And so far, things were running perfectly, Kelly thought…perhaps too perfectly.
“Bill, you still got ‘em?” Leah asked into her headset. She had been trailing Ali for nearly a mile now as the terrorist approached the outskirts of the city. The agency had operatives manning every major route out of town. Ali was headed right into their trap.
“Sure do. He’s five car lengths in front of you.”
“Roger. I’m moving closer – I can’t see a thing.” Leah veered into the left-hand lane of the thoroughfare and accelerated. She was closing in on her former ally.
“My god, he’s taking the main roads” the CT chief observed out loud in the command center.
“Man, this is gonna be easier than we thought” one of the technicians responded.
“Hmm” Kelly appeared pensive as he mouthed the sound.
“Everything alright, Bill?”
“I…I guess. It’s just that…”
“What?”
“Don’t you think this is just too easy? I mean, it’s Ali we’re talking about here, not some two-bit thug”
“Bill, Hermes will make even the best of men look like fools, I don’t care who we are talking about or what their skill level is.”
“I guess you’re right” Kelly resigned, “but I just can’t help but being bothered by the simplicity of the execution. I would have expected more from Ali. He’s one crafty son-of-a-bitch.”
“You mean lucky Ali” the technician jibed, “…his luck is about to run out - this will be over in a matter of minutes.”
“I hope you’re right, John…”
“Mark 1, he’s turning” a technician suddenly announced over the airwaves to the trailing operative.
“Shit!” Leah was able to get back to her right and follow the terrorist, but the damage was done as her car hastily rounded the turn.
“He’s accelerating – I think he made me out, Bill.” Ali’s sudden change in direction was in keeping with someone looking to evade a tail.
“Just stay on him. We’ll get our people in place, not to worry”. Some adjustments would have to be made now that Ali was deviating from the original planned point of intercept.
“Who else do we have down there?” Kelly asked one of the operations personnel in the control room.
“C.J.’s a block away”
“Good. How quickly can we get a blockade here?” Kelly asked pointing to an intersection on the map. One of the assistants spoke into a radio and immediately turned towards the CT chief in response.
“Local police will be on the scene in thirty seconds. They’ll get that road block up ASAP.”
“Okay, give C.J. these coordinates.”
Kelly now pressed the button that would automatically patch him in to his agents in the field. “Leah, ease up – the next intersection is blockaded. He’ll be pinned down. C.J.’s your trigger man.”
“Roger…damn Bill, he’s got a heavy foot” Leah announced, referring to the terrorist’s speeding car as she doggedly gave chase. “He’s gonna come flying around the bend.”
Kelly looked at the map – the road ended, and Ali had but one choice - a right hand turn directly into their new makeshift ambush.
“Don’t worry – he’ll stop. Either that, or he’ll die trying to break through…C.J., you there?”
“Yeah Bill” came the reply over the airwaves.
“He’s coming your way, pal. Another ten seconds.”
“Roger”. There were several possible routes Ali could have taken. As it turned out, the terrorist was heading right into the arms of the one who was undoubtedly most eager to crush the fleeing Udeen spy.
“Okay, here we come…” announced Leah as the two cars approached the bend. The high-pitched shrill of tires grinding against the pavement was now prominently transmitted into the Hermes center. Ali and Leah were sequentially rounding the corner; the chase would soon inevitably be coming to an end. Ali was right where they wanted him.
The car containing the Udeen terrorist abruptly came to a stop after screeching around the turn. A large truck, along with two local police vehicles, was blocking the road. Leah immediately brought her car to a standstill some fifty feet away.
“Ali, get out of the car.” The message carried as she voiced the command into a loudspeaker. The rear window of the old Pontiac she had been following suddenly shattered. Ali was firing on her position from inside the vehicle. Bullets were flying all over the abandoned street, most of them glancing harmlessly off the bulletproof skin of Leah’s vehicle. The car would provide a protective cover, but she did not dare attempt to fire back, lest she expose herself to the hail of gunfire bearing down on her position, particularly when an altogether safer option existed. Her fellow operative was nearby and waiting.
“C.J., you have a shot?” Leah screamed into her radio as she quickly made her way out of the driver’s side and ducked low behind her car for cover.
“Roger” came the reply. C.J. Muzzonigro was patiently waiting on the roof of the adjacent building when the shooting began. The plan had worked perfectly, with Ali having been flushed directly to the location Kelly had intended. They were now perfectly positioned once and for all to put an end to the man who betrayed their confidence and their country.
“C.J., green light. Take him out” Kelly ordered. It was obvious Ali would not go quietly.
C.J. Muzzonigro peered into his gunsight and brought his finger to rest on the trigger. A huge .50 caliber round was in the chamber, waiting to be unleashed by the expert marksman. Just as they had predicted, the operative-turned-traitor would never give up and it was now up to C.J. to take him out. But the operative hesitated. Ali suddenly stopped shooting and opened the car door. C.J. could see the terrorist step out of the vehicle, with his arms raised high and behind his neck in the classic submissive posture. An automatic weapon lay harmlessly on the street beside him.
