Deep Black

77

As Rubens started to tell Telach he needed to talk to the Bird strike team, something exploded in the right corner of the picture on the screen at the front of the Art Room. Realizing he was seeing the assassination attempt, Rubens stopped and focused on the screen, where a video feed from a CIA-planted video fly covering part of the courtyard was now being displayed. The view was partly blocked off and delayed a second and a half because of all the encryption and the routing, but it was clear enough for him to see Perovskaya standing a few feet from where the bullet had hit, his arms jerking up out of shock.

For a moment, Rubens worried that there would be another shot. Then the bodyguards started to move, pushing the defense minister back into the car and out of the frame.

“Lia and Dean got the assassin,” said Rockman, nearly shouting. “He got the shot off, but they got him. He’s down.”

Rubens turned to Hadash nearby. “Tell President Marcke to ask to speak to Perovskaya. Otherwise, they’ll kill him. He was the target — if Kurakin wants him dead it must be to our advantage that he’s alive. Quickly.”

Hadash started to relay the message. On the screen behind him, cars whipped by. The video transmission suddenly stopped — the Russians must’ve turned on a wide-spectrum jammer.

Rubens turned to Telach. “Where’s the Bird strike force?”

She hot-keyed a sitrep map onto the now-blank main screen. It showed the four-plane flight almost over the Urals.

“Put up the Wave Three target. And the laser facilities themselves.”

The planes were sixty-three miles to the southwest of one site and another hundred miles farther west of the other. The command bunker, the target of the Wave Three mission, was in the middle.

Take the two sites. Now.

“Telach, what channel is the Bird commander on?”

“What’s going on?” asked Hadash.

“Two-two-alpha,” said Telach.

“Listen in,” Rubens told him.