“What are you saying then?”
“I…” began Bloom.
“Switch him to the Secretary,” whispered Jessup emphatically.
Bloom nodded and said, “I have to switch you to the Secretary’s office. I’m not allowed to negotiate…”
“Make it fast,” said the voice, its imminent loss of patience evident despite the enhancement.
Jessup pressed the “hold” button on his phone and took a deep breath. Then he dialled the Secretary General. It seemed to take forever, but less than a minute passed before the Secretary General’s office answered.
At the Hacienda, Rudolfo Suarez pressed his ear to a cel phone as he sat comfortably on a luxurious living- room sofa, his feet resting on a large burlwood coffee table. In front of him a panoramic picture window framed a magnificent view of the Andes. His eyes traced the contours of the mountains as he waited for the office of the UN Secretary General to come on the line. He smiled broadly, relishing the moment.
Next to him sat Remo, ordered to listen on another line but keep silent.
They could hear the phone link switching as it followed a special computer program that routed the call to various points on the globe. Every fifteen seconds there would be a click! followed by silence, and then another click! as the linkup reconnected. Suarez had spent a great deal of time figuring out how to route his calls so they couldn’t be traced. If a trace was possible at all, the most anyone would be able to determine was that the origin of the call was somewhere in South America.
Finally he heard a woman’s voice on the line. “This is Representative Armandi — Jean Armandi. May I help you?”
“You know who I am?”
“No sir,” said Armandi. “I am assuming you can give me a coded identifier? That was your demand, was it not?”
Suarez smiled. They were following his orders to the letter.
“White Mountain,” said Suarez.
There was a click, then silence for a few moments. Then Armandi came back on the line. “That’s fine.
We’re prepared to start transferring the money — the securities — from the Wall Street computers as soon as you give us the location of the bombs.”
“I will do that after the transfer,” said Suarez, smiling at Remo.
“Then what kind of guarantee do we have that you won’t detonate the nuclear bombs?” said Armandi.
“I am giving no guarantees,” said Suarez. “I have no interest in destroying the world. I only want the money.
The bombs are simply to ensure that I get it. Once the transfer is complete I will consider giving the locations of the devices.”
There was a long silence, followed by another click as his computer continued to route the call.
By now there were over thirty people listening to the conversation, including the President of the United States as well as Hayes and Grimes, who had returned to the Enterprise with their captive; Hodges was now secured in the ship’s brig. Also listening were Henry and Sarah. The call had come during an informal debriefing in Captain Halsey’s quarters.
They sat in silence as the conversation between the ambassador and the terrorist played through a speaker in the ceiling of the room. Shep, who had been sleeping beside Henry’s chair, had lifted his head when he’d first heard the terrorist’s electronically enhanced voice, and growled.
“That’s him,” said Henry, noticing Shep’s reaction.
“That must be Suarez.”
“No question,” agreed Hayes. “We know who it is.
But we’re still trying to put a trace on the call. If he gives us the location of the bombs, then we have him.
TransAm Optical’s corporate headquarters will cease to exist.”
“Isn’t that a bit drastic?” asked Sarah. “You’d just blitz a place without even knowing who’s in there?”
“These are times for drastic action,” said the general. “If we can negate the threat by forfeiting a few civilian lives…”
“Then we’re no different from Suarez,” she interrupted. “No different at all.”
“And so we go ahead and make deals and trust the guy, then he goes and pul s the plug on us after all,” said Grimes. “What then, Ms Bleeding Heart?”
The mechanical monotone of the terrorist’s voice over the loudspeaker interrupted their argument. “Ambassador Armandi, I appreciate your position, but don’t be fooled by my willingness to discuss these matters with you. By now you will have tried, unsuccessful y, to locate the source of this call. By now you will have linked this call to the US President and perhaps hundreds of other interested parties around the world. It is you that I speak to, and it is you who I warn that, when tomorrow’s deadline comes, I will send the signal to destroy the ice shelf in Antarctica. Is that clear, madam?”
“Yes it is,” said Armandi. “We understand your position, and I am in touch with the President of the United States, who is authorized to transmit four billion in securities to the account numbers you will give us. May I ask how you intend to give us those numbers?”
“You will be notified within the next ten hours — and make that five billion,” said Suarez.
The line went dead.
Henry looked at the speaker in the ceiling as though he expected it to say more. There was only static on the line. Then even that was gone.
“Ten hours,” said Grimes.
Sarah looked around the room. “I don’t understand how this is going to happen, this money transfer.”
“I wonder if anyone other than Suarez really does,” replied Hayes. “The methods of securities exchange and the world’s financial pathways have become extremely complex, and get more so every day in this computer age. Perhaps we could trace the money if it went to just one place…”
“Or came from only one place,” said Halsey, who had been listening quietly to them. “Our guy is showing his financial knowhow. The more I hear about this man Suarez, the more he seems like a logical conclusion to the situation in Latin America. Someone who sees his country plundered…”
“Boo hoo,” said Grimes. “No more, sir, you’re breakin’ my poor heart.”
“I’m not forgiving the bastard, Grimes, but it doesn’t hurt us to try to figure this guy out, does it?”
“No, sir,” said Grimes. All eyes went to the SEAL as he rose to his feet. “Gentlemen,” he said, “I have a lot of respect for you all. Most of all, though, I’m responsible to my country, and my country has been charged with protecting the world from pieces of human lichen like Suarez.”
“Permission to speak, freely, Commander Grimes,” said Halsey with a bitter smile.
“By all means, Kai,” added Hayes.
Grimes stared at them blankly. “We have to take him out. That’s all I’m sayin’. Sitting here is not making the world a better place.”
“Okay,” said the general. “Let’s do it.” He reached for the phone.
It rang in his hand.
He lifted the receiver to his ear. He knew it had to be the President. Less than a minute later he was putting the phone back down.
Four faces stared at him.
“By my count, Tony, that was at least five ‘yes, sirs’ and two ‘maybe, sirs’,” said Halsey. “Care to fill us in on what the man said?”
“Take Suarez alive.”
Grimes groaned. “Always the hard way.”
“You don’t agree with that strategy?” Halsey asked, regarding the SEAL with a sceptical eye. “What action would you recommend?”
Grimes evidently realized that, once again, his focus as an anti-terrorist had him toeing the line of insubordination. “One well placed Hel fire before he suspects a thing. Nuke ’em, sir. Deal with the bombs in the ice later.”