by Tom Haase
"Drive into the garage," ordered Anton as he placed the barrel of his pistol against her head.
"Ooooh!" Honey Jo started to do as directed. "What you want?" she screamed. Fear showed in her eyes, which looked like they verged on popping out of her head.
"Shut up and just drive to the entrance to the tower," commanded Anton. He saw her name on the badge that hung from her neck, Honey Jo Stevens.
"It’s on the top floor of the garage, but you have to walk to the tower," said Honey Jo as slow as she could, apparently trying to stop her voice from trembling.
"Then drive us to the closest place we can get out and go to the tower," Anton said.
He could see the woman's hands shook, but she’d started to regain some composure, and that might be a problem. "Listen, lady. There’s someone trying to set off a bomb at the tower today. We’re here to stop him. So don’t fight us. You’re in no danger."
"Don’t exactly look like that to me," said Honey Jo as she clutched the steering wheel with both hands.
"We’ll only tie you up till we get the bomb, and then we’ll leave. That’s all we’re going to do. I can’t take a chance that you won’t alert people to our presence," Anton said.
"Hell, I wouldn’t tell a soul. Who the hell are you anyway? FBI? You sound foreign."
"I’m sure you won’t tell, but I still have to do it my way."
They approached the top of the garage and discovered three free parking spaces.
"Pull into that space," commanded Anton, pointing to one of the empty places.
After she parked the car, Igor reached over and took the keys. Anton and Ravshan got out of the back, and Anton opened the driver’s door. He took Honey Jo’s arm and pulled her from the car. Ravshan put a piece of the duct tape he’d pillaged from Marilyn’s garage across her mouth. Then he bound her hands behind her. Anton took the FAA ID badge and placed it in his pocket. All of this happened in less than thirty seconds.
"We can’t leave her here. We should kill her," Ravshan said.
"We’ll take her into the stairwell and tie her up there. I don’t think any Americans use them, as most of the one’s I’ve seen are fat and overweight," said Anton. “At least now we have a car to get out of here, and we’re not going to leave a trail of dead Americans."
Anton checked his weapon and the others did the same, and then Igor shoved Honey Jo toward the door to the stairs. Anton led the way. He opened the door to the stairs and saw a half set of stairs going up and out onto a path that led to the tower. He also saw a man lifting a case as he cleared the top step.
"I think I saw our man," he said loud enough for the others to hear. Then he pointed to Honey Jo. "Tie her to the rail and follow me."
Anton ran up the steps and out onto a concrete area that provided a path over to the control tower. He could see airplanes taxiing on both sides of the tower. The noise of the jet engines filled the air but weren’t deafening because of the vast distances between runways. The wind blew hot air around, causing Anton to gag a little at the heat emanating from the acres of concrete.
He looked out on the walkway. There he saw a man walking towards the tower with a large case rolling behind. “Stop,” he yelled in Russian. The man turned, looking shocked to hear his own language. Anton recognized the face of the man—Yuri.
He watched as Yuri started to run toward the tower. "Stop or I’ll shoot."
Yuri looked over his shoulder as he ran toward the tower. He could easily see Anton with his weapon drawn. Anton heard his two men coming up the steps. He raised his pistol, took aim and fired two rounds. The first one hit Yuri in the right leg, the second in the center of his back. The force of the bullets sent him tumbling forward as a misty spray of pink filled the air around Yuri. After impact on the concrete, he lay sprawled on the path to the tower, still clutching the handle of the case.
Anton deliberately moved up, keeping his weapon trained on the fallen Yuri as he reached down to pick up the case. As he did, he heard a pistol shot ring out from behind him. He jerked his head around and saw Igor collapse to the ground, the man's face obliterated from a bullet entering his head from the rear. Ravshan stood there with his weapon now aimed at Anton.
51
Army Helicopter — 2:06 PM
Matt looked out the open door of the chopper as it raced toward the control tower. He had to stop Yuri. The Atlanta airfield came into view, seeming to stretch for miles in all directions, runways and planes everywhere. His cell rang.
