The single biggest problem they had was where that purchase would be and how they would react. With a finite resource of Special Operations teams and equipment, there were only so many places that were reachable in a short time. If Nick surfaced in Europe or the Middle East, they’d be on him in minutes. Asia, depending on where, could be minutes, hours or days. South America and Africa were also sparsely covered across the vastness of their continents but well covered in the major cities. It had been the largest mobilization of Special Forces in US history and an absolute nightmare for the mission planners and logistics experts. There had been some positives as well. Flynn and Barry were pulling together and working as a team rather than counterparts.
Frankie jumped when her phone rang. Her head had been lying right next to it since she had fallen asleep at her desk. She grabbed the receiver, expecting a notification of a purchase. Her phone had only recently been installed and its number remained unpublished. Reid wheeled her chair over in anticipation. She too had woken up when the phone rang.
“Hello?”
“Frankie, can you pop up and see me? And bring Reid too,” said Carson, one of very few people who knew her desk extension.
“Of course, Mr. Secretary,” she said, as much for Reid’s benefit to let her know it was a false alarm.
“It’s Harry, just Harry, okay?!” replied Carson irritably and hung up.
When they arrived, Turner was already there. The room was silent and Frankie could only assume it was because Carson only wanted to say what he had to say once.
“We’ve just had a call into the Pentagon from the Albanian Deputy Minister of Defense. They’ve an incident that they believe may be related to Nick Geller.”
“Albania?” asked Turner, trying to picture where it was.
“Just north of Greece in the Eastern Mediterranean,” offered Carson helpfully, before continuing. “A fire has swept through a villa complex killing in excess of twenty people. From local reports, they were all devout Muslims and kept to themselves, at least until recently. A car was seen leaving just prior to the fire and from everything they’ve pieced together, it drove to the airport where three men dressed in Arab robes boarded a jet and left the country.”
“Nick?” asked Frankie.
“We believe so. The jet landed shortly afterwards on a deserted runway in Northern Italy where it was also torched.”
“All of this points rather ominously to the conclusion of at least some part of their planning, if not the complete conclusion.”
“Any way to track them from Italy?” asked Reid.
“We’ve no idea if they picked up a car, a train, or even another plane. He could be anywhere but I believe Europe is most likely to be the jumping off point for them and so I’ve moved a number of assets into place, including two Carrier Groups to cover the Atlantic on the European side and another two on this side. A further two groups will cover the Pacific.”
“You really think he’s going to do it?” asked Frankie. Up until that point, she really had thought there would come a point when Nick would see sense.
“I have no doubt in my mind,” replied Carson. “I have advised the President to begin enacting any recommendations that Colonel Barnes and FEMA deem appropriate to minimize the risk of the Ebola Virus in the mass populous. An emergency broadcast is going out this evening.”
“Oh my God, you think it’s that imminent?” asked Turner.
Carson nodded. “At least twenty men have been executed. I can only assume this was to ensure they did not disclose what they knew. From the positioning of how they were found, they died without a struggle, while praying. As for timescales, I think we’re down to hours, maybe days away from their attack. I’ve advised Homeland to double their checks on all US bound flights and particularly all non-US citizens boarding flights bound for the US. We’re effectively closing our borders to non-US citizens. The Coast Guard and Navy will be checking every boat that enters US waters. Anything they don’t like the look of will be turned away and they have orders to shoot first and ask questions later, if need be.
“What can we do?” asked Frankie.
“Pray that he uses one of those pre-paid cards,” said Carson. “I’m afraid that’s probably our last hope.”
Chapter 69
After months of preparation, the day had finally arrived. Plans put in place as promised to the Caliph were about to become a reality. Those promises had been cemented with Allah, and Nick was just hours from making them come true. Despite the knowledge that his life would soon end, he was elated. The legacy he would leave behind would create a new and better world.
The image of a laughing Frankie lying on the bed flashed into his mind. It was a beautiful memory that he couldn’t and had no intention of erasing. It remained his only regret. He could never forget the first time he had seen her, sweeping through a corridor in the White House with the President. Her beauty shone across the room, her piercing blue eyes clashing with her Arabian looks. Looks that only ever seemed to exist on TV shows or on the movie screen. Her command of the area only added to his captivation. Her eyes scanned constantly, checking positions, people, her colleagues, while never taking her eyes off the President.
Despite their eyes only connecting for a fraction of a second across the length of a corridor, he knew there was something there. She had paused just slightly longer on him. It was then that a hint of recognition had sparked in his mind. He recognized something familiar about the eyes. The devastation of that recognition came many weeks later. Long after the consummation of their relationship, the image of the eyes of a much younger Frankie suddenly visited him. A photo that had been shown to him by the Caliph as he shared the deepest darkest secrets of his son, the victims that the Caliph had been aware of and had managed to suppress. Frankie, a much younger Frankie, had been the victim of a pedophile.
Nick had lain awake that night, questioning his motives, his desires, his actions towards the victim Frankie. Had he subconsciously wanted to protect her, keep her safe? Those feelings had grown over time, not immediately. They were feelings that were futile in any event. Frankie could more than look after herself. She had never once acted like a victim. She was a strong, career-orientated woman, the poster woman for positive attitude and desire. She was captivatingly beautiful. It was that simple. He had fallen for a woman for her looks, personality, courage and strength. Not one day had he ever felt sorry for her. He had asked himself a question: If Frankie hadn’t been a victim of the Caliph’s son, would he still have made a move? Hell yeah. Would he still have fallen in love with her? Hell yeah, he thought, realizing for the first time that he had in fact fallen in love. It was the best and worst moment of his life, a life he knew was coming to end just as the potential for a new life had begun.
Nick opened his eyes with the image of Frankie’s flawless body seared into his eyelids. It was not the time to reminisce, he chastised himself. A cold shower revitalized his body and mind for the task ahead.
After disembarking from the plane in Northern Italy a few nights before, they travelled by car across the Italian border through Switzerland and soon entered Germany. The racetracks, known as autobahns, were a wondrous motorway system. Nick had been on them before but never in a car that could cruise at almost one hundred and ninety miles an hour legally. The first two hundred miles of the journey took almost three hours as they stuck religiously to the speed limits to avoid unnecessary attention. The second half of the journey, once they crossed into Germany was covered in half the time, as Walid was keen to show them what the Porsche Panemera Turbo S could do. Not that Nick or Larbi were in the least bit interested.