She knew this was coming. She just didn’t know when and she didn’t know if she could stall him any longer. Funny, it made her think of a story her father used to tell. Of course, he told it with a thick, almost comical Farsi accent. A poor but clever man was about to face a firing squad for some unspecified crime. The king asked if the man had any final words. The man said, “If you give me a year, I can teach your horse to talk.”
The king said, “That’s absurd. Nobody can teach a horse to talk.”
The man said, “I have done this before and can you imagine having a talking horse. Think about all the acclaim you will get for such a miraculous horse. Besides, what have you got to lose? If I fail, you can still kill me a year from now. But if I succeed…”
The king thought about this and finally agreed. When the man was returned to his cell, his cellmate asked what happened. The man told him the story. The cellmate marveled, “Can you really do this?”
The man replied with a smile, “I doubt it, but three things could happen in a year. I may die, the horse may die or the king may die. I like my chances.”
“Well?” LaSalam snapped Hadar out of her daydream. She missed her father very much.
“Sorry, I’d like that very much,” she lied. “I just need ten or fifteen minutes to finish the preparation here. Once I feel we’re ready to make the new time work, we can go upstairs.”
“That’s cutting it a little close, but I suppose business has to come first.” It was what his mind said, but other parts of his body disagreed.
“It’ll be worth it,” she said, running her tongue lightly over her lips.
CHAPTER 110
BREAKING NEWS
Michelle returned to her terminal and started rapidly typing commands. She peeked over the partition to make sure LaSalam and Viktor were not looking. She brought up a program she had written herself. An image of a cellphone appeared on her screen. She typed in a few more commands and the image blinked red and then green. She had successfully cloned LaSalam’s burner phone. Now she typed a few more lines and the image of the phone was replaced by lines of code. A list of contacts came up. There were just phone numbers, no names or other information. She clicked away. There wasn’t much at all on the phone, but there were two text messages queued up, but unsent.
In the “Recipient:” line at the top of each message was one word, “List.” The body of the first message just said, “Confirmed.” The body of the second message said, “Clear.” She also saw only one SENT message to List that said, “1ET.” Obviously, the recipients would know what he meant, but she could only guess. She hoped she was right. As she peered over the partition again, she saw the Leopard approaching her. She quickly closed the program and replaced it with a map of their targets.
He looked over her shoulder. He was so close, she could feel his warm breath on her ear and smell what seemed like the residue of beer. “Is everything ready? I really would like to have a few moments with you, alone upstairs.”
She reflexively raised her shoulders to put some distance between them. “I think we’re all set.” She wondered about her parents and her siblings. With Viktor jamming their cells, she could not receive a call or a text. She’d have no way of knowing. Time was running out, and she’d have to act one way or another. “Sure, let’s go upstairs now.” She smiled, backing away from her desk.
On the front wall of the office were several screens. Most showed maps or Chinese satellite images of their targets. China was very helpful with this kind of intelligence. However, on one screen they had CNN running. Cable news would be a key to confirm the success of their plan.
As LaSalam and Hadar passed the CNN screen on their way out, “Breaking News” flashed on the screen. “Nuclear Accident in India.”
LaSalam’s face flushed. “Can we get this in the conference room?”
“Yes, but –”
He hit the OFF button on the screen. Nobody in the room seemed to notice. They were too busy staring at their own screens. He grabbed Hadar’s upper arm and squeezed hard. “Let’s go.”
They went into the small conference room at the end of the office. He closed the door and released her arm. There was only one screen and a whiteboard in this windowless room. Hadar didn’t need to be told what to do. She picked up the remote, pressed a couple of buttons and CNN came up on the screen.
Anderson Cooper appeared against a backdrop of a nuclear power plant. The crawl under the picture said, “Nuclear Accident—Narora Atomic Power Station, Pradesh, India.”
“Turn up the sound,” he commanded.
