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The CIA’s black Mercedes continued to track the slow moving blue rental truck carrying the deadly cesium through Western Azerbaijan.
“Gentlemen, if the rental truck is taking the route that we expect they will, we’re going to take a slight detour and stop in Oghuz to change vehicles and pick up another passenger,” Jack Hoskins said.
“I hope the new vehicle is as comfortable as this one,” Brad said.
“I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised,” Hoskins said, “Frank, call Leslie Jones as this number and give her the frequency codes for the bug that you planted on the rental truck.”
“That’s pretty good,” David said, “You’re able to track the terrorists from multiple vehicles at the same time.”
Hoskins handed the telephone number to Frank who said, “I haven’t talked to Leslie in years, when did she transfer to the Azerbaijani office?”
“Last year right after she finished predator training.”
“Good for her,” Frank said as he dialed the number.
“Please forgive us lab rats, but what is the predator?” Brad asked.
Hoskins turned around in his seat and talked to David and Brad, “When we get to Oghuz, we’ll have air surveillance from a remotely piloted spy plane, that’s the predator. As soon as Leslie begins tracking the frequency code that Frank’s bug is sending from the rental truck, we’ll have airborne tracking and video shots of the terrorists. We’ll ditch this Mercedes at the field office in Oghuz and use Leslie’s predator tracking van to follow the terrorists. If required, we could hit the terrorists with hell-fire missiles fired from the predator.”
“That’s incredible,” David said, “I heard about the unmanned spy planes, but I didn’t think that I’d ever get close to one.”
“Leslie just locked on and she’s tracking the rental truck now,” Frank said as he hung up his phone.
“Good,” Hoskins said as he looked at the tracking monitor, “And it looks like they’re still moving east toward Ismailly just like I hoped they would.”
One hour later, the CIA vehicle pulled into an open garage on a side street in Oghuz, Azerbaijan. The four men got out of the Mercedes and unloaded their equipment from the trunk. They immediately got into what appeared to be a banged up old motor home. The recreational vehicle (RV) had tourist stickers on it from nearly every country in Europe and looked like it was in an accident in each country too. When Brad and David entered the scruffy looking vehicle, they expected only the worst, instead what they found was a spotless ground control center with a state of the art console that was packed with high-tech monitors and control panels used to remotely fly the predator. The console area took up most of the rear right side of the RV. The rear left side had a bathroom and small kitchen area that included a refrigerator, stove, and a dining table laid out like a booth at a restaurant that could also substitute as a worktable. The rest of the RV has some comfortable chairs and two sleeping sofas located right behind the driver’s seats.
“And I was betting that this piece of junk wouldn’t even run,” Brad said.
“Not run?” I’d put it up against any vehicle of its size in Europe or Asia,” Leslie Jones said as she stepped in the RV and closed and locked the door behind herself.
“It has a turbo-hybrid gas electric engine, solar electric panels on the roof, it’s watertight and could even traverse across a large body of water, and could withstand a direct hit from a rocket propelled grenade.”
It was easy to see why the pretty brunette was assigned to Azerbaijan. She had the exotic facial features like many of the attractive women in the Eastern Europe or Western Asia regions.
Frank, who was already getting comfortable behind the wheel spun his captain’s chair around and said, “Hello, Leslie.”
“Frank, I haven’t seen you in a long time, and Jack Hoskins, how are you?”
“I’ll be just fine as soon as we capture these terrorists,” Hoskins said, “Leslie, I want you to meet two of our junior members from electronic surveillance, this is Brad and David, without whom, we wouldn’t be engaged in this worthwhile mission.”
“It’s nice to meet you both,” Leslie said as she extended her hand to the men.
“Do you want us to sit in any particular place?” Hoskins asked.
“Not at all, just make yourself at home. I didn’t have time to go for groceries, but I do have a decent supply of snacks and soft drinks in here. You’re welcome to use the table as a desk, and Brad and David could join me at the console and help me with the predator.”
“All right then, let’s move out, Frank,” Hoskins said as he sat down at the table and opened his brief case.
“Fasten you seatbelts, here we go.”
The CIA’s RV left the warehouse and traveled down the street as it made its way back out of the Oghuz area and back on to the western highway.
“Do you have the target on your monitor, Frank?” Leslie asked.
“Yes ma’am, I see it,” Frank said as he looked at the surveillance monitor that is built into the dashboard area of the RV.
“Is the predator locked onto it?” Hoskins asked.
“Not yet, but it will be in a second, I have it locked on to us for now. It’s flying on automatic pilot and circling Oghuz at 1500 feet, I’m going to lock it on to the target right now,” Leslie said as she typed some commands on a keyboard.
