Goliath

Sam sat there, staring down at the image on her tablet. She moved her finger delicately along the pad, adjusted the zoom of the camera, and brought up a picture of Mitchell sitting under guard at the side of an ATV. She could see that he looked less than enthused about his situation. Cardinal slid in beside Sam and took over keeping watch on the roof. He began identifying and recording his targets, while Sam moved below with Nate. She had heard from Fahimah only moments ago, and was relieved to hear that Yuri had managed to refuel the helicopter, and that they were both anxiously waiting on a quiet airstrip. She reported that Yuri was already strapped into his seat, ready to fly the rented Bell 204 Huey helicopter to their location the instant that the word was given.

  Jackson lowered his binoculars and said, “Looks like Jen is still under guard at the closest pre-fab building, and Ryan is having tons of fun being cuffed to that ATV in front of the sea container.”

  “Getting them out will be a lot harder now that they’ve been split up,” observed Sam.

  “I’m open to suggestions,” said Jackson, as he surveyed the metal fence running the perimeter of the camp, looking for the best place to try to cut their way through.

  Up above, Cardinal raised his rifle and looked through the scope, skimming over the camp for potential targets. As his sight moved past the sea container, Cardinal’s heart skipped a beat. His hand fumbled for his throat-mic. “F-folks,” stammered Cardinal, “take a look at the sea container. They’re moving a couple of devices outside and they sure as hell don’t look friendly.”

  Jackson moved over beside Sam and looked down at the image on the small tablet, while Sam focused the camera on the container. Both swore.

  “Are those what I think they are?” asked Cardinal.

  “My God, they’ve gotten their hands on a couple of nukes,” said Jackson, not believing what he saw on the screen. “By the looks of them, I would say that it’s something in the order of ten kilotons’ destructive power per bomb.”

  “Jesus, what the frig are they doing with them here?” Sam said, as she watched a bomb being placed in a trailer behind Mitchell’s ATV.

  “Sam, dig out the satphone and get in touch with Fahimah ASAP,” said Jackson, wondering if the day could get any worse.

  On an airstrip just over one hundred kilometers away, Fahimah almost fell out of her seat as the images from Sam’s camera appeared on her laptop. Her heart raced like a jackhammer in her chest. There was no doubt in Fahimah’s analytically trained mind that she was looking at two nuclear devices in the hands of Dmitry Romanov. Her hand still shaking, Fahimah opened a line to the Polaris Complex, and passed on the data for immediate analysis and feedback. She looked down at her watch and swore when she realized that the graveyard shift was still on duty. Only a couple of junior analysts would be working at the complex this early in the morning. She grabbed her cellphone and dialed Donaldson’s home phone.

  It started to ring.

  “Come on…come on,” said Fahimah, chewing on her lip.

  Donaldson answered.

  “Mike, it’s Fahimah here. I need you to open your secure Internet line this instant.”

  Less than two minutes later, Donaldson was still dressing as he jumped into his car and raced toward the Polaris Complex. Across the city, General O’Reilly was also on the move. Mitchell’s team had stumbled onto every government’s worst nightmare.

  Jackson sat there, looking into Sam and Cardinal’s faces. He had just finished outlining his plan to rescue Jen and Mitchell and was waiting for their thoughts, but neither one said a word. They were ready, and it showed in their eyes. He knew it was a risky plan made on the fly, but doing nothing until someone came to help was undoubtedly a worse option. When they nodded, Jackson knew they were all in. Jackson left Sam and Cardinal alone for a minute, while he checked the equipment in his knapsack, making sure that he had enough explosives for the mission.

  With Cardinal covering them from the top of the tower, Jackson and Sam walked downstairs and out into the cold. They stealthily worked their way down through the snow-covered rocks, to the nearest edge of the mining camp. High above them, Cardinal made his .50 cal sniper ready, and started to zero in on his targets. He knew that he had to make every shot count, if Jackson’s plan stood the remotest chance of working.

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