Authors: Michael C. Grumley
44
Dario Burk burst into
the small, private cabin aboard the Airbus A320, where Pope Pius sat surrounded
by several of his cardinals.
The Pope
looked up at him as he approached.
“Forgive me, Your
Holiness,” he said with a bow, “but we must abandon our plans immediately.”
The Pope was a slight
man, humble, but very sharp.
He looked
up at Burk from under his white eyebrows, unsurprised.
Burk continued.
“We have received a credible threat to your
presence in New York.”
“How credible is it?”
asked the Pope in a quieted voice.
“Very credible.”
Burk’s expression was respectful but
intense.
“From Israeli intelligence.”
The Pope looked at his
aide sitting across from him and then to the other cardinals.
He turned and peered out the window to his
left.
The sun was beginning its ascent
over the Atlantic Ocean.
The bright
sunlight was glistening off the deep, blue water far below.
There were always
threats, and the Israelis were known for the best intelligence in the world,
but even they were not perfect.
Was
this another false alarm or was it real?
The Pope leaned back in his seat.
Did it even matter?
The
world was frozen in a grip of terror from the attacks.
Participation in their Catholic churches had
plummeted around the world as the public feared the attacks would spread, and
their church could be next.
The Pope took a deep
breath.
He was the leader of the Roman Catholic
Church.
He was the one that hundreds of
millions looked to for spiritual guidance in a difficult world.
And what was more difficult than this?
If there was one thing that everyone needed,
beyond the cars, the televisions, the expensive vacations, beyond all
materialism, was safety.
Safety from all
that was dark and evil in the world.
What would happen when they no longer felt safe in the house of God?
And what message would it send if he were to
turn around and run because someone thought he was in danger?
Wasn’t everyone in danger now?
The Pope slowly shook
his head.
“I’m sorry,”
he said to Burk.
“We cannot.”
Burk’s eyes widened in
surprise.
He was refusing?
Burk stood motionless.
His priority was the safety of the Pope above
all else.
All else.
“Pardon me, Your
Holiness?”
The Pope smiled
warmly.
“My son, you have sworn to
protect me,” he said.
“I understand
this.
But
you
must understand
that I have sworn to something much greater, and to someone much more
important.”
Burk had no reply.
He stood looking respectfully at him.
In a single sentence, the rug had been pulled
out from under him.
He sighed, and
quietly turned around.
Before reaching
the door, he quickly turned back.
“May I
at least assume the threat is valid and take all appropriate precautions?”
The Pope nodded.
“Of course.”
Burk left the room and
closed the door gently behind him.
Please let this be another false alarm.
Zahn picked up the
phone and held it to his ear.
“Zahn,” came Benecke’s
voice, “we’ve lost them.”
“You lost them?”
Zahn was incredulous.
“Only for the moment,”
replied Benecke.
“We think they switched
cars, and we’re trying to verify, but we’re 90% sure.
If we’re right, then it looks like they’re
headed for the city.”
He was quiet for a
moment.
“Do you want to tell me what
they did?”
“They’re involved in a
plan to assassinate one of our diplomats.”
“Isn’t that under the
jurisdiction of the CIA?”
Benecke asked
calmly.
“Because I spoke with Mr. Ha at
the CIA and he knows nothing about this.”
“No,”
Zahn raised his voice.
“This is State Department jurisdiction!”
Zahn wanted them, and
he wanted them without interference from any other agency.
They would all know soon enough, but if
someone else picked up the girl and she talked…he couldn’t afford any cracks,
not this close.
Benecke sighed.
“I don’t suppose you have anything resembling
a warrant?”
“When was the last time
any of us used a
warrant
?”
Zahn
answered sarcastically.
“Besides, they
fired on, and brought down, one of our helicopters!”
“I don’t believe all of
the details have been confirmed yet.”
“Just tell me when
you’re sure of their location.
My team
will be ready.”
He ended the call.
On the other end,
Benecke hung up the phone and shook his head.
Zahn was not someone to be screwed with, everyone knew that.
But where on earth did he get all of that
power?
