Pru spoke up for the first time. Her face was ashen. She knew Ahab as a dangerous, violent man. But she assumed he was at least selfishly rational. “Revenge is one thing,” she said. “But if Ahab causes World War Three, the bombs will fall on him just like everyone else. He’s not going to escape it.”
“He doesn’t want to,” Kurt said. “He’s dying. Those doctors your brother took him to couldn’t pull all the toxins out of him. They’ve been killing him slowly. Looks like he wants to drag the whole world down with him if he can.”
Joe clenched his teeth and looked at Kurt in grave seriousness. “Hate to say it. But we might have to reconsider that direct frontalassault.” He held up the MP5. “We don’t exactly have heavy weapons at our disposal, but if we shoot up the fuel tanks and engines, this thing will never get off the ground.”
It was an idea worth considering, but they wouldn’t live long after attacking the Starlifter, and their sacrifice would be nothing more than an inconvenience. “Even if we took this plane out, Saber One is the real problem. If it storms into Chinese airspace and blasts the premier’s jet out of the sky, it’ll be World War Three for sure.”
“We need to warn Washington,” Joe suggested. “Give our guys a chance to take out Ahab before he enters Chinese airspace.”
Kurt had considered that, too. Not only wasn’t there much time, but there wasn’t much hope of that working. He felt like a man in a maze with no exit. “It won’t do any good,” he said bluntly. “Ahab will shoot down anything we send up against him. He’ll do the same to the Chinese. Assuming his weapon works half as well as the original EAGL system, there’s no aircraft in the world that can get within a hundred miles of him.”
As Kurt spoke the words, he realized he was mistaken. He turned slowly toward the gleaming C-141 sitting in front of them. “No aircraft,” he corrected. “Except this one.”
Joe understood instantly. “We need to get aboard this plane before it takes off. It’s our only chance to stop this.”
Pru offered her services. “Do you want me to go with you?” Her normally defiant expression had returned. She was nothing if not brave.
“No,” Kurt said. “I asked you to lead us here. Not join us on a suicide mission. Time for you to go back to the submarine and get out to sea. But Iwillask you for one more favor.”
“Which is?”
Kurt explained what he needed in detail, sent her on her way, andthen turned back to Joe. “All right, amigo, you got us into this hangar. Any idea how we can get on that plane without buying a ticket?”
“One or two,” Joe said, glancing around. “But what are we going to do when we get there?”
“This whole thing started with a hijacking,” Kurt said. “I figure we can end it the same way.”
Chapter 57
While Kurt and Joe were trying to come up with a way to get on the Starlifter, Ahab was staring into a mirror and looking at a dying man.
The image told him more than any doctor’s report could. His condition had worsened. His eyes were yellowing. His skin was gray and colorless, with a texture like old papier-mâché. His appetite had vanished. He tasted bile in his throat while feeling pain in parts of his body he didn’t know had nerves.
The doctors had warned him it was coming. They’d told him all his major organs had been affected, but the liver, kidneys, and pancreas had absorbed more toxins than they could shed.
The sickness, combined with the rage he felt, produced the look of a madman, a human turning into a creature, a gargoyle.
Good, he thought, accepting his role,they should see me as a monster when I turn their world to ash. They should remember me this way.
With great difficulty he injected a pain-killing cocktail. It was followed by a mix of steroids and adrenaline. These tonics would bring him back to life as they flowed into his system, but the duration was getting shorter with each use.
A knock at the door caused him to cut his eyes toward the hall. “What is it?”
“The flight crews have been briefed,” a voice told him through the door. “Saber One is out of the hangar. It’s fueled and ready to go. Captain Chen is requesting permission to begin the start-up procedure.”
“Is Saber Two ready?”
“It is being towed from the hangar now,” the voice said. “Weapons loading will begin shortly.”
Ahab looked at the clock. They were ahead of schedule. “Tell Saber One to start its engines and have the laser technicians run their systems checks one more time. I’ll meet them shortly.”
After the visitor confirmed the order and departed, Ahab gave himself one more injection. This one carried a mix of slowly dissolving amphetamines that would give him the strength and energy that his failing body could no longer produce on its own. He had a few hours of clear-mindedness ahead of him.
It was all he would need.
Chapter 58
With his cocktail of medications taking effect, Ahab walked toward a battleship-gray aircraft that the Yellow Tigers had boldly named Saber One. The plane had four wing-mounted engines, a narrow fuselage, and a vertical tail fin capped with a spear-like tube that stuck boldly forward. It was similar in ways to the Starlifter, but different. Every line, every curve, every point on this aircraft suggested the speed and style of a bygone era.
