“What is this AWACS plane?”
“It stands for Airborne Warning and Control System. It's a very sophisticated radar system in a large jet that can control the jet fighters and find anything flying. But it has to be in the area to do anything. If it's still an hour away it will be too late to hurt us.”
“What about Costa Mesa?”
“What about it?”
“Are there references to the site in Costa Mesa on the laptop?”
Joseph thought for a minute. “There could be, I’m not sure. There might be an old file. Are the charges still set up for if no one comes back?”
“They should be. I haven’t been there in while.”
“I’m going to have one of the crew that’s immune go to the Costa Mesa site. By the time they get there the planes will be done spraying. I’ll have them set off the charges instead of waiting for the timer and blow up the entire building. The information there is probably worse than the laptop.”
“As long as you get the laptop no one will know about Costa Mesa.”
“I don’t want to take the chance. Once those planes start spraying we don’t need Costa Mesa anyway.”
Joseph sent the signal to the planes, sent a car to Costa Mesa and the rest of his men loaded into three jeeps and went after the kids.”
Chapter 41
John drove the dune buggy through the cool desert night, the Joshua trees silhouetted in the moonlight. He thought about the nerve agent. I know they sprayed the area and got some on us. I think I feel OK. What does this do? Am I going to get sick, or start shaking, or stop breathing or just die? I’m not sure if we are still healthy or not.
Cody tapped John on the shoulder and pointed to the left.
“I see a helicopter.”
John stopped the dune buggy and they watched the helicopter descend to a flat area about a mile in front of them. John slowly drove toward the helicopter. A soldier ran out and motioned them to stop. He pulled out a megaphone and hailed them.
“Stop there. We have to set up the decontamination before you come closer. It will take about 10 minutes. I will come back and give you instructions. Wait where you are.”
The kids waited in the dune buggy and watched the crew set up. They put down a large tarp and then started loading tanks and bins on the tarp. After this they set up a generator and large overhead lights and got into moon suits. The soldier with the megaphone came back out and stopped 100 yards away.
“OK kids. The decontamination is set up. The nerve agent is in your clothes and hair and on your skin. You need to take all your clothes off and leave them in a pile. Bring the laptop with you and come over to the tarp so we can clean your skin and hair and give you clean clothes. We can hose down the dune buggy with a strong bio-agent that would destroy your skin, but the dune buggy will be fine. Come on. Get going. We need that laptop.”
All the kids looked at each other in disbelief. John yelled over to the soldier with the megaphone.
“We have to take our clothes off here? Can’t you set up a tent or something?”
“Look, son, I’m sorry. We don’t have time. We had to pull this team off other duty as it is. This is not the time to be modest. If we had more equipment and time we could set up a tent, but this is all we have. We don’t know what the nerve agent could be doing to your bodies as we speak even though you seem immune, and we need that laptop. People are going to start dying. So, take your contaminated clothes off and bring over the laptop.”
John thought, I can’t believe I have to do this in front of everyone.
Ellen called out. “I don’t care what you say. I will not take off my clothes until you get me some privacy.”
The soldier looked at her, shook his head and replied,
“Miss, at this point I don’t care. It’s your body. In ten minutes we will be out of here with the laptop, one way or another. Suit yourself.”
John started taking off his clothes and looked over at Cody.
“Cody, just do it. We don’t know what this nerve agent might be doing to us.”
Cody looked at John stripping and then over to Sarah. Sarah looked at Cody, shrugged and started removing her clothes.
Cody looked at Sarah, then back at John and slowly started taking off his clothes. I cannot believe I have to do this in front of Sarah he thought. Sarah took off the rest of her clothes, grabbed the laptop and the two flash drives and turned to Cody. She handed him one of the flash drives and said, “Keep this one. I think they should be separate.” Cody just stared at her, held out his hand and took the flash drive.
Sarah thought, come on Cody, get with it here. Don’t be such a wimp now. It’s just a body.
John, Sarah and Cody slowly walked over to the tarp and were approached by four people in moon suits. One of them took the laptop and triple wrapped it in plastic. The other three each took one of the kids and started hosing them off. Sarah’s worker said to her,
“Take this solution and start rubbing it through your hair. It will take several times. While you are doing that, I will be scrubbing your body with this brush and the same solution. We have found that no one scrubs their body enough. So we will scrub your body and then go through your hair again after you are done.”
Sarah looked over at Ellen slowly walking over to the tarp and taking off her clothes. I can’t believe how skinny she is. I think she is anorexic. She looks terrible.
John looked over at Ellen. She looks horrible. I can see her ribs. She looks like a concentration camp survivor. Does she like to look like that?”
Cody looked at Ellen. Wow! She looks bad. I wonder if she’s sick. He then looked back at Sarah. His eyes popped. He saw Sarah look at him, turned his head and then looked back at Sarah and then away again. I can’t believe I’m standing here naked in front of Sarah being scrubbed down by a lady in a moon suit.
