As Johnson exited the room, he hit the speed dial button on his cell and connected to his ops center.
“Where are we?” he barked as the call was answered.
Recognizing the boss’ voice, the senior operator wasted no time on pleasantries.
“The satellites have picked up six dead bodies…”
“I know all that thanks to Preston. Where are we on finding the target?” he interrupted brusquely. Preston’s telling the VP information his team had been responsible for had really pissed him off.
“The call to the Secret Service was made over two hours ago. We’ve had three satellite sweeps on North Haven in that time and it seems the target has probably taken our operatives’ car as it’s not been found on the island. Which means two things. One, we can track him. And two, more importantly, he had to use the ferry. That takes over ninety minutes and the one he’s on is due to land shortly.”
“What assets do we have locally?”
“Nothing, I’m afraid. Our closest assets are in Boston, just under 200 miles away. However, I have managed to acquire a General Atomics Avenger unmanned combat air vehicle. It’s still in development but I am told has performed exceptionally in testing and our guys are extremely keen to utilize it in a live environment.
“What have you told them?” Johnson was well aware of the Avenger’s capabilities. It was one tool he couldn’t wait to get in to the field. The jet powered stealthy reconnaissance vehicle could fly faster, higher, further and carry far more ordinance than her predecessors, the Predator and the Reaper.
“That we are tracking an Al Qaeda cell which we believe is targeting Seabrook Nuclear reactor in New Hampshire and or Pilgrim Nuclear reactor in Massachusetts. Both reactors are within 40 miles of Boston and as such they were happy to assist. The Avenger was operating out of the 174th air wing at Syracuse New York. They were trialing it alongside the Reaper. The Avenger is armed with hellfire missiles and will be on station when Baker’s ferry docks.”
“Excellent and the Senator?”
“Sorry Sir, dropped off the radar. We have nothing on him nor the Secret Service Agent. We have them on camera running from the Hart building shortly after the shots were fired. We lose them as they run into the road. We’re grabbing all CCTV images from the vicinity. As soon as we’ve got something, I’ll let you know.”
Johnson knew that Sam would ultimately lead them to the Senator but to let him go when they had an opportunity to take him out relatively easily, made his decision. The Senator was an amateur and would slip up. Sam wasn’t and wouldn’t. They had the drop on him and that was exactly what they would do, drop the hellfire missiles on him asap.
“Keep looking for the Senator but take Sam out as soon as you get a clear shot and by clear, I mean minimize civilian casualties. We’ve had enough collateral damage for one day. I’m heading to you now, so should be with you in about 45 minutes. First chance you get, take him out.”
“Yes Sir.”
Johnson began to relax, dealing with the loose end that was Sam Baker had been a long overdue issue. Of course they could have disposed of the Senator without touching Sam. It had been a calculated risk to throw Sam into the mire but Sam knew things about Johnson that nobody should know. Johnson had seen his opportunity and he had taken it. It was just a shame that the idiots he had selected hadn’t. Mind you, he thought, they certainly paid for that in spades, quite literally. Johnson knew Sam Baker was a risk, almost certainly because there were only two people who knew he was alive. One was his brother and the other was him. Johnson, therefore, would be top of Sam’s hit list, not a place anyone would want to be but with 20,000 employees in the CIA, Sam would have to go some to get near him, never mind the six hellfire missiles 10,000 feet above Sam with his name on them.
Sam had been out the game for three years, not something he was overly concerned about. His training regime was as tough if not tougher than it had ever been. He was as fit now as he had been twenty years earlier. He did, however, have one nagging doubt about the previous three years — how far had technology travelled and how far behind had he fallen? Three years earlier he knew every conceivable way to track a human being but things had moved on. He looked again at the sat nav system in the car. Three years ago, he would have been confident it wasn’t an issue but could it be tracked now? The system was pulling information from somewhere and if it was getting it, it was giving it. He had to dump the car quickly.
They already knew where his starting point was, Rockland Maine. There was no need to give them anymore of a head-start than that. The local airport was out. Once in the air, he would be a sitting target and trackable. The train would be no better Slow and few or no escape routes would favor only his hunters. That left sticking with the roads and with over 400 miles to travel, speed was of the essence. As he pulled off the ferry, he could feel the roar of the Chrysler’s engine. It certainly had the power he needed. T, the 6.1l hemi engine produced 425 bhp and could propel the car to almost 180mph. Rockland was a cul-de-sac. He had no choice but to go for it.
The Virginia plates gave Sam some comfort; whoever had sent the men to kill him did not have local help. He knew they’d be onto him but Virginia was 800 miles away and it would take at least a few hours for them to regroup and get assets on scene and in that car, he could be in Newark in three hours, traffic allowing.