believe he fooled me.” She broke down in to tears again. Jesus , she thought, fighting them back. She hadn’t cried since she was a child until that day.
The President beckoned her towards him and placed his good arm around her to console her.
Bill and Carson watched on as one of the most highly trained female law enforcement officers in the land, experienced in all forms of self defense and trained to kill when required, approached the man who, just a few hours earlier, had almost been killed by her boyfriend. Neither flinched or thought it inappropriate. Aisha Franks, daughter of a Saudi princess, hugged the President and wept on his shoulder.
There could have been no greater show of trust and faith in her as an innocent caught up in a terrible tragedy.
Frankie stood up. Her tears were finished. “What can I do for you, Mr. President?”
“Trust Harry.”
Chapter 17
Turner watched the helicopter disappear out of view and more importantly, out of earshot before hitting the dial button on his cell phone. He paced while the phone rang and rang. Nobody picked up. He killed the line and rushed back to his office. He grabbed his desk phone and dialed the number again. He consoled himself with the thought of the time it took to refuel, taxi to the runway and get clearance for takeoff, it had only been about nine minutes. The line rang and rang again.
The Colonel answered, gasping for breath as he rushed to grab the ringing phone.
“Keep them there!” blurted Turner.
“What? Who is this?” replied the Colonel catching his breath and taking a seat.
“FBI Deputy Director Turner.”
“They are gone Mister Turner,” replied the Colonel coldly.
“Well get your planes up and get them back!” ordered Turner.
“On whose authority?”
“Mine!”
“I’ve just had a new asshole chewed into me by a Saudi prince who assures me he has the connections to kill my career. He’s already promised I’ll be in the Arctic for the rest of my career. What can you promise me Mister Turner?”
“You’ll still have a career,” said Turner boldly.
“Unfortunately for you I believe him far more than I do you, and the sad thing is I think you know that’s true.”
“The black box on the plane will tell us where they opened the doors and let the suspect escape.”
“And you know for an absolute fact that happened?”
“We assume—”
“Assume! What a very appropriate word, makes an ass of u and me” interrupted the Colonel.
“We can’t see any other explanation.”
“I can. Perhaps the stewardess did get ill and she did leave and nobody noticed her going.”
“Look, we know the prince is tied up in terrorist activity.”
“Yet we let him fly in and out of America and have contact with senior officials?”
“Well, we don’t have any actual proof, we just know.” Turner winced at how weak he sounded.
“ Mister Turner, I am going to end this call. If the President or the Secretary of Defense or State orders me to retake that plane with their written authority, it will be done without hesitation. Anyone else, not a chance. We can’t just order planes out of the sky with threats of violence, particularly when we know the suspect is not on board. Goodbye.”
“Fuck!” screamed Turner into the empty line. There wasn’t a chance in hell that anyone was going to allow him to pluck the plane out of the sky again. Certainly not based on a hunch that a man may have jumped out of the plane at some point over the Atlantic. But you’d need to be jumping somewhere and the middle of the ocean wouldn’t be somewhere, it was nowhere.
He hit his intercom and connected with his assistant.
“Get me a large scale map of the Atlantic Ocean and Northern Europe, an aviation expert and anyone in the building who was trained to jump out of planes!”
Chapter 18
With every degree rise in temperature, Nick knew he was just that little bit closer to shore. The depths of the ocean gave way to the
The President beckoned her towards him and placed his good arm around her to console her.
Bill and Carson watched on as one of the most highly trained female law enforcement officers in the land, experienced in all forms of self defense and trained to kill when required, approached the man who, just a few hours earlier, had almost been killed by her boyfriend. Neither flinched or thought it inappropriate. Aisha Franks, daughter of a Saudi princess, hugged the President and wept on his shoulder.
There could have been no greater show of trust and faith in her as an innocent caught up in a terrible tragedy.
Frankie stood up. Her tears were finished. “What can I do for you, Mr. President?”
“Trust Harry.”
Chapter 17
Turner watched the helicopter disappear out of view and more importantly, out of earshot before hitting the dial button on his cell phone. He paced while the phone rang and rang. Nobody picked up. He killed the line and rushed back to his office. He grabbed his desk phone and dialed the number again. He consoled himself with the thought of the time it took to refuel, taxi to the runway and get clearance for takeoff, it had only been about nine minutes. The line rang and rang again.
The Colonel answered, gasping for breath as he rushed to grab the ringing phone.
“Keep them there!” blurted Turner.
“What? Who is this?” replied the Colonel catching his breath and taking a seat.
“FBI Deputy Director Turner.”
“They are gone Mister Turner,” replied the Colonel coldly.
“Well get your planes up and get them back!” ordered Turner.
“On whose authority?”
“Mine!”
“I’ve just had a new asshole chewed into me by a Saudi prince who assures me he has the connections to kill my career. He’s already promised I’ll be in the Arctic for the rest of my career. What can you promise me Mister Turner?”
“You’ll still have a career,” said Turner boldly.
“Unfortunately for you I believe him far more than I do you, and the sad thing is I think you know that’s true.”
“The black box on the plane will tell us where they opened the doors and let the suspect escape.”
“And you know for an absolute fact that happened?”
“We assume—”
“Assume! What a very appropriate word, makes an ass of u and me” interrupted the Colonel.
“We can’t see any other explanation.”
“I can. Perhaps the stewardess did get ill and she did leave and nobody noticed her going.”
“Look, we know the prince is tied up in terrorist activity.”
“Yet we let him fly in and out of America and have contact with senior officials?”
“Well, we don’t have any actual proof, we just know.” Turner winced at how weak he sounded.
“ Mister Turner, I am going to end this call. If the President or the Secretary of Defense or State orders me to retake that plane with their written authority, it will be done without hesitation. Anyone else, not a chance. We can’t just order planes out of the sky with threats of violence, particularly when we know the suspect is not on board. Goodbye.”
“Fuck!” screamed Turner into the empty line. There wasn’t a chance in hell that anyone was going to allow him to pluck the plane out of the sky again. Certainly not based on a hunch that a man may have jumped out of the plane at some point over the Atlantic. But you’d need to be jumping somewhere and the middle of the ocean wouldn’t be somewhere, it was nowhere.
He hit his intercom and connected with his assistant.
“Get me a large scale map of the Atlantic Ocean and Northern Europe, an aviation expert and anyone in the building who was trained to jump out of planes!”
Chapter 18
With every degree rise in temperature, Nick knew he was just that little bit closer to shore. The depths of the ocean gave way to the
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