He didn’t check the caller ID and experienced mild shock when his daughter’s voice came on the phone, "Hello, Daddy. Where are you?"
"I’m in a helicopter and I can’t talk now. Please put Julia on the line."
The parrot squawked in the background, "Pretty Laura, feed me," and then Julia said, "Sorry, but she just had to call you. I hope it’s okay."
"Forget it. Right now I need you to tell the general we have the terrorists in sight at the control tower in Atlanta. We’re approaching in a helicopter and should be there in less than two minutes. I’ll call you when this is over." Matt closed his phone and told Bridget about it.
"You love your daughter and she loves you," Bridget said.
"I know, but my mind is on the mission and getting us out of it alive. Remind me to call Julia when this is over and talk to Laura for a few minutes."
"See, you sound like a tough guy, but you’re really a softie at heart." Bridget pointed to the tower just then, and Matt saw a man going from what he took to be a parking garage and walking to the tower pulling a case by hand.
"Might be our man," he said to Bridget. Then he looked again and saw three more men exit the garage onto the walkway. The first one fired shots at the man with the case, and then shot the other man. He then aimed the gun at the man going for the case.
"What the hell is going on?" Matt said. The helicopter was now on its final approach to a landing at the tower and descended to two hundred feet. Over the headphones, he heard the pilot disregarding the tower’s warning to leave the restricted area. The chopper would touch down in a few seconds right by the tower.
"Get your weapon out. Whoever’s down there is playing for keeps. You go out the other side, and we go to the front of the chopper and try to capture the man who now has the case. Shoot first if in doubt. We have orders to get the weapon."
"Fine by me," Bridget responded. She checked that a round was in the chamber of her weapon.
Matt instructed the pilot to stay on the ground and wait for them.
The helicopter came straight in and made a small adjustment into the wind before it landed, putting Bridget on the side with the terrorist. Matt jumped as soon as the skids touched the ground. Simultaneously, Bridget sprang out from the other side.
In the last seconds of the flight into the tower area, the situation on the ground changed. The one man standing on the walkway saw them exit the helicopter. He fired at them. Bullets hit the helicopter. One hit Bridget as her feet touched the ground.
* * *
On the walkway, Anton stared at Ravshan as the helicopter approached the airfield. He started to raise his weapon, but Ravshan fired first. The bullet hit him in the chest, causing him to spin around to his left and drop the case as he fell hard onto the footpath and felt the concrete smash into his face. He lay crumpled on the hot surface and tried to rise but couldn’t. Searing pain stopped him, but he could hear running feet. A hand turned him over, and he looked into the face of Ravshan.
"Why?" he uttered.
"Why? I’ll tell you why. I’m the backup for the man you just shot. I’ve known his every move for two days from my control group from emails. You see, I’m a Muslim, and I have a jihad to perform here in this place. I’ll be in paradise in a few minutes, as soon as I set the timer on the atomic bomb. I’ll go to Allah with an expectant heart. You’ll go to hell."
He took the FAA ID from Anton and placed it in his pocket. Then he looked at the fallen man, spat on him, and said, "You’re an infidel and
you subjugated my people for centuries. Now it’s time for us to spread the word and laws of Allah to the whole world. The destruction of America is our primary goal, as it’s the main enemy. Today I’ll deal a mighty blow to destroy the Satan in this world."
Ravshan picked up the case. He aimed his weapon at Anton to finish him off, but he noticed the thump, thump of a helicopter’s rotor blade nearby and turned toward the noise. Barely a hundred meters away, he saw the well-known outline of a Blackhawk sit down not fifty feet from the tower, and people started to get out of it. He opened fired at them.
He must stop these infidels and then set the timer. He knew how to set the timer from the emails he’d received during the entire mission from Fatimah. The last message had told him that pursuers approached in a helicopter. All he had to do was get inside the tower, as high up as he could, and open the case to set the timer for one minute. The whole place would be vaporized. At this exact moment, he needed to stop these intruders and make it to the control tower.
