"Alpha Leader, this is SEAL One. I think we've spotted some hostiles."
With a smile, Nichols clicked his radio to transmit. He was in the lead Huey, now hovering slightly more than a kilometer away from the shoreline of Andikythera.
"I copy, SEAL One. What's your status?"
"We're ready to get acquainted. Are you synchronized?"
"Roger," Nichols's terse voice replied back. "I want all hell to break loose. And any bad guys you can pin down or neutralize will be much appreciated. We insert in ninety seconds."
"We roger that, Alpha Leader. SEAL One team on full auto."
Nichols turned to his pilot, Manny Jackson. "Okay, it's a go. I want us on the ground in nine-zero seconds."
Vance moved quickly up the hill, toward the toppled gantry. Already he had a view of the wide sloping window that was the center of Launch Control, and he could see figures there, though not clearly enough to know if Ramirez was one of them. Maybe they were SatCom staffers or…
No. There was Ramirez, talking on the phone. And standing beside him was the man Vance had come to love… Isaac Mannheim. The old professor looked haggard, a perfectionist man who had despaired. He clearly had lost touch with time and place. Then Ramirez handed him the phone and barked something at him. Dejectedly he took it and started speaking.
Damn. Any half-competent sniper could take out Ramirez here and now. He thought he was safe, and he had never been more exposed. But this was not a job for an amateur, not with Mannheim so close.
Okay, he thought, guess this is going to have to happen the hard way.
He extracted a flash grenade from the vest Willem had given him and got ready to pull the pin.