Viper Team Seven (The Viper Team Seven Series Book 1) (36 page)

Pulling out a
satellite phone, vun Buvka dialed the boss. When he answered, Siraj found he
couldn’t hear the boss speak, but he could hear vun Buvka’s side of the
conversation and piece together most of what was being said.

“Are we still clear?” he heard vun Buvka ask. “Yes, everyone’s here...No,
no trouble...We’re traveling north...All right, keep us informed on
everything...Goodbye.”

*          *          *

The thumbs-up
sign came and the President took a deep breath as he looked straight into the
camera. He would be addressing the Nation on the matter of the southwest border
fence, and was also going to do his best to assure them that he was still doing
all he could to find the perpetrators behind 1/16. White House Chief of Staff
Steve Danner had insisted on the address, stating that Americans needed to be reassured
that they were going to be protected. So here he was, sitting in the Oval Office
without so much as a notecard to help him with his address.

“Good afternoon,
Americans,” President Winnfield began perfectly. “It is with great pride that I
address you today as your President. I have a very serious matter that I want
to speak to you about. A matter which falls under the Constitutional Law that
the Government of the United States must provide for the common defense of the
people. A matter which this White House takes very seriously.”

“When I was in
the Army, I realized that a key part of keeping Americans free, safe, and happy,
was to have a strong military that helps merit the respect of other nations.
Fellow Americans I tell you today, we have a strong military. But do we hold
the respect of hostile nations? From the occurrences on 1/16 you see that not
everyone respects us. So what do we do? After all, we just finished fighting –
and winning – a war on terrorism. If you noticed, I said that a
key part
of keeping Americans free, safe, and happy was to have a strong military that
helps
merit the respect of other nations, and hostile nations in particular. But a strong
military can’t do that job alone. No, I’m not talking about the civilian
national security force that the previous administration hoped to make – I
don’t agree with that. I’m talking about setting up critical national defense
measures for our homeland, that, when coupled with our strong military, will
keep our country and her citizens free, safe, and happy.”

The President
leaned forward in his swivel chair, rested his elbows on his desk, and folded his
hands as he started to outline his plan.

“Many of our
fellow Americans on our southwest border with Mexico have experienced the pains
of not being respected. I’m talking about the illegal aliens that cross our
borders and harm, harass, and hate our citizens on the border towns. It’s not
right, Americans, not right at all. The people that come into our country
illegally should be punished, and more importantly, kept from even
accomplishing the crossing. So again a question comes: what can we do to keep
our southwest citizens more secure?”

“America, I would like to inform you of a project that would help achieve our goal of better
national security. It is a small step, the first of many, but nevertheless a
necessary step. Two administrations ago, funding was approved for a fence that
would be constructed on the American/Mexican border. It was a good idea, and it
should have been accomplished as quickly as possible. Well, all you have to do
is travel on our southwest border and you’ll see that in many places there
isn’t a fence. Why? Why did the previous two administrations not accomplish a
project that already had funding? I can’t answer for my predecessors, but I can
assure you that I will take the initiative and build this fence. Every one of
my advisors backs my opinion, and I’m confident you do too.”

“This is only a
step toward our goal, but we have to start somewhere. The former
administrations saw to it that we as Americans have a lot to clean up and a lot
to accomplish, but as your President I will do my utmost best.”

“As I said, this
fence is only one of many projects that have been conveniently overlooked or
destroyed by America’s leaders in times past. I think of our missile defense
projects. They are a definite must-have in this era of nuclear weapons.
Regretfully I must tell you we are not where we should be on our missile
defenses. Our U.S. Missile Defense Agency has been in tatters with their hands
tied behind their backs. Upon taking the office of the President of the United States I have been giving my all trying to restore our missile defenses and bring
them back up to the standards they should be. I think of our intelligence
agencies such as the CIA who have been decimated for no just reason. Our agents
are heroes and should be treated like ones, not ridiculed and punished for
patriotism.”

“For me,” he
said more quietly, “my eyes have been wide open since 1/16. Yes, I always knew
our national security was going downhill at the hands of our former leaders,
and for the past year I’ve been fighting to get it going in the right direction.
But now things are different. I have seen firsthand what is capable of
happening, and I don’t like it. I have realized that the things I did on 1/15
and previously – things even my own staff thought were squared away – were
really sub-standard. I’m referring to our nation’s security. I thought I was
doing a good job of getting our national security where it should be – every
White House official did – until the night of 1/16. And then my eyes were
opened as to how bad everything really was and how much I still needed to do. America, from now on I will do everything humanly possible to see that our nation is as
secure as possible.”