He fired three more bullets at the chopper and then saw a figure get out. He took aim and fired. The bullet hit the target and it went down. Then another figure appeared on the other side of the craft, and the man shot at him. That man ran toward him. Ravshan took careful aim and fired. The target stopped and fell.
Good, he thought as he grabbed the case and headed for the tower door.
* * *
Matt saw Bridget fall and he about lost it. She's hit! Damnit. He shook his head as if clearing water from his hair in a swimming pool and looked toward the man shooting. He didn't doubt that he would kill the bastard who had shot Bridget as he ran toward the target, firing as he went. A bullet zinged across his scalp on the right side, slightly above the ear. He fell down and the blood rushed out of the head wound. It flowed into his eyes and he became blind for a few seconds. Get up, he told himself. Forget the pain. Wipe the blood away and get moving. Kill the man who shot Bridget.
Matt forced himself to get up. The chopper was only twenty feet away, but the man ran toward the tower door. Think. Then he urged himself to move and go for the rifle in the chopper.
He rushed to the chopper, jumped on board and retrieved the sniper rifle. As he scrambled into position, he gave the "go up" sign to the pilot. The chopper started to lift off, and Matt stretched out on the floor to use it as a firing platform. Of course a helicopter was not the most stable platform in the world, with the bouncing of the craft under the rotors, but it gave him the advantage of height. He would be looking down on his target. The blood rolled down from the wound and obscured his vision. He wiped it away and addressed the sights on the weapon.
The rifle was pressed snug against his shoulder and the sights lined up on the man whose hand extended to put the pass into the security pad to enter the tower. Matt took a breath and let out a little. He had to do this slowly. No hurrying or he’d miss. The rifle recoiled. The round missed the target and hit the tower above the man’s head.
Come on, he told himself. Take it easy. Squeeze the trigger, "Squeeze, don’t pull it,” he said as he exhaled in sync with the word coming out of his mouth. The man swiped the pass and bent over to get the case while he held the door open. Matt let out a little more of his breath and aimed. This is for Bridget, he thought, and with effort, he kept the sights aligned on the target’s head. The pain from his head wound forgotten, he squeezed the trigger.
The wall splattered with red behind the man’s head. The target crumpled, blocking the door open. The case lay on the ground beside him.
"Put me down," Matt ordered the pilot. He reached the ground in seconds and raced to Bridget. She rolled up, holding her right shoulder.
"I’ll live. Help me up," she said.
Matt helped her up and held her for a second. He realized the importance of getting out of the area with the bomb before anyone learned of its existence. They went up to the walkway. Bridget went over to the man called Yuri. He opened his eyes.
"Why did you do it?" she asked.
After a short pause, he said, "Money." He held out a set of keys. "Get her out…" Then he stopped breathing and his head fell to the side. Matt didn’t take the keys. They dropped to the ground as his attention swung toward Bridget.
Bridget stood over Yuri’s body, but Matt now raced to the tower door, the man he had shot no doubt dead. He recovered the case, searched the man for ID, and took the cell phone he found. Then he walked back toward the wounded man, trying to roll over near where Bridget stood over Yuri’s body. Matt took a clear look at the man. He recognized him as the one who’d tied him up at Marilyn’s house. His wound gushed blood. Matt ripped off his shirt and pushed it against the wound. With medical help, he would probably survive, Matt guessed.
"Who are you? Don’t lie or I’ll finish you off."
"Colonel Anton Ivonov, Russian Army Intelligence, and I believe you are with American intelligence."
"Colonel, let’s get you on the chopper and get out of here."
Matt sprinted back to the steps, where the last man lay on the ground. The exit wound had taken most of his face off. A quick check of the stairs showed some movement. He held his pistol out in front and descended the steps. At the bottom, he found Honey Jo tied and gagged. He untied her and removed the tape from her mouth.