After several minutes the worker said to Cody,
“OK son. You’re clean now. Here is a towel and there are clean clothes over there. Get dressed.”
Cody quickly dried off and sensed someone behind him. He looked over and Sarah was dressed.
“Don’t forget the flashdrive, it could be important.”
She looked at him and raised her eyebrows and then he realized she was dressed and he wasn’t. He reached down and grabbed some clothes they set out and quickly put them on as he turned his back to Sarah. All the kids finished dressing and walked over to the dune buggy that had been decontaminated. The soldier said to them,
“Your dune buggy is clean. Just keep heading east and we will get a rescue helicopter to you as soon as we can. We put food and sleeping bags over here. You should be fine for a couple days until we catch up.”
He dashed to the helicopter and jumped in as the aircraft started the engines, ready to take off.
The kids went through the pile and found some jackets, sleeping bags, a tent and food and water, but no radios. They started loading everything into the dune buggy while John, running low, to the chopper, called out, “What about a radio or cell phone? You took all of ours.”
Yelling over the roar, he said, “Sorry. Yours didn’t make it through the decontamination. I don’t have anything to give you. We put a locator in the dune buggy so we can track you. We will catch up. We have to go. Step back.”
John backed up to the dune buggy as the helicopter lifted, dipped its nose and headed off into the night, navigation lights blinking. Cody asked John,
“No radios?”
John shook his head as they turned to watch the helicopter fly away. When it got about a hundred feet above the ground a streak of light flashed over their heads and aimed like a laser for the chopper’s open door. A split second later the helicopter exploded in a blinding flash and flaming wreckage fell to the desert floor where John was just standing. The kids ran and crouched behind the dune buggy as they got pelted by p
arts raining from the sky. They looked over at the crash site and realized there is no way anyone could have lived through that explosion. They stared at the crash for a minute and Cody grabbed John’s arm and yelled in his ear,
“Did you see that streak of light going in the open door just before the crash? I think that helicopter was shot down.”
John sat watching the burning helicopter, then muttered, “We better get out of here. Whoever shot that helicopter down has to be close. Cody, is the dune buggy loaded?”
“It’s ready, let’s go.”
Ellen looked scared., “I think we should wait here for those military people. I’m sure they realize their helicopter was shot down and someone will come to get us.”
John cocked his head and did a double take.
“And the terrorists who shot down the helicopter. You don’t think they might have an issue with who stole their laptop? They just shot down an Army helicopter and killed several soldiers. What do you think they might do to us?”
Sarah chimed in, “I don’t even want to think what they’ll do. I’m out of here. Jump in the dune buggy, Ellen.”
Ellen glared at Sarah. “I’m the older sister. Don’t you talk to me like that!”
“Do whatever you like, I’m out of here. Let’s go, guys.”
Cody looked behind everyone and spotted lights. “Somebody’s coming. Time to go. The dune buggy’s leaving, with or without you, Ellen. Jump in or stay and deal with them. Let’s go John.”
Ellen looked behind her, saw a jeep coming, and jumped in the dune buggy. “You know I still think we should stay here. I think we can talk to them. We no longer have the laptop. I don’t know why they wouldn’t just let us go. There’s no reason to hurt us.”
John shot a look over his shoulder. “See those flashes of light, Ellen. Those are muzzle flashes. They’re shooting at us. Do you want to jump out and go talk to them?”
Sarah, her hair flying, looked back over her shoulder. “John, there are three jeeps. They’re all shooting. Can we go any faster?”
Cody yelled to John, “John, take that trail. I remember it. It twists around and keeps splitting. Maybe we can lose them.”
Abdul clung to his seat and yelled to Joseph in the bouncing jeep, “They’re getting away. I don’t think we hit them! Should we chase them?”
“No. We need to go back. They can’t hurt us now. We saw them take the laptop on the helicopter. I would like to spend some satisfying time with them as much as you, but we have more important things to do. Let’s go.”
Cody had been watching behind the dune buggy for several minutes as John drove as fast as he could along the twisting trail.
“I haven’t seen them for a while. I think we lost them or they turned around.”
“There’s a big hill about three miles from here. If we go behind it and come up the back, we can see this whole valley. We should be able to see if they’re still chasing us.”
When they got to the top of the hill, John stopped the dune buggy on the back side of the crest and Cody ran over to the ridge and scanned the valley with binoculars and his night scope.
“I don’t see anything in the entire valley. It looks like they turned around. I wonder why they gave up chasing us.”
John said, “I don’t really care. Let’s rest here for a while. If we keep a lookout over the valley we can see them coming a long ways off.”
Chapter 42
Kasam had been preparing for this day since he was a boy in the mosque in his home village. He was actually going to strike a blow against the great Satan. The nerve agent in his plane alone could kill several million people. If the escape plan worked he would live to fight another day, if not he was ready to be a martyr. In less than a half hour, he would cross the San Gabriel Mountains, drop into Burbank and spray all the way through to Santa Monica and on to Los Angeles International Airport. He still disagreed with the plan to fly normal with their lights on. He knew he could fly low through the valleys where no one could see him. He almost wished the signal would come over his radio that they had been discovered and he could trip the circuit breaker on the transponder and lights and dive low.