The President
cast his eyes to the floor for a second and then looked again into the camera.
“This fence is the first step to greater national security. It is only the
beginning of the long road we have to walk, but it will be worth it, America. I can promise you that.”

Wednesday, March 26
^th
– 0605 hours

The Eisenhower Executive Office Building

An email
suddenly popped up on Parks’ email account, titled as all the others, “TOP
SECRET – PRESIDENT’S EYES ONLY.”

“Oh joy,” Parks
mumbled. “Right when I clear my inbox look at what happens.”

Hesitantly, he clicked on the message and began quickly scanning the
heading, not really caring what he was reading, until he came across the name
Alka vun Buvka. His mouth went dry and his heart rate increased as he scrolled
back up to the top of the report so he could read it more slowly and carefully.
It read:

TOP SECRET – PRESIDENT’S EYES ONLY

FM:
CIA HEADQUARTERS LANGLEY, VA

TO:
NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR TO THE PRESIDENT

DTD:
26 MAR 14

1.
_
FIELD AGENTS CONFIRM THAT ALKA VUN BUVKA WAS
SIGHTED IN MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE AT 0530 HOURS 26 MAR 2014. CONSIDERED ARMED AND
DANGEROUS. LAST SIGHTED ON INTERSTATE 40 NE DRIVING A SILVER SUBURBAN NEW MEXICO LICENSE PLATE NO. 91309. VEHICLE OCCUPANTS ESTIMATED AT EIGHT OTHER PASSENGERS
ALSO CONSIDERED ARMED AND DANGEROUS.

2.
_
INTENT OF TERRORISTS IS UNCERTAIN BUT CONSIDERED TO
BE HOSTILE. THE MEANS BY WHICH ALKA VUN BUVKA HAS ENTERED CONUS IS UNCERTAIN AS
OF THIS TIME.

3.
_
AWAITING ORDERS FROM D/CIA. GATHERING INTELLIGENCE
ON TERRORISTS AND WILL REPORT WHEN INTEL HAS BEEN GATHERED.

/BT/

Parks logged off his email account and swiveled around in his chair. He
had to report to the NSA as quickly as possible. There was no time to lose.

*          *          *

Parks swung open
the door to the Situation Room, stepped inside, and stood at attention. To his
surprise, the room was empty save the National Security Advisor.

“Come in,
Keith,” the NSA said in a rather monotone voice. “You’re just a bit early; the
others will be here in a minute.”

Parks walked over
and sat down.

“Look, Major, I
don’t think there’s a need to say this but just in case, I’ll say it anyway.
Alka vun Buvka is my primary target. He’s the only living terrorist from 1/16,
and we need to get him. He’s like Osama bin Laden during the War on Terrorism.
We
have
to take him out, Keith, we
have
to. This man is dangerous
because he knows how to topple the system and get away without leaving any
trace. He’s probably pretty high in his game by now, and he most likely knows
who coordinated 1/16, and who is leading this entire terror operation. If we
get him, we just may have the key to it all, Major.
Everything
. It could
all be exposed and then we could take action.”

Smith was half-standing,
half-sitting from excitement. “If there are any people in the world who can do
this job, it’s you and your team.”

To Parks’
surprise, the National Security Advisor wasn’t making any threats or if-then
statements. He seemed calm and confident and totally excited that this was
going to finally break the lock.

Just then the
President and Vice President burst through the door. Parks shot up to attention
until they sat at their usual places.

“Where is
everyone?” the President demanded.

“They’re on
their way, Mr. President,” the NSA assured him. Before the words were out of
his mouth the Directors of the CIA, FBI, and National Intelligence, came into
the room.

“Good morning,
Mr. President, Mr. Vice President, everyone,” Watkins greeted as he took his
seat at the table. “Fine morning isn’t it?”

No one answered the
question.

“Mike, do you
have the file on vun Buvka?” the President asked impatiently. “We need to get
rolling, with or without the Secret Service Director.”