"Thanks," she said.
"The favor is now reciprocated. You didn’t see me. Your captors tied you up, and you managed to get loose. You heard gunfire but didn’t see a thing. Do you understand?"
"Yes, but…"
Matt ran back and helped Bridget down to the chopper. He then carried the colonel and laid him on the aircraft’s floor. Bridget seated herself, but Matt thought she might faint, because her head flopped to her shoulder. She rolled over and landed in a prone position on the floor.
The case with the atomic bomb remained. Matt ran to get it. With no idea if it was armed, he grabbed it. With all the exchanges of the thing, he guessed that no one had armed it. Not an EOD man himself, he didn’t have the explosive ordnance demolition training to even attempt to do a disarm procedure on an atomic weapon. Better to get it out of the area. An EOD team at the air base could handle it. After taking a last look around, he jumped on the chopper with the bomb and gave the pilot the order to get them to a military hospital ASAP.
The pilot told the tower he intended to depart to the west and lifted off without waiting for clearance.
52
Air Force One — 2:25 PM
Air Force One contacted the tower as directed by the Center.
"Atlanta tower, this is Air Force One, Outer Marker at three thousand.”
"Air Force One cleared to land on runway 9 left. Wind 090 at 6."
There would be no further communication with the aircraft from the tower unless some emergency occurred.
On board the aircraft, the president said to Avery, "Well, Dean, I guess the bomb won’t go off. We’ve stayed within the five miles, but I still want to get off this plane fast."
"I concur," Avery said.
The president’s private cell phone rang. Matt’s number appeared on the display. On opening the phone, he said, “What’s happened?” He listened for a few seconds and then said, “Thanks, Matt, I’ll be back in Washington later tonight. After you take care of Bridget, I want a full briefing on what happened. Give her my best, and thanks.”
He closed the phone and told Avery everything had been taken care of and no bomb would go off on the ground. Dean’s face showed some confusion, so he explained that the people he’d sent on the mission to stop the terrorist from detonating an atomic bomb had captured it and eliminated the terrorists.
Avery looked relieved but bewildered. "I’m glad." The president had no way of knowing about Avery’s previous warning.
"The nation saved from a nuclear blast . . . and we’re safe. Let’s get to the dedication, and then I have to put on a bold front for the governor here to get him reelected. All in a day’s work." He walked toward his seat on the plane and ran his right h
and over his hair in a vain attempt to flatten it down.
* * *
On board the helicopter speeding to the military medical facility at Dobbins Air Force Base outside Atlanta, Matt made the call to the president and brought him up to date on all that had happened.
On the floor, the Russian colonel groaned with his eyes open. “What’s happening?” he said in a grunting voice that conveyed the pain he was experiencing.
“You’re on the way to a military hospital. We needed to get out of the airport before anyone discovered that we were both chasing an atomic weapon. Did Yuri shoot you? How come one of yours held the bomb and shot at us?” Matt leaned down close to the colonel to hear his response.
The colonel took his time before he described what he’d witnessed after he’d arrived at the airport. From her prone position, Bridget heard the story and shouted, "Your own fucking man shot you and tried to blow us all up!"
Matt raised his hand to try to calm her. He needed the information to inform Washington. "Whose phone is this?"
"It belonged to Ravshan, the man who shot me," replied the wounded officer. His eyes slowly closed and he lost consciousness.
Matt opened the phone and saw a text message on the screen.
Intercept team in helicopter coming after Yuri at airport.
"Bridget, these bastards knew our every move and kept their man informed of our actions."
"How?"
"I don’t know, but I have an idea how to find out. We have to do it before this phone is turned off. I’ll take care of it after we get you to the medics."
The pilot told him they would land in two minutes, and the emergency medical teams awaited them there. As soon as the chopper landed, the medics placed Bridget on a stretcher and headed for the entrance of the hospital. The colonel came out next and they rushed him inside. Matt followed and tried to get in with Bridget.