Athens, Greece
Don Riley waited at the bottom of the stairs of the Gulfstream V jet. He was wearing a dark blue blazer over a pair of khakis and a polo shirt and he chewed on his thumbnail. A black SUV with diplomatic plates idled on the tarmac behind him.
“Welcome to Athens, ma’am,” Don said to Liz Soroush with a mock salute.
Liz hugged him as hard as she could. “Don, I knew it was you behind all this.”
“We’re short on time, Lizzie,” he said into her ear.
“Of course.” She released him and they walked to the SUV together. “You lost some weight, I see.”
“I’d like to say it was because of my workout routine,” Don said, “but it’s mostly stress.”
When they were in the car, Liz reached over and held his hand. “It’s good to see you, Don. Really good.”
Since her move to Minneapolis with the kids, Liz felt as if she’d lost touch with the anchors of her former life. She missed the reminders of Brendan. He squeezed her fingers.
“Ditto. How are the kids?” He shot a look at the driver. She knew he wouldn’t talk about why she was here until they were in a secure location.
“Ahmad is trying to fit into the Minnesota culture by playing ice hockey. Not going so great, I have to say. I was told by one mother that if your kid isn’t on skates by the time they’re four, you’re considered a lost cause.” She laughed. “Beth, on the other hand, is doing fabulously well in volleyball. It’s a huge sport up there.”
She looked out the window. The SUV made excellent time through the sun-drenched streets of Athens. In the distance, she caught a glimpse of the Parthenon. She’d never been to Greece before. She and Brendan had always said they’d go when things calmed down. Liz drew her attention back to Don.
“Brendan’s parents are great. We bought a house only a few blocks from them so the kids can go over whenever they want. We got a dog, too.…” She sighed. “It’s great, really it is.”
She studied Don’s profile. “You know, I still miss him? It sorta pisses me off, really. If I was the one who was gone, I’m sure he would’ve moved on by now, right? But I can’t seem to get there.”
Don focused on something outside the window. “You know that’s not true, Lizzie. He was a mess without you.”
The car pulled up to the gates of the embassy and stopped while a security guard scanned the undercarriage of the vehicle. Like all United States embassies, the building looked like a fortress.
Once the car had parked, Don hurried her through a back entrance and down into the basement. “We’ve got a SCIF set up down here.” He paused to scan his ID badge at a door, then pushed it open for her. “I brought some friends with me, too. They want to say hello.”
The small room held only four workstations facing a large wall screen. Behind the stations were the three people she still thought of as midshipmen, even though they were all now commissioned officers.
“Liz!” Janet got up first and hugged her. Dre and Michael waited for their turn.
Liz felt a rush of nostalgia at their greeting. The last time she had seen them all together was shortly after Brendan’s funeral service at the Naval Academy. Intense emotions of that day echoed in her mind.
Don cleared his throat.
Liz wiped her eyes. “It’s time for the great unveiling. The only clue I have about why I’m here is that someone handed me a tablet with a language program to refresh my Farsi on the trip over.”
The mention of the Iranian language shifted the mood in the room.
“Liz, you’re about to be briefed into Operation Pinpoint,” Don said, his voice calm and professional. “As you’ve correctly guessed, it involves Iran and is extremely time-sensitive.”
Janet had the wall screen running and ran slides for Don as he explained the background of the operation. Liz’s mind reeled as she saw pictures of the underground research lab and the murdered scientists. He finished the brief with the picture of Dr. Talia Tahir. She was a striking woman with exquisite blue eyes and a confident air. Liz found it hard to believe she was a mass murderer.
“You’re sure she’s going to be in Qom in three days?”
Don nodded. “This is her best chance before the virus expires. The search history we uncovered from the Mahdi’s computer tells us this is her target.”
“You need a more experienced agent for this, Don.”
“We can’t risk it, Lizzie. Mossad is on to us. If we tip our hand and the Israelis get access to this weapon…”
“I see,” Liz said with more confidence than she felt. “Tell me how this goes down.”
“Dre has volunteered to go with you as your tech support,” Don said. “The most likely target is the conference center adjacent to the Jamkaran Mosque.” Liz studied an aerial picture of a stunning mosque with a huge open plaza and an adjoining modern conference center. “The president of Iran will be giving a speech at the conference center following a visit to the mosque. Dre will be able to get us access to video surveillance of the entire area.”
Liz looked at Dre, seeing the mix of emotions on the young woman’s face. “You’re up for this?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Like Liz, Dre sounded more certain than she looked.
Michael continued the brief. “You’ll be traveling as a Canadian-Iranian businesswoman and her daughter/assistant, looking for a site to hold a venture-capital conference in the city of Qom in one year’s time. As part of your cover, you will need to see all the facilities, including security, which is where Dre comes in. She will plant a shell program in the security system which gives us access.
“We’ll be running the operation from Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar. Your comms will go through satellite phones with an AWACS over Iraq for redundancy. Once we have access to the video system, we’ll be running a facial-rec program. If Tahir shows up anywhere close to the complex, we’ll see her.”
“What about hardware?” Liz asked.
