by Bryan Murray
Jake and Sarah looked at each other and answered in unison.
“The CIA!”
“Exactly.”
They were all still in shock as Sharon announced. “Oh, my God! Number four is the Pentagon!”
Jake was already on the cell phone to the FBI. Peter Davies answered on the second ring.
“Davies?”
“Peter, its Jake. Big problems!”
“I’m listening?”
“We’ve got four armed stealth drones heading for DC and the targets are the White House, the State Capital. Langley and the Pentagon!”
“Oh, my God! Who knows?”
“Just you, Peter, so, you’d better call everybody, it needs immediate evacuation underground and here’s the really bad news, you’ve only got 10 minutes!”
“Christ Almighty!”
“Exactly, we’re trying to intercept them, but its untried technology and the bastards who are doing it are holed up in some type of plant here in Tennessee. Go to it!” he rang off.
Back in DC, Davies called in his assistant and they started to make rapid phone calls. In the buildings in question, it was suddenly total pandemonium.
When the news hit the White House, which was the first number called, Mulroney immediately started the evacuation to the underground bomb proof quarters with the President and his family being the first ones rushed down there.
The President was really angry as Mulroney was quickly urging him and his family below ground, surrounded by their security detail.
Stephen Parker looked at Mulroney. “I don’t believe this is happening, John,” he began. “Here we are, the most high-tech country on the planet, and yet we can’t protect ourselves from our own high tech armaments! You’d think with the billion dollars we fronted Winston they’d have figured this one out!”
“I agree, sir, we need to keep moving!” Mulroney replied as he continued to hustle the President and his family below ground.
What the President hadn’t realized was that the last thing, Ben, the designer of the Death Dart wanted, was for his ultimate targets to be able to defend themselves!
The President turned on Mulroney. “Just look at us, John, we’re goddamned sitting ducks, right here in our own country!”
Across the city, with the clock ticking fast, there were similar scenes as the security staff in the State Capital, the CIA and the Pentagon, were desperately trying to get everybody underground before the deadly attack took place. Elsewhere in the city, the rest of the population had no idea of the carnage that was approaching at the speed of sound!
CHAPTER 34
In their speeding van, Jake was getting closer to the coal plant and according to Andy’s quick calculations in the back seat they were still about eight minutes away from the pending disaster in DC.
Jake looked at him desperately over his shoulder. “Okay, Andy, its ShowTime! We’ve got to try and take over the goddamned drones!”
Andy nodded, his fingers still flying over the keys on his laptop. “Okay, guys, say a final prayer, this is it!”
He punched a key and waited for what seemed an eternity until a new window appeared on his screen. “Hot damn! We did it, Jake! Now we’ve got control of number one!”
“The one heading for the White House?”
“Correct.”
“In that case can you turn that little puppy around?”
“Around where?”
“Aim it at the command vehicle where Ben is!”
Sarah smiled. “Nice touch, Jake.”
Andy punched more keys, “No problem.”
“Okay,” Jake continued. “Get control of the other three and when you have control, try and send them in for a safe landing at Andrews Air Base in DC!”
Andy nodded. “Will do!”
Sarah was already on the phone to the Control Center. Roddy answered the phone. “Yes, Sarah, what the hell’s going on?”
“The four drones are back under our control, thanks to Andy’s genius!”
Roddy looked across at Doug and gave him the thumbs up sign. “So what can we do to help?” he asked.
“We need a cleared, safe runway at Andrews Air Base to land three of them. Can you set it up NOW?”
“Sure.” he put the phone down and dialled a number.
* * *
Inside the control module, a demented Ben couldn’t believe his ears when the first pilot reported the change of flight plan.
“What d’you mean we lost control?” he screamed
“It just happened, my brother!” the pilot replied.
“And what’s the new target?” Ben was gasping for air, seeing his whole plan starting to evaporate before his eyes.
The pilot checked. “I don’t believe this!” he gasped.
“What is it?” Ben shrieked.
“It’s coming right back at us, my brother!”
Ben looked at the screen in front of the pilot, sudden recognition setting in. “That bastard Andy!”
A second pilot suddenly let out a gasp. “It’s happening here too!”
Ben looked at him. “And where is that one going?”
“It looks like Andrews Air Force Base in Washington DC!”
The third and fourth pilots joined in chorus. “The same here, my brother!”
Both Ben and Al-Bikari looked at each other. Ben was the first to speak. “We need to get out of here fast before we get vaporized!”
Al-Bikari nodded. “I agree, at least we will live to fight again!”
Even as he spoke, they could suddenly hear gunfire out in the plant. Ben started to panic. “We must leave now!” he gasped.
* * *
On the approach road to the building, Jake and Sarah, both now fully armed, had taken out the two terrorists down the road and as they approached Ben’s parked SUV, two further terrorists appeared and started firing.
Jake and Sarah both hit the ground and Jake took out the first terrorist with a shot to the chest and Sarah also hit the second man with a head shot as he fell like a stone.
Jake rushed back over to Control One and screamed at Andy and Sharon. “Stay low, land the drones safely Andy and now that we’ve scared the shit out of Ben, redirect the first one to land back safely at Andrews with the others before it runs out of fuel, understood?”
