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In the CIA’s RV, Hoskins was talking on the cell phone with Deputy Chief of Mission Evans.
“Mr. Hoskins, I wanted you to know that no one has tried to enter the Embassy since we started the lockdown.”
“That’s good, Mr. Evans, but tell the guards to continue to keep their eyes open.”
“I also have the superintendent from the apartment building on my other line.”
“Does he live in the building or somewhere nearby?”
“He said he lives only a few blocks away.”
“Good, tell him to stay right where he is in case we need him to evacuate the building. Tell him not to go near the building until we call him.”
“One last thing,” Evans said, “The Ambassador wanted to know if he could assist by applying international pressure on the terrorist’s home country to help resolve this problem.”
Hoskins tried not to laugh when he said, “That won’t be necessary, Mr. Evans, but tell the Ambassador that we appreciate his support.”
When Hoskins hung up the phone, Frank said, “The lights just came on in the apartment,” Frank said.
“They were off when I was up there,” Veronica said, “Should I go back up there?”
“Hold that thought, Veronica,” Hoskins says as he dials Brad’s telephone number.
“Still no answer.”
Hoskins called Evans at the Embassy, and had him look up Tamara Gorridge’s telephone number, and Hoskins dialed it.
In the apartment building, the ring of the telephone startled Abdula and also put a look of hope on his three captives’ faces. Abdula walked over to the phone and ripped the cord out of the wall.
“Don’t you hate getting interrupted when you’re right in the middle of something,” he said to terrified trio.
In the RV, Hoskins hung up his phone and said, “No answer, are we sure somebody is in there, maybe they have the lights on a timer?”
“Let me drop the predator down and see what kind of video we could get,” Leslie said as she started typing some commands on the console keyboard.
Hoskins pointed to the console monitor displaying the front of the apartment building and said, “See if you could zoom in on that room there on the second floor.”
She typed in some commands on the keyboard and the monitor showed the window of the apartment as it zoomed in.
“The predator’s still too high to view the window at a good angle, you’d better drop her down lower,” Frank said.
“How do you know it’s a ‘her’, Frank?” Leslie said as she commanded the predator to drop to 1500 feet.
“Only because it’s so polite and does everything we ask.”
“I guess it’s hard to argue with that answer,” Veronica said.
“It’s probably the best we’ll get from Frank,” Leslie says.
When the predator reached the lower altitude, Leslie put the plane into a tight circular flight pattern above Freedom Square.
“Now let’s see what’s going on in that apartment,” Leslie said as the camera again zoomed in on the apartment’s window. The window has vertical blinds and Leslie picked a gap between two of the blinds and zoomed in to get a view. The monitor showed what might be a person sitting.
“It’s hard to make anything out clearly,” Frank said, “You’ll probably have to check between every one of those slats to find the best view.”
“I might as well check them one at a time, let me know when you want me to stop,” Leslie said.
Leslie started from the left and zoomed in on the gap between the slats hoping that they could see something.
When she gets to the fourth slat, Hoskins said,
“We may be wasting our time, it’s too hard to make out any damn thing.”
“Sorry, Jack, it’s the best we could get,” Leslie said.
Hoskins paced back and forth in the limited space in the RV trying to come up with some way to get a look into the apartment.
“If I could get into the apartment next door, I could put a scope through the wall,” Frank said.
“No, I guarantee you that if Abdula’s in there, he’ll be watching for anything.”
“I could drop the predator down to two-hundred feet,” Leslie said.
“Do you think it will give us a better view?” Hoskins asked.
“We won’t know until we try,” she replied.
“I wouldn’t bother,” Frank said, “Those window slats are too close together, and he’s liable to hear the hum of the predator. Maybe I should bust in on him, Jack, we still have the element of surprise on our side.”
“That will be our last resort if we can’t think of anything else.”
“Well sitting around here is for the birds, I’ll be outside.”
“Frank put on his coat to go outside and get some air.
“That’s it, the Hummingbird,” Hoskins said, “Way to go, Frank.”
