in case the flight was delayed. They might even have until the next day, but it was dangerous to make that sort of assumption. Whatever the case, they had a slight breathing space in which to get Darrow to tell them where he’d hidden the bomb.
Except that Darrow wasn’t telling.
“Can’t you just make him?” asked Rich on the flight back to the desert palace.
The isolated location, now securely in the control of Goddard’s team, was the safest and best place to interrogate the prisoner and make sure he wouldn’t be rescued. Prince Ali might have entire army units loyal to him, ready to move.