Andy nodded as he and Sharon kept their heads down, still busy punching data into their laptops.
Jake looked across at Sarah and signalled for them to move into the plant. With a new clip in their weapons, they moved stealthily past the old coal conveyors and process tanks. When two other terrorists showed themselves, Jake and Sarah stalked each one and after further exchanged gunfire they were able to take them out. Further ahead, two other terrorists opened fire from up on a walkway above the plant, forcing Jake and Sarah to dive for cover.
Jake whispered to Sarah. “You take the one on the right, I’ll take the other.”
They quickly made a move forwards in different directions and at their second attempt, both terrorists were shot, one of them falling off the walkway to the ground below.
Up ahead they could now see Ben with Al-Bikari, David Peshar and the four pilots rushing out of the command module and heading for the higher ground at the back of the plant.
The four pilots were now carrying weapons but they were no match for Jake and Sarah. With a quick burst of his automatic rifle, Jake took out three of them and Sarah hit David Peshar who fell to the ground.
When the last of the pilots dug in to help Ben and Al-Bikari to get away, he bought them enough time to get to the upper level of the plant where the ever cautious Ben had a chopper waiting to take off with a pilot at the controls. They scrambled aboard and by the time that Jake had taken out the last of the four American pilots, the chopper was already airborne.
Jake and Sarah rushed out to the upper level and fired at the departing chopper, but their bullets just bounced off the fuselage. Jake looked at Sarah. “Damn!”
In the chopper, Ben looked down
at Jake and Sarah below, a look of triumph on his face. He reached for his cell phone and dialled a number.
Back on the ground, Sarah was already on the phone to Doug in the Control Center at Winston.
“Yes, Sarah?” he answered.
“Ben and other armed terrorists are getting away in a chopper, Doug. You need to call your friend the Base Commander at Arnold and get him to scramble a couple of F16’s. Tell him we’re working with Homeland Security under a Presidential Directive. We need to take the chopper out, is that clear? Here are the coordinates. Do it now!”
She quickly gave him the coordinates from the GPS tracking chip that was still showing Ben’s position.
“Okay.” Doug quickly went off the line.
* * *
Literally, within seconds, two of the on-duty F16’s were roaring off the runway, the coordinates for the chopper already in their attack computers.
* * *
Back in the coal plant, when Jake’s phone rang he answered. “Yeah?”
It was Ben on the line as the chopper was rapidly disappearing into the sunset.
“A very good job, Jake. You almost made it.”
Jake was calm and cool. “Oh, I don’t know. Last time I looked, your friends at JOD were running out of body bags, your plans, although very intricate, I must say, had all failed. So, thanks for designing the most lethal attack weapon on the planet, it will be a pleasure to keep using it to vaporize your scumbag terrorist whacko friends, but one thing confuses me, Ben?”
“Oh really?” Ben sounded considerably less cocky.
“Yeah, you had everything going for you, what made you do it?”
Ben paused for a moment. “I would have thought that you of all people would have understood that, Jake?”
“You would?”
“Yes, I checked you out, Jake and you know how it feels to see your wife killed by the people you trusted, so you can understand my position!”
“How come?”
“Because both my wife and daughter were killed and they called it collateral damage, a result of Israeli and American military screw ups and cover ups, so that’s why I planned my revenge!”
Jake was understanding fast. “So, that was why you got those terrorist thugs to kill Ravi Bernstein and his wife?”
“Now you’re getting the picture,” Ben replied. “The trip to Tel Aviv was so that I could finally brief my team, pretending to be kidnapped, self- inflicting a couple of cuts and bruises and killing Bernstein in the process, certainly slid by your guys without suspicion!”
“But there was a big difference between us.” Jake added.
“There was?”
“Hell yeah,” Jake replied. “I took out only the people who did it, not thousands of innocent people like you were targeting today, you hyena. People who weren’t even in office when your family were accidentally killed. People who were suddenly facing an oncoming drone, coming at the speed of sound, stealth protected, not knowing when their life was going to end.”
Ben continued to gloat. “That’s what vengeance is all about Jake. Setting this thing up was so surprisingly easy you wouldn’t believe it. You Americans are so gullible and infiltrating our key team members into the supposedly watertight security of a major aerospace giant was pathetically easy.”
Jake interrupted him. “Maybe so, Ben, but in case you didn’t notice, those same people are now also pathetically dead!”
He looked across at Sarah who was pointing to the sky and giving Jake the thumbs-up sign. He glanced up quickly to see the two F16’s zeroing in from the sun, with dead aim on the disappearing chopper.
“So, now I guess it’s the turn of you and that Arab dog with you, Ben.” Jake added.
“To do what?”
“To get that warm fuzzy feeling when you know your life’s about to end!”
“I’m confused, Jake,” Ben tried to sound victorious. “The last time I looked, I was the one getting away and you and that Israeli witch of a partner were still sitting in a dirty old coal plant!”
“I guess you’re right, oh, by the way why don’t you take a glance towards the sun. See what kind of damage an old fashioned MAV can do!”
