Blowback

SEVENTY

Rayburn might have been a tough nut to crack, but there was something about Harvath choking off the oxygen to his brain that caused him to be extremely forthcoming. He admitted that not only was he in the employ of the Aga Khan, but in fact he was the man’s head of security. When it came to Emir Tokay’s kidnapping, Rayburn also came clean. He confessed that he had been involved and that he had orchestrated the kidnapping under direct orders from the Aga Khan himself. Emir Tokay was still alive, and Rayburn drew a detailed schematic of where in Château Aiglemont he was being held.

Other than that, Harvath didn’t get much more out of him. Either Timothy Rayburn was the world’s greatest liar, or he really was limited in his knowledge of the Aga Khan’s involvement with the Islamic Institute for Science and Technology and Hannibal’s mystery weapon. Rayburn acknowledged that, per his boss’s orders, he had organized Donald Ellyson’s archeological expedition in the Alps and was its paymaster, but had no idea what the man was looking for. He claimed that until Marie Lavoine had contacted him over a year later, he had no idea that her husband, along with Maurice and Dr. Ellyson, had disappeared.

No matter how many times Harvath tried to trip him up, he couldn’t. There wasn’t a single crack in any of Rayburn’s stories. Yes, he had kidnapped Tokay, but he had no idea what the Aga Khan wanted with him. Yes, he knew the Aga Khan was involved with the Islamic Institute for Science and Technology, but he had no idea to what extent. As Rayburn so eloquently put it, all of those raghead groups were the same as far as he was concerned. His employer seemed to enjoy having an ex — Secret Service officer as his head of security. It made him feel safer. That said, Rayburn claimed the Aga Khan didn’t completely trust anyone, even his head of security. Half the time, Rayburn said his boss seemed to take a perverse pleasure in treating him like a mushroom, i.e., keeping him in the dark and feeding him shit.

Two hours later, it was Harvath who finally cracked. He was exhausted and it was obvious that they weren’t going to get anything further out of Rayburn. What they needed to focus on now was recovering Emir Tokay and, if possible, getting their hands on the Aga Khan and doing whatever was necessary to make him talk.

Though Rayburn requested some water and an opportunity to use the facilities, Harvath turned out the lights and left him tied to his chair while he went in search of someplace to get a little rest. In just under five hours, the team would have their final briefing before lifting off for Château Aiglemont.

An hour before takeoff, Harvath and Schroeder went through the assault plan for the final time. There was no telling how reliable Rayburn’s information was and so they tried to rely on it as little as possible. With their very own Ferdinando Soleti in hand, Schroeder was convinced that their odds were better than fifty-fifty. Harvath wished he shared the man’s confidence.

The biggest tactical decision facing Harvath soon became whether to bring Jillian along with them. When confronted with the decision head-on, she offered the same rationale for coming that she had in Milan — if there were documents at Aiglemont pertaining to the illness, she was the only one who was qualified to ascertain which ones were the most important. If the team encountered a time crunch and was only capable of grabbing a portion of papers, without her there to help, it would be like playing pin the tail on the donkey. In short, they couldn’t go without her.

Jillian was right, but Harvath still gave her one last chance to back out. Even though they were hoping to get in and out without a shot being fired, people might still very easily get killed on this assignment. And one of those people could be Jillian Alcott herself. Apprised of all the risks, her decision didn’t waver. She was in.

Harvath didn’t trust Rayburn any farther than he could punt him and at the very last minute developed a crude piece of insurance to guarantee he wouldn’t give them any trouble. Using his knowledge of improvised explosive devices, Harvath cobbled together a little something special with the Stern team’s demolition expert for Rayburn to wear underneath his boxer shorts.

Duct tape was used to hold the bomb in place, and seeing how uncomfortable Rayburn was, Harvath said, “It’s kind of like a cheap hotel, isn’t it? No ball room.” Then, holding up the remote detonator so Rayburn could see it, he added, “I’m going to be three steps behind you at all times, and if I even so much as think you’re tipping our hand to your men, I’m going to turn that strip of Alpine meadow up there into a real ballpark, if you know what I mean.”

Rayburn didn’t say a word; he just glared at Harvath.

Twenty minutes later, dressed in black Nomex fatigues identical to the ones being worn by Aiglemont’s security team, Harvath gave the Stern commandos and glider pilots a final briefing before they all walked out onto the tarmac.

The new Aerotechnik Super Vivat Icarus motorgliders had an enormous wingspan and looked like a typical side-by-side pilot/passenger configuration sailplane that had been crossed with a small Cessna single-prop aircraft. Designed to carry a pilot and three passengers, their maximum crew weight was listed by the manufacturer at 721 pounds. They needed to carry more. Stripping the motorgliders down to the bare essentials, the team was able to get four people plus a pilot in each one.

Harvath and Schroeder would take Rayburn and an additional commando in the first Super Vivat Icarus, followed by Claudia, Jillian, and two more commandos in the second, and the final two motorgliders would contain four commandos each. With such a short landing strip, it was important that each glider land, unload its passengers, and take off again in time for the next glider behind it to come in and touch down. It was going to be a delicate dance and one that they all wished they could have had time to rehearse.

The aircraft were given the call signs Silo One, Two, Three, and Four based on the order in which they would be landing at Aiglemont. While Silos One through Three would be immediately taking off after dropping their passengers, Silo Four would be required to stay on the ground in case the team needed to evacuate Emir Tokay in a hurry. Like the other pilots, Silo Four’s captain was a Swiss fighter pilot and had readily accepted his assignment, knowing that if things got bad, he would essentially be a sitting duck. Harvath, though, did his best to assure the man that he was going to see to it that things didn’t get too ugly too early.

The eight remaining commandos on the Stern team would be responsible for subduing the police at the base of the funicular in Le Râleur and joining the party once their colleagues had secured the railway’s upper housing.

After moving the Super Vivat Icarus craft out onto the runway, their pilots conducted the final preflight checks. Inside the hangar, the commandos did a final check of their own, going over their weapons and communications equipment and stuffing their pockets and pouches with as much extra ammunition as they could carry. When all of the motorgliders had been loaded and the first one was cleared for takeoff, the remaining commandos climbed into their two rental cars and headed out for Le Râleur.