It took much restraint to keep from killing the man who was responsible for so much pain and loss. But C.J. would not let revenge dominate his actions – he eased his finger off the trigger of the weapon. To everyone’s amazement, Ali was giving himself up.
“Sir” C.J. said into his radio. “Bill…?”
“Yes, I copy. Hold fire” came the slightly delayed response.
“I don’t believe it” Kelly said out loud as he witnessed the events unfolding from a terminal in the Hermes control room. The GPS signal had lead his team right to the terrorist, and a Predator drone overhead was beaming a real-time visual into Langely. Sure enough, there was Ali standing out in the open, hands positioned behind his neck. It appeared the terrorist was surrendering after all. C.J. had astutely refrained from killing the man.
“Um, sir – the GPS signal hasn’t moved.” It was one of the technicians.
“What?”
“I repeat, the signal did not move when he came out of the car.” The present-generation Hermes transmitter was accurate to within 2 meters; they should have noted the change in coordinates as the man left the vehicle.
“Zoom in, will you” Kelly ordered. Immediately, a close-up view of the terrorist appeared.
“Shit!” Kelly exclaimed as he digested the image.
“C.J., take him out!” It was Kelly. “Take him out, now – he’s got a trigger in his hand!” Kelly had noted a wire attached to the man’s right hand – it could mean only one thing.
C.J. looked through his eyepiece again, which magnified the image before him several-fold. The terrorist raised his head high, and C.J. could see a pair of eyes looking almost directly back in his direction, as if he knew there was a CTG operative with a gun trained on him from the ledge above. “Shit!” C.J. exclaimed as he focused in on the image. A wicked, satisfied smile adorned the terrorist’s face. Without hesitating, C.J. discharged his weapon, sending the man sprawling to the ground from a well-placed shot to the head.
A high-pitched clicking sound suddenly filled the command center which housed Kelly and his technicians.
&
nbsp; “Bill, they’ve got to get out of there!” The latest in the Hermes tracking systems was equipped with acoustical capability, which could be accessed through local towers whenever the recipient was within the country’s borders. Langley, in effect, had a microphone placed right at the scene; the sound they now heard was that of a sophisticated bomb, initiating its firing mechanism. Detonation would occur within seconds.
“Bomb!” Kelly screamed into the radio for all to hear. A second later, a tremendous explosion consumed the screen.
Chapter 17
“Leah…C.J….” Kelly spoke desperately into the radio for word from his operatives. He received no response from the field.
“Get a goddamn team in there…!”
“Sir, EMS and demolitions are on their way.”
“Shit!” Kelly screamed as he paced the room. “What the fuck happened out there?”
“Seems that bomb was wired to detonate when the trigger was released, sir. It was inevitable – when your man killed Ali…”
“Ali?” Kelly interrupted incredulously. “That man was not Ali. You get me Ben Goldberg. I want to find out who the hell that was!”
The close-up images from the Preditor aircraft were unmistakable. Despite the rough beard that covered much of the terrorist’s face, one salient fact was crystal clear: the man that detonated the bomb was not who they thought he was.
“Sir, may I see some identification?” the border guard asked.
“Certainly”
“Mr. Kelly, what is the purpose of your visit to Canada”
“Business”
“What sort of business, sir?”
“Government business” The guard examined the credentials, and responded “alright, go on.” Faarooq gently depressed the gas pedal, and made his way into the safety of Canadian territory. The Kelly alias was one of his favorites - a government employee for the ministry of agriculture.
The former agent rubbed his aching jaw, and squirmed a bit in his seat. His backside was still aching from when his physician had removed the Hermes device. Faarooq had correctly deduced that was how Kelly had been able to follow him into the country - how the agency had been so prepared for his arrival back on the grass of the mall. He had indeed learned of Hermes from his last day in the STAT lab, but that the device had been placed into the syringe the medical personnel had administered in the guise of a “vaccination” before his departure he had only deduced much later. A rather large and deep punch biopsy was taken, which was successfully tested for radiowave emissions and placed in a ziplock bag. The tissue sample was then delivered to another Udeen martyr as a shifty surprise for Kelly and his men.
Faarooq was one of the last remnants of what had been the most powerful terrorist organization in the world, but he had managed to escape. And he would regroup – there were still vast resources that were at the disposal of a man of his stature. He picked up his secure phone and dialed his contact.
“Dr. Simonson please”
“Yes, this is he”
“Doctor, I would like to make a purchase.” There were more ways than one to bring down the great Satan of the West.
“Who is this?”
Bill Kelly picked up two bouquets of flowers and made his way up the elevators to the VIP floor of Bethesda Naval Hospital. He noticed a familiar face heading in his direction as he strode down the hallway of the surgical floor. The man’s eyes were looking down at the floor as he walked, as if his mind were elsewhere.
“Leo” Kelly exclaimed as his scientist drew closer.
“Bill…hi” Leo responded somewhat surprised as his attention was wrested suddenly from where it had been straying moments earlier.
