Read Online The Cloud Collector by Brian Freemantle - Free Book Online Page A

Brentwood. I can’t think of an obvious target there.’
    â€˜What reason do we have for believing al Aswamy’s still with his phone or computer?’ punctured Singleton. ‘From the bus-and-motorcycle routine, he suspects he’s under surveillance, taking precautions at least. Wouldn’t the obvious evasion be to lay a false trail by dumping them?’
    â€˜If he were doing that, he would have left both turned on, to give out a stronger signal,’ argued Marian. ‘He’s being cautious, is all. He’ll be imagining it’s a gang dispute with the Annapolis group.’
    Barker and Malik filed back into the room. Malik shook his head, not needing to say anything. Barker said, ‘Looks like a long haul.’
    â€˜I’ll sleep over, too,’ decided Singleton. ‘Keep on top of the signals check.’
    So far the team had every reason to doubt his leadership, Irvine accepted; now Singleton had even elected himself the protective guardian.
    *   *   *
    Unlike their American counterparts, Italian carabinieri, Special Forces units, and the anti-terrorist division of the CISR, Italy’s security service, were well prepared. Within a day of receiving the NSA warning of a potential attack, they’d traced the Internet café just off the via Ludovisi to which the original suspect e-mail had been sent from Cairo and attached monitoring intercepts on all its terminals. The café was also put under physical surveillance. CISR code-breakers, equipped by the original NSA interception with the domain code, took only half a day deciphering the next transmission from Egypt. It identified the Colosseum as the symbolic target to be rigged on a linked chain of charges set to explode at the height of the following day’s tourist excursions; the expectation was that people who survived the blasts would be crushed beneath the total collapse of the remaining complete wall of the two-thousand-year-old structure.
    The Italian military-led operation in the event of the attack materializing was devised in two days. To avoid detection by the still-unidentified terrorists during the day of the possible attack, a hundred Special Force commandos in civilian clothes infiltrated the ancient amphitheatre in twos and threes among the guided tourist groups. Their bags and backpacks contained AK-47 rifles and Beretta handguns. Another thirty army engineers, in civilian overalls, went in as apparently part of the permanent maintenance staff. As well as more weaponry, their tool bags and backpacks contained infrared night-vision scopes and heat-seeking sensors as well as heavy battery-generated floodlights and special noise equipment.
    The buildup was matched outside the structure. During Rome’s frenetic evening rush hour, unmarked cars and vans began gradually moving into position on all approach roads, with backup squads radiating out behind them. Each was connected by dedicated radio link in addition to open-channel conference telephone facilities. The entire outside of the Colosseum was under night-vision infrared surveillance. Two helicopters were on take-off standby in the Borghese Gardens.
    The attack began precisely at 2:30 a.m., at timed intervals, down the via Claudia in four vehicles, a lead car and three vans carrying their explosives, detonator caps, and connection cables to ensure a simultaneous detonation sufficient to destroy at least a hundred yards of the still-intact outer wall overlooking the area where tourist coaches disembarked their passengers.
    Two men in the lead car were instantly visible on the external infrared surveillance, silently alerting those waiting in ambush both inside and outside the Colosseum. The moment the two got out, both carrying heavy satchels, their vehicle moved away towards the shadowed Nero Park. Despite the infrared facility it was impossible to see the tools with which the two worked on an entry door into the Colosseum. It