She did. “We have word from a few moments ago that there has been some kind of meltdown at the Narora Atomic Power Station located in Narora, Bulandshahr District in Uttar Pradesh, India. We’re getting more details as we speak…”
The Leopard exploded. “What! That moron.” He looked at his watch. “I know just what happened. So stupid.”
“What?” she said. “I don’t understand.”
“The field agents were supposed to drain coolant so the meltdowns would occur at 1:00 AM our time here. Uttar Pradesh is nine and a half hours ahead of us. So instead of figuring in the half hour, he used 10:00 AM their time instead of 10:30. So he went off a half hour early at 12:30 our time. These time zones are nuts. Do you know just across the border from him in Nepal, there is a fifteen-minute difference? So it’s actually 10:15 there. This is just nuts.”
Hadar was in shock. She could hardly speak. She whispered, “What does this mean?”
The Leopard took a deep breath and calmed himself. “It means, my dear, that we have proof of concept, as you scientists would call it. Our man has overheated their fuel storage area. Radiation should be leaking and it will be fatal for thousands, if not tens of thousands of people. Uttar Pradesh has over 200 million people in it. But Narora, the local area most affected, has 20,000. We should get most of them.” He smirked.
She didn’t know what to say or do. He continued. “Just imagine when this happens all over the US, India and France. It will be millions.” She actually saw some drool come from the corner of his mouth and run down his chin. He wiped it away with the back of his hand.
“So what do we do now?” she said.
“We go forward with the plan. I now have more confidence in it than ever despite, or maybe because of, this little glitch.” He looked down again at his watch. “We still have about twenty minutes. Let’s go upstairs.”
CHAPTER 111
EXFIL
Little’s cellphone rang. It was Rhonda Hanes from DOD. “A Ranger team has picked up the Hadar family near Aleppo. They are driving them to a secluded exfil point nearby, where they’ll be met by a Super-Huey Helicopter to take them out of country.”
“That’s good news. Give me a percentage likelihood of success.”
“I’d put it at ninety-five percent at this point.”
“That’s plenty good. Thank you, Captain. Please let me know when they’re out.”
He clicked off. Now to tell Michelle the good news and hopefully lockdown her cooperation. He rang her cell and it didn’t even ring. He just got a clicking sound. He tried again, same result. He knew what that meant. LaSalam had jammed cell phones in the building. It’s what he’d do. But how could he let her know? He was stuck. If he moved on the house, the plan might still go forward and they’d have no way to stop it. He couldn’t count on Frank and the geeks. So it might be down to Michelle. Little had spent five years as a profiler with the FBI way back when. So what did he make of Hadar and her willingness to do the right thing, even not knowing if her family was safe? He’d spent less than an hour with her, but he could see something in her eyes that told him maybe, just maybe, she would come through.
All he could do now was wait and think. Maybe she would send a signal. What choice did she have?
CHAPTER 112
CODE COMPLETE
“OK Bart, the vaccine code looks good to go,” Frank said.
“I don’t know how much tim
e we have. I mean do you have any idea when these guys plan to pull the trigger on this?”
“We have intelligence that we hacked that indicates 2:00 AM. But I only give that a thirty percent chance of being accurate. We’ve all seen how clever the Leopard is. That time marker could be a diversion. We have to act as if this could happen any minute.”
“Got it. I’m downloading the final vaccine code to the DHS agents’ laptops on scene at all the nuclear power plants now. They’ll copy it to flash drives and plug it into the air-gapped computer-controlled cooling systems.”
“Push a copy right away to Claudette Clouseau at the direction générale de la sécurité intérieure and Rami Patel at India’s defense intelligence agency. They’ve been waiting for it and will know what to do. Same protocol as we’re following.”
“India, why India?”
“Guess you’ve been too busy to see the latest news. A nuclear site in India blew and we’re pretty sure it’s related. We had advance intelligence about France, but nothing on India. We just missed it, but maybe now we can help them to minimize any further disaster.”
“OK, done.”
