Then again, how much did Langley want David and his team to live through the next five minutes?
Mays knew they had only a matter of seconds to succeed and survive… or fail and die. Taking matters into his own hands, he pulled the van out of the parking lot, carefully weaving through the throng of people emerging from the hospital. Then, rather than return past the guard station, he took a right on a service road and was able to double back around the entire building. It took a few moments, but soon he had nearly come full circle, which meant he was coming up behind the two officers crouching behind their police cruiser, guns drawn, waiting for David and his team to emerge from the building and get shot down like Bonnie and Clyde. Mays slowed to a halt, trying one more time to assess the situation.
Craning his neck, Mays turned and looked behind him. For the moment, at least, he saw no more policemen or IRGC officers. But he could hear the faint sound of sirens approaching in the distance. He looked to the left, then to the right. He saw no other armed men, and the crowd ahead of him was beginning to thin as one of the policemen shouted at them to move away from the building quickly and find cover.
“Alpha One, this is Bravo Three — you ready to come out?”
“Hold radio traffic, Bravo Three,” David responded. “We’re waiting for Home Plate.”
But Zalinsky still wasn’t saying anything.
“We’re out of time,” Mays said. “I can already hear the sirens of more police approaching. We need to get you out of there now. I’m going in.”
Mays lowered his window, picked up the pistol from the seat beside him, and clicked off the safety. Then he aimed the van for the police cruiser and hit the gas.
The van accelerated instantly and plowed directly into the car. The sound of the violent crash — metal upon metal and glass shattering — stunned everyone within earshot on the hospital grounds. One of the officers was killed on impact while the other dove out of the way. But he was out in the open now. Mays slammed on the brakes, threw the van into park, then pointed his pistol out the window and fired three shots, killing him instantly. Then he jammed the van back into drive and raced to the back door of the hospital.
“Alpha One, targets neutralized,” Mays shouted over the radio. “I’m in position outside the exit. All clear, at least for now. Let’s go!”
David wasn’t quite sure what had just happened, but he trusted Mays implicitly. If the man said it was time to move, it was time to move. He ordered the door opened and everyone to start moving. The hospital staff — more terrified than ever now — immediately complied.
Within seconds they were out in the fresh air again. David told everyone to surround the van, and they did, while Crenshaw pulled the side door of the van open and helped David put Javad Nouri inside. Then David jumped into the front passenger seat while the rest of the team climbed into the back and Mays laid on the horn. Everyone surrounding the van fled, and Mays hit the gas and peeled away just as gunfire erupted behind them, blowing out the rear window and sending glass flying everywhere.
Zalinsky was stunned. He was watching the entire scene unfold from the satellite feed but couldn’t believe his eyes. Nor could Murray or anyone else in the Global Ops Center. Zalinsky’s hesitation had put the entire mission at risk, and it still could, he realized.
True, David had his man. Javad Nouri had been visited in the hospital by the Twelfth Imam and seemed to be one of his most senior advisors. If anyone besides the Mahdi knew the full plan of where the warheads were and how they were going to be used, it could very well be Nouri. But as he watched Mays speeding away from the hospital, he knew he had only a matter of seconds to protect Zephyr and his team from certain death — death from the sky.
“We’ve got a chopper at four o’clock, low and coming in fast,” shouted Crenshaw, who was hunched down in the backseat and trying to get his MP5 into position.
Mays was gaining speed, but it wasn’t helping. He couldn’t possibly outrun a police helicopter, which meant the sniper on board was getting dangerously close. Crenshaw opened fire. A moment later, Fox and Torres were leaning out of their respective windows and firing at the chopper as well.
“We hit them,” Crenshaw shouted. “They’re backing off.”
For now, the team’s return fire seemed to have worked. But it was only a temporary fix. David and the others soon watched as the chopper sped ahead, looped around, and then accelerated. It was coming right for them. The sniper was beginning to lean out from the right-hand side and was preparing to fire.
Mays told everyone to hold on, then slammed on the brakes and took a hard left turn. Again, the maneuver worked. The chopper sailed right past them. But they couldn’t outfox this guy for long, David knew. They needed to find cover, but even then, what good would that do? If they went underground, the pilot would alert every police officer in the city. They would soon be surrounded, and David didn’t dare contemplate their fate in the hands of the Twelfth Imam, especially since they were in possession of one of his advisors.
David craned his neck, hoping to reacquire the helicopter and help Mays plot an evasive route. A moment later, he saw the glint of the rotors in the afternoon sun. The pilot was banking around from the east, about to make another dead run at them. The problem was that Mays had pulled onto a major highway. It was mostly clear. Because of the war, few Tehran residents were on the streets, and Mays was now driving at more than two hundred kilometers an hour. But there were no more side streets. There were no more alleys. There were no more overpasses. This was it. They were out in the open, and the chopper was dead ahead. David could see the sniper getting into position again and aiming his rifle directly for Mays — or for him. Did it really matter which? They were all going to die in the next three seconds, and all their hopes for stopping the Mahdi from launching his last two nuclear warheads would die with them. And there was nothing they could do about it.
Then David saw a streak of light out of the corner of his eye, coming in from the right and moving fast. It took a split second to register what was happening, and then David realized Zalinsky had just said yes. Slicing across the sky was a Hellfire missile, and sure enough, an instant later he watched the helicopter ahead of him explode into an enormous fireball, the pilot and the sniper having never seen the missile coming. Fire and smoke and twisted scraps of molten metal came raining down from the sky. But Mays never slowed, and David didn’t want him to. They still had to get out of this city to one of the three hotels in the suburbs that they had preselected as possible rendezvous points, and then they had to wake Nouri up and get him talking before it was too late.
26
“Asher, it’s Levi. I need to speak with you immediately,” Defense Minister Shimon said when the PM came on the line.
“Of course, Levi; what is it?”
“No, not over the phone. I need to meet with you in person — you and Zvi,” Shimon said, referring to Mossad chief Zvi Dayan.
“Then come,” Naphtali said. “Is it about Dimona?”
“No.”
“Then what?” Naphtali insisted.
The defense minister hesitated for a moment before saying, “It’s about the Twelfth Imam. That’s all I can say.”