Jumping to her feet, she grabbed her phone and hit 6203. Instantly she was patched through to the live feed and was stunned to hear Ahmed Darazi’s voice in midsentence.
“… any longer, so he ordered them to come get you now,” the Iranian president was saying.
“That’s very kind of him,” Nouri replied. “I’ll ask the nurses to pack my bag and pull together some of my medications. How soon until they arrive?”
“They’re already on their way,” Darazi said. “They should be there any moment.”
“Great. And you’ll both meet me there?” Nouri asked.
“In a few hours, inshallah, once I finish up my work here,” Darazi said. “I can’t say for certain when he’ll come over, but he is anxious to talk to you and get your answers to his questions.”
“I’m ready,” Nouri replied.
“Good. Now remember, my team will take care of everything,” Darazi assured him. “So just relax, and I’ll see you soon.”
With that, the two men said good-bye and hung up.
A panic-induced jolt of adrenaline spread instantly through Eva’s system. She hung up the phone, then picked up again and speed-dialed Tom Murray at the Global Operations Center.
“Tom, it’s Eva,” she said the moment he answered. “We have a huge problem.”
Murray and Zalinsky and the rest of the Global Operations Center listened on speakerphone as Eva Fischer relayed to them the essence of the call she had just listened to. Zalinsky quickly scanned the enormous flat-screen monitors on the wall in front of them. One displayed live images from the Predator drone hovering several miles above the hospital. Another displayed the thermal imaging feed from the Predator. Yet another screen carried the live feed from the KH-12 spy satellite now in geosynchronous orbit over Tehran, and it was this one that caught Zalinsky’s eye.
“Screen three — zoom that out a bit,” Zalinsky ordered the watch commander.
A split second later, everyone in the room saw what Zalinsky had seen. A three-vehicle motorcade — what appeared to be an ambulance sandwiched between two SUVs — was approaching the hospital grounds from the east. They were out of time.
“Alpha One, this is Bravo One, awaiting your command,” Torres said.
“Bravo One, hold your position,” David replied. “Do not move — I repeat, do not move — until I find this other guard.”
“With all due respect, sir, we can’t wait,” Torres pushed back. “We cannot hold this position much longer. Not secure. We need to move now.”
“You got your targets marked, Bravo One. We don’t. We hold until I can get—”
But Zalinsky cut in before David could finish his thought. “Alpha One, this is Home Plate; do you read?”
“Roger that, Home Plate,” David said, shifting gears. “Go ahead.”
“You’re about to get company, son. We’ve just intercepted a call to the target. He was told his ride is on the way. Now we’re tracking a three-vehicle convoy about to enter the perimeter. Bravo One is right. You need to move now and move fast.”
“Negative, Home Plate. We need to find and mark our target. Then we’ll move.”
An argument was brewing. But before it could escalate, David heard footsteps in the stairwell. Someone was coming down from the sixth floor. David pulled the snake out of the hallway and back to himself, then turned just in time to see an armed Revolutionary Guard Corps officer coming down the stairs. Their eyes met at the same moment. Clearly stunned by the sight of two masked men, the officer raised his AK-47 to fire, but David raised his pistol faster and double-tapped the man to his forehead.
David knew silencers weren’t truly silent. They were really sound suppressors, but even the top-of-the-line model on David’s pistol couldn’t completely eliminate the sound of a 9mm pistol being fired at close range, especially inside a concrete stairwell. David’s two shots, muffled though they were, echoed up and down the building. And nothing could silence the sound of an Iranian man collapsing to the floor, falling down half a flight of stairs, and smashing against the wall. His own heart racing, David didn’t waste time checking the officer’s pulse. There was no question he was dead. But he and Fox would be too if they didn’t move fast.
“Go, go, go,” David shouted into his microphone as he sprang forward. “We found the guard and took him out. Now moving into the hallway — go, go, go!”
David flipped the switch on the little black box, instantly jamming all communications on the floor and thus neutralizing mobile phones, landlines, and security cameras. Then he pulled open the door and turned left with Fox, his wingman, a few yards behind him. He moved hard and fast, weaving through the crowded hallway and occasionally pushing aside those startled doctors, nurses, and visitors who wouldn’t or couldn’t get out of his way fast enough.
The building was a large rectangle, and as he came around the first corner, he saw a guard none of their recon had identified. The guard was clearly stunned and terrified, but he reacted quickly. He opened fire with his AK-47, spraying bullets everywhere, felling a nurse who happened to get caught in the line of fire. She was dead before she hit the floor, and everyone else in the hallway was now screaming.
In the pandemonium, David dove into a room on the right. Fox dove into a room on the left. But it was Fox who recovered fastest. A moment later, he popped his head out of the doorway and returned fire. Unfortunately his shots went high. The guard was not running toward them. He was now flattened on the ground on his stomach and unleashed a burst of fire at Fox’s head. David feared for his colleague’s life, certain he was going to see Fox’s head explode. But the SEAL’s reflexes were lightning quick; he pulled back into the room and out of harm’s way just in time.
David seized the moment. He pivoted out from his doorway and fired three shots. At least one hit its mark. The guard shrieked in pain as David moved in and fired two more shots into him, ending his screams.
“Alpha Two, clear — let’s go,” he shouted, then holstered the pistol and grabbed the MP5 off his back.
He came around the corner and found Torres and Crenshaw in an intense firefight. Three guards were down, writhing and bleeding. But at least two that David could see were returning fire. He unleashed two short bursts and felled one of them. The second — apparently stunned by hearing gunfire behind him — dropped to the floor and was about to fire when Fox roared past David and pumped two bullets into the man’s forehead. Suddenly the guns went silent, though people everywhere were shouting and screaming and running for the exits.
David was less than ten yards from Javad Nouri’s room and was about to make a break for it when he heard Torres’s voice in his headset.
“Alpha One, hold, hold,” Torres yelled. “There’s another guard out here somewhere. Do you see him?”
Both David and Fox scanned the hallway from side to side. Neither saw the guard, and they were about to begin clearing rooms one by one. But now it was Zalinsky’s voice in their ears.
“Alpha One, the final guard is in the target’s room,” he said. “I repeat, he’s in the target’s room.”
For a moment, David froze. If he’d darted in there as planned, he would have been killed instantly. Fox would have been too, if he’d stayed at his side. He was grateful for his team’s presence of mind to keep a careful count of the bad guys. But then another thought flashed through David’s mind. What if the guard had orders to kill Nouri should anything like this ever happen? He had to do something quickly, but what?