The Hunt

69

Jaeger could have kicked himself. Why hadn’t he thought to disable the Iridium’s camera? It was so easy to do: a strip of gaffer tape slapped over the aperture, for those who didn’t have the brains or the nous to master the software.

As it was, Narov reached for the satphone, pressed a few buttons and disabled the video function. At least now Kammler couldn’t spy on them.

‘Such a pity – you’ve gone,’ Kammler continued, ‘And you know how much I love a little theatre. Talking of which, if you look out of your hovel, you’ll see me outside my laboratory with two of those who are so very dear to you.’

Jaeger crawled across to the OP’s opening. Kammler was surrounded by a phalanx of gunmen now. Bodyguards. Jaeger recognised one of them instantly: it was the massive, muscle-bound hulk of Steve Jones. He’d never believed he could feel so much hatred. He felt an irresistible urge to dash down the hillside, all guns blazing.

‘All sitting comfortably?’ Kammler’s voice queried. ‘Then I’ll begin.’

Jaeger saw him give a signal, and the bound forms of Ruth and Peter Miles were forced to their knees in front of him. Jones strode up behind them and drew a pistol. At a gesture from Kammler, he smashed the butt into Peter Miles’s head. The elderly man keeled over, but Jones grabbed him by his hair and dragged him up again.

‘So I think you probably get the picture,’ Kammler purred. ‘We have a newly arrived shipment of uranium in the lab. A shipment that you clever people seem to have rigged with some kind of explosive device. But as you see, I am infinitely smarter and, for what it is worth, far more ruthless.’

With that, he raised one leg and kicked Ruth between the shoulder blades. Even from a distance, Jaeger heard the scream of pain as she keeled forward. Steve Jones reached down one massive beefy arm, grabbed a twist of her hair and dragged her viciously back into the kneeling position.

Jaeger felt as if he could howl with rage. He was burning up with it. His fingers clenched into an iron fist, the nails drawing blood from his palm. ‘Fuck you, Kammler,’ he snarled.

Kammler laughed. ‘Oh, I don’t think so… Now, this is what we’re going to do. You will explain the detonating mechanism and how we disable it. You see, we are a little concerned it may be pressure-activated: we remove a bar of uranium, it goes bang.’ He paused. ‘You are going to show yourselves, drop your weapons and come down to join us. Together we will defuse your bomb.’

Jaeger didn’t answer.

‘I am asking nicely, but in truth it isn’t a request,’ Kammler continued. ‘Do what I say, or Peter Miles dies. And shortly after that, your beloved wife. But I think ever so slowly…’

Jaeger covered the Iridium. He eyed Raff and Alonzo, a sudden clarity burning in his eyes. ‘He’s a bloody madman. But we know more about his plans than he suspects, and he knows less about ours than he believes. Which means we can play him.’

He looked at each of them in turn. ‘Here’s what we do: we act as if agreeing to his demands. But you two – you go blow the pipelines. They go bang, it’s utter chaos down there. On the back of that, we fight our way in. You two take the desalination plant, we take the accom block. Once we’re clear, we combine forces to hit the lab.’

‘What about Miles and Ruth?’ Raff queried.

Jaeger gritted his teeth. ‘They’ll have to take their chances. In all the confusion, we have to hope they break free. What other option is there? Blowing the pipeline – it’s the one thing he’ll never expect.’

One by one the others nodded their silent assent.

Jaeger spoke into the handset. ‘I hear you, Kammler. We’ll come down and defuse it, but once we’ve done so, we walk out of there with my wife and Miles. Do we have a deal?’

‘Agreed. Come on down to join us.’

‘We’re coming. Front entrance,’ Jaeger confirmed.

He killed the call and glanced at Raff and Alonzo. ‘Mission’s on. Head for the pipelines. Pronto. And good luck.’

Alonzo and Raff grabbed their weapons and their daysacks.

‘See you in paradise,’ Alonzo muttered as he crawled out of the OP.

Jaeger smiled. ‘Have me a beer ready when you get there.’

With that, they were gone.

Jaeger stuffed extra grenades and magazines into his own daysack, turfing out anything he didn’t need. He paused at the Thuraya, undecided whether to take it or not.

It gave them comms with Brooks, which was important. It also gave them the means to detonate the tungsten device, though he wasn’t about to do that any time soon. If he did, he’d kill two of the people closest to his heart.

On balance, he decided to take it. He didn’t want anyone else – Narov, for instance – on that trigger.

He heard Raff’s voice crackling in his SELEX earpiece: ‘One-minute countdown, boss.’

‘One,’ he confirmed back.

They were sixty seconds and counting.