Greg Iles - The Spandau Phoenix

"You're mad," Stern said quietly.

Hess chuckled. "Don't deceive yourself. There are individuals in

Israel who want to use their nuclear weapons.

That is why your nation must be obliterated."

With a profound emptiness, Stern dropped his rifle to the floor and

turned away. Seeing this, Hess heaved himself away from the wall and

began dragging himself slowly toward Stern.

"You'll have to kill me, Jew."

Sweating and grunting in the darkness of the airstrip, Hans and Hauer

lifted General Steyn through the main door of the Libyan Learjet.

Ilse and Dr. Sabri were already aboard. After laying the general on a

pile of carpets at the rear of the cabin, Hauer leaned out of the plane

to speak to Alan Burton.

The Englishman had disappeared. Peering into the darkness further up

the runway, Hauer saw the Libyan Yak-42.

Several guards patrolled beneath the big airliner, but as yet 'they had

not spied the activity around the Lear. "Burton!"

Hauer called into the darkness. "There's no pilot in here!"

Hearing a scuffle of footsteps at the edge of the runway, Hauer raised

his pistol.

"Help me get him in!" said Burton.

"My God," Hauer breathed, spying Diaz's blood-soaked shirt. He slid

beneath the Cuban's shoulder and struggled up the jet's three steps. It

took both him and Burton to get Diaz to the Lear's cockpit.

Hauer looked down at the Cuban's face. "He's unconscious!"

"Just resting his eyes," said Burton. "He's a tough little bugger." The

Englishman slapped Diaz on the cheek.

"Aren't you, sport?"

The Cuban's head lolled forward in something close to a nod.

"Jesus," Hauer muttered.

As Hans pulled the Lear's step-door closed, someone grabbed it from

outside and tried to pull it down. "Captain!"

he shouted.

Hauer darted back to the cabin,'kicked the step-door down, and shoved

General Steyn's pistol through the door.

Gadi Abrams stood there gasping for breath, his left trouser leg soaked

with blood. Hauer pulled the Israeli into the plane and secured the

door.

"Ready!" Hans shouted forward.

In the cockpit, Burton strapped Diaz into the pilot's chair.

Everyone else hunkered down in the passenger cabin. Ilse did her best

to comfort General Steyn, who lay with his head propped on a small

pillow. Hess's briefcase lay on the floor at Ilse's feet.

"Can that man fly?" she asked worriedly"If he wants to live," Gadi

groaned as he tied a pillowcase around his torn thigh.

Hans ducked his head and walked up to the cockpit partition. Over

Hauer's shoulder he saw Burton sitting in the copilot's seat, massaging

Diaz's ashen face. "Can he do it?"

Hans asked quietly.

Hauer shrugged. "He's trying."

Diaz's hands floated forward and hit several switches. The cockpit

lights came on. Hans felt a soft thrumming in the jet's hull.

Burton glanced up at Hauer"Those camel bumpers will come running when

they hear the engines, mate. Can you handle them?"

Hauer moved back into the cabin and lifted a Libyan Uzi from the floor.

Hans pulled open the rear door for him.

"Put your hand in the back of my pants," said Hauer.

Then, with only Hans to keep him from falling, he leaned out and drew a

bead on the black figures beneath the Libyan airliner.

Suddenly General Steyn sat up and shouted, "Can't! Can't let Stern ...

detonate! He'll kill thousands'. .. millions!"

Ilse tried to calm the South African, but he would not be comforted.

"Shut him up!" Gadi snapped from the floor.

Hans glared back at the Israeli. "You shut up, you fucking fanatic!"

"Everyone be quiet," Ilse begged. "Please.

The Lear shuddered once, then lurched forward. Through the open hatch

Hans heard distant shouts of alarm. Hauer's Uzi barked three times in

quick succession. Hans thought he saw two Libyans fall, but in the

darkness it was hard to tell.

"Secure that hatch!" Burton shouted from the cockpit.

Hauer fired twice more, then he pulled the steps up into the Lear's

belly. The sleek jet gathered speed rapidly.

Through a side window Hans saw the Yak-42 flash past.

Diaz pushed the engines to their limit. Everyone in the cabin clung

fearfully to whatever he could.

Hauer struggled up to the cockpit and looked out through the windshield.

He saw only darkness ahead. Gripping the back of Diaz's seat, he heard

the Cuban muttering a prayer.

He said a silent one himself. Suddenly Diaz pulled back hard on the

stick, and with a sickening boom the Lear tore itself from the earth's

grasp. The dark veld fell away beneath them.

They were airborne.

JL

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

Stern peered into the darkness at the far end of the

lab. Hess lay motionless beside him. The old Nazi had dragged himself

too close, and Stern had clubbed him with the butt of his rifle.

He looked dead. Three silent minutes had passed since the last

explosion. Then-just seconds ago Stern thought he had heard a furtive

shuffle from the shadows.

There ... again. He recognized the sound now: the stealthy rustle of

soldiers maneuvering into position.

"Herr Horn!" called a voice from the darkness. "Guten Abend!

This is Major Ilyas Karami! I have come to take delivery of my weapon!"

Squatting behind the bomb with the stripped wires in his hands, Stern

leaned his cheek against the cool metal.

"Herr Horn!" Karami shouted. "There is no need for more men to die! We

want the same thing, don't we? The destruction of Israel!"

Stern glanced at his watch. He reluctantly set the detonator wires

aside and picked up one of the rifles Gadi had left him.

'Herr Horn!" Karami cried. "I know you are there!"

Stern stared down at the exposed detonator wires. They were blurred

now. The radiation had done its work. I could touch them together now,

he thought, and end the whole mad game. But the others will barely be

airborne by now, if they've reached the plane at all.

Gadi ... Hauer ... Frau Apfel . . . the Spandau papers ...

Stern pulled back the bolt on the R-5 and pointed it into the darkness.

"If you do not answer," Karami shouted, "I shall be forced to order my

men forward!"

Stern rose to one knee and depressed the R-5's trigger.

The muzzle flashes seared his damaged eyes as he strafed the far end of

the dark lab. He fired until the clip ran out, then picked up another

rifle. His ears were ringing like fire bells.

Someone moaned in agony.

A deep voice screamed Arabic in the darkness: "Don't shoot back!"

He doesn't want his men to hit the bombs, Stern realized.

That might buy me a few moreStern froze. Through the groans of the

wounded he could hear the rustle of the Libyans edging forward through

the unfamiliar darkness. They were coming. Fighting an almost

irresistible urge to ffimst the wires together, he cocked the second

R-5, rose up, and opened fire.

The Lear was at seventeen thousand feet and still climbing. Diaz had

pointed the sleek jet dead-east, toward Mozambique and the Indian Ocean.

It streaked upward like a bullet, passing four hundred miles per hour.

Alan Burton sat in the cockpit beside Diaz and did his best to keep the

Cuban conscious, while behind them a violent argument raged in the

passenger cabin.

Gadi Abrams wanted Hess's briefcase. He meant to obey his uncle's last

wish, and that meant taking the papers to Israel himself. The briefcase

lay beside Ilse, who was ministering to General Steyn at the rear of the

cabin.

"It is my duty and my right!" the Israeli repeated. "Hess was a Nazi