“All right, Mr.
President,” the D/CIA complied. “Here’s what we’ve got.” Cummins set a folder on
the table and opened it to the first page. “Uh, let’s see...ahh, here we are.
Alka vun Buvka: born in Tehran, Iran in 1977; has worked with Hamas for approximately
seventeen years; found guilty for the Paramount Hotel bombing on January the 16
^th
of this year; vanished from off the face of the planet after that time.” The
Director pushed a picture of the terrorist over to Parks. “That’s so you’ll
recognize his mug when you see it.”

Parks studied
the photo and then gave it back to the D/CIA.

“Here’s vun Buvka’s
file too.” Cummins handed it to Parks. “You look it over, there’s lots of
information in there that you will need to know.”

Light flickered
on a screen on the Situation Room’s wall, and then the fully-colored image –
courtesy of yet another drone down-linked to a ROVER – appeared. The screen
held the scene of a highway with several vehicles on it, and Parks wondered
which held the killers.

The D/CIA rose from
his chair and walked up to the image. “See this silver Suburban? That’s the
one. It’s full to the gills with terrorists. If you opened that vehicle’s door
uninvited it’d be like opening Pandora’s Box.”

Parks mustered a
smile but that was the only acknowledgement Cummins received for his weak stab
at humor.

“Hang on a
second, Mike,” the President ordered. “Where’s the Secret Service Director?
It’s been a while.”

The question
hung in the air and each man hoped the other man had the answer. But of course,
no one did.

“Tom, give him a
call and see where he is, will you?” the VP asked politely.

As if on cue, the
Secret Service Director entered the room and nodded to the officials superior
to him. “Am I late?” he wondered although he knew the answer.

“Who cares now,
let’s get on with this,” the NSA pleaded. “We’re wasting time.”

Roxon trotted to
his seat and sat quietly as the briefing continued.

“They are
heading east, and from what it looks like they’re, uh...well if they stay on
the same road they’re on now, they’ve got a straight shot for us,” Cummins
admitted. “But there is a lot of road separating us, and at any time they could
divert. We’ll be shooting blind on this job because we just don’t know where
they’re going or what they’re planning.”

“How probable is
it that they are indeed coming for us?” the Vice President point-blank asked.
It was a question he knew no one had an answer for.

“Let me put it
to you this way, Mr. Vice President,” the D/CIA started. “That highway will
take them through a number of big cities and we just can’t be sure they’re
not
planning to strike one of them. I don’t think we have the luxury of
assuming anything right now.”

“That swings the
door a little wider, doesn’t it,” the Secret Service Director pointed out.

“Well if we’re
fast enough we can slam the door in their faces before they get a chance to
step through the threshold,” Smith optimized. “We’re just going to have to set
your team, Keith, somewhere on that highway and hope the terrorists stay on it.
That’s the best bet we have.”

  “I think we’d
better look at all the options before we decide that, Tom,” the President
suggested. “We only have one chance at this one so let’s get it right.”

“I’m not so sure
there are too many options, Mr. President,” the NSA reiterated. “There’s just
no way to know what these guys are thinking.”

“Actually we do
have a couple options,” the D/CIA countered. “One would be to do as the
National Security Advisor has said, and two would be to just track them with
our UAV until we get a better lead on where they’re going.”

“There is
another way, Mr. President,” the DNI spoke up reluctantly. “We could shoot a
missile from our drone and take them out for sure.”

“And how many
civilians with them?” Roxon retorted. “That would be an irresponsible move on
our part.”

“I’m not talking
about when they’re in that kind of traffic, I’m talking about when it gets
clearer,” Travis restated with added vigor.

“Oh be quiet
both of you,” the Vice President commanded. “In my opinion that’s not an option
given the circumstances. However that might change in the next few minutes, I
don’t know. But for now, let’s put that one on the shelf and forget about it.”

Parks was almost
biting his tongue to keep from giving his input. He knew the capabilities of
his team and the ins and outs of why he had failed his last mission. He had a
perfect plan for dealing with these terrorists that would take them out before
they even knew what hit them. But he knew it was improper for him to speak up without
being asked when so many superior officials were present.

“Listen,” the
NSA said, “there is
no
other way to handle this except to do it the same
way we did the last operation. We don’t know what to expect with this and we
have to play things by ear. We can drop off the Viper Team Seven at an
intercepting point on the highway but keep BIG BIRD and support helicopters
close by just in case things don’t work out. That is the only way.”

“And what if Parks
and his team fail this time too?” the Secret Service Director questioned. “Then
the terrorists will run for it like last time. Most likely they’ll escape too.
There won’t be a second shot.”

