Seeing Annabelle on the television – in Darwin – had stopped Wilkes cold, but Atticus had since talked some sense into him. ‘It’s not a nuke headed her way, Tom. It’s a cloud of poison gas,’ he’d said. ‘You saw her, man. The girl is suited up and ready for action. Chill!’ What Monroe said was right, of course, but he still didn’t like the thought of Annabelle being in the line of fire. And when that thought struck him, he knew he’d had an insight into Annabelle’s fears about him whenever he left on a sortie.
Wilkes checked his watch. If it wasn’t intercepted, the drone would strike within around four hours.
‘All that stuff about Uncle Sam deserting you guys, though. That was a bit harsh, wasn’t it?’ said Monroe.
‘Forget it, Atticus. Bad news rates better.’
The two expected Indonesian navy destroyers had dropped anchor a mile offshore and sent across armed sailors to help secure the camp. None of the terrorists who were still alive, however, had any fight in them. Almost thirty percent of the encampment’s population were dead. Many more people were close to it.
Somewhere beyond the horizon the USS Constellation was steaming towards them because suddenly, as if underlining the fact, a flight of US Navy Super Hornets creased the air overhead, the noise from their engines threatening to rupture Wilkes’s eardrums. In their wake, a US Navy Sea King helicopter pulled around the headland west of the landing strip, about five hundred feet above the water. It slowed to a hover over the strip and then settled onto the packed earth with a bump, the trees on the edge of the cleared jungle thrashing wildly in the downdraft. Half a dozen soldiers dressed in JSLIST suits hopped onto the earth and hauled a couple of crates out of the helo, which then immediately took off and climbed on a heading out to sea.
Mahisa and Wilkes went to meet them. The Americans saluted, Mahisa and Wilkes returned it crisply. ‘Colonel Hank Watson, US Army Chemical Corps,’ said the officer in front, yelling through his suit to be heard.
‘Colonel,’ said Mahisa. ‘We’ve been expecting you. Captain Mahisa of the Tentara Nasional Indonesia. I am CO here. We met before in Canberra. I have been instructed by Jakarta to give you every assistance. And this is Warrant Officer Wilkes, Australian Special Air Service.’
‘Gentlemen,’ he said. ‘I believe you have found WMD.’
‘Come this way,’ said Mahisa, gesturing at the Americans to follow.
Wilkes felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned. It was Atticus. ‘Tom, I’ve been thinking…You know, I don’t think Darwin is the target.’
‘And why not?’ said Wilkes.
‘C’mon,’ he said, ‘we don’t have much time.’