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The guard and Abdula took the jeep and drove behind the checkpoint building on the main road in Ismailly and onto a hidden dirt road that went into a wooded area. The road gradually started an upward incline and continued on a slow winding path for nearly two miles as it headed up and into the mountains that bordered the small town. The jeep left a cloud of dust in its wake that was clearly visible from the air before it finally stopped at metal gate blocking their entry to a small plateau on the face of the mountain. Abdula was surprised when two armed guards with their weapons drawn ran out from a secluded cave entrance in the mountain. The guards quickly checked the two men to make sure they were not intruders before they opened the gate and waved them in. Within a few seconds, Max Landau, who was warned by the guards earlier that Abdula was on his way up, came out of the cave to greet him.
“I told Tariq that you wouldn’t wait in town,” Landau said as he extended his hand to welcome Abdula.
Abdula ignored the pleasantry and said, “Where is he?”
“Right this way,” Landau said as he escorted Abdula from the jeep and into the cave.
Abdula just quietly scowled at Landau as he followed him in.
In the CIA’s RV, where they were monitoring the video surveillance from the predator, Hoskins said, “It looks like they entered a cave on the side of the mountain. I’ll bet you my next paycheck that the mastermind of this entire operation is in that cave.”
Hoskins checked the GPI coordinates on the console control panel and sent a quick e-mail to Nelson to mark the location as a possible terrorist stronghold. Having been in the spy game for over twenty years, Hoskins was well aware that many times the watcher became the watched without even knowing it, and ended up a target. If anything should happen to the team in the RV, Nelson could now send a team in to blow up the cave and try to complete the mission.
“Is there any movement around the blue rental truck?” Hoskins asked.
“No, the two other terrorists are just hanging out having a cigarette,” Brad said.
“Look over there,” Frank said as he pointed to the side of the monitor screen that was showing the mountain cave, “There’s a building or some kind of structure around the corner from the cave.”
Leslie adjusted the camera and zoomed in to display on the monitor what appeared to be a small military compound or guarded fortress. The walls of the fortress looked like they were made of medieval construction of stone and mortar. Inside the walls there was a modern barracks, a garage filled with military vehicles including a tank on a trailer, a concrete underground weapons bunker, a shooting range, and an obstacle course.
“I can’t see any Azerbaijani flag, so I get the impression that these guys are definitely not part of the national army,” Hoskins said.
“If I had to guess, I’d say it’s your typical terrorist training camp. I’ll call the Azerbaijani Embassy and see what they know about these guys,” Frank said as he grabbed a cell phone and walked to the cab of the RV.
Back on the mountain, Abdula entered the dark cave that had a dirt floor and was cold and damp from the water leaking down through the natural rock ceiling. It was not very inviting except for an animal, Abdula thought to himself. He and Max Landau walked about fifty feet into the cave before they came to a large door. Landau rapped on the steel door in a coded cadence and within a few seconds, a soldier with his gun at the ready opened the door to let them in. When the door opened, Abdula had to cover his eyes to shield them from the light coming from the room. Now he knew why Landau wore his sunglasses into the cave.
“Just an extra precaution against intruders,” Landau said as he laughed at the squinting Abdula.
When Abdula’s eyes finally adjusted, he was shocked by what he saw inside the cave. Instead of a modest, rustic hideout with a few necessary items to hold a small group over during a siege, he is looking at a spacious room that was far more plush and lavish than any he had seen in the richest mansions in the Middle East. A door opened off the main room and he saw some soldiers taking some food items from a shelf in what looked like a sizeable warehouse. He finally spotted Tariq Amin at the far end of the room, sipping some wine as he sat on a sofa lecturing to some of the young soldiers who were glued to his every word. Abdula could only shake his head at the pretentiousness of the whole scene.
Tariq Amin spotted the new visitor and said, “Ah, Abdula my brother, welcome, I understand that you’ve successfully completed your journey.”
“I have and I expect to be paid in full as per our contract.”
“And you will, but first let us drink a toast to our future victory against the infidels,” Amin said as he walked Abdula over to a well-stocked bar and refilled his wineglass and poured some for Abdula.
“To the weapons that will soon be in our hands, weapons so powerful that it will have all of the infidels on their knees begging for Allah’s forgiveness,” Amin said as he raised his glass.
Abdula gulped down his wine and set his glass down hard on the bar. He looked Tariq Amin sharply in the eyes and said, “We had an agreement that I would be paid upon arrival, and now I hear that you are going against your word. I thought that we had bargained in good faith like true Muslim brothers.”
“You’ll get paid as soon as the product is safely delivered.”
“It has been delivered, it is sitting in my truck down at the checkpoint building.”
“I will not accept delivery until I am absolutely certain that you were not followed.”
“No one followed me.”
“What about the product that was sent to the ship in Batumi, I suppose no one followed them either," Amin said as he handed Abdula a news article from the Internet that he printed. The picture showed the entire crew of the ‘Sea Sultan’ being led from the Batumi police station in shackles.
“Don’t play with me, old man, you know that’s why I insisted on two shipments, there are risks in this business.”
