Rahman nodded at Aswan, who ushered Mansur from the house.
Rahman sat back at his computer, typed in the password to deactivate the screen saver, and then logged onto his satellite Internet service for the first time since they shot down the helicopters.
Which was when the flash drive finally began to do what it had been programmed for.
CHAPTER 34
Matt Garrett sat in a metal chair inside Major General Jack Rampert’s office at the south end of Bagram Airfield. Rampert had four maps on display, one on each wall. There was a world map behind his desk. To Matt’s left was a map covering the Central Command area of operations from the Horn of Africa across the Arabian Peninsula to Pakistan. To Matt’s right was a map of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and behind him was the big blow up of Afghanistan.
“We heard anything yet?” Matt asked.
Rampert shook his head, stood from his squeaky chair, and walked to the map on Matt’s right, the Afghanistan-Pakistan relief.
“We raided right there,” Rampert said, pointing at a dashed line on the map where the latest survey placed the actual border between the two countries, though on the ground it would be impossible to determine without a GPS. “And we’re expecting something to pop up right there.”
Matt stood and walked to the map and looked at Rampert’s cracked, dry fingernail slightly to the right, or east, of the border and near a town called Chitral.
“Your guys approved this plan, Matt,” Rampert said, warily.
“Don’t get defensive, General. It doesn’t suit you.”
Standing next to Rampert, Matt was conflicted. Four years ago Rampert had pulled Zach off the battlefield in the Philippines and saved his life. Two years ago he had sent Zach into Canada on a suicide mission to kill or capture former Iraqi general Jacques Ballantine. Now, it appeared that Rampert had given Zach another high-risk mission, as if his brother was entirely expendable. But then again, weren’t they all?
“Not defensive,” Rampert said. “Just making sure you understand what’s going on here.”
“And what is going on?”
Rampert squared up to Matt. The two men were close in height, though Matt edged the general by an inch or two. The general’s army combat uniform hung snugly on his fit frame. Matt looked powerful in his cargo pants and Under Armor shirt.
“We may never hear anything or the world could light up for us. You know the mission was a risk. We’ve got a bead, but our man’s not communicating so far.”
“I didn’t know Zach was delivering the goods, General, so let’s get off that point.”
Matt worked his jaw a bit, clenching, unclenching, like he used to do as a college shortstop, watching the pitcher release the ball, expecting, hoping that the batter would drill a hard grounder to his side of the field.
The general’s door opened and Van Dreeves stuck his head inside saying, “Sir, you gotta see this shit.”
Matt looked at Van Dreeves’ shaggy blonde head disappearing behind the door then back at Rampert.
“Let’s hope the world is lighting up.”
The two men moved quickly to Van Dreeves’ technical center where he had two powerful computers and a server with a satellite shot to the National Security Agency’s top secret Carnivore bird.
Matt stared over Van Dreeves’ shoulder.
“It worked.”
On the computer screen there was a flashing green light transposed on the map, which was displaying the Chitral and Northwest Frontier Province terrain of Pakistan.
“Son of a bitch,” Rampert muttered.
“If Zach’s alive, that’s where he is,” Matt said.
“If,” Rampert reiterated.
Matt stared at Rampert, suppressing the comeback.
“Here’s the deal,” Van Dreeves said. “The flash drive put the Trojan onto the computer and it’s been a few days now, so this is the first time this guy has gone onto the net. He’s communicating with two people via a private message board that holds the message until the recipient has read it. Then it disappears.”
“How can we see it?” Rampert asked.
“NSA built a screen shot program into the Trojan. Once a communication goes out, the software does a screen shot of the message whether it’s a chat or an email or a webpage and stores it for us,” Van Dreeves explained.
“So what’s it saying?” Matt said.
“Mullah Rahman, our number three high value target for Al Qaeda is selling the plan for $5 million.”
“Who’s he talking to?”
“For the withdrawal plan, he’s talking to someone in Dubai and someone in Yemen. For the Thorium, he’s only communicating with Yemen. Tells me that Dubai is finance and Yemen is operations. We’re working the back trails on those messages. These guys are pretty computer savvy, which is why I’m surprised Rahman put the flash drive in his computer. This is pretty basic.”
“Maybe to someone like you, VD,” Matt said. “But you find some intel on the battlefield like that, it’s hard to resist.”
“So what are we thinking?” Rampert asked, looking at Matt.
Matt considered the general for a moment and said, “You’re not yourself, sir. Normally you’d just tell me what the hell we’re doing.”
Rampert smiled. “I’m seeing if you agree with me.”
“We let Rahman work the computer. Make the two recipients. I agree with VD, one has to be a chief financier, the other a chief operative, if not the chief operative. Meanwhile, we go find Zach,” Matt said.
“Great minds think alike. VD get a predator watching that area best you can. Let’s see what we’ve got,” Rampert ordered.
Matt nodded, walked out of the command center, and found his bunk. He laid his Sig Sauer on the bed, stripped it, cleaned and oiled it, and put it back together. Then he ran his knife against a whetstone a few times and speed loaded his magazines. Then he disassembled his pistol, cleaned it, oiled, and reassembled it.
All the while he was thinking Zach had to be alive. Everyone else doubted it, save Eversoll, but he knew it. He retrieved Zach’s wallet with Amanda’s photo and the Saint Michael medal. Turning it in his hands, he considered Zach’s two great loves, his daughter and his mission. Maybe throw Riley Dwyer in there, too, he wasn’t sure. His brother had risked his life and half of his team had been killed delivering the smallest payload ever to Al Qaeda, a two ounce thumb drive full of information. Those two ounces could ultimately do more damage than a 500-pound bomb. Way more damage.
Would it be worth the death of all the great men who were killed in the helicopter shoot down? That was a hard call to make. Matt knew that he would trade places with any of those men to have been on that sensitive and strategic mission. And he also knew that those men knew that any mission, especially this one, could result in their final trip home in a flag draped coffin.
Was it worth the death of his brother?
Matt decided that was a rhetorical question, because in his gut he knew Zach was not dead.
And he also knew that he had not told General Rampert the entire plan.
CHAPTER 35
Melanie Garrett nosed her Mercedes into the garage, stopping just in front of the riding lawn mower. Walking into the kitchen through the connecting door from the garage, she punched the dimly lit button to lower the garage door.
She hooked her car keys on a wooden plaque shaped like a lighthouse and dropped her purse on the barstool near the kitchen island. Retrieving her cell phone, she listened to the message again.