General Ferguson had dismissed his coffee-pouring majors as Billy Finn had requested. For 30 minutes, Finn explained the long conversations in the Hindu Kush with Omid, the abduction of Thierry Gaudin’s son, the secret calls between Camp and Reuven, the flight into Amman, Jordan, the sauna, the burka, and the Gesher checkpoint into Israel. Finn painted the scene of the Christian, the Jew and the Muslim having a picnic in the Valley of Jezreel beneath the ridge of Megiddo. He explained that while Armageddon was a physical place, the metaphorical meaning transcended all cultures and religions. And Finn laid out the plan that was formulated by the Twelvers in Iran, the 8-minute and 53-second annihilation of Israel and the first retaliation missiles that wouldn’t fall in Iran until 10 minutes had ticked off, as one million Iranian soldiers sprinted into Iraq.
Ferguson couldn’t decide if he was angry with Billy Finn and US Navy Captain Campbell, or if they were the best diplomats that America had ever produced.
“What do I need to do Billy? Do we need to send Camp back to Israel?”
Finn didn’t have a great answer.
“I think it’s out of our hands now, general. Raines has created a biomedical shield for Israel. If the tularemia is rendered powerless, if Iran’s proxies can’t get to the King of Saudi Arabia… then maybe… maybe the plan can be stopped.”
“Stopped?” Ferguson asked.
“Delayed… delayed until the next plan is created.”
“I need to contact the SECDEF, probably CIA… they need to know.”
Billy Finn stood up and leaned over Ferguson’s desk and got close to the general’s face.
“You know who you need to contact? 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The next time the people rally in the streets against radical thoughts, radical policies and radical military programs designed… DESIGNED… for mutual annihilation, then maybe we need to worry less about sanctions and more about the people. I can assure you, Jim, there are far more Muslims just like Omid, than the few that are like Kazi. I pray to God that Omid did enough… that Raines did enough… that we all did enough. God save us all if we’re too late.”
Lyon Airport
Lyon, France
One truck filled with 5,000 gallons of sublingual tularemia vaccine was parked on the tarmac of the airport. Airport security had cordoned off the area as 40 officers from Interpol and the Lyon Police Department provided security. Leslie Raines and Thierry Gaudin stood under a single black umbrella as a light rain filtered through the headlights of their car.
The landing lights on the El Al chartered flight were in clear view as the jetliner made its final approach for landing.
The air traffic control tower guided the jet as it taxied over to the maintenance wing where one single truck was parked. The engines shut down as the ground crew pushed a portable staircase up to the front cabin door.
The 747-200F was operated by El Al Cargo. The jet had 10 passenger seats up by the cockpit, and the rest of the airplane was hollowed out for cargo.
The cabin door opened, and two men exited the cabin for the walk down the stairs in the light rain. Flashing yellow security lights lit their faces with sweeps of light. The first man was tall with a very long and narrow face. His hair was combed straight back and small, round, frameless spectacles rested on the bridge of his nose. He wore a full length black overcoat with the collar pulled up high. The second man was shorter, much rounder. His hair was full and flopped from side to side with the wind and the rain. A deep black moustache and goatee covered his face.
The two walked over to Leslie Raines and Thierry Gaudin who stood under the black umbrella, silhouetted against the headlights of the truck in the drizzle of the rain.
It was precisely two o’clock in the morning.
“Molly Bloom?” Raines asked as Reuven stepped closer.
“Lieutenant Colonel Leslie Raines I presume.”
Thierry looked over at Raines with a surprised look on his face. He had no idea that she was a high ranking American military officer.
“One truck?” Reuven asked with concern.
“Sir, this is Thierry Gaudin, president and CEO of LyonBio. Without his support and that of his incredible team, not even one truck would be possible tonight.”
Reuven looked at them both. His hands were deep in his overcoat pockets.
“On behalf of a grateful nation… thank you. It’ll take our crew about 15-minutes, a quick refueling, and then we’ll be on our way.”
“Sir, this is only 5,000 gallons. Will it be enough?”
“It will have to be. Someone once took three hundred lamps and some trumpets… God made them look, and sound, like an overpowering army. God will have to multiply the effect of this vaccine, too.”
“It has a name,” Raines said.
“What does, colonel?”
“The vaccine. It was Camp’s idea. He told me a little bit about your, um, picnic. The vaccine is called GideonX.”
Reuven smiled as Yitzhak nodded his head with pleasure. Reuven pulled one hand out of his pocket and reached to the inside pocket of his overcoat and pulled out an envelope and handed it to Thierry.
“What’s this?” Thierry asked.
“It’s 80,000 Euros.”
“Sir, we can’t take money for this. The Americans have already paid for our services.”
Reuven reached out his hand and stopped Thierry from handing the envelope back to him.
“It’s not for you. You’ll find instructions inside. I recently met an incredible man, a Muslim, a colonel in the Iranian army. His courage may have saved two countries from mutual destruction and prevented a hundred more nations from waging war. He was killed for his courage. Make sure his family is taken care of… that his sons go on to university and study history, become writers, poets, philosophers and great men. Their father was a great man.”
Thierry took the envelope and slid it into his pocket as Reuven looked at the skies and the passing storm.
“The storm is moving out of the Mediterranean… for the next three days we are expecting six mile per hour winds out of the north and northwest blowing south and back to the southwest.”
“You like to follow the weather, Mr. Molly Bloom?” Raines said with a smirk on her face.
“Today I do. Thank you, colonel… Mr. Gaudin… good night, and shalom.”
Reuven and Yitzhak turned and walked back up the steps to the El Al Cargo 747-200F in a light rain that had all but stopped.
Charles de Gaulle Airport
Paris, France
Kazi’s flight from Beirut landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport in France just in time for him to see the lift-off on the flat screen TVs in the terminal. Fourteen international television news crews, most of them broadcasting to the Islamic world, fixed their cameras on 50 colorful hot air balloons as the solitary rider on a white horse rode to the starting line and waved the ceremonial Unity Festival flag to start the race. Unity ribbons from each of the carriages waved back in the slight wind as all balloons lifted up for the race to Port Said, Egypt.
Once he cleared customs, Kazi would be on his way for the second leg of his journey.
44
Tel Aviv Hilton
Tel Aviv, Israel
Reuven and Yitzhak walked down the shore where western camera crews were set up on the beaches by the Mediterranean Sea in front of the Hilton Hotel. The big tents that had served as “Free Flu Vaccination Centers” the previous two days were now filled with producers and on-air talent seeking shade from the sun until the balloon race was within view.