Transfer of Power

AZIZ LOOKED AT the door to the presidents bunker and then at the electronic device in his hand. He spoke into his radio for a third time and then held it to his ear.

Nothing came back. Without having to be asked, Bengazi tried his radio.

The result was the same. Aziz calmly checked the digital pager clipped to his hip and then looked at Bengazi.

“Take Ragib, check the stairwell, and try to reestablish radio contact.”

Aziz then turned to yassin, who was sticking a long spikelike object through one of the holes he had drilled.

“Keep working,” he told the plump little man.

Aziz walked down the hallway, following his men, and when they reached the stairwell, he waited for them at the bottom.

As Bengazi and Ragib disappeared into the stairwell, Aziz tried his radio again. It still didn’t work. Now he began to get nervous. If the radios failed, that was one thing, but if the Americans were jamming them and they covered the frequencies of his digital pagers, that would be something entirely different.

The countdown would begin on the bombs, and if the Americans did not stop jamming the signal, there was nothing he could do to stop them from going off. He had only several options, and he didn’t have a lot of time to think them through.