The gadget looked like a ray-gun pistol from a ’30s science fiction movie, with a slim antenna wire out the front and a pistol grip underneath. It swung on a frictionless bearing, drawn to the signal it received. Noonan moved away from Chavez and Covington, and headed for the wall. There was a secretary sitting right . . . there. The gadget locked on her. As he walked, it stayed pointed at her, through the blank wall.
“It’s like a bloody divining rod,” Peter observed, no small amount of wonder in his voice. “Like finding water. . .”
“Does look that way, doesn’t it? Damn, no wonder the Army wants this baby. Forget about being ambushed. This thing’s supposed to find people underground, behind trees, in the rain – whenever they’re there, this thing’ll pick them up.”
Chavez thought about that. He thought especially about his operation in Colombia so many years before, walking point in the weeds, looking and listening for people who might have worried his ten-man team. Now this thing replaced all the skills he’d learned in the 7th Light. As a defensive tool, it could put the ninjas out of business. As an offensive tool, it could tell you where the bad guys were long before you could see or hear them, and allow you to get close enough to . . .
“What’s it for – what’s the manufacturer say, I mean?”
“Search and rescue – firemen in a burning building, avalanche victims, lots of things, Ding. As a counter intruder tool, this puppy’s going to be hard to beat. They’ve been playing with it at Fort Bragg for a couple of weeks. The Delta Guys have fallen in love with it. Still a little hard to use, and it can’t tell range yet, but all they have to do is modify the antenna for greater gain, then link two of the detectors with GPS, and triangulate . . . . The ultimate range this thing can achieve hasn’t been determined yet. They say this one can lock onto a person at five hundred meters.”
“Bloody hell,” Covington observed. But the instrument still looked like some sort of an expensive small-boy’s toy.
“What good will it be for us? It can’t tell a hostage from a terrorist,” Chavez pointed out.
“Ding you never know, do you? Damned sure it can tell you where the bad guys are not, ” Noonan pointed out. He’d be playing with this thing all day, getting a feel for how to use it effectively. He hadn’t felt like a kid with a new toy in quite a while, but this gadget was so new and so unexpected that it should have arrived under a decorated pine tree.
The Brown Stallion was the name of the pub right next door to his motel. It was only half a kilometer from the main gate at Hereford, and seemed like a good place to start, and better yet to have a beer. Popov ordered a pint of Guinness and sipped at it, surveying the room. A television was on, carrying a soccer match-live or taped, he couldn’t tell at the moment-between Manchester United and Rangers from up in Scotland, and that attracted the attention of the pub’s patrons, and the barman, as it turned out. Popov watched as well, sipping at his pint and listening to the chitchat around the room. He was trained to be patient, and knew from experience that patience was usually rewarded in the business of intelligence, all the more so in this culture, where people came to their regular pub every night to chat with their friends, and Popov had unusually good hearing.
The football game ended in a 1-1 tie around the time Popov ordered a second pint.
“Tie, bloody tie,” one man observed at the bar seat next to Popov’s.
“That’s sport for you, Tommy. At least the chaps down the road never tie, and never bloody lose.”
“How are the Yanks fitting in, Frank?”
“Good bunch, that lot, very polite. I had to fix the sink for one of the houses today. The wife is very nice indeed, tried to give me a tip. Amazing people, the Americans. Think they have to give you money for everything.” The plumber finished off his pint of lager and called for another.
“You work on the base?” Popov asked.
“Yes, have for twelve years, plumbing and such.”
“Good lot of men, the SAS. I like how they sort the IRA buggers out,” the Russian offered, in his best British blue-collar accent.
“That they do,” the plumber agreed. “So, some Americans are based there now, eh?”
“Yes, about ten of them, and their families.” He laughed. “One of the wives nearly killed me in her car last week, driving on the wrong side of the bloody road. You do have to be careful around them, especially in your car.”
“I may know one of them, chap name of Clark, I think,” Popov offered as a somewhat dangerous ploy.
“Oh? He’s the boss. Wife’s a nurse in the local hospital. Haven’t met him, but they say he’s a very serious chappie must be to command that lot. Scariest people I’ve ever met, not the sort you’d like to find in a dark alley – very polite of course, but you only have to look at them to know. Always out running and such, keeping fit, practicing with their weapons, looking dangerous as bloody lions.”
“Were they involved in the show down in Spain last week?”
“Well, they don’t tell us any of that, see, but” – the man smiled – “I saw a Hercules fly out of the airstrip the very day it happened, and they were back in their club late that night, Andy told me, looking very chuffed with themselves, he said. Good lads, dealing with those bastards.”
“Oh, yes. What sort of swine would kill a sick child? Bahst’ds, ” Popov went on.
“Yes, indeed. Wish I could have seen them. Carpenter I work with, George Wilton, sees them practice their shooting from time to time. George says they’re like something from a film, magical stuff, he says.”
“Were you a soldier?”
“Long time ago, Queen’s Regiment, made corporal. That’s how I got this job.” He sipped at his beer while the TV screen changed over to cricket, a game for which Popov had no understanding at all. “You?”
Popov shook his head. “No, never. Thought about it, but decided not to.”
“Not a bad life, really, for a few years anyway,” the plumber said, reaching for the bar peanuts.
Popov drained his glass and paid the bill. It had been a pretty good night for him, and he didn’t want to press his luck. So, the wife of John Clark was a nurse at the local hospital, eh? He’d have to check that out.
“Yeah, Patsy, I did,” Ding told his wife, reading the morning paper a few hours late. Press coverage on the Worldpark job was still on page one, though below the fold this time. Fortunately, nobody in the media had a clue yet about Rainbow, he saw. The reporters had bought the story about the well-trained special-action group of the Spanish Civil Guard.
“Ding, I – well, you know, I-”
“Yeah, baby, I know. You’re a doc, and your job is saving lives. So’s mine, remember? They had thirty-some kids in there, and they murdered one . . . I didn’t tell you. I was less than a hundred feet away when they did it. I saw that little girl die, Pats. Worst damned thing I ever saw, and I couldn’t do a damned thing about it,” he said darkly. He’d have dreams about that for a few more weeks, Chavez knew.
“Oh?” She turned her head. “Why?”
“‘Cuz we didn’t – I mean we couldn’t, because there was still a bunch of others inside with guns on them, and we’d just got there, and we weren’t ready to hit the bastards yet, and they wanted to show us how serious and dedicated they were – and that’s how people like that show their resolve, I suppose. They kill a hostage so we’ll know how tough they are.” Ding set his paper down, thinking about it. He’d been brought up with a particular code of honor even before the United States Army had taught him the Code of Arms: you never, ever hurt an innocent person. To do so forever placed you beyond the pale, irredeemably cursed among men as a murderer, unworthy to wear a uniform or accept a salute. But these terrorists seemed to revel in it. What the hell was wrong with them? He’d read all of Paul Bellow’s books, but somehow the message had not gotten through. Bright as he was, his mind could not make that intellectual leap. Well, maybe all you really needed to know about these people was how to put steel on target. That always worked, didn’t it?