Deep Ice (29 page)

Sitting alongside, Grimes seemed miles away. He just stared through the window without expression.

Hayes nudged him. “What’s up, Kai?”

“My dick, sir,” said Grimes with a smile. “Gonna eat me terrorist for dinner.”

Henry laughed and held firm to Shep’s harness as the Gadfly dipped with a change in the wind. The dog whimpered quietly.

In the distance a speck of white appeared on a hillside. As soon as he saw it, the pilot, Rob Walters, spoke up. “TransAm Optical, Incorporated, twelve o’clock and closing. Ladies, please remove your hats.”

An alarm inside his black helmet alerted Hayes to an incoming call.

“Yes?” he said into his lip mike.

“The President, sir,” said a communications officer.

“Great,” said Grimes. “Let’s all have a nice long chat on the freaking radio with the freaking Prez so Suarez can listen in! Maybe he’ll give us some good advice!”

“Stow it, Kai,” said the general.

“It’s a secured line, Commander,” said Walters.

“Right,” said Grimes, staring into field glasses at the distant building. “Have you lot checked this antenna array?”

Hayes told Walters to slow down and drop low.

The pilot quickly complied.

In less than a minute the attack force began deploying behind a hill they’d decided was the only piece of terrain sure to be a blind spot for any radio or radar at the Hacienda. Behind them, hundreds of miles away, cruise missiles were armed and targeted on TransAm Optical.

On the ground the general conferred with President Kerry. When he emerged alone from the Gadfly, General Hayes wasn’t smiling.

“We
have
to try to take him alive,” he said to the SEAL.

Henry was again being swept along with the waves of history.

“It had to be you,” said Grimes to Henry as they joined the rest of the SEALs, who stood next to a row of HumVees and other personnel carriers – six in all, of various sizes. “You armed?”

“Yes,” said Henry. Before they’d taken off from the
Enterprise
he’d been issued a small handgun that looked so terrifyingly efficient he didn’t even like to touch it. He’d put it in the holster they’d given him, which tucked down the back of his standard-issue fatigue pants. Sarah, when he’d modelled the setup for her in their cabin, had made a most unladylike joke about what an accidental discharge from the gun might ream.

“Good,” said Grimes. “Just don’t point it at me, okay?”

They didn’t rol for a while. It wasn’t three o’clock yet.

#

“I shook the world and it is silent as the hour of doom approaches,” said Suarez.

Remo had to take a leak. He excused himself and left the boss to his console.

As he closed the door, he looked back to see Suarez slumped in his chair, looking almost sleepy. But his eyes were wide open, full of life, and fixed on the screen of his computer. Remo heard his boss laugh as the latch clicked.

The big living-room was full of dazzling light. Remo walked to a panel at the edge of the Lexan window, shielding his eyes from the sunlight. He reached for a dial at the edge of the window and the glass began to darken.

“Amazing stuff, that glass,” he muttered, appreciating the photo-electrical properties of the window.

In the distance a glint of light caught his eye.

“What the –?”

It was a truck – no, two trucks – cruising along the highway.

Soon he and Suarez were looking through binoculars at two government vehicles coming up the smooth dirt road that led to the front gates of the Hacienda. When they arrived at the gate, they stopped and two unarmed Chilean Government employees wearing hard hats got out. Suarez ordered the gates opened immediately, leaving the two men standing in front of their truck. This gave his security cameras a chance to study them closely.

His heart raced. “Let them come,” he ordered. “Let them come.”

“But what do they want?” asked Remo.

Suarez continued to examine the men through his field glasses as they got back into their trucks and drove up to the main building.

After a few moments he smiled and patted Remo on the back. “What have we to fear from the water department?” he said. “We got a notice a few days ago.”

Remo looked at him blankly. “We did?”

“Let them check the sewer and the water lines. As long as we have Chilean Government employees on the premises, our enemies will hold their fire.”

Reluctantly Remo signalled to one of his security men to allow the visitors inside the main building.

#

Over two miles away, the US forces watched the Hacienda. As expected, the diversion was in place. Taking his eyes away from a pair of telescope-sized field glasses mounted on a rock, Grimes nodded to Hayes. “Piece of cake.”

Henry stood a few feet away, looking perplexed.

