Abdulla stopped suddenly.
“Please forgive me, but I am not the man you should be talking to,” Abdulla said.
Oh shit — they know!
John had no idea what his next move should be or how he could even warn the Navy SEALs who were there.
One of the armed men, standing behind the rich oil Sheik began to remove his balaclava and stepped forward.
“Alkmaar, you have served me well. You may now take your normal place.” After removing his balaclava, he revealed himself as the true Abdulla Ashama. “Now, I wish to talk to my friend Mr. Wolfgang,” he said.
The entire thing had been a ruse on their part to ensure the safety of Abdulla.
“I’m hurt that you didn’t trust me,” John said.
“I didn’t, but now I see that you are a man of your word,” the real Abdulla said, and then continued, “Mr. Wolfgang, I had my doubts that you would be able to locate it, but I never thought in a million years that you would show up with the Magdalena herself, right at my doorstep.”
“It gladdens me to see that I have pleased you, my friend,” John said obsequiously.
“So, it has survived all this time?”
“Yes.”
“May I see it?” Abdulla asked.
“Of course.”
John reached into the compartment beneath the seat and withdrew a metallic suitcase.
An electronic keypad was located at its base, and John tapped more than twenty keys in quick succession. A green light flashed, indicating that the correct sequence had been entered, and then the suitcase snapped open automatically.
In the middle of the suitcase lay three vials of an almost entirely clear substance.
“For a substance so powerful this appears to be rather small,” Abdulla said, making no attempt to hide his disappointment.
“They are small, but don’t forget that a nuclear bomb works by only minute, subatomic particles and yet still it has the ability to level entire cities.”
“Of course, of course,” Abdulla said, nodding his head. “And the vaccine?”
John didn’t reply immediately.
Instead, his hands reached below the same hidden space, below the seat, and withdrew a second metallic case. After repeating the same process as the first, he opened it for Abdulla to see.
This one housed a laptop computer and a satellite phone. He switched it on and the image of a bank in Zurich appeared on the monitor.
“I would like you to transfer the money into this account. Once I have confirmed that the final 10 billion dollars has been deposited, I will provide you with the antidote to the virus,” John said.
“You seem like a fair man to me. But how can I trust you to complete the transaction after I have transferred the entire amount to your bank?”
“Well,” John said, looking out of the large glass windows at the men who now surrounded the Magdalena, “I should think that if I fail to provide you with the antidote after I’ve received payment, you will kill me, probably after first torturing me. No, I think you can trust me to make good on our deal.”
Abdulla laughed again. It was a big hearty laugh from a man who was unaccustomed to men speaking to him so frankly.
Abdulla then picked up his own phone and began to speak rapidly into it in Arabic.
Afterwards, he looked back at John, and said, “Okay John, it will be done.”
“Very good.”
About three minutes later John watched as his computer registered the 10 billion dollar funds transfer. A quick phone call to his personal bank manager assured him that the money had been successfully deposited.
“Are you satisfied?” Abdulla asked.
“Yes, very.”
John opened a trapdoor located beneath his seat and extracted a third suitcase. Upon opening it, Abdulla could see that the suitcase held 100 hypodermic syringes of the vaccine, with the needles attached.
“As you can see,” John said, “I was more cautious with the vaccine than I was with the virus.”
“So, this is goodbye then,” Abdulla said. “It’s been a pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Wolfgang.”
Then, he stood up as he and his men turned to leave.
Abdulla clutched at his chest.
Shock and dismay could be seen, planted firmly in his eyes, as Abdulla came to the abhorrent realization that he had been betrayed.
Abdulla looked down at the hundred or more tranquilizer darts now piercing his body.
He never spoke, but his eyes told John that Abdulla wanted to kill him.
John, as well as everyone else in the room, had also been pierced by hundreds of the same tiny tranquilizer darts, and he was also starting to feel their paralyzing effects.
John felt sorry for his enemy, who could never have guessed that all of the three men in that room would willingly sacrifice their own lives so that he could be captured.
John never saw Abdulla suddenly lunge at him with a deadly knife.
It sliced directly across his throat.
John was surprised to feel no pain.
The injected sedative had a calming effect, and John felt a sense of peace come over him as he quickly bled to death, a feeling of peace which he’d not felt for the past twenty years.
He wanted to raise his hand to his throat to put pressure on the wound and slow the bleeding, but the toxin had already taken effect and despite his desire to live, he was unable to save himself.
Completely paralyzed, John Wolfgang had no way to stop the rapid flow of blood from his severed carotid artery.
Now it’s really over, and at least my girl is safe — were his final thoughts as he was claimed by death.
Sam Reilly slid open the secret safe beneath the gondola’s carriage, which he’d discovered on the night that he and Aliana had first found the Magdalena, and he stepped into the room where all eight people lay quietly, no longer breathing.
The weapon that Ryan Walker had installed on the airship had served the purpose for which it had been designed — to disarm every single person within the room quietly and without a fight.
He looked at the 100 loaded antidote syringes in the suitcase in front of him.
John Wolfgang had done his job — the antidotes were right where he needed them to be.
He injected Ryan first, and then Brett.
“Quick, John’s been hit,” he told them.
Lastly, he went over to do the same to John, but a cursory glance told him that the man had already lost far too much blood.
Without hesitating, he stuck the needle into John’s deltoid muscle, and expressed the full contents of the syringe.
The antidote began to work within seconds.
Sam could hear the sound of gurgling blood coming from John Wolfgang’s mouth. He’d started to breathe again, but Sam guessed that it would not be for long.
“Help me sit him up, Brett.”
It only took a second, and the gurgling sound cleared for a moment as the blood slid down John’s throat.
“I’m sorry John… I never meant for you to get hurt,” Sam apologized.
His pale white face stared blankly back at him.
John was already dead.
Aliana was going to be devastated by the news.
“I’ll get the Magdalena ready to launch,” Sam said.
“Good,” Ryan commented, as he then picked up the satellite phone, scrolled down to the second number and pressed enter.
When the call was picked up, he said, “I need you to eliminate the three targets on the map.”
On the other side of the planet, the President of the United States and several military aides, stood in a secure room as the order was given for three computer guided missiles to be discharged from a drone now in place 90,000 feet above an almost deserted runway in the Middle East.