by Tom Clancy
“You never get used to the thrill,” he was saying. “In a couple of seconds you go from a standstill to a hundred fifty knots.”
“And if something goes wrong?” the Princess asked.
“You go swimming,” Robby answered.
“Mr. Avery,” the hand-held radio squawked.
“Yeah,” he answered.
“Washington’s on the line.”
“Okay, I’ll be there in a minute.” Avery walked down the driveway toward the communications van. Longley, the leader of the British contingent, tagged along. Both had left their raincoats there anyway, and they’d need them in a few minutes. They could see lightning flashes a few miles away, and the jagged strokes of light were approaching fast.
“So much for the weather,” Longley said.
“I was hoping it would miss us.” The wind lashed at them again, blowing dust from the plowed field on the other side of Falcon’s Nest Road. They passed the two men carrying a covered plate of sandwiches. A black puppy trotted along behind in the hope that they’d drop one.
“This Ryan fellow’s a decent chap, isn’t he?”
“He’s got a real nice kid. You can tell a lot about a man from his kids,” Avery thought aloud. They got to the van just as the first sprinkles started. The Secret Service agent got on the radiophone.
“Avery here.”
“Chuck, this is Bill Shaw at the Bureau. I just got a call from our forensics people at that house in Howard County.”
“Okay.”
At the other end of the connection, Shaw was looking at a map and frowning. “They can’t find any prints, Chuck. They have guns, they have ammo, some of the guns were being cleaned, but no prints. Not even on the hamburger wrappers. Something feels bad.”
“What about the car that got shot up in western Maryland?”
“Nothing, not a damned thing. Like the bad guys jumped in a hole and pulled it in behind them.”
That was all Shaw had to say. Chuck Avery had been a Secret Service agent all of his adult life, and was normally on the Presidential detail. He thought exclusively in terms of threats. This was an inevitable consequence of his job. He guarded people whom other people wanted to kill. It had given him a limited and somewhat paranoid outlook on life. Avery’s mind reviewed his threat briefing. The enemy here is extremely clever....
“Thanks for the tip, Bill. We’ll keep our eyes open.” Avery got into his coat and picked up his radio. “Team One, this is Avery. Heads up. Assemble at the entrance. We have a possible new threat.” The full explanation will have to wait.
“What’s the matter?” Longley asked.
“There’s no real evidence at the house, the lab people haven’t found any prints.”
“They couldn’t have had time to wipe everything before they left.” Longley didn’t need much of a hint either. “It might all have been planned to—”
“Exactly. Let’s get out and talk to the troops. First thing, I’m going to get the perimeter spread out some. Then I’ll call for more police backup.” The rain was pelting the van now. “I guess we’re all going to get wet.”
“I want two more people at the house,” Longley said.
“Agreed, but let’s brief the people first.” He slid the door open and both men went back up the driveway.
The agents on perimeter duty came together where the driveway met the road. They were alert, but it was hard to see with the wind-driven rain in their faces and the stinging dust blowing from the field on the other side of the road. Several were trying to finish sandwiches. One agent did a head count and came up one short. He sent a fellow agent to fetch the man whose radio was evidently out. Ernie tagged along with him; this agent had given him half a sandwich.
“You want to retire to the living room?” Cathy waved at the seats a few feet away. “I’d like to clear these dishes away.”
“I’ll do it, Cath,” Sissy Jackson said. “You go sit down.” She went into the kitchen and got the apron. Ryan knew for certain that Cathy had warned the Jacksons—Sissy at least, since she was wearing what on further inspection seemed an expensive dress. Everyone stood, and Robby walked off to the bathroom for a head call.
“Here we go,” Alex said. He was at the wheel now. “All ready?”
“Go!” O’Donnell said. Like Alex, he wanted to be out in front with his troops. “Thank God for the weather!”
“Right,” Alex agreed. He flipped the van’s headlights to high-beam. He saw two groups of agents, standing a few yards apart.
The security force saw the approaching lights, and, being trained men, they kept a close eye on it despite knowing who it was and what it had been doing. Thirty yards from them there was a flash and a bang. Some men reached instinctively for their guns, then stopped when they saw that the vehicle’s left-front tire had blown and was fluttering on the road as the driver struggled to get the truck back under control. It stopped right in front of the driveway. No one had commented on the ladders before. No one noticed their absence now. The driver got out and looked at the wheel.
“Aw, shit!”
Two hundred yards away, Avery saw the truck sitting on the road, and his instincts set off an alarm. He started running.
The van’s door slid back, revealing four men with automatic weapons.
The agents a few feet away reacted in a moment, but too late. Barely had the door moved when the first weapon fired. A cylindrical silencer hung on the muzzle, which muffled the noise, but not the tongue of white flame that hovered in the darkness, and five men were down in the first second. The other gunmen had already joined in, and the first group of agents was wiped out without having fired a single return shot. The terrorists leaped out of the side and back doors of the van and engaged the second group. One Secret Service agent got his Uzi up and fired a short burst that killed the first man out of the back of the van, but the man behind him killed the agent with his weapon. Two more of the guards were now dead, and the other four of the group dropped to the ground and tried to return fire.
