The Shuhadaa did, however, and the Maktum had plans for its use. Why struggle with slipping a bomb past airport security, when a Stinger anti-air missile or a SAM fired from a submarine launch tube could do the job just as well? This new SAM design, especially, was deadly — a heat-seeking missile that could strike a target at an altitude of up to five thousand meters. The original Russian design had been strictly for last-ditch and desperate defense against incoming air. The new design was considerably larger, fired from a tube inside the sail itself. No longer was the weapon strictly for self-defense. The only restriction was that the target be low enough to hit, which meant the attacking vessel needed to get close enough to the airport to engage the aircraft before it climbed above five thousand meters.
In Pakistan, ul Haq had seen plans for having a Kilo-class submarine patrol off the southern approaches to Long Island on the American East Coast, along the incoming traffic lanes for JFK International Airport. A suicide mission, perhaps, for the submarine and all on board, but the air lanes there were so busy that a skillful skipper might down four or five jetliners before other aircraft were routed away from the scene, and the American Navy closed in for the kill.
He wondered if he would volunteer for such a mission. So many civilians, men, women, children…
Isn't there something in your religion about Christians and Jews both being "People of the Book?" We are not "infidels."
Somehow, he could not shake DuPont's words from his mind.
"Request permission to join you on the weather bridge."
Ul Haq looked down in surprise. The Chinese attache, Hsing, was looking up at him from the ladder below the sail's round hatch.
"Of course."
Hsing clambered the rest of the way up into the cockpit. "I watched the kill on radar," he said. "An excellent shot."
"We can thank our Russian friends for the technology," he replied. "Little skill is required with a heat-seeking missile."
"You are aware, of course, that the Americans will be far more upset by this attack than at the destruction of Amboyna Cay."
Ul Haq nodded. "The Vietnamese can be seen as provocateurs on the world stage," he said. "But the passengers on that jet…"
"How do you justify that, Captain? I understand Khalili and even Zaki. But you seem to be… more reasonable."
"I am a follower of Islam…"
"So am I," Hsing said. "Ah, that surprises you? There is a sizeable population of Chinese Muslims, especially in the western parts of my country."
"I knew you were Muslim," ul Haq said. "But I assumed that you had joined Shuhadaa Muqaddaseen because of your orders, not because of your faith."
"It was more because of the Americans. My brother was killed three years ago in a battle for our Taiwanese province."
"Ah." Ul Haq nodded. "I see. You and Noor Khalili have much in common then."
"I find the man a thoroughgoing psychotic. He is too… intense. A fanatic. He lets his fears and his hatreds lead him, not his head."
"I see. And you are guided by your head?"
"In part. And by a determination to see the American imperialists stopped. They seem to feel they now own the world, with the right to intervene in the internal politics of other nations any time, and anywhere, they please."
"Ah. I see." He nodded. "That, I suppose, is why I am here as well."
"It can be lonely, standing against a colossus."
"And it can be rewarding when you strike a solid blow."
"And how do you feel, Captain ul Haq, about the fact that the blow you struck just now was against several hundred innocents on board that airliner?"
He thought about it a moment. The question had been bothering him for some time, he knew, but he'd not allowed himself to face it.
"There are no innocents," he said at last. "We are in a war, on the side of Allah, blessed be His name, against the decadence and greed and corruption of the West. Those not actively with us are legitimate targets. Those who do not help us are the enemy."
That, at any rate, was the party line, parroted in full from one of the handbooks of the Maktum.
He thought again of DuPont using the Quran against him, and wondered if he truly believed what he'd just said.
14
"Captain? A general flash just came in over the SAT-COM. You might want to punch it up."
"Right." Garrett pressed the message-waiting icon on his touchscreen, and read it with a dawning, pit-of-the-stomach horror.
TO: ALL US NAVAL UNITS, WESTERN PACIFIC
FROM: FLEET ACTIVITIES, YOKOSUKA
RE: TERRORIST ATTACK WARNING ORDER.
1. BE ADVISED THAT US MILITARY RESPONSE/READINESS LEVELS IN THE WESTPAC THEATER HAVE BEEN RAISED TO LEVEL 2.
2. AT APPROXIMATELY 0730 HOURS ZULU, JAL AIRLINES FLIGHT 1125 WENT DOWN OVER THE SOUTH CHINA SEA, WITH NO SURVIVORS. SATELLITE RECONNAISSANCE OF THE AREA AT THE TIME SUGGESTS THAT THE CAUSE OF THE CRASH WAS A SAM LAUNCHED FROM A KILO-CLASS SUBMARINE OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN AND NATIONALITY.
3. BECAUSE OF RECENT HOSTILE ACTS IN THE SPRATLY AO, BOTH JAPANESE AND U.S. OFFICIALS ARE TREATING THIS AS A TERRORIST ACT, THOUGH MILITARY ACTION BY PLAN FORCES CANNOT YET BE RULED OUT.
4. U.S. MILITARY FORCES IN THE WESTPAC THEATER ARE INSTRUCTED TO BE ESPECIALLY VIGILANT. THE CURRENT HOSTILE ACTIVITIES IN THE SPRATLY AO MAY BE THE FORERUNNER OF A GENERAL TERRORIST ASSAULT AGAINST WESTERN OR JAPANESE INTERESTS THROUGHOUT THE REGION.
5. U.S. SHIPS IN PORT ARE INSTRUCTED TO MAINTAIN MAXIMUM SECURITY READINESS AGAINST THE POSSIBILITY OF TERRORIST ATTACKS VIA SMALL BOATS, TRUCK BOMBS, OR SUBMARINE ATTACK.
SIGNED
C. MONTGOMERY, ADMIRAL
CO FLEET ACTIVITIES
YOKOSUKA
…all of which was a cover-your-ass set of orders if Garrett had ever seen one.
Fifty-five years after Pearl Harbor, the whys and wherefores of American military preparedness in December of 1941 were still hot topics at Annapolis and other U.S. military schools. Of special interest was the fact that numerous warnings had been sent to the Hawaiian Islands shortly before the Japanese attack, but those warnings were either so vague or so badly worded that no solid preparation was possible. In fact, a warning about the hazards of sabotage by Japanese civilians living in Hawaii at the time resulted in Army aircraft being parked closely together in order to better guard them… which, of course, made them perfect targets for the Japanese naval air assault of December 7.
Unfortunately, the lesson learned from the incident appeared to be that warning orders such as this one were best used to shunt responsibility to the Other Guy. Hey! I did my duty and sent out a warning! It wasn't my fault! The order conveyed almost zero useful information in a military sense.
The news of Flight 1125's destruction, though, had an intensely personal meaning for Garrett.
Kazuko had been on that flight… at least that was the number her roommate had given him when he'd called her from Yokosuka. Kazuko! Had she been on that plane?
The terrible fear growing in the pit of his stomach told him that it was true, that she'd been on that flight. A part of his mind wanted to cling to hope; perhaps she'd been ill or delayed in Bangkok or Singapore, and missed her flight.
But the cold and rational part of himself could only see the fact that Kazuko was almost fanatical in the pursuit of her duties. Once she'd refused to take sick leave and worked a Tokyo-to-Calcutta flight with a 101-degree temperature — a violation of company rules, incidentally, but a fair indication of how stubborn she could be. And determined.