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“All right then,” Reeves said, “let’s go visit Saudi Arabia.”
SKUTTER AND HIS team climbed out of the truck as Cabrillo ran across the beach.
“Leave the truck and come with us,” Cabrillo said to the driver. “If your cover isn’t blown, it soon will be.”
The driver turned off the truck and climbed down.
Then the sixteen men and Cabrillo made their way to the shore boat. James was waiting and started to help the men aboard. Once they were all crowded into the boat, Cabrillo climbed in as James took his place behind the wheel.
“Mr. C.,” he said, “this is very unsafe—I don’t have enough life vests for all these men.”
“I’ll take full responsibility for this,” Cabrillo said.
James started the engine and backed away from the beach. “Say it,” he said to Cabrillo.
“Home, James,” Cabrillo said loudly.
“WE HAD TO use the air force,” Hanley said. “It got hairy at the Kaaba.”
“Is Abraham’s Stone back in place?” Overholt asked.
“That’s done,” Hanley said, “but they couldn’t complete the explosives sweep.”
“I’ll call the president,” Overholt said, “he has a State Department dinner at seven, but I can catch him now.”
“If he calls the Saudi king and keeps him from firing on the C-17,” Hanley said, “we’re out of this clean.”
TWO SAUDI POLICE cars, sirens blaring and lights flashing, passed next to the Ford pickup traveling in the opposite direction. They were two miles from the mosque, but Kasim and the driver had no doubt where they were headed.
The driver of the Ford was doing ninety miles an hour, and he stared at the GPS navigation system built into the dashboard. “It says less than a mile,” he said. “Watch for a dirt road heading north.”
Kasim stared through the gloom. He just caught sight of a road angling off as the driver slowed. “I got it,” the driver said.
He stood on the brakes and the Ford slid on the sand atop the pavement. At the last instant, the driver spun the wheel and turned sideways. Then he pushed down on the gas again and raced up the sandy road. Reaching over to the dash, he pushed the button for four-wheel drive. On the left and right of the truck, hills started to grow taller as they raced down the wash. The driver stared down at the navigation system.
“Okay, we’re going to do a right up here and tuck behind that hill.”
A few minutes later the truck slid to a stop. The driver reached into the compartment between the seats and removed a spotlight and plugged it into the power outlet.
Then he flashed it across the land behind the hill.
There was a large expanse of flat packed sand one mile long and a half mile wide.
“Let me turn this around,” the driver said, backing up and twisting the wheel until the cab was pointed to the west.
“You want me to have the men climb out?” Kasim asked.
“Nope,” the driver said, “I’m driving right up into the back.”
REEVES AND HIS crew flew the C-17A as low as safety would allow. Even so, the plane was picked up by the advanced Saudi radar they had purchased from the United States. Within ten minutes of entering Saudi ai
rspace and just before they were due to land, the Saudi Royal Air Force had a pair of fighter jets off the ground from their base in Dhahran. They headed across the expanse of desert at Mach speed.
Hearing the approaching C-17A, the driver began to flash his lights. Reeves saw the lights, made one pass over, then turned and lined up to land.
“IT’S THE MIDDLE of the night,” the aide to King Abdullah said.
“Listen,” the president said, “I’m sending the secretary of state over there now—he’ll be there by late morning tomorrow to explain what has happened. Right now, I have a United States Air Force plane inside your airspace. If this plane is fired upon, we will have no choice but to retaliate.”
