The door from the cockpit opened and Felicity the co-pilot came into the main cabin headed for the bathroom.
When she returned she was naked and carrying a blanket.
She stayed with Kamal fulfilling his every wish until Alain announced "We will be beginning descent in thirty minutes."
Then she kissed Kamal on the cheek, showered, and re-dressed into her uniform. She calmly returned back to the flight deck to assist with the pre-landing checks.
They descended quite quickly, traffic around Minsk was light and they were cleared for an immediate landing.
"A perfect landing as usual Alain" commented Kamal as Alain lowered the steps. Felicity was charged with the post flight shut down.
Kamal and Alain both had put on jackets, as the weather was much colder away from the Middle East.
"Thank you sir, this plane is a dream to fly."
There was a large shiny black van ready to meet them. There was no driver and the keys were in the car. A map was on the passenger’s seat.
Alain was surprised when Kamal helped him load the seven crates into the van.
He was even more surprised when Kamal announced "Alain, I will be here for some time. I don’t want to advertise the fact that I am here, so I want you to get some rest, and then return home."
"Sure, that’s no problem sir. When should I come back to pick you up?" asked Alain.
"I am afraid I don’t know exactly. Let me contact you and let you know."
"Ok, see you soon" said Alain who was already thinking about refueling and the return journey the next day. Kamal drove away.
Kamal wished Felicity could stay with him, but she needed to help fly the plane home.
Perhaps he would have been less interested if he had known that Alain and Felicity were planning on enjoying their layover in every way possible.
Kamal’s destination was a rendezvous with a heavy briefcase that was already in safekeeping.
Chapter 44
As the President strode to the podium there was complete pandemonium.
The President held up his hand and had to wait for an extended period of time for silence before he could begin. He did not use any notes or a teleprompter.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I am sure you will all have read the article in this morning’s newspaper about the incident in the Gulf two days ago. The paper raised speculation that a nuclear payload was involved. We have previously released all the information that we could in relation to this matter."
There was a flurry of questions, and the President again raised his hand for silence.
"On my specific instruction, we intentionally omitted to mention the fact that a nuclear weapon was onboard this light aircraft."
The press gallery erupted with the noise of characters being typed into Blackberries and iphones.
"This was my decision alone, and I stand by that decision as it is a matter of National Security. I take full responsibility for this omission, and I very much regret that this information has been released so soon. This premature release may affect our ability for locate the masterminds of this attack. It is not always in the best interests of the people to know everything quite so soon when it may interfere with an ongoing investigation."
"Sometimes the administration must make a decision to balance the right of the people to know on one hand, with the security of the nation on the other."
"We are already chasing firm leads to find the people responsible for this act of terrorism against the people of the United States. Those responsible will be brought to justice."
"I give you my solemn promise to avenge this atrocity. There will be no trial. This is an act of war upon us. The full might of the U.S. military will descend upon the culprits of this heinous act."
The President left no doubt that there would be no questions as he turned around and walked from the room.
Game On was the Washington Post headline the following morning.
Chapter 45
"How the hell did the press find out about the nuke?" President Connolly asked his CIA Director Adam Scott.
"Sir, we immediately took the journalist who broke the story into custody in the interests of national security. She co-operated fully and didn’t even try to give us that crap about protecting her source. Apparently she got a telephone call from a guy with a deep accent telling her that there was a nuke on the plane. I don’t believe she knows anything more than that."
"What have you done about finding the source?" asked the President.
"We traced the journalist’s telephone logs. The call came from a pay phone in Boston. We have hit a dead end" explained Scott.
"I am serious about what I said at the press conference today. Find me a target! I want to hit back hard and send a message to these people that they don’t mess with us. They need to know that Weapons of Mass Destruction are off limits."
"I can’t believe that this is just a suicide thing. To get a hold of the nuke would have been a major exercise in itself. There is no way this is just one guy. Find the group that did this. If it is the last thing I ever do, I am going to make them pay" explained President Connolly.
Chapter 46
Dimitri the boat builder once again made the trip from the shipyard to the bar. He used the bar’s pay phone to report his progress. His new instructions from his unknown controller were for him to "Wait beside the boat tomorrow at midnight."
The next evening was freezing, typical for Russia at that time of year. Dimitri was trying to keep himself warm when a small van drove up right at the appointed hour. A tall dark man with a strong build stepped from the van. He did not bother introducing himself.
"Help me unload the truck" said Kamal.
Thirty minutes later the seven crates and one heavy suitcase were sitting beside the boat.
"Dimitri, it is time to lay the lead inside the keel" said Kamal.
"Climb inside the boat and I will pass this suitcase up to you. It is heavy, do not drop it" Kamal warned.
After the case was safely on board, Kamal carried the case down into the boat, he lay down on the hull and carefully lowered it with a rope into the hollow space of the keel.
"Now go back down and pass the lead ingots up to me and I will help fill the keel" Kamal explained.
Dimitri climbed down the ladder, grabbed an ingot, then climbed halfway up the ladder and passed it to Kamal. While he went back down to get another, Kamal placed the ingots one by one tightly around the suitcase. After two tons of ingots had been laid, the case was almost covered. Kamal pulled a wire from the top of the case and let it flap on the deck.
Next, they poured bags of lead shot into the cracks between the ingots. When placement of the lead was complete, they mixed buckets full of resin with additional hardener to counter the extreme cold. Then they poured this slurry over the lead. It slowly seeped through the small spaces between the shot and ingots until the whole keel was a solid mass. All that was visible of the black suitcase was the wire on the floor.
They waited one hour to ensure the resin had begun to set, and they each went to get some sleep.
On the following days, Kamal paid Dimitri to work fulltime on the boat. Kamal worked shoulder to shoulder with Dimitri to ensure that everything was done properly, but also just to keep an eye on him. The crates Kamal had brought with him on his jet contained all the accessories and deck hardware they needed to get the boat completed except for the engine.