“What the hell is that?” Ryan said. The sound was hard to distinguish through the noise of the rain and the recurring thunder. Heads throughout the room turned. There was a British security officer in the kitchen and two Secret Service agents on the deck outside the room. Their heads had already turned, and one man was reaching for his radio.
Avery’s service revolver was out. As team leader he didn’t bother carrying anything but his Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum. His other hand was in any case busy with his radio.
“Call Washington, we are under attack! We need backup right the hell now! Unknown gunmen on the west perimeter. Officers down, officers need help!”
Alex reached back into the truck and pulled out an RPG-7 rocket launcher. He could just make out the two State Police cars two hundred yards down the road. He couldn’t see the cops, but they had to be there. He elevated the weapon to the proper mark on the steel sight and squeezed the trigger, adding yet another thundering noise to the flashing sky. The round fell a few feet short of the target, but its explosion lanced hot fragments through one gas tank. It exploded, bathing both cars in burning fuel.
“Hot damn!”
Behind him, the gunmen had spread out and flanked the Secret Service officers. Only one was still shooting back. Two more of the ULA shooters were down, Alex saw, but the rest closed in on the agent from behind and finished him with a barrage of fire.
“Oh, God!” Avery saw it, too. He and Longley looked at each other and each knew what the other thought. They won’t get them, not while I’m alive.
“Shaw.” The radio-telephone circuit crackled with static.
“We are under attack. We have officers down,” the wall speaker said. “Unknown number of—it sounds like a fucking war out there! We need help and we need it now.”
“Okay, stand by, we’re working on it.” Shaw gave quick orders and phone lines started lighting up. The first calls to go out went to the nearest state and county police stations. Next, the H
ostage Rescue Team group on alert in Washington was ordered out. Their Chevy Suburban was sitting in the garage. He checked the wall clock and called Quantico on the direct line.
“The chopper’s just landing now,” Gus Werner answered.
“Do you know where the Ryan house is?” Shaw asked.
“Yeah, it’s on the map. That’s where our visitors are now, right?”
“It’s under attack. How fast can you get there?”
“What’s the situation?” Werner watched his men out the window, loading their gear into the helicopter.
“Unknown—we just rolled the team from here, but you may be the first ones in. The communications guy just called in, says they’re under attack, officers down.”
“If there’s any additional information, get it to us. We’ll be up in two minutes.” Werner ran outside to his men. He had to shout at them to be heard under the turning rotor, then ran back to the building, where the watch officers were ordered to summon the rest of the team to the HRT headquarters. By the time he got back in the chopper, his men had their weapons out of their duffles. Then the helicopter lifted off into the approaching storm.
Ryan noted the flurry of activity outside as the British officer from the kitchen ran outside and conferred briefly with the Secret Service agents. He was just coming back inside when a series of lightning flashes illuminated the deck. One of the agents turned and brought his gun out—then fell backward. The glass behind him shattered. The other two men both dived for the deck. One rose up to fire and fell beside his comrade. The last came inside and shouted for everyone to lie flat. Jack had barely enough time to be horrified when another window shattered and the last security man was down. Four armed figures appeared where the broken glass was. They were all dressed in black, except for the mud on their boots and chests. One pulled off his mask. It was Sean Miller.
Avery and Longley were alone, lying in the middle of the yard. The Brit watched as a number of armed men checked the bodies of the fallen agents. Then they formed into two groups and started moving toward the house.
“We’re too bloody exposed here,” Longley said. “If we’re to do any good at all, we must be back in the trees.”
“You go first.” Avery held his revolver in both hands and sighted on a black-clad figure visible only when the lightning flashed. They were still over a hundred yards away, very long range for a handgun. The next flash gave him a target, and Avery fired, missing and drawing a storm of fire at himself. Those rounds missed, too, but the sound of thuds in the wet ground was far too close. The fire shifted. Perhaps they saw Longley running back to the trees. Avery fired another carefully aimed shot and saw a man go down with a leg wound. The return fire was more accurate this time. The Secret Service agent emptied his gun. He thought he might have hit another of them when everything stopped.
Longley made it to the trees and looked back. Avery’s prone figure didn’t move despite the gunmen fifty yards away. The British security officer shouted a curse and gathered the remaining people. The FBI liaison agent had only his revolver, the three British officers had automatic pistols, and the one Secret Service agent had an Uzi with two spare magazines. Even if there weren’t people to protect, there wasn’t anyplace to run.
“So we meet again,” Miller said. He held an Uzi submachine gun and bent down to pick up another from one of the fallen guards. Five more men came in behind him. They spread out in a semicircle to cover Ryan and his guests. “Get up! Hands where we can see them.”
Jack stood, with the Prince next to him. Cathy came up next, holding Sally in her arms, and finally Her Highness. Three men spun around when the kitchen door swung open. It was Sissy Jackson, trying to hold some plates while a gunman held on to her arm. Two plates fell to the floor and broke when he jerked her arm up.
