Whiplash

74

Breanna leaned back in the copilot’s seat and pulled off her headset. Then she pressed the Receive button on the satellite phone and held it to her ear.

“Stockard.”

“The President wants to recover the warhead after the bombers hit,” said Jonathon Reid. “She wants Danny to help recover it.”

“How?”

“The bomb material should be intact. The rest of the warhead will be mangled, of course. They’re pulling together a team of Delta people and a few other experts. I know Danny has done this sort of thing before.”

“Jonathon, I don’t know—”

“This is exactly the sort of mission Whiplash was conceived for,” said Reid. “Adjusting on the fly.”

There were adjustments, and then there were adjustments. Physically picking up a warhead wasn’t the problem. The mission would require them not only to stay in Iran after the bombing, but to stay near the site.

She worried about losing them. She worried about them dying. Whatever danger they were in now would be multiplied tenfold.

Her father had told her about the fear he felt over losing people before he left Dreamland. Ordering an op might be the right thing to do, but that didn’t salve his conscience. He was always haunted by the cost.

“The Delta people are about two hours away from Baghdad,” Reid said. “They’ll hook up with some Agency people in Azerbaijan who just finished helping some of the inspection teams in Iran. They want to use your Ospreys to get in and out. Do you want to talk to the commanders?”

The head of the task force in Azerbaijan was a former Delta Force colonel named Tom Dolan. He was under contract to the U.S. government as a “consultant”—a nifty way of denying direct responsibility for him if things went south on an operation. Dolan told Breanna that his team would be ready to go in roughly two hours.

She sketched a plan to pick up the Delta combat team in Baghdad at the airport, then fly the MC-17 up to Azerbaijan. There, the two Ospreys she was carrying would be off-loaded and used by the task force and Delta to get to the Iraq site. Boston and Sugar would go as well.

Danny was silent as Breanna explained the plan.

“Something wrong?” she asked.

“We’re talking forty troops?” he asked.

“I didn’t ask the actual count. Not enough?”

“Depends on what happens.”

“There’s a Marine combat team.”

“Get them.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

Danny hesitated. “Yeah, it’ll be enough,” he said finally. “Don’t worry. Once the bombers hit, there won’t be anyone left here. And we’re pretty far from their forces.”

“If you need something, tell me.”

“I’m fine, Bree. I’ve done this before, remember?”

“So have I,” she said.

“Auld acquaintance be forgot…”