“Huh? What good is that going to do us if the only people trained on it are in that apartment,” Frank said.
“Come on, how hard could it be?” Hoskins asked as he opened up the Hummingbird case.
The case contained built-in laptop computer with a side compartment where the Hummingbird was stored. Hoskins turned on the computer and opened the compartment and pulled out the small robotic bird. The body of the bird had a diameter of three inches with four-inch wings on each side and a stabilizing tail section. Hoskins flipped on a small switch on the underside of the bird and set it down on the table.
Veronica, who was making coffee, walked back to the console area and said, “I didn’t know you had a hummingbird, you could have saved me a trip over to the apartment.”
“You know the hummingbird?” Hoskins and Frank nearly ask at the same time.
Veronica sat down at the table and started typing away on the keyboard.
“Sure, I was a member of the beta team that tested the very first prototypes when they were still with the manufacturer. Back then we called it ‘Raven’.”
“Thank God,” Hoskins said, relieved that he doesn’t have to struggle with the computer.
Veronica went into the program menus and immediately turned on a diagnostic program that tested communications system between the transceivers in the laptop and the hummingbird.
“It looks like the program hasn’t changed that much, this maintenance routine program will tell us if the robotics are responding to the commands. It’s very similar to the radio control link that the predator uses, but it’s at a higher frequency.”
“If I run the bird over to the apartment building, could you control it from this distance?” Frank asked.
“Yes, I believe there’s a half-mile distance limitation from the control unit to the bird, so we should be fine. The diagnostic tests were successful, so we’re now ready for a practice run.”
Within a few seconds, a small hum was heard from the hummingbird as its wings began flapping at an incredibly high rate of speed and the small robot rose from the table and hovered in a stationary position one foot above the table.
“Looking good,” Veronica said, “Let’s check the video and put this little guy to work.” Veronica typed in some commands and the laptop screen split into a video monitor on one half and a computer control screen on the other.
Veronica used a mouse to control the altitude and raised the hummingbird to head level inside the RV. She entered a few more commands and the camera activated in the robot bird’s head displaying video on the screen.
“Smile, Frank,” Veronica said as the laptop video screen showed Frank’s face. She then used the zoom control and the picture enlarged until only the pupil in Frank’s eye was visible on the monitor.
“Incredible,” Hoskins said, “I’ve seen enough, let’s hurry up and get that bird out there.”
Veronica eased the hummingbird down onto the table and Frank carefully gathered it up to take it over to the apartment house.
“I’ll call you when I get out there,” he said as he bolted out of the RV.
When Frank got over to the apartment building, he was somewhat surprised that there was still a lot of pedestrian traffic on Freedom Square at that hour. The apartment building had grapevines climbing up its walls, and they appeared to be well tended to by the landlord or tenants. He nonchalantly pulled out his cell phone and called the RV.
“I’m in position outside the apartment building.”
“We’re ready in here, Frank, just say when” Hoskins said as Veronica eagerly waited in front of the computer.
“Frank waited for some people to pass and gently pulled the hummingbird out of his pocket and said,
“I have to set the phone down, so I could hold this guy with two hands, count to ten and its all yours.”
Frank put the phone in his pocket and cradled the hummingbird in two hands with its camera face pointing toward the building. He laughed to himself when he realized that it was almost like waiting for a real bird to take flight.
He was startled when an old man quietly walked up behind him. Knowing that the clock was ticking, Frank kept his hands steady and disarmed the man with a smile as the hummingbird’s wings started fluttering and it slowly rose to about fifteen feet. Frank walked away from the old man and pulled his phone back out of his pocket.
“I launched it further down the side of the building so that I couldn’t be seen from the window. You’ll have to take it straight up another 20 feet to the second floor window level and move east about 60 feet, I’ll guide you.”
“Got it,” Hoskins said as he put Frank’s call on the speakerphone in the RV. On the hummingbird’s video screen, a clear view of the side of the apartment building is now seen.
Frank then watched as the barely visible robotic bird moved to within three feet of the side of the building. It next started hovering down the side of the building toward the second floor window of apartment 210.