“No, because we’ll
play it smart and keep this drone stuck on them until they’re taken out.
There’s no possible way we can lose them,” Smith concluded.

“I’m not so sure
putting Parks on a highway and leaving him is a good way to go,” the FBI
Director interceded.

Oh forget
about what’s proper and just say it,
Parks told himself. And he obeyed. “Excuse
me for speaking out of line, Mr. President, sir, but I–”

“Forget the
apologies and spit it out,” the President ordered.

“Yes sir.
Anyway, I have to agree with the National Security Advisor, sir. I can relate
firsthand that terrorists are unpredictable and just when you think you’ve got
everything figured out, they throw you for a loop.” Parks’ stomach turned as he
saw the Directors roll their eyes and sigh loudly. “I’d have to say, Mr.
President, sir, that we’re going to have to take this one jump at a time and
take what we can get.”

“Which is?”

“Well sir, we
know the terrorists are on the highway, and as the National Security Advisor
said, that’s about all we can count on for now. Maybe not even that, sir. But
will we ever really get a better hint as to where they’re going to attack? Even
if we did, look at what happened last time when we guessed that they were
heading for San Antonio, sir.”

“You messed that
one up, Parks,” the D/CIA fired back. “Don’t shift the blame to me.”

“Yes sir, I know
that, and I’m not shifting anything around. But the fact of the matter is, the
terrorists did not go to San Antonio. Your agency made a guess, sir, and it
seemed very probable, but it just didn’t happen.”

Cummins’ face
went ashen and then it reddened deeply. “So you’re saying my agency was the
reason we lost the terrorists?”

“All right, all
right, that’s beside the point,” the President stepped in. “Mike, you keep quiet,
let Parks finish.”

“Thank you, Mr.
President, sir,” Parks said. “Now’s the time to strike because I really don’t think
we’ll ever know where the terrorists are going until it’s too late. That’s all
I wanted to say, sir.”

“What guarantee
do we have that you’ll fulfill your end of the bargain?” the FBI Director shot
out. “If the last operation was any indication, we’d just as soon not do
anything.”

“Guarantees
aren’t for you to worry about, Mr. Director,” Smith countered. “Your job is to
brief, not to ask for guarantees.”

“What are you
going to do to make things go better, Parks?” Roxon asked.

All eyes turned
to Parks. He nervously looked to the President for permission to speak and the
request was granted.

“Sir, if I work
more closely with our intelligence personnel and keep good contact with the
White House I’d say that’d do it. You see, Mr. President, sir, we didn’t have a
real-time image tracking the last bunch of terrorists. This time we do, sir,
and Langley will know if anything changes concerning the terrorists that would
affect our plans. If we work with intelligence more closely, sir, we’d know
everything that the terrorists would be doing. I don’t see how we could lose
them, sir.”

“Anything’s possible,” the President declared. “But that’s why you’re here,
Keith, and I plan to use you for your intended purpose.”

*          *          *

The NSA took
over the briefing. “You’ll intercept the terrorists around the Tennessee area. We’re going to place you and your team in a remote, low-traffic part of the
highway,” he told Parks. “We’ll have a few police officers discreetly block the
road by pulling over any civilian traffic once the terrorists are near you
guys. Oh, Keith, I want this guy alive, understand?”

“Yes sir, I
understand.”

“I know it’s
going to be hard to capture vun Buvka but at least you’ve got one thing on your
side – he won’t be willing to be a suicide bomber. How do I know? Just look at
1/16 and the Paramount Hotel. He was too scared to suicide bomb it like the
other terrorists of the night, which tells me he’s got plans for his life – and
death for that matter – and they don’t include suicide ‘sacrifice.’ Anyway, we
need vun Buvka alive. He is the last surviving terrorist from 1/16, and if we
catch him we just might be able to make him say enough to give us a clue as to
who’s behind all this.”

“Yes sir,” Parks
agreed. He was beginning to think that this operation was going to be ten times
harder than the last one, and ten times as critical.

“Here’s what
you’ll do, Major,” Smith continued. “You’ll fly on BIG BIRD to Arnold Air Force
Base which is near Manchester, Tennessee. From there a pair of USAF UH-1N
Iroquois-Hueys will take your team to the strike site – a safe distance below Lebanon, Tennessee – and you’ll set everything up.”