“Let me get this straight,” he said. “You’re breaking into the place with a sanitation squad?”

“Best ones to ream their. . .”

“Thanks, Kai,” interrupted the general. “Well, Henry, the place is having its annual inspection. Good diversion, right?”

“Did you plan this?” asked Henry.

“Sort of. Some good old office work turned up a date with the Chilean Government’s annual sewer inspection. We just moved it up a bit. To be honest, I didn’t think the ruse had the remotest chance of success – I’ve had everyone prepared to shift straight to the backup plan. I still can hardly believe Suarez has been stupid enough to fall for it. Only a megalomaniac wouldn’t have put two and two together.”

“Time to move,” reminded Grimes.

Coming out of the sun, with surprise and a diversion for cover, gave them a good chance of infiltrating the Hacienda with relative speed and ease. In a way it was, for the SEALs, a fairly straightforward mission. But the gravity of what was at stake if they failed made it one of the most important military operations in history. To a man, the SEAL force was taut and bristling with conscious professionalism. No one wanted to drop the ball.

Henry and Shep stayed with Grimes and his men, who headed on foot towards the southern edge of the compound. Hayes and the backup force took up a position about a thousand yards from the Hacienda. Finally the SEAL force arrived at the white-painted steel fence surrounding the Hacienda. They fanned out and, using sensors, soon discovered an infrared security laser array that traced a line six inches above the fence, relayed by units buried inside decorative white columns every fifty feet or so along it.

The entire US force, from the SEALs to support troops farther afield, talked via line-of-sight laser com. Within fifteen minutes of their deployment around the Hacienda, an intricate laser net was established that led ultimately to the com of the
Big E
, two miles off Valparaiso, where Captain Halsey and Admiral Schumacher were monitoring the situation. From there, news was being relayed to the White House, and vice versa.

At the south gate of the Hacienda, Henry waited with Shep about twenty feet from the fence behind a patch of shrubbery. He was relieved to see there appeared to be no guards or patrols protecting the place. Clutching Shep’s leash, he sat with his knees pulled tight to his chest and his butt pressing into the stony earth, trying to be as small as possible while still keeping an eye on Grimes and his SEALs. Nearby, Grimes’s weapons expert Dan Hoy was loading a grenade rifle with silver- tipped canister shells.

“How are we gonna get inside that fence?” asked Henry.

“Quickly, I hope,” said Hoy.

Henry wasn’t amused. Tucked nervously behind the bush, he asked himself what the hell he was doing here.

“You know,” he said, “I never would have dreamed. . .”

“Me neither,” said Hoy. “I say that every day.” He laughed. “Well, I wanted adventure. I signed up for this shit. What’s your excuse?”

“That’s what I’m wondering.”

Shep had his head down, but his eyes were wide open, watching Henry and Hoy as they talked. His twitching eyebrows gave Shep an almost human appearance.

“I still don’t see why you brought that dog into all this,” said Hoy. “How’s he supposed to tell anyone when he spots Suarez?”

Henry nodded. “I know it sounds stupid. But he did tip me off to Suarez once already, back in Santiago. He’s actually better at spotting the bastard than I am.”

“I can believe it. He’s a beauty. Hope he doesn’t get hurt. I have a dog myself, back in Harrisburg.”

“A dog like Shep? A malamute?”

“She’s a Chihuahua named Ginger.”

Henry laughed, but Hoy didn’t.

“If you saw her take on a rat in a wood pile you’d not mock. . .”

“They’re bred to be ratters, right?”

Hoy stopped talking and put his finger to his lips. “Mission.”

A side door opened directly across from Henry’s position, and two government workers appeared. They pointed to the fence and began walking towards Henry and Hoy.

“What the fuck?” said Henry, crouching low.

Behind the government sewer workers followed two security men and a smartly dressed woman. She was saying something in Spanish.

Henry observed Suarez’s security men keenly, but didn’t recognize either of them. They seemed more interested in the ground near the fence than in the fence itself or the surrounding landscape.

The sewage men were arguing with Rudolfo’s people.

Hoy picked up a few words and smiled. “They’re quarrelling about the position of a sewer outlet,” he whispered.