Ali was nervous. The other pilots had more experience that he did. If he had to dive low and fly through the valleys, he was sure he would crash. As long as the radio stayed silent, he could just fly normally, spray his nerve agent, land at the small regional airport and live to fight another day.
Aarif was excited. He had been waiting for this day for a year. He had grown up in America and learned to fly. The training the others had was nothing compared to his experience. He was tempted to fly low through the valleys just for the excitement. He thought of how he wouldn’t even know if he was being followed. There is always a blind spot behind a plane. If someone was following him to shoot him down he would never know. Of course that was impossible. The plan had worked perfectly up to now. There is no way anyone could know they had four planes ready to attack Southern California. He wished they weren’t on strict radio silence. He would love to check with the other planes.
Haman was the calm one. He had set up the routes through the mountains so each plane would arrive at the strict areas they were supposed to spray. He didn’t understand why some areas were to get sprayed and not others. The routes didn’t even make sense to him. But their sponsors were very generous and supplied everything they needed. He could live with it.
It came as a shock to all the pilots when the signal came from Joseph that said they had been discovered but the Americans were not in a position yet to do anything. They still had time. The order was to proceed to the areas they were to spray as quickly as possible with their lights and transponders off.
When Aarif got the signal he immediately turned off his lights and transponder and dove into a valley. Aarif was more comfortable now that he was lower with the lights off. As dark as it was someone would have to be right behind him to see him. But he still kept thinking what if someone was following him? How would he know? It would be so easy to take a quick look so he would feel at peace. I’m going to do it. One quick turn to the left, look over his shoulder through the window and he would know he was alone. Aarif turned the wheel, kicked the left rudder pedal and within a couple seconds was flying 90 degrees to the left. He looked over his shoulder and could see a 737 behind him by the moonlight. This was unbelievable. They had caught up to him. But why an airliner? What could it do? He had to warn the others. They had a signal set up for this, but if the Americans knew what was going on a secret signal or radio silence no longer mattered. He had to warn the others. Aarif called on the open channel.
“Ali, Haman, Kasam. This is Aarif. They found us. I have a jet behind me, but it’s an airliner. It can’t shoot me down. Go to the full evasive plan. May Allah be with you.”
All the agents in Los Angeles and DC were hovering around the computer screen watching the feed from Air Traffic Control showing the four crop dusters and the two SWA and one JetBlue flights. The four transponders from the crop dusters suddenly stopped flashing and the radar signal dropped and then disappeared. The agents looked at the screen in disbelief.
“Tell me this didn’t just happen” yelled Deputy Director Collins. ”Sam, what happened?”
“Their altitude dropped and the transponders are off. SWA 34 and 65. JetBlue 523. Do you have the planes in sight?”
“This is SWA 34. Mine just turned off the lights and dropped altitude. I’m going in closer.”
“SWA 65 here. Same with me. I’m going in closer.”
“JetBlue 523,” called in. “Mine is dark also. I’m going lower so I don’t lose him.”
Deputy Director Collins dejectedly said to her staff. “If we aren’t careful we are going to add three down airliners to this mess.”
Victor replied, “If we lose those four planes and they spray Los Angeles, it will be a lot worse than
three plane crashes.”
“What about the fourth plane that no one is following?”
No one replied. They just sat and looked at each other shaking their heads.
“This is SWA 34. I have reacquired my plane. I’m 1,000 feet back and 100 feet above him. Any further back and I’ll lose him. So far he is flying straight. I don’t think he knows I am following him.”
“JetBlue 523 here. I am about the same following my plane.”
Another minute went by and SWA 65 didn’t reply.
“SWA 65 do you still have your plane?”
“We lost him, found him, and now we lost him again. He is not flying straight. His lights are off, he is low and he is flying in and out of valleys. We have to close in to keep following him in the dark.”
“Victor, where are my interceptors?”
“Still at least 20 minutes out. They cruise at about 600 miles per hour.”
“I thought they could do three times that.”
“They can if they turn on their afterburners,” said Victor. “But they can only run them on full afterburner for less than ten minutes before they run out of fuel. If they turn them on too soon they will run out of fuel and crash about the time they get to the crop dusters.”
“Can they turn on the afterburners for a couple minutes and get closer and still have some fuel when they get to the crop dusters?”
“They could try. It’s a balancing act to get to the crop dusters in time and still have some fuel left to shoot them down and land.”
“What about refueling? We still have that fourth plane to find, even if the airliners stay with the first three.”
“The air tankers are a good hour out,” said Victor. “The choice is bring the interceptors in on time almost out of fuel, or bring them in late with more fuel left.”
“Get them there on time. We can’t let them start spraying LA while the interceptors are still over the mountains. I just hope those airliners can stay with the three planes. I have no idea what to do with the fourth.”