They have a maid, Miller remembered, seeing the dark dress and the apron. Black, handsome woman. He was smiling now. The disgrace of his failed missions was far behind him. He had all his targets before him, and in his hands was the instrument to eliminate them.
“You get over here with the rest,” he ordered.
“What the hell—”
“Move, nigger!” Another of the gunman, the shortest of the bunch, roughly propelled her toward the others. Jack’s eyes fixed on him for a moment—where had he seen that face before....
“You trash!” Sissy’s eyes flared in outrage at that, her fear momentarily forgotten as she wheeled to snap back at the man.
“You should be more careful who you work for,” Miller said. He gestured with his weapon. “Move.”
“What are you going to do?” Ryan asked.
“Why spoil the surprise?”
Forty feet away, Robby was in the worst part of the house to hear anything. He’d been washing his hands, ignoring the thunder when the gunfire had erupted at the home’s deck. Jackson slipped out of the bathroom and peered down the corridor to the living room, but saw nothing. What he heard was enough. He turned and went upstairs to the master bedroom. His first instinct was to call the police on the telephone, but the line was dead. His mind searched for something else to do. This wasn’t like flying a fighter plane.
Jack has guns ... but where the hell does he keep them ... ? It was dark in the bedroom and he didn’t dare to flip on a light.
Outside, the line of gunmen advanced toward the woods. Longley deployed his men to meet them. His military service was too far in the past, and his work as a security officer hadn’t prepared him for this sort of thing, but he did his best. They had good cover in the trees, some of which were thick enough to stop a bullet. He ordered his only automatic weapon to the left.
“FBI, this is Patuxent River Approach. Squawk four-zero-one-niner, over.”
Aboard the helicopter, the pilot turned the transponder wheels until the proper code number came up. Next he read off the map coordinates of his destination. He knew what it looked like from aerial photographs, but they’d been taken in daylight. Things could look very different at night, and there was also the problem of controlling the aircraft. He was flying with a forty-knot crosswind, and weather conditions deteriorated with every mile. In the back the HRT members were trying to get into their night-camouflage clothing.
“Four-zero-one-niner, come left to heading zero-two-four. Maintain current altitude. Warning, it looks like a pretty strong thunder cell is approaching your target,” the controller said. “Recommend you do not exceed one thousand feet. I’ll try to steer you around the worst of it.”
“Roger.” The pilot grimaced. It was plain that the weather ahead was even worse than he’d feared. He lowered his seat as far as it would go, pulled his belts tighter, and turned on his storm lights. The only other thing he could do was sweat, and that came automatically. “You guys in back, strap down tight!”
O’Donnell called for his men to stop. The treeline was a hundred yards ahead, and he knew that it held guns. One group moved left, the other right. They’d attack by echelons, with each group alternately advancing and providing fire support for the other. All his men wore black and carried submachine guns, except for one man who trailed a few yards behind the rest. He found himself wishing that they’d brought heavier weapons. There was still much to do, including removing the bodies of his fallen men. One was dead and two more wounded. But first—he lifted his radio to order one of his squads in.
On O’Donnell’s right, the single remaining Secret Service agent tucked his left side against an oak tree and shouldered his Uzi. For him and his comrades in the trees, there was no retreat. The black metal sights were hard to use in the dark, and his targets were nearly invisible. Lightning again played a part, strobe-lighting the lawn for an instant that showed the green grass and black-clad men. He selected a target and fired a short burst, but missed. Both groups of attackers returned fire, and the agent cringed as he heard a dozen rounds hit the tree. The whole countryside seemed alive with the flashes of gunfire. The Secret Service agent came around again and fired. The group that had
been approaching him directly was running to his left into the brambles. He was going to be flanked—but then they reappeared, firing their weapons into the bushes, and there were flashes firing out. Everyone was surprised by that, and suddenly no one had control of the situation.
O’Donnell had planned to advance his teams on either side of the clearing, but unexpectedly there was fire coming from the woodline to the south, and one of his squads was exposed and flanked from two directions. He evaluated the new tactical situation in an instant and started giving orders.
Ryan watched in mute rage. The gunmen knew exactly what they were doing, and that reduced his number of options to exactly zero. There were six guns on him and his guests, and not a chance that he could do anything about it. To his right, Cathy held on to their daughter, and even Sally kept quiet. Neither Miller nor his men made any unnecessary sound.
“Sean, this is Kevin,” Miller’s radio crackled with static. “We have opposition in the treeline. Do you have them?”
“Yes, Kevin, the situation is under control.”
“I need help out here.”
“We’re coming.” Miller pocketed his radio. He pointed to his comrades. “You three, get them ready. If they resist, kill them all. You two come with me.” He led them out the broken glass doors and disappeared.
“Come on.” The remaining three gunmen had their masks off now. Two were tall, about Ryan’s height, one with blond hair, the other black. The other was short and going bald—I know you, but from where? He was the most frightening. His face was twisted with emotions that Jack didn’t want to guess at. Blondie threw him a bundle of rope. An instant later it was plain that it was a collection of smaller pieces already cut and meant to tie them up.