Chapter Forty-Two

For the second time in four days, Dominique was hastily packing a bag.

Zmeya hadn’t let her take her things when they’d evacuated 30 Rock, and she was not going to let that happen again. She needed her T-shirts, her lipstick, and her soap. Most of all her soap.

They’d seen the air strikes. Trying to comfort Zmeya as he stood by his favorite window, which looked out on Greenwich Street, Dominique probably had the best view of the brutal cluster bombing, because she was looking down on it.

They saw the three Su-34s approach, their sea-blue camo schemes clearly recognizable, as was the Russian naval insignia on each one.

“It’s not true,” Zmeya gasped as he watched the bombs fall from the trio of warplanes. “The navy can’t be doing this. It has to be someone else.”

Dominique had to turn her head—and so did Zmeya—when the bomblets started exploding. Even from 110 stories up, the resulting carnage was something nightmares were made of.

By the time the fourth target was hit, Dominique had already gathered her few meager belongings, including her knife.

Then she heard Zmeya crank up his suitcase phone and order someone to scramble his helicopter. Once again, it was time to go.

“You see what is happening here?” he was yelling to her from the other room where he was getting dressed. “No SAMs fired, and the ships in the harbor remained motionless. The army and navy and probably that fucking MOP, as well. They’re all against me.”

From his position on the subway platform, Dozer counted the four explosions up above.

The last was the loudest. That came when the Su-34s dropped almost four tons of cluster bombs on the big Chekski position at the WTC’s northern plaza, unloading practically on top of the subway station itself.

That was their cue.

Dozer blew his whistle twice. The two thousand Allied soldiers waiting on the platform jumped to their feet. They checked their weapons one last time.

One more long whistle, and they were up a staircase six aisles wide, 130 steps in length.

Dozer and his guys were in the lead. Yet when they reached the top of the stairs, Jim Cook and the JAWS team were already there. Crouched atop the first step, the WTC loomed before them.

Dozer called the assault team to a halt.

“Any opposition anywhere?” he asked Cook.

The JAWS commanding officer shook his head. “Not yet.” He pointed to Tower Two and added, “They’re either otherwise indisposed, or they’re waiting for us somewhere way up there.”

Dozer contemplated the pair of 110-story buildings in front of him. He’d never been this close to them before. It hurt his neck just looking up at them.

“Jesus Eff Christ,” he swore. “This is going to be that fucking aircraft carrier all over again—except this time, it will be all up and down.”

The entire plaza was covered with the remains of the fourth cluster-bomb strike. The bombs had created a blizzard of shrapnel, and everything inside the impact zone—vehicles, buildings, Chekskis—had been perforated. The carnage was indescribable.

Dozer blew his whistle again.

“For the stars and stripes, boys!” he yelled. “Time to clean house.”

Hundreds of Allied soldiers began pouring out of the subway exit, moving as quickly and quietly as possible. With Dozer and Cook in the lead, they scurried across the concourse, heading for the ground-level entrance of Tower Two. But the Militsiya gunmen stationed inside the lobby saw them coming and began firing at them right away, forgetting, or not knowing, that the lobby glass was bulletproof. None of the raiders was hit.

They reached the main entrance of the massive building, but three sets of revolving doors separated them from Tower Two’s lower lobby. Going through the slowly moving doors would be suicidal. Cook solved the problem: He set up a handful of plastic explosive against the entranceway and took out a battery-operated plunger.

“Fire in the hole!” he yelled, pushing the plunger. The three revolving doors blew up in one great flash, killing some of the Militsiya inside and causing the others to flee.

The way to Tower Two was open.

Two more whistle blows from Dozer, and the American fighters charged into the building.