“MAV?”
“Yeah, a Manned Aerial Vehicle! There’s still one or two of them around!”
Ben and Al-Bikari looked nervously out of the side window of the chopper, and they could suddenly see the two vapor trails of the air to air missiles heading for them. A second later the chopper exploded in a golden fireball!
Back on the ground, Jake turned to Sarah as both Andy and Sharon came to join them to check on the situation as the blazing debris of the chopper was still cascading down from the sky towards a newly harvested corn field in the foothills.
“Home run!” Jake sighed. He then looked at Andy and Sharon, a stern look on his face. “I’ve got to tell you guys something,” he began. His face suddenly broke into a huge smile. “I’d have you two on our team any day any time! You may not realize it, Andy, but you just saved the US their biggest embarrassment in history and more lives than you could count!” he gave them both a hug and then looked lovingly at Sarah. “And as for you, what can I say?”
She smiled. “How about let’s go home!”
“Amen to that!”
* * *
Back in Washington, everything had returned to normal following Jake’s call to a totally relieved Peter Davies, letting him know the incident had been averted and the culprits had been terminated. Davies then passed on the information to the senior people involved and in quick succession Jake received phone calls from John Mulroney, Andrew Grover and lastly from a totally relieved President Parker. The latter was extremely impressed.
“Once again, Jake, you and Sarah delivered when it counted. Please don’t leave town or retire, I don’t think I could stand the stress!”
Jake smiled. “No problem, Mr. President. I just wish for once we could get a nice simple assignment.”
The President laughed on the other end of the line. “Now how boring would that be, Jake?”
“I suppose you’re right, sir,” Jake replied. “But there’s one person above all who deserves the credit for making sure this audacious attack was contained.”
“And who is that, Jake?”
“A brilliant, young engineer here at Winston called Andy Bevins. Without his expertise and that of his assistant, we’d be picking bodies and survivors out of bombed-out buildings in DC right now, sir!”
The President was no fool. “How would you and your friends including this Andy fellow, his family and his colleagues enjoy a visit to the White House, Jake? The First Lady and Jeff ask about you and Sarah all the time!”
“Just name the day, sir and we’ll be there!” Jake replied.
“Great, I’ll be in touch. Bye.” the President rang off.
Sarah looked at him and smiled. “Let me guess?”
He shook his head in confirmation. “Yeah, I hope you still remember how to fix a bow tie!”
She just smiled.
CHAPTER 35
In the aftermath of the foiled terrorist attack, there were mixed reactions around the world.
In the JOD camp in Iraq, General Al-Amabakhu was not a happy camper. The investment in money and time of the senior echelon had been quite considerable and although life was cheap in the Middle East, the considerable loss of his soldiers, including his team leader Al-Bikari, at the hands of the American and Mossad security forces, had left the general with additional recruiting problems to fill the gaps.
He was also annoyed that he had spent so much time and money listening to the Israeli Engineer Ben Jacobs. As a result of allowing Jacobs to complete his devious plan, bold and audacious as it might have been, there had been an adverse backlash that had come back to haunt the JOD.
While helping to develop the deadly drone that would demolish the American leadership in one fell swoop, without them being able to retaliate, it had also given this same weapon to the American anti-te
rrorist forces to inflict their venom on the general’s own brothers in return!
All-in-all, things had not gone well and the fact that it was now known that Ben Jacobs had been a senior terrorist with JOD, this had placed the latter much higher on the American hit list than it had been before the recent attempted attack.
* * *
It was also a sad day for the mass funeral of Isaac, the security guards and the trainee pilots in Tullahoma and in the crowded cemetery, all the senior staff of Winston were there including Jake, Sarah and Steve. All the main media channels were also there.
Doug Mulgrave gave a moving eulogy speech for all the slain employees and Andy also gave an emotional speech extolling the massive contribution that his best friend and colleague Isaac had made to the outstanding technology of the aerospace giant.
“Isaac was a quiet genius,” he began. “And his contribution to the design of our special software that helped us to avoid the recent terrorist attacks, is an inspiration to all of us. We extend our sympathy and love to Isaac’s family and our gratitude for letting us share with them the life of a true friend and colleague!”
After the service, Jake, Steve and Sarah were chatting with Doug and Roddy in the corporate offices. Doug smiled at Jake. “Well, Jake, the next time I see President Parker, I’m going to thank him.”
“For what?” Jake inquired.
“For suggesting we work with you,” Doug continued. “And please be assured that on all future security assignments, we’ll be calling you guys first!”
Jake smiled. “Thanks, Doug, but I must say that it was a total revelation working with Andy. If you haven’t already promoted him into Ben’s slot, you could be making a big mistake. If I were a competitor of yours, I’d try to snap him up in a heartbeat!”
“Don’t worry,” Doug replied with a smile. “Already taken care of!”
“That’s great, I’m sure you won’t regret it. So, gentlemen, we’ve finished the security audit which seemed to highlight a few potential problems that actually came to pass, but we took care of them, so, we’ll be on our way. It’s been a pleasure working with you guys, our full report will be with you shortly and we’ll see you in DC.”