“I’m very much aware of the risks, and because of this, you cannot expect me to believe that you have not been followed to my camp, now could you?”
When Abdula didn’t answer, Amin continued, “I’m prepared to give you ten percent now and pay you the remainder in three days and not a minute sooner. When my officers tell me that things are safe, I’ll pay you in full, till then, I want you and your men to enjoy yourselves as my guest at the Talystan Hotel.
Abdula shook his head defiantly as Tariq Amin walked across the room and knelt down on a carpet.
“Come, Abdula, let us say a prayer of thanks for your save journey.”
“I’ll pray on my own time.”
Amin frowned as he was taken aback by Adula’s remark and said, “Why are you so bitter, Abdula? You could continue to be a valuable instrument in our war against the race of infidels. You could even sit in my courtyard on the day of reckoning and bask in the joy of our victory.”
“I’m not interested in your war, old man, I’ve seen too many of our young men go to their early deaths on empty promises of riches in the hereafter, or seventy virgins, or whatever the hell it is you holy men are promising lately. Do you know what these loyal men have left behind?”
Amin is annoyed and doesn’t answer him.
“I’ll tell you what they left behind, their families, families that have nothing but the emptiness that their sons left in their lives, and the vengeance of the infidels bearing down on them at all hours of the night. Your war isn’t my war, old man, I just want to be paid and go home to my own family.
“You have absolutely no idea of how much I’ve given to our soldiers,” Amin said, “I’ll have you know that I’ve contributed to the well being of every single family of the martyrs that I’ve sponsored.”
“Yeah, but look where you are, you old fool, living in a cave like a cornered animal waiting to get killed or tortured by your enemies. Who will contribute to the well being of your martyr’s families when you’re gone?”
Tariq did not answer.
“That’s right,” Abdula said, “You know the answer, no one will. All you offer them is emptiness. But I assure you that I’m not going home with my pockets empty.”
“Your soul is soiled, my son, you’re corrupted by greed just like the infidels.”
“That may be so, but at least I’m alive and able to take care of my family. The same can’t be said for the suicidal maniacs that listened to your foolish and hallow promises.”
Abdula walked over to Amin and pointed directly at him and said, “I’ll be back for my money in the morning, you don’t want to test my patience and disappoint me again.”
“You’ll only be wasting your time, I said three days and no sooner,” Amin said.
“I don’t believe this, you honestly think that I’d let the CIA follow me here, why the hell would I do that? For all I know, you led me into a trap. Maybe the CIA followed that butcher you call an officer, Tafar, onto our ship in Batumi.”
“Don’t be foolish, Abdula,” Amin said after laughing, “Down below our military compound is a graveyard where Tafar has buried a few dozen spies, believe me, they’re no match for him.”
Abdula threw up his hands in disgust and said, “I’ll wait the three days, old man, but believe me when I say that you don’t want me for an enemy.”
He stormed out of the cave bumping into Landau on his way out, and slamming the large steel door behind him.
In the CIA’s RV, they watched the video monitor that showed Abdula exiting the cave with Max Landau following behind him.
“That didn’t take very long at all,” Hoskins said.
“Judging by his mannerisms, I don’t think he’s any happier than he was when he went in the cave,” Leslie said.
“What do you think, Frank?”
“It’s too early to say, but the guy isn’t kissing the ground or doing cartwheels, so I’d say that he isn’t please by whatever happened in the cave. Something’s definitely not right with him,”
“It looks like they’re heading back down the mountain in the direction of the checkpoint building,” David said as a soldier and Abdula get in the jeep and drive off the plateau.
“Uh Oh, another truck just pulled into the checkpoint area,” Brad said, “They’re parked right next to the blue rental truck.”
“It’s an unmarked military truck, probably belongs to Amin,” Hoskins said.
“They could be getting ready to make the transfer,” Frank said.
“If they transfer the goods here, then where the hell is the final destination?” Hoskins asked.
“The nearest large airport is in Baku,” Frank said.
“Yes, and security is really tight at that airport,” Leslie said, “The Azerbaijanis are continually looking for weapons in route to Chechnya. They know that the Russians will come down hard on them if they get caught shipping to the rebels.”
“Then the terrorists would have to know this too,” Frank said.
“I hope they do keep away from the airport,” Leslie said, “I can’t legally go anywhere near there with a predator, especially one that is armed.”
“All we could do is hope that they’re planning to go to a small airfield or a shipping port city like Baku,” Hoskins said.
“But Baku is on the Caspian Sea which is landlocked,” David said.
“You’re right, but they could easily ship to Iran or Khazakastan on the Caspian.”
“The local airfields around here are really small,” Leslie said, “The best they could do is make a short hop from here to the larger airports in Baku or Ganja.”
“Based on that, I’d say that we should focus on Baku because they could ship on either land or sea. Frank, get Henry Carr on the line and tell him to get his team to Baku, ASAP.”
“Will do,” Frank said as he moved to the cab of the RV to make the call.
“Jack, you know that I could disable those two trucks with one missile and seal up that cave for a long time,” Leslie said.
