9:16 A.M.
EAST RIVER
NEW YORK CITY
Ferrara scanned the smoke-filled sky as the Zodiac moved out from beneath the overhanging FDR, into the lee of the current-swirled river, and the attack boat arced right.
Ferrara was patched in to the overall operation comm channel, and was listening.
“Approaching target landing zone,” said the pilot.
“Affirmative,” said Perry.
Ferrara heard the sound of the inbound helicopters overhead. He put optics on and turned downstream. He saw no one, but then, when he looked farther ahead, far beyond the UN, he found a body imprint in his digital green, in his optics. Someone at water level, not moving, but definitely alive. A quarter mile below the UN, Ferrara saw the thermal imprint of a man in the shadows.…
“Target up to the right,” said Ferrara. “He’s looking south. Let’s get over next to the bank and move in, assume enemy status.”
A fierce-sounding noise—a hissing—followed by a boom.
The river’s edge brightened.
Where Ferrara had just aimed the attack, everyone on the Zodiac heard, then saw, a surface-to-air missile shoot up into the sky, followed soon after by another missile. Ferrera had a hard time breathing.
“Air One and Two, you have incoming!” yelled Ferrara as he started firing downriver at the terrorist.