Inside the RV, Veronica adjusted the controls on the laptop and the hummingbird rose to 30 feet and started to slowly move down the side of the building. Veronica and Hoskins were watching the computer monitor as the camera focused and scanned on each passing window. They saw families eating dinner, watching television, and going about their business and then passed a window where the curtain slats were closed more tightly and blocking the view. They continued moving down the wall, and the video showed that they went out past the front of the building.”
Frank told them to stop, but Veronica did not correct quickly enough.
“We must have passed by the window,” Hoskins said, “That last one must have been the one we’re looking for.”
When he saw the hummingbird come back to the right window, Frank said, “Right there, you made it,” before he started walking back to the RV.
In the CIA’s RV, Veronica moved the hummingbird to the first vertical curtain slat on the left side of the window. She then started moving the bird in a very slow horizontal track to the right as she looked for the most open curtain slat to give them the best view of the apartment.
“Right there, between those two slats,” Hoskins said as he pointed at the monitor.
Veronica gently moved the hovering hummingbird in closer to the window. A red light came on the control monitor to alert her that she was within 2 inches of the glass.
“Be careful,” Hoskins warned her.
“Don’t worry, I couldn’t hit that window if I wanted to, the bird is designed not to bump into anything while in flight.”
“That’s good.”
“Here goes nothing,” Veronica says as she slowly zoomed in the camera.
She then moved the hummingbird a few feet higher to get an elevated view of the room and then she started to focus in the camera. Within a few seconds Brad, David and Tamara were seen seated around the dining table.
“There they are,” Veronica said, “I must have just missed them...oh my God, they’re tied up.”
Frank, who just returned to the RV, was now watching the monitor with them and said, “And look who has them.”
“I had a feeling that we’d see Abdula Nassir again,” Hoskins said, “I guess it was him who called me at the airport, the bastard tracked us all the way from Baku.”
“Uh Oh! Look what’s on the table.” Frank said.
“I guess we found our missing cesium,” Hoskins said.
“I’ll bet you’re right,” Frank said, “Ronnie, I’ll need the best picture of that bomb that you can get me.”
She typed on the keyboard and the hummingbird monitor displayed the bomb. She elevated the bird as high as she could to get the best angle on the bomb as the camera zoomed in and enlarged the picture of the bomb on the screen.
“That’s real good,” Frank said, “Let’s see what we have here.”
After Frank looked it over for a minute, Hoskins asked, “Can you disable it?”
“That timer says fifty-five minutes and it’s counting down, you’ll certainly find out before then.”
“We could probably get a clean shot at him from that building next door,” Hoskins said.
“Too risky,” Frank said, “He could have a hand held activator in his pocket, if you don’t kill him cold, he’ll override that timer and turn that building into ashes.
“I could knock on the door again, pretending to be a neighbor,” Veronica said.
“Sorry, but I can’t risk him taking another hostage,” Hoskins said.
“Well then, we have to do something to spook him out of the apartment so I could go in and disable that thing,” Frank said.
“We know he’s not the suicidal type, so he’ll probably give himself plenty of time to get away,” Hoskins said, “Let’s be patient and see what he does.”
“Okay, I’m going to go into the apartment building and get myself in position to take out either him or the bomb,” Frank said, “Get me on the phone the minute you see anything go down in the apartment.”
“How long will the hummingbird stay airborne?” Hoskins asked Veronica.
She typed a command on the keyboard and said, “We have thirty-five minutes left on the battery.”
Frank put his coat on, checked his gun, and grabbed a small tool kit. He silently hoped that Abdula doesn’t kill the three young people before he could get in there to help them.
“If that terrorist bastard makes it down to the street, he’s all yours,” Frank said, “I’ll have to take care of the bomb first.”
“Be careful, Frank, and good luck,” Hoskins said as Frank exited the RV and ran toward the apartment building.
“Leslie, do you have anything on the predator that we could use to draw Abdula out?” Hoskins asked.
“Not really, the primary function of the predator is for recon, and the hell-fire missiles are aboard to destroy a large target if necessary.”
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