“I know, but we can’t risk turning any part of Azerbaijan into a radioactive wasteland, the winds from the Caspian could spread that deadly powder from here to France.”
Hoskins saw the look of concern on all their faces and said, “I know this is a slow process, but we need to be patient, we have to try and take those canisters in tact.”
“You’re the boss,” Leslie said before Frank yelled in from the cab, “Jack, Henry’s men are on their way to Baku, ETA is four hours, Henry is tracking one of the terrorist buyers himself, he said that he should be coming down the western road from Georgia right behind us.”
“Good,” Hoskins said.
As the group settled in to continue their reconnaissance, Brad said, “What the hell is that?”
The group turned to see what he was looking at and they saw that the video monitor showed a dark blob slowly moving in and slowly coming into focus.
“Damn, that’s a helicopter gun ship,” Frank said.
On the console, an audible alarm was heard and some lights began flashing.
“They’re trying to lock on to us, hold on to your seats boys,” Leslie said, “It’s time to take the predator into manual control.”
Leslie pressed a button that kicked the predator out of automatic pilot and the main video screen on the console in front of her now gave her the view from the nose of the predator. She then grabbed the joystick and throttle lever to take control and banked the predator sharply to dive and lose altitude to evade the helicopter. The altimeter steadily declined from 2000 feet to 1000 feet and then 500 feet before Leslie began to pull gently back on the stick and level the plane at 100 feet. The group in the RV held their collective breath as they were focusing on a video panel that showed the nose of the predator narrowly missing the tops of some trees. Brad had to look away because he was getting dizzy from the effect. Leslie looked at a video screen that showed the camera angle from the rear of the predator and saw that the helicopter was still tracking them.
“I can’t shake them,” Leslie said, “They’re just laying back and watching our every move.”
“They’re Russian,” Frank said when he saw some markings on the side of the chopper.
“I didn’t detect any radar hits until they were on top of us,” Leslie said, “They must have been over at the radar installation in Cabala and caught a visual on us.”
“I guess these guys missed the meeting when the Russians agreed that the predators could patrol this area for terrorists and drug runners,” Brad said.
“The problem is that we’re too close to Chechnya, when the Russian military sees any new technology over here, they naturally want to take it out before it could be used against them,” Hoskins said.
“That’s a lesson they learned from the war in Afghanistan that they will never forget,” Frank said.
The predator soared along the lower side of a hilly mountain with the helicopter still locked on to it.
“They’re pulling up to take a shot at us,” Frank said.
“Should I try to take them out before they do?” Leslie asked, “I may be able to loop around and come up behind them.”
“As tempting as that might be, we’d better not, the Russians would probably send eight more gun ships out here in the next hour to find out what happened,” Hoskins said.
“Could they trace any signals back to this RV?” David asked.
“Not likely, we’re using C-Band line of site and KU-Band Satellite radio signals to control the predator, it would take them a week to set up enough tracking equipment to find us,” Leslie said, “I’m going to try to lose them.”
“You’re not fast enough,” Frank said as Leslie desperately tried some loops and evasive moves but could not elude the faster helicopter.
“Frank’s right, Leslie, you don’t have a chance, let them shoot you down,” Hoskins said.
Leslie gave Hoskins a concerned look and said, “What? Are you sure?”
“We don’t have any other choice, pick a nice safe area, and the minute they fire, initiate the self-destruct. They’ll get their laugh and hopefully move the hell out of here.”
“They’re having trouble locking on to me, I think I could drive them crazy for a while, should I try.”
“No, they might start shooting up the countryside just to take us down, and the last thing we want to do is call attention to ourselves, so please, just get it over with,” Hoskins said.
“See if you could make it over the other side of that hill so we don’t alarm the terrorists,” Frank said.
“Here goes,” Leslie said as she rolled and looped the predator to elude the helicopter one last time and engaged full throttle to try to get further away from the town of Ismailly and the terrorist mountain compound. She nose-dived one last time to gain speed and soared toward the remote hill. The helicopter made a sweeping turn to find the predator and sped after it closing in fast. A spray of machine gun fire from the helicopter narrowly missed the predator as it barely moved out of the way at the last second. The predator stayed at low altitude veering around some rows of trees before it reached the base of the hill and started climbing to the top of it. When it reached the crest of the hill, the group gave a collective sigh of relief knowing that they were safely out of range of the terrorists. Leslie backed off the throttle and nosed up to provide a well-exposed target for the helicopter. A yellow light came on the console indicating that the predator had once again been locked onto. The next thing they saw on the rearview video monitor was a missile flying quickly toward them. In less than a split second, all of the monitor screens on the console went blank.
The group in the RV remained silent for a moment, stunned as if they felt like the missile hit the RV.
“I’m going to miss that bird,” Leslie said, “It’s like losing an old friend.”
“I hope we made it far enough away so the terrorist didn’t heard that,” Hoskins said, “Frank, do you still have the rental truck on your monitor?”
“Yes, and it’s still right where we saw it last.”
Leslie looked at David and Brad and said, “Okay boys, as soon as that chopper leaves the area, we’re going to look for a long flat field and launch predator number two.”
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