“That was a lot of keystrokes, what did you command it to do,” David asked.
“I told it to climb to 2000 feet and home onto the coded frequency signal coming from the bug on the target truck. Once it is locked on, it will cruise at an airspeed adequate enough to maintain a line of sight distance of one-half to a quarter of a mile between itself and the target.”
“So it’s acting like a slow moving cruise missile trained on the target,” Brad said.
“That’s one way of putting it,” Leslie said.
A small yellow light started flashing on the predator console and an alert tone was heard. Leslie again typed some commands on the keyboard and the light went out and the tone stopped.
“What did that alarm mean?” David asked.
“If anything erratic happens with the predator’s flight path, we get a cautionary alarm to let us know so that we could manually correct if we need to.”
“So you’re going to take manual control right now?” Brad asked.
“No, all it meant was that with the head winds coming out of the southeast which is the direction we are flying, it’s going to be a fairly choppy flight for the predator. All I had to do was acknowledge to the predator’s computer system that I understand and will be prepared to take over should the need arise.”
“What alarm will you get if the turbulence becomes severe?” David asked.
“This red light will come on, and if we can’t maintain a safe low altitude flight, we’ll look for a field to set the plane down util the weather clears.”
“If, God forbid, something happens to the predator, do we pack it in and go back for a new one?” Brad asked.
“No, there’s a spare in the luggage compartment up on the roof. If we were in a hostile environment, we would send a command for the first unit to self-destruct if it hasn’t already, we wouldn’t want any part of the predator to fall into enemy hands.”
“How long does it take to assemble a new one?” David asked.
“It usually takes less than an hour, but with all of you strong guys here to help me, it’ll probably take a lot less.”
“Do you need a long runway for the predator to take off and land?” Brad asked.
“Reasonably long, like a field or a fairly wide road at least two thousand feet long or ten acres across.”
“How many missiles did you bring, Leslie?” asked Hoskins who was listening to the educational conversation.
“When you told me the nature of the situation, I loaded six. There’s two on the bird, and four in the luggage compartment. Per safety guidelines, that is all that we are allowed to transport on this RV. We could always have another shipment air-dropped in if the need arises.”
“That’s comforting, but with any kind of luck, it won’t come down to that,” Hoskins said as he silently hoped that this wasn’t going to turn into World War III.
“Okay gentlemen,” Leslie said, “It’s a moonless night, so I can’t get any video that is worth a damn to show you. But if you look at this screen, this red blip is the truck we’re following. It’s the same monitor that Frank has in the cab. You could see that we’re watching the target slowly move west. On this screen over here, we have an infrared image of the truck that is generated from the heat of their engine and exhaust. This picture is sent to us by the predator’s infrared camera that is located under the fuselage in a cylinder that rotates 360 degrees for complete visibility. There’s also a flight control camera located in the nose of the plane.”
Tomorrow’s weather is expected to be good, so we’ll be able to see all that the clear horizon has to offer us, the predator will be our eyes.”
“What are the chances that we’ll be shot down?” Brad asked.
“In this part of the world, I wouldn’t rule out anything,” Leslie said, “The Azerbaijani and Russian governments have been informed that we’re doing predator patrols for terrorists and narcotics runners in this area, so the chances are fairly slim that anyone will come after us. The Russians have a large radar installation on the mountain in Cabala, about 50 miles from here, so I generally play it safe and stay at a low altitude and fly under them. If we do take a hit, and we determine who targeted us from the video evidence that we receive, we may be inclined to send up our spare unit and retaliate. It all depends on the situation, and since Jack outranks me, I’ll gladly let him make that decision,” Leslie said with a smile.
“How long could the predator stay airborne?” David asked.
“I try to average twenty-four hours of steady flight before I bring it down to refuel. This RV is specially designed with extra fuel tanks to carry fuel for the predator. We should have enough fuel to keep it airborne for a solid week.”
“Well, people, it’s going to be an interesting night,” Hoskins said as he sat down on the sofa and put his feet up, “Leslie, let us know if you want us to monitor anything while you get some rest.
“Same for you, Frank, let us know if you want one of us to take the wheel for a while. Wake me up if anything goes down.”
“Frank, I’m going to show these guys know how to make coffee, do you want some?” Leslie asked.
“I thought that you’d never ask,” Frank said.
The terrorists’ blue rental truck with the CIA RV following a few miles behind, continued over the rough roads and passed through the few small towns that dot the desert expanse of Western Azerbaijan.
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