“Now we wait,” Frank said. “Our work is done for now. Since I’ve gotten used to moving at digital speed, waiting for physical things to happen is not my strong suit. By the way, according to my inventory of what DHS agents carry as standard issue, I see the laptops but not flash drives. Where’d they get the flash drives?”
“Walmart, of course.”
“Ah, I see the receipts now. Want to play some chess while we wait, take your mind off of this?”
“Sure, black or white?”
“You choose.”
CHAPTER 113
NOT FUNNY
I checked my watch. It was 12:40. My new cell phone rang. It was Monica. “Sam, how are you? I saw the report on CNN about the accident in India. Is that this? Was it sabotage?”
I stepped out of the car to take the call. “Honey, we’re not sure. But all indications are that the ‘accident’ was not accidental. It seems to follow the scenario we’re working with here. How are you? Are you OK?”
“We’re fine, just really worried. I’m sitting here with Jerry watching CNN. Evan is in the next room.”
“Don’t get any ideas with Jerry there.”
“I don’t know. He’s pretty hot. He’s so strong and good looking.”
“Not funny. You better cool your jets until I get back.”
“You better hurry. I don’t know how long I can hold out. But seriously, where are you now? What’s happening?”
“I’m not supposed to give out that information, but to hell with it. My priority is you, us and Evan. We’re still outside what we think is the Leopard’s command center. He’s inside. We have a plan, albeit a shaky one, to stop him and the nuclear threat.”
“When will you know?”
“Frank picked up some chatter that it may go down at 2:00 AM Eastern Time, but we don’t have high confidence in it. I think that’s probably the latest it could happen. I’ve dealt with this animal, and I’d bet it will happen sooner. We have two possible ways to stop it and him. Hopefully one or both will work.”
“OK. I won’t press you for more detail. Thanks for sharing what you did. I know I said it before but promise to call me as soon as you know. I mean when it’s over.”
“I promise. Listen, Little’s getting out of his car. I think we’re going in.”
“Going in? Are you crazy? You’re not going to put yourself in the line of fire. Just when I was feeling a little less anxious, you tell me this. Uhh, I can’t believe it.”
“I love you. Gotta go.” I clicked off.
CHAPTER 114
TATTOO
Hadar didn’t know if she could do this. How could she stop this madman, much less hold herself together. And her family? What would happen to them? She had to make a decision. They walked out of the conference room and Viktor approached. “Boss, is everything OK?”
“It’s actually better than I expected. We had a little unplanned test run and it seems to have gone off perfectly. So I think we’re all set. It’s everything we planned and worked for, Viktor. It’s all going to happen and the fun starts in twenty minutes. Miss Hadar is going to show me the upstairs here. I know we don’t have much time, but we’ll be back before 1:00.” He winked at Viktor. Viktor smiled back with his wolf’s grin.
LaSalam and Hadar climbed the steps of the old brownstone to the second floor. She led the way, unlocked the door to her room and led him inside. The full moon shone through the window and her pink curtains. She turned on a table lamp.
“This is very nice,” he said. He was already starting to get aroused. He removed his jacket and threw it on the bed. “We don’t have much time and as I said, I’d really like to get to know you better.”
A thousand things were going through her head. Fight, flight, scream, yell. What good would any of it do for her, for her family or all those innocent people? This was truly a nightmare. But she had to hold it together. Think. If she only had more time. “We have so little time and I would like to get to know you better too. Maybe we should wait until this is all over. I should really be downstairs to make sure everything goes well.” She backed away toward the door.
LaSalam was having none of it. “Take off your clothes,” he commanded. Then more gently, “You’re right, we don’t have much time. So please undress for me.” He smiled.
She hesitated but then removed her hijab, blouse and jeans, revealing her beautiful curves and tanned skin. “Oh, very nice,” he said. “Now the rest please.”
She removed her bra and dropped it to the floor. Her round breasts and taut nipples looked like candy to him. “That’s all you get unless you take off your clothes,” she said playfully, tilting her head and pursing her lips.