“Leo, how is she?” Kelly asked, referring to Leah who had been injured in the bomb blast two days prior.
“How do you think? She’s itching to go out in the field already”.
“And?” Kelly asked, noticing the ambiguous expression on the physicist’s face.
“And nothing. She’ll do what she wants to do.”
“Leo, you okay?”
“Um, sure I am, Bill. Just still a bit shook up about the whole thing. You know, in all these years, I never once had a direct connection to any attack, terrorist or otherwise. Not once. Not nineleven, not my family abroad in Israel, nothing. When Leah went down, it just hit me harder than I thought. It’s the first time terrorism became a personal issue to me. I now know more than ever why it is you do what you do, Bill.”
“I won’t stop till we nail that bastard. Don’t you worry…”
“It’s not about that, Bill.” Leo interrupted. “It’s not about revenge. It’s about freedom, security, peace of mind. When it hits close to home, the perspective – psychologically more than anything else – changes. I’ve decided to stay aboard, Bill.”
“I had a feeling you would.” Kelly answered with a smile. “I’ll call you later. There are some projects I’d like to discuss with you.”
“Very well.” The two CIA officers began walking their separate way, when Kelly turned around suddenly.
“Leo” Kelly said loud enough for his scientist to hear down the hall. As Leo turned around, the CT chief continued. “You’re wrong about one thing. This is about revenge. And it’s not over until I say it is.”
All Leo could do was shake his head. Little did he know the manhunt for Ali would involve his division more intimately than he could ever imagine.
Kelly arrived in C.J.’s room first, surprised to find Leah sitting in a chair beside the second agent. The largest of the bandages around her head was gone now, and a smile adorned her face. Both operatives appeared to be rebounding nicely from their injuries. Miraculously, the explosion had inflicted no fatalities.
“Hey boss” Leah said cheerfully.
“Hi Leah, C.J.”
“Hello Bill” C.J. answered back. C.J. was still bedridden and recovering from an operation to remove a large fragment of shrapnel that had embedded in his knee.
“How are you?” Kelly asked C.J. with genuine concern in his voice.
“I’d be a heck of a lot better if you told me you had a bead on that son-of-a-bitch”. Retribution was clearly foremost on the young operative’s mind.
“I’m working on it – don’t you worry”
“Well when I get out of here, I’ll be working on it with you, every step of the way.”
“I know. I’ve already made the arrangements. Both of you will be working with the STAT team closely on this one.”
“STAT? What do you have in mind?” Leah asked
“You’ll see” Kelly responded mysteriously. “We’ll talk more when you both get out of here. I’m still laying some groundwork on this one.”
C.J. and Leah glanced at one another, a mutual look of understanding on their face. Kelly was already working on a plan.
“Excellent” C.J. said, a wickedly satisfied smile on his face.
“Ben, you know who that man is yet?”
“No Bill, the DNA analysis isn’t back. The blast destroyed much of the forensic evidence, but they’ll be able to amplify it from what they’ve got – it’ll just take some extra time.” They had already concluded from an analysis of the surveillance data that the man in the car was clearly not Ali. Somehow, he had discovered the Hermes chip and taken action to remove the device. It had obviously been planted with this second terrorist, whom they were in the process of identifying.
“Any matches on the database?” They were comparing the man’s visual appearance with a known database of Udeen henchmen and other radicals whose profiles were stored in the Langely mainframe.
“Nothing. Whoever this was, he hadn’t been active for some time.”
Kelly nodded in thought. This was a stern lesson for them all - that just because they had decapitated Udeen, many other dangerous elements remained. There was still plenty of work to be done.
“Okay Ben, thank you. Let me know as soon as anything comes in”
“Sure thing.”
Kelly waited for Ben to leave before picking up his telephone and placing a call to the STAT medical facility.
“Hi, it’s Kelly. Yes, I want to know what samples you have stored on one of my agents – Nadeem, Ali…okay, great. I’ll need a vial ready right away …no, I’ll come down and get it personally. Thank you.”
Good, Kelly thought, there were plenty of specimens - hair follicles, serum and the like, from which they could retrieve Ali’s DNA. These sources would provide information concerning the entire genetic profile of the former operative. Now there was one more call to place, and the wheels would be set in motion.
Kelly dialed a number from his secure phone and waited. A pleasant, feminine voice answered the other end of the line.
“Hello, Fort Detrick. Can I help you?”
“Yes, Dr. Johnson please. It’s Bill Kelly.”
“Certainly, Mr. Kelly. Please hold.” After a brief wait, a smooth baritone voice came on the line.
“Hello Bill”
“Hi Andy – how are you making out?”
“How am I making out, or how is Project Sagittarius making out?”
“Both”
“Well I’m just fine thanks. The Army folks treat me real nice. And the food, boy, the food is something…” the CIA liason to USAMRIID began sarcastically, and then added more seriously “As for Sagittarius, it’s right on schedule. We just ran another series of non-human primate tests.”
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