“I’m not worried about anything except ensuring no one locates me until I can make sure this attack happens.” Just sixteen hours more and then all his work and sacrifice will finally have been worth something. Of course he’d have to be far away from here by then.
A loud banging on the steel door at the top of the stairs made him leap to his feet. Qasim urged him away with a hand signal, pistol in his grip as he edged toward the bottom of the staircase. “Who is it?”
“Anwar,” he called back, muffled by the door. “Satellite call for Safir.”
Qasim darted a look at Safir. “It’s Omar.”
The twenty-year-old hacker who worked at Boeing they’d hired some months back. He’d been working on finalizing the last details necessary for tomorrow’s operation. Things Safir had been unable to ascertain himself. Safir nodded his consent to Qasim.
“Are you alone?” Qasim called up to Anwar.
“Yes, it’s just me.”
Safir stayed where he was, cloaked in shadow while Qasim went up the steps. His friend would take a bullet to protect him, but Safir never wanted it to come to that.
The door opened and shut. He relaxed when there were no shots fired and then a set of footsteps descended. Qasim appeared at the top of the stairs, holstering his pistol at his hip. He nodded at Safir. “It’s safe.”
“Did you search him?” Safir asked.
Qasim nodded. “No electronics except for the phone. We’re good.”
Safir hurried up the stairs and took the phone from Anwar. His bodyguard and Qasim stood watch while he spoke. “Omar. Is everything ready?” He didn’t mention the drones aloud. The timing was too critical now to risk anyone who might be listening in figuring out what their plan was.
“Everything’s ready to go. And I found out something else I thought you should know.” The hacker’s voice was filled with pride. Safir’s own heart rate picked up in response.
“What is it?” he demanded, impatient to get off the phone. They could track him this way. The fewer people who knew he was here, the better. And he had to move locations again within the next few hours. Not something he relished doing in broad daylight but he didn’t have much choice if he wanted to avoid foreign surveillance and detection.
He could hear the smile in the younger man’s voice. “The VIP in town is going to make an appearance on the base tomorrow.”
Safir couldn’t believe his luck. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. But this changes the timing of the operation slightly, to a few hours earlier.”
Triumph exploded inside him. This was the opportunity he’d been praying for. It seemed Allah was finally listening. “It doesn’t matter. We’ll have to move it up. Is everything else in place?” Omar’s part of the operation was the most important, especially now that the VIP would be on base. The money Safir had spent securing Omar and the American insider would easily have fed have a dozen villages here for the next year. If the two men didn’t deliver on their promises, Safir would make sure they suffered horrific deaths.
Omar chuckled. “I’m ready.”
****
The first thing Honor noticed when she got into work the next morning was the heightened security. At the gates, at the PX, and the entrance to the hangars. And those were just the ones she could see, not including the snipers and whatever personal security detail the incoming VIP—she was guessing some big government bigwig—had sent ahead of his or her arrival.
She ran into Smithers on the way to her office. “Hey, everybody up to speed on what’s going on today?” she asked him.
In addition to being alerted by her superiors, Liam had called to update her last night after his briefing. He couldn’t go into specific detail but he’d said they’d received credible threats about an attack on the base, likely to do with the incoming VIP today, and the Fourth of July made for a very symbolic date. Intelligence pointed to the threat being linked to someone named Safir, who’d been part of Rahim’s network and now ran the propaganda machine from overseas.
Liam had also said there was a rumor going around that there might be an insider helping them with the plot. That was more disturbing to her than the rest of it.
“Yep, everybody knows the score.”
Guards at the gates were being extra careful in checking IDs and everyone on base had been told to stay vigilant. Increased security happened from time to time, but it made sense with whoever this VIP was coming to visit.
Everyone except gate guards, MPs and the VIP’s security detail remained unarmed, as usual all weapons locked away in each unit’s arms room. Honor wasn’t worried though. An attacker wouldn’t live longer than two minutes here if they tried anything, not with all the added security.
“Ipman’s here, too,” Smithers added.
She stopped and looked up at him in surprise. “Ipman’s back? I thought he was taking the rest of the week off?”
“Can’t do much with his cast on, but he said he wanted to come in anyhow. I think it’s hard on him, being alone at home on the Fourth.”
“Yeah, no doubt. How’s he seem?” She hadn’t seen or talked to him since they’d taken him to the hospital.
“Way better. He’s been to talk to someone off base a couple times and dried up for a few days now.”
Since he hadn’t assaulted his wife and she’d since dropped the charges, command had decided to let him return to work. Honor just hadn’t expected him to return this early. If he was willing to work hard and follow direction, she was fine with it though. “Okay, great. Have you got stuff to keep him busy with you? If not, I’ve got a whole ton of paperwork and filing he can help me with.”
“I’ll send him over when he’s finished with me in the hangar.”
“Thanks, Smithy.”
In her office she returned some phone calls, then had a quick meeting with her direct superior before sitting down to tackle her paperwork. She took care of the most important things first, saving the more mundane things for later. As she worked her mind kept skipping back to yesterday and she found herself smiling.
She had a good feeling about the way things were going with her and Liam. He was gone for the next few days on a training mission someplace, but he’d promised to call her as soon as he got back and she knew he would. Last night after he’d told her about the increased threat level he’d ended the call with a “sleep well, sweet pea”. That endearment, spoken just the way he used to in that deeply intimate tone he reserved only for her, had suffused her entire body with warmth.
At a knock on her door, she turned in her chair to see Ipman standing there. She waved him in and he shut the door behind him. His stance was stiff and he met her gaze only fleetingly as he stood there. “How’s the hand?” she asked to break the ice.
It seemed to unfreeze him. “I don’t need surgery.”
“That’s good news.”
“Yeah.” He rubbed his free hand over the back of his neck. “Listen, ma’am, I wanted to apologize for the other day.”
She sat back in her chair and folded her hands across her abdomen. “Sure. Go ahead.”
Her blunt answer seemed to throw him for a second. “Uh, yeah, I was in a really bad place mentally and… I’m sorry I acted like an asshole. I appreciate what you and Sarn’t Smithers did for me.”
Honor wasn’t about to make the guy grovel. “You’re welcome, and apology accepted. So, did Smithy send you over to help me out?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
And there was the Ipman she remembered. “Great.” She handed him a stack of files. “Filing cabinet’s over there on the far wall,” she said with a teasing smile.