“Yeah, Jack, there are. Be careful that you don’t step too far yourself.”
Jack Ryan, Jr., thought about that for a second. Did he want to be an assassin? Probably not, but there were people who needed killing, and Uda bin Sali had crossed over into that category. If his cousins were going to take him down, they were just doing the Lord’s work—or his country’s work, which, to the way he’d been brought up, was pretty much the same thing.
“THAT FAST, Doc?” Dominic asked.
Pasternak nodded. “That fast.”
“That reliable?” Brian inquired next.
“Five milligrams is enough. This pen delivers seven. If anyone survives, it would have to be a miracle. Unfortunately, it will be a very unpleasant death, but that can’t be helped. I mean, we could use botulism toxin—it’s a very fast-acting neurotoxin—but that leaves residue in the blood that would come out in a postmortem toxicology scan. Succinylcholine metabolizes very nicely. Detecting it would take another miracle, unless the pathologist knows exactly what to look for, and that is unlikely.”
“How fast again?”
“Twenty to thirty seconds, depending on how close you get to a major blood vessel, then the agent will cause total paralysis. Won’t even be able to blink his eyes. He will not be able to move his diaphragm, so no breathing, no oxygen through the lungs. His heart will continue to beat, but since it will be the organ using the most oxygen, the heart will go ischemic in a matter of seconds—that means that without oxygen, the heart tissue will start to die from lack of oxygen. The pain will be massive. Ordinarily, the body has a reserve supply of oxygen. How muck depends on physical condition—the obese have less oxygen reserves than the slender among us. Anyway, the heart will be the first. It will try to continue beating, but that only makes the pain worse. Brain death will occur in three to six minutes. Until then, he’ll be able to hear but not see—”
“Why not?” Brian asked.
“The eyelids probably will close. We’re talking total paralysis here. So, he’ll be lying there, in enormous pain, unable to move at all, with his heart trying to pump unoxygenated blood until his brain cells expire from anoxia. After that, it’s theoretically possible to keep the body alive—muscle cells last the longest without oxygen—but the brain will be gone. Okay, it’s not as sure as a bullet in the brain, but it makes no noise, and leaves virtually no evidence. When the heart cells die, they generate enzymes that we look for in a probable heart attack. So, what ever pathologist gets the body to post will think ‘heart attack,’ or ‘neurological seizure’—a brain tumor can cause that—and maybe he’ll carve the brain up to look for one. But as soon as he blood work comes back, the enzyme test will say ‘heart attack,’ and that should settle matters right then and there. The blood work will not show the succinylcholine because it metabolizes even after death. They will have an unexpected massive heart attack on their hands, and those happen every day. They’ll run his blood for cholesterol and some other risk factors; but nothing will change the fact that he’s dead from a cause they’ll never figure out.”
“Jesus,” Dominic breathed. “Doc, how the hell did you get into this business?”
“My little brother was a vice president at Cantor Fitzgerald,” was all he had to say.
“So we want to be careful with these pens, eh?” Brian asked. The doc’s reason was good enough for him.
“I would,” Pasternak advised them.
CHAPTER 17
AND THE LITTLE
RED FOX, AND
THE FIRST FENCE
THEY FLEW out of Dulles International Airport on a British Airways flight, which turned out to be a 747 whose control surfaces their own father had designed twenty-seven years earlier. It occurred to Dominic that he’d been in diapers then, and that the world had turned over quite a few times from that day to this.
Both had brand-new passports in their own names. All other relevant documents were in their laptops, fully encrypted, along with modems and communications software, also fully encrypted. Aside from that, they were casually dressed, like most others in the first-class section. The stewardesses fluttered about efficiently, giving everyone munchies, along with white wine for both of the brothers. As they got to altitude, the food was decent—about the best thing that can be said about airline food—and so was the movie selection: Brian picked Independence Day while Dominic settled for The Matrix. Both had enjoyed science fiction since childhood. In the coat pockets of both were their gold pens. The reload cartridges were in their shaving kits, packed away in their regular luggage somewhere below. It would be about six hours to Heathrow, and both hoped to get some sleep on the way.
“Any second thoughts, Enzo?” Brian asked quietly.
“No,” Dominic replied. “Just so it all works out.” The prison cells in England lacked plumbing, he didn’t add, and, no matter how embarrassing it might be for a Marine officer, it would be positively humiliating for a sworn special agent of the FBI.
“Fair enough. ‘Night-night, bro.”
“Roger that, jarhead.” And both played with the complex seat controls to settle back to a nearly flat surface. And so the Atlantic passed beneath them for three thousand miles.
BACK IN his apartment, Jack Jr. knew that his cousins were gone overseas, and though he hadn’t exactly been told why, their mission didn’t require a spectacular leap of imagination. Surely Uda bin Sali would not live out the week. He’d learn about it from the morning message traffic out of Thames House, and he found himself wondering what the Brits would be saying, how excited and/or regretful they might be. Certainly, he’d learn a lot about how the job had been done. That excited his curiosity. He’d spent enough time in London to know that guns were not done over there, unless it was a government-sanctioned killing. In such a case—if the Special Air Service dispatched someone especially disliked by No. 10 Downing Street, for example—the police knew not to press too deeply into the case. Maybe just some pro forma interviews, enough to establish a case file before slipping it into the UNSOLVED cabinet to gather dust and little interest. You didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure those things out.
But this would be an American hit on British soil, and that, he was sure; would not be pleasing to Her Majesty’s Government. It was a matter of propriety. Besides, this was not an action by the American government. As a matter of law, it was a premeditated murder, upon which all governments frowned rather severely. So, whatever happened, he hoped they’d be careful. Even his father couldn’t run much interference for this.
“OH, UDA. you are a beast!” Rosalie Parker exclaimed as he finally rolled off her body. She checked her watch. He’d gone late, and she had an appointment just after lunch the next day with an oil executive from Dubai. He was a rather dear old fellow, and a good tipper, even if he had told her once that she reminded him of one of his favorite daughters, the nasty old bugger.
“Stay the night,” Uda urged.
“I can’t, love. I have to pick up my mum for lunch and then take her shopping at Harrods. Good Lord, I must be off,” she said with well-feigned excitement, springing to an upright position.
“No.” Uda reached for her shoulder and pulled it back.
“Oh, you devil!” A chuckle and a warm smile.
“He is called ‘Shahateen,'” Uda corrected. “And he is not part of my family.”
“Well, you can wear a girl out, Uda.” Not that it was a bad thing, but she had things to do. So she stood and got her clothes off the floor, where he tended to throw them.
“Rosalie, my love, there is only you,” he moaned. And she knew that was a lie. It was she who had introduced him to Mandy, after all.
“Is that so?” she asked.
“Oh, that one. She is far too skinny. She doesn’t eat. She’s not like you, my princess.”
“You’re so nice.” Bend over, kiss, then put the bra on. “Uda, you are the best, the very best,” she said. It was always good for the male ego to be stroked, and his ego was bigger than most.
“You just say that to make me feel good,” Sali accused her.
“Do you think I’m an actress? Uda, you make my eyeballs pop out. But I have to go, love.”
“As you say.” He yawned. He’d buy her some shoes the next day, Uda decided. There was a new Jimmy Choo store close to his office that he’d been meaning to check out, and her feet were a spot-on size 6. He rather liked her feet, in fact.
Rosalie made a quick dart into the bathroom to check the mirror. Her hair was a fright—Uda kept messing it up, as though to mark his property. A few seconds with a brush made it almost presentable.