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From the overhead speaker system a very familiar voice answered Roach’s question. “No, I did.”
Half of the faces in the room looked up toward the heavens as if God were speaking to them. President Hayes cleared his throat and said, “Men, I know we’re not giving you a lot of time, but I have an immense amount of faith in you. Now, if I may make a suggestion, I think we should all keep a lid on any questions until General Campbell finishes briefing us. General, please continue.”
Campbell looked up at the speakers in gratitude and then back at the group. “Gentlemen, we don’t have much time, so we’re gonna use the KISS rule. HRT”—Campbell tapped the left side of the screen—“the West Wing and the hostages are all yours. Sid, I know you and your people have been working on different scenarios. You are going to need a two-pronged assault at a minimum.” Campbell held up his finger and cautioned the stocky head of the Hostage Rescue Team.“We have some ideas for entry, and I’ll get to them in a minute.”
With his usual precision Campbell did a left face and tapped the roof of the mansion. “Delta Force will be responsible for the mansion.” Campbell looked at the unit’s CO, Colonel Gray. “Billy, your boys are going in on the Little Birds, and they have to be ready to move lightning fast. Before I get to the master plan, I want to caution everybody that there is a real chance that we might not make it to H-hour. If we get an inkling that they are about to get that bunker door open, we have no choice but to move.”
Campbell looked at the commanders for a moment and then held up a file. “What I have here is Commander Harris’s briefback.” Campbell shook his head. “This is one of the finest, most thorough briefbacks I have ever read. I have to compliment you, Commander Harris, on doing such a fine job on such short notice.” Campbell shook the file and looked at the rest of the group. “This thing is a doozy. If Lieutenant Commander Harris hadn’t already performed part of this, there is no way he could have sold me on it, but he did.” Campbell shook his head. “Here it goes. Almost eight years ago, Commander Harris and three of his fellow SEALs jumped out of a MC-130 Combat Talon in the middle of the night and parachuted onto the roof of the White House undetected by the Secret Service. This was no stunt; it was an exercise that the Secret Service wanted the Navy to help them conduct. The results have been confirmed.”
Campbell paused and looked at the group. “I’m sure some of you are wondering why I am even considering a crazy James Bond maneuver like this, and here’s my reason. Iron Man has verified that explosive devices have been planted in the mansion. We have separate intelligence that tells us Aziz brought along enough Semtex to level the whole building, which means that most likely any raid will result in the loss of all the hostages and most of the assault teams. Our only chance is to get a group of demolition experts into the building just prior to the assault and figure out a way to disable these bombs. This is what we were trying to do early this morning when one of the men on Commander Harris’s team was killed.”
Campbell paused for a moment and then said, “Here is how things will go if we make it to H-hour. Commander Harris and three of his men will do a HALO jump out of a Special Forces MC-One-Thirty Combat Talon. Our intel people think the rooftop cameras that monitor the grounds are still operational and being used. Because of this, all four men must land on the roof. Two of SEAL Team Six’s best snipers have set up shop four blocks away from the White House in the bell tower of the Old Post Office. Just prior to the landing of the first element, the sentry in the rooftop guard booth will be taken out by the snipers. From there Commander Harris’s team will be met by Iron Man, who will lead them via a tunnel that runs from the basement of the mansion over
to the West Wing.”
Campbell paused for a moment to backtrack. “Between now and H-hour, Iron Man will reconnoiter the West Wing and collect as much information as possible. His first priority will be to obtain video surveillance of both groups of hostages. His second task will be to scout out both primary and secondary assault lanes for the Hostage Rescue Team. Having taken care of the that in advance, he will lead Commander Harris’s team to open at least one of those lanes, if not both. If Commander Harris and his team fail to open those, we have one other backup in place. Within thirty minutes an Air Force E-Three-A Sentry will be on station above the city. We have reason to believe that Aziz has the ability to detonate the bombs by remote control. We don’t know if this remote is radio, cellular, or digital, and we can’t take a chance on guessing, so if the order is given, the AWACS will shower the area around the White House with a storm of disruption that will jam everything except the stuff that we are using.”
Looking at the commanders of HRT and Delta, Campbell said, “We considered lighting up the area from the get-go but decided against it. The break in communication may tip them off and allow them to manually detonate the bombs.”
There were several moments of silence, and then Slater and Gray looked at each other. They both knew it would do no good to start asking questions. There wasn’t enough time to really plan and practice. This would be one of those times that they had talked about during their countless training exercises. This would be one of those times they had feared. A time when they would throw the playbook out the window.
The commander of JSOC looked around the room. After a moment of silence he focused on the warriors to his left. The men who would be going into battle. Speaking as one commando to another, he said, “A thousand things could go wrong at any stage of this operation.” The three commanders acknowledged the warning given to them from a decorated soldier with a knowing look. Campbell frowned, biting his lower lip, and then added, “Stay loose . . . Pick your best shooters . . . This one is going to be all instinct and reaction. There’s no time to rehearse.”
RAPP AND ADAMS were back in the tiny elevator with all of their equipment, descending to lower levels of the White House. The stash room had served them well, but now they needed to be closer to the action. Before heading up to retrieve their gear, Rapp had affixed one of the surveillance units to the bottom of a fire extinguisher in the hallway. With the jamming unit out of action, Rapp could now speak clearly with the control room at Langley and bypass sticking the fiber-optic snake under the door to check and see if everything was all right.
As the elevator came to a stop, Rapp spoke into his lip mike, “Iron Man to control. We’re back in the basement. Give me a check on the hallway.”
A monotone male voice came back. “The hallway is clear. Over.”
Rapp nodded for Adams to open the door. When Adams did so, Rapp stepped out into the hallway, his MP-10 sweeping from left to right. Adams joined him, and, after closing the outer door to the elevator, they moved quickly down the hall.
With key in hand, the wiry old engineer opened the door to the china storage room, and the two of them entered. Anna Rielly looked up, relieved they were back.
“How did it go?”
“Fine,” answered Rapp as he set his weapon down and started to take the heavy backpack off. “Except Milt had to go to the bathroom again.”
“Again?” asked Rielly.
Adams stood there looking the miniature version of Rapp, with his matching black baseball cap and black Nomex coveralls. Placing his hands on his hips, he shook his head and said, “You two, just wait. I’d like to see you try and do this secret-agent junk when you’re my age.”
Rapp laughed. “If I could only be lucky enough to live that long.”
The statement sobered up Rielly in a snap. She realized that although he had said his statement with levity, he was serious.
Rapp moved his gear to the floor and said, “Milt and I are going to go over to the West Wing and check some things out while you wait right here.”
“Why can’t I come with you?” Rielly asked.
“Because”—Rapp kept a level tone—“this could get real hairy, Anna, and I’m going to have a hard enough time keeping an eye on Milt.”
“I promise I won’t get in your way. In fact, I could probably be a help.”
Rapp shook his head. “It’s not going to happen, Anna. And I don’t have the time to sit around and discuss it with you. I’ve been ordered to find out what is going on in the West Wing, and I need to do it quick. Because of the situation with the president, we might be forced to launch a raid at any minute.”
Rielly nodded reluctantly. “Is there anything I can do while you’re gone?”
“If things proceed as I think they might, there’s a chance I might need your help with something later. Okay? For now, just sit here and look pretty.”