There was a slight rustling in the high dry grass behind. Grimes and his SEALs were crouched there, like large cats ready to strike. Henry jumped in startlement. How the hell could they have got there without him knowing?

Grimes smiled and whispered into a lip microphone. “Looking good, General.”

The wind began to tug at the people on the Hacienda lawn. The woman folded her arms around her shoulders. Three more government workers, carrying tools, came out of the Hacienda and the two who’d first appeared went to greet them. This left Suarez’s people briefly cut off from the view of anyone watching from the house.

A light popping sound came from behind Henry. Immediately Suarez’s three people began slapping their necks as though they’d been stung by bees. Seconds later, they collapsed to the ground – tranquillizer darts, Henry assumed.

As the victims hit the ground, Grimes’s SEALs sprang towards the fence with amazing speed, removing a section of it next to one of the square stucco support columns, their movements concealed by a large agave that grew inside the compound.

The government workers acted as though nothing was going on. It was suddenly clear to Henry that they must be Chilean military masquerading. They unfolded sheets of plastic as though preparing a dig. Two of the men began excavating the earth, swinging pickaxes and shovelling dirt, while the others milled around distractingly.

Henry watched, fascinated, as two further “government workers” came out of the Hacienda to join their fell ows.

Everything was happening with such an orderly calm that Henry had to remind himself he was seeing three people get abducted in broad daylight and in plain sight. When they’d finished cutting the hole in the fence, the SEALs spirited the woman and the two security guards off the lawn. The woman’s grey suit was removed and used to disguise a slim member of the SEAL team.

Within a minute she lay next to Henry in the shrubbery, out cold in a sexy pink silk slip.

Almost immediately, a SEAL covered her body with a tan blanket. The man knelt briefly next to her, holding a pistol with a silencer to her temple, checking she was full y unconscious.

“If she screams when she wakes up, kill her,” hissed Grimes, crouching nearby, overseeing the operation. He checked a small automatic weapon that had an enormous clip of ammunition. Noticing Henry’s eyes on the woman, he couldn’t resist a jibe: “Keep it in your pants, hero. One piece of ass at a time not enough for you?”

Not waiting for a retort, he ordered Hoy to send a message to Hayes. “Tell him the perimeter is breached and secured.”

Grimes didn’t mention the hostages. Henry wondered why, but he let it pass.

This was no time for questions.

“Grab your dog and your balls, hero,” said Grimes.

“We’re going in.”

#

Amid the deliberately contrived confusion, Henry and Shep walked past the digging men, across the lawn and into the Hacienda, with Grimes walking ahead of them and Hoy behind. Ahead of Grimes, strolling casually, were more “government workers” and the rest of the SEALs, including the one in the woman’s grey suit. All were hiding automatic weapons beneath their coats. They entered the Hacienda and found themselves in a large glass-lined room.

Henry was impressed by the opulence of its decor.

Large graceful columns of white marble supported a white ceiling decorated with gold floral relief. Flowers and small palms along the windowed outer wall gave the place an airy springlike appearance. The room appeared to be a banqueting hall. Everything focused on a long mahogany dining table, now bare except for a centrepiece of artificial flowers.

There was no evidence of Suarez’s security force – only maintenance workers on hand to assist in any necessary cleanup. They looked confused when they saw the dog, and started to protest, but were promptly herded at gunpoint into a back room.

Henry looked at Grimes. “That was sort of
easy
, wasn’t it?”

Grimes ignored him. He ordered his men back against a far wall, where they stood watching for further instructions. Then, holding a map of the Hacienda in one hand, he began issuing commands with hand signals. He pushed Henry towards Hoy, who grabbed Henry’s arm and Shep’s leash and led them quickly to join the other SEALs.

The SEAL in the woman’s clothes ran silently to Grimes’s side and handed him a pair of sunglasses one of Suarez’s men had been wearing.

Grimes studied them briefly, then threw them aside. “Earphones,” he hissed. “Oh shit. . .”

#

After Suarez’s announcement, the regular staff of TransAm Optical had simply resumed their duties. Despite the boss’s warning, most of them felt there was no real cause for worry. Their security force could surely deal with any emergency. All that had changed was that they were armed, and that they had a new story to tell about their boss’s strangeness.