Now he was fully aroused and could feel the tightness in his pants. He slowly removed his shoes and unbuttoned his shirt. She gave a little chuckle. “C’mon, c’mon,” she said. “We don’t have much time. Hurry it up.”
He removed his pants and threw them on the floor. His thin aging frame made him look much less imposing and maybe a little sad. He felt embarrassed by the protrusion in his boxer shorts. He was both excited and tentative at the same time. “Now you.”
All she had left on were her beige silk panties trimmed with lace that narrowed almost to a thong in back. “Let’s do it at the same time.” She put her thumbs under the waistband then hesitated. “No cheating.” They both lowered their bottoms at the same time. “Now come here.” Somehow she had taken charge and he was letting her. It was rare that he was not in total control and the pleasurable sense of abandon consumed him.
He wrapped his arms around her naked waist and she put her arms around his shoulders, pressing her full breasts against him. He shivered at her touch, the softness of her skin, the lemon scent of her hair.
Behind his back, her right hand stroked the gold leaf “DuoSkin” tattoo on her left wrist. This tattoo was the ultimate “wearable” as they said in the tech world. The gold leaf was a perfect conductor that she worked on at MIT with the help of Microsoft. She stroked the tattoo and it sent a signal via bluetooth to her computer downstairs that sent the text through the Leopard’s cloned phone. It went to the List and said the one word, “Clear.” She hoped it was the right choice.
He pulled her roughly down on the bed, forcing her onto her stomach. He grabbed her rear cheeks in both hands and lowered his lips to kiss them. “So beautiful. I’m going to enjoy cuming between those cheeks.” He raised up and slapped her bottom hard, raising an immediate red welt.
“Ouch,” she cried. Then more composed, she said, “Not so rough, we’re running out of time.” If she was more traditional, she would never have said anything. She’d just take the abuse and bear it, but she was not traditional. Her hands were crossed over her head on the pillow. She stroked her tattooed wrist once more, which sent another signal. This one went to Little and just said, “Now.”
He looked down at her. He wished he had more time. There were so many things he’d like to do to her, but he needed her downstairs just in case. He paused. “I’ve been admiring that tattoo of yours, what is it? It almost looks like a circuit board.” He spread her cheeks ready to make his move. Then it dawned on him, but he couldn’t help himself. He plunged ahead.
The door came crashing down as Little and two others, in full riot gear, charged into the room. LaSalam hardly had time to turn over, before Little grabbed him, lifted and slammed him against the wall. He fell down on the floor beside his shoes and pants. The Leopard raised both hands in defense.
Little looked down at the frail man. He thought, how could he be so dangerous? “Stay right there. You seemed to have shriveled up a bit, Buddy.” Little turned to Hadar. “Are you alright?” He reached for the blanket on the bed and handed it to her.
She wrapped the blanket over her shoulders and around her torso, shivering and sweating at the same time. “I will be. He’s a monster.”
The men with Little turned their heads to look at Hadar. Their guns were still trained on LaSalam, but they couldn’t help looking. She was beautiful.
LaSalam cowered in the corner, but he noticed his assailants’ momentary distraction with Hadar. He quietly reached into the pocket of his pants lying on the floor beside him. Little shouted, “Stop right there.” The Leopard pulled out his Sig Sauer P290, pointing it toward them. He fired. One of Little’s men took it in the neck just above the bullet-proof vest and bright red blood sprayed all over the wall behind him. The man dropped to the floor. One more victim of the Leopard. Little and his remaining man fired simultaneously. LaSalam made a choking sound. Blood oozed from his forehead, but he grabbed his chest and then toppled sideways to the floor. The room was silent as everyone froze in place. Smoke seemed to rise to the ceiling. Little kicked LaSalam’s weapon under the bed and rolled him over. His eyes were blank.
Michelle rolled over and pulled the blanket tighter around her on the bed. The scent of cordite and death hung in the air. “Is it over?”
Not So Dead: A Sam Sunborn Novel Page 24
