Thomas Hoover - Project Cyclops

"All right," he added in conclusion, "let's rock and roll. And this time there's going to be no recall, I don't care who tries."

"How does it look?" Peretz was asking. He and Bill Bates had just climbed aboard the Sikorsky, cold and gray in the light fog.

Bates had already checked it over from the outside. It was military, and it appeared to be on loan from the Pakistani Air Force, with the markings clumsily painted over. But it appeared to be in pristine shape. Good maintenance.

"Let me see." He walked to the cockpit and looked over the rows of instruments. Nothing obvious seemed amiss. "If there's fuel, it should be able to fly. After all, it got in here from somewhere."

Peretz nodded with satisfaction, then clicked on his walkie-talkie. "Firebird One, Bates says there may be some problems with the nav gear. He wants to start it up and give it an instrument check. Probably just feeding me some kind of bullshit, so why don't you send out Helling for a minute? He should be in on this."

"What?" Bates mumbled. "I didn't-"

"I copy you," came back Ramirez's voice. "What seems to be the problem?"

"Probably no big deal. Claims it's the in-flight computer. Something to do with flight control."

"All right," Ramirez replied. "I'll send Wolf out if you think you need him." The walkie-talkie clicked off, to the accompaniment of static.

"What are you talking about?" Bates looked up, feeling a chill. "I don't see anything here that looks like a problem. Who the hell knows if the in-flight computer is-"

"Just shut up," Peretz barked. "Now, start the engines."

"But-"

"Just do what I tell you." He was now grasping a Walther 9mm with what appeared to be boundless self-assurance.

"You're the boss." Bates nodded, settling into the cockpit. He suddenly realized that something not on the schedule was about to go down. All along he'd had a feeling Peretz was up to something. Now it was more than a feeling.

With a tremble of apprehension he hit the ignition button, then started spooling up the power on the main rotor. Everything seemed to be working normally, just as it should. This old crate, he figured, had a lot of hours on the engines, but there was nothing to suggest any kind of problem.

Coming toward them now, across the tarmac, was the famous German terrorist, Wolf Helling. Bates glanced through the windscreen and looked him over, thinking he looked annoyed. He had the hard face and eyes of a killer, the kind of face you could only earn the hard way.

Suddenly the whole scenario clicked into place. This Israeli character was about to try and pull a fast one on everybody. He had set the vehicle to launch and now he was getting out. But what about the German? Was he in on the scam?

Probably not, from the disgruntled look he had. Besides, this guy Peretz was the quintessential loner. He had his marbles and the hell with everybody else.

"What's the problem?" Helling asked as he stepped lightly up the metal steps of the Sikorsky. "Is something-?"

He never had a chance to finish the sentence, as a dull thunk punctuated the placement of a 9mm round directly between his eyes. The half-bald leader of Germany's notorious Revolutionare Zellen pitched into the chopper, dead before he reached the floor pallet.

"Fucking Nazi," Peretz said to no one in particular. "I've been waiting a long time." Then he stepped over the body and headed for the cockpit. "Okay, it's about to be post time, baby."

"You're going to bug out, aren't you?" Bates had turned around and was staring at him. "You son of a bitch, you've got VX-1 set to launch and now you're leaving while the leaving's good."

"It's not going to be that simple," he responded calmly. "But we are about to make an unscheduled departure. You will be flying."

"And get shot down?" Bates said, rising and walking back from the cockpit. "Come on, this place has got to be surrounded." He had hoped, now feared, it was so. Surely the word on these terrorists was all over the world by now. "You have got to be kidding. No way am I taking this bird up. You're on your own, pal. I refuse."

"That would be a serious mistake, health-wise." Peretz smiled back. "Because if you give me the slightest hint of trouble, you're going to enjoy the same fate as this Nazi klutz, starting with your kneecaps. I would advise you to be cooperative." He smiled again.

"Do what you want," Bates said, not quite feeling his own bravado. "But you'll be flying it yourself."

"Don't press me, asshole," Peretz said. "Besides, there's a nuclear weapon in that crate there." He pointed. "Nobody's going to lay a finger on us."

"Do you know how to handle this?" Vance handed Cally the MP5 he was carrying. He had brought it up the hill to try to take out Ramirez, but after the fiasco with the flash grenades, he hadn't fired a shot.

"I've got a pretty good idea," she replied, some of the old pique coming back. "Somebody'd better use it. Besides, it doesn't exactly require postgraduate research."

"Sometimes it takes some thought to keep from getting killed." He sighed, then proceeded to show her how the safety worked. "Okay, what I need is for you to give me some cover when I make the move. Call it our last-ditch effort."

"What are you going to do?"

"What else? It's time I had a talk with Ramirez. If you can't lick them, join them."

"You're kidding." She laid down the automatic and glared. "You're going to just give up?"

"No, I'm going to offer him a deal. Maybe it'll work, and maybe not. But I don't know what else to do."

She stared at him incredulously. "What kind of deal?"

"I don't know yet. I'm making this up as I go along. But maybe if I can get in close to him, I can try to slow him down." What would happen, he was wondering, if Ramirez saw him again? Just shoot him on sight? It was possible, but then again maybe not. It was worth a try. "But you've got to help. Create a diversion that'll give me an opening."

"All right, then." She shrugged. "Just tell me what you want me to do."

Now he was fiddling with his Walther, checking how many rounds were left in the clip. There were two. He cocked it, then slipped it into the back of his belt, pulling down the shirt over it.

"See that window there?" He was pointing toward the glassed-in viewing station of Launch Control that overlooked the pad and the vehicles. "I want to get him there, where you can see us both. Then when I give a signal, a thumbs-up, I want you to open fire."

"On you both?" She looked incredulous.

"How about trying very hard not to hit either one of us. Just start firing and distract them. Then I'll try to take care of Ramirez. Somehow."

"You know, I don't know why you're doing this, but it seems awfully dangerous."

"Maybe I'm trying to make amends for being such a screw-up." He was half serious.

"That's very noble, but frankly I think we'd better wait for your friends from ARM." She picked up the automatic and examined it again, then looked him over. 'To be brutally honest, they've got a slightly better track record."

"Good point. Except now they've got a casualty to worry about, and we're running out of time. So this has to be solo." He kissed her, this time on the lips. "Wish me luck."

"You're really going to do it, aren't you?"

"I'm going to try." He finished tucking in his shirt.

"You're crazy. You won't listen to anybody."

"Sometimes that's a help." He kissed her again, more lightly than he wanted to. Was she still mad? It was hard to tell, but she was definitely distant. "Okay, get ready. And for God's sake, don't hit me. Fire wide."

"Wide?" She grinned.

"Extremely wide."

“Thought you might be getting lonesome." Vance had walked into Launch Control, directly through the entrance next to where the fallen gantry had been. Ramirez had met him, with his Beretta 9mm trained on him from the instant he came in the doorway.