“You’ll fly into Isfahan Airport, south of Qom, on the red-eye tomorrow night,” Janet said. “Smaller facility, less security. When you rent a car, an asset on the ground will deliver a package to you with the vehicle. Inside you will find one nine-millimeter handgun and suppressor. Also, two knives and two earbuds for comms. As your assistant, Dre will carry a laptop equipped with everything she needs for her job.”
“The Iranian president and his entourage arrive the next morning,” Don said, pointing to a map. “We’ve arranged for you to stay at a hotel … right … here.” The map showed the location of the hotel, about a quarter mile from the complex. “The next morning Liz will go back to the compound using a pass identifying her as an attendee at the president’s speech. If Tahir is going to make her move, we expect it will be that day. We find the target and give you a location. From there it’s up to you. The highest priority is to retrieve this device.”
Janet flashed a picture of a silver cylinder sitting next to a soda can.
“We believe Dr. Tahir will be carrying the virus in this container,” Don said. “This device can aerosolize the virus to make it airborne. It has a timer, which means she can set it and hide it. She’s done it before.” Don’s face was grim.
“What will I be doing while Liz is at the site?” Dre asked.
“You stay at the hotel,” Don said. “It’s too risky for you to go in during the day of the Iranian president’s visit. Security will be much tighter and the chances of you having to speak to someone are too high.”
Don focused back on Liz. “You do whatever you need to do to secure the biological sample, including deadly force. If the timer has been activated, we’re not sure if it’s able to be turned off. The best thing you can do is submerge it in water and get the hell out of there.”
The situation room at the White House looked a lot like it did on television, Liz thought.
She stood along with Don when the president entered. His eyes searched the room and found the video screen. They stopped on her for a second, then swept away.
“Seats, please,” the president said.
Director of National Intelligence Hellman got right to the point. “Mr. President, we’re here for mission approval of Operation Pinpoint. With your permission, Mr. Riley will brief you on the particulars of the operation.”
The president opened his briefing book and nodded without looking up. Don spoke for ten minutes straight. His voice was firm and precise, and he relayed the exact details they had gone over earlier that afternoon.
At the end of Don’s briefing, the president steepled his hands together and touched the tips of his index fingers to his lips. Liz had seen this gesture many times in pictures in the media. Critics called it his “thoughtful pose,” but it seemed genuine to her.
A few seconds went by before the president spoke.
“The mission is approved,” he said. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Special Agent Soroush. I don’t often get to meet the agents who do this kind of work.”
“Thank you, sir.” Liz didn’t know what else to say.
“Don’t thank me yet,” the president said. “I want you to hear the rest of the story.” He nodded at the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The presentation screen changed to a map of the city of Qom. The complex where the operation was to take place was contained in a bright red box. The chairman’s voice was deep and he had a methodical cadence to his words.
“In the event we are unable to prevent deployment of the biological weapon, Mr. President, we recommend a first strike on the target designed to contain the risk of infection. A layered attack strategy will ensure complete and total destruction of the target.
“Layer one will be delivered by a pair of B-2 stealth bombers—a primary and a backup, code-named Cyclone One and Two—each carrying two GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrators. This ordnance is packed with fifty-three hundred pounds of high explosives and has been modified to detonate on surface contact. The result will be a massive fireball designed to vaporize everything within half a kilometer. We’ll ensure this Pandora virus is destroyed.”
When he paused, Liz heard the secretary of state whisper, “Jesus Christ.”
“With your approval, sir, the Cyclone strike force will depart Whiteman Air Force Base tonight to be on station in time.”
The president pursed his lips. “There’s a second layer to this plan?”
The chairman smiled thinly. “We believe in belt and suspenders, sir. In the event the Cyclone option fails or is not successful in any way, we recommend a conventional strike of sixty-four Tomahawk missiles launched from the Teddy Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group currently deployed in the Persian Gulf. They’ll hit the target area a minute ahead of an alpha strike by the entire air wing embarked aboard the carrier. This sounds like overkill, but we’ll only get one shot at containing the virus. We need to make it count.”
The chairman paused, waiting for the president to acknowledge that he understood. Liz could see a sheen of sweat on the chairman’s bald pate. The president nodded.
“Immediately upon missile deployment, Mr. President, the strike group will draw back from the northern end of the Persian Gulf and assume a defensive posture. We believe the Iranians will consider this an act of war, sir.”
The president cocked an eyebrow. “I should think so.”
The secretary of state cleared her throat and picked up the conversation. “We will have diplomats pre-positioned at all of the major countries in the region as well as the UN to meet with heads of state and explain the situation. We also recommend a nationwide broadcast from you, sir, in the event that we have to resort to the military option. The draft text of your speech has been included in your package.”
At some level, Liz knew a military backup plan was inevitable, but it was difficult to listen to all the same. If she failed, she would likely be in the blast zone. If she was contaminated during the struggle to obtain the biological weapon, she would have to remain inside the blast zone.
She was thankful Don had the foresight to keep Dre away from the conference center on the day of the Iranian president’s visit.
“Special Agent Soroush?”
Liz looked up to find everyone staring at her. The president spoke again. “You understand why I wanted you to hear this briefing?”
Even through the flat video screen, the president’s gaze was soft. He knew the stakes and he was asking for her permission to sign her death warrant.
“Yes, sir, I understand.”