Zahn pounded the desk
with his fist.
He hadn’t spent years
carefully forming alliances with other department heads and politicians to
allow some new boy scout to start asking questions now.
He thought about what Benecke had said.
If they
were
headed back to the city,
it must be for a reason.
What were they
planning?
He leaned back in his
chair.
If they were able to bring down a
helicopter all by themselves, then he had a pretty good idea.
45
Hundreds of thousands
of people surrounded the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, the largest
cathedral in New York City covering an area of over 121,000 square feet and
towering over 232 feet tall.
It was here
that both the President and Vice President were set to appear with the Pope,
along with several other dignitaries from around the world.
The Pope’s speech would be short, but he
hoped it would show the world that his message was for
all faiths
and on
all continents.
Dario Burk stood next
to Carolina Flores, the head of the Secret Service.
The crowd was enormous and spread nearly half
a mile in every direction.
What they
wanted, what they needed, was to see and hear their Pope.
He looked up and
scanned the nearby buildings.
Every
rooftop was either manned or watched by the Secret Service, FBI, or New York
Police Department, including swat teams from all three.
Overhead, dozens of helicopters watched from
the air, while on the ground thousands of police officers milled through the
crowds, watching for anything out of the ordinary.
As if there was such a thing as ordinary in a
crowd this large.
There would be
absolutely no physical contact of any kind with the Pope.
He would appear on the large platform
constructed outside the cathedral, wave, and speak to the world.
He would end with a long prayer and be
quickly swept away as soon as he was out of sight.
The Swiss Guard had every member of their
team present, and they would surround the Pope as a veritable wall, both on his
way to the platform and away from it.
The only time the Pope
would not be completely covered by security was when he was safely inside the
cathedral, relaxing before his appearance, and that was only when he was far
away from windows.
Burk and his team
were taking absolutely no chances.
Fish and his team had
found their missing members.
They were
alive, but just barely, and had been airlifted to the nearest hospital.
Just minutes after the evacuation chopper had
left, another Blackhawk landed to retrieve them.
Once Fish and the rest
of his team were aboard, the pilot lifted into the air and dipped the craft
forward, heading East.
Intelligence had
confirmed the targets were headed toward Manhattan Island, and Fish now wanted
them more than ever.
Avery pulled away from
the toll booth leading into the Holland Tunnel and watched through his rearview
mirror.
Rand did the same out of his
side mirror while he pulled his rifle back out from under his legs.
They listened to the
car’s radio as the newscaster spoke about the thick traffic headed into New
York to see the President and the Pope.
Once out of the tunnel, they turned south on highway 9A, away from the
giant crowd amassing near Central Park.
Suddenly, the small
radio on the dashboard came to life.
It
was the radio Rand had taken from one of the attackers.
He turned it up as a loud voice came through
the speaker.
“Alpha Bravo Team
pursuing East.
Over.”
“Confirmed Alpha
Bravo,” came a reply.
“Vehicle is a
silver sedan.”
Rand and Avery looked
at each other.
The leader of the attack
group had just made a mistake.
Surely he
was aware one of the radios was missing.
And if he were, he had forgotten to change to the backup frequency
before using it to broadcast again.
Rand looked at
Avery.
“Head north instead.”
Avery frowned.
“You realize with that size of a crowd it
will be packed with police.”
“I know.
But judging from that message, they can
probably see us, and with everyone gathering north, it will make it even harder
to hide anywhere
but
there.
Besides, the majority of security is likely to be concentrated closer to
the Pope and the President.”
He watched
a car speed past.
“We can skirt the
outside of the crowd and continue north on foot until we can get back out of
the city.”
Rand looked at the
assault rifle laying across his lap.
They certainly wouldn’t be able to bring the rifles, which meant
concealed handguns only.
Not what he was
hoping for as it meant they would have to move very quickly.
They wouldn’t be a position to fight back.
He turned and looked at
Sarah in the back seat.
She was sitting
up straight, looking out the left rear window at the Hudson River.
“Sarah, we’re going to need you to stay very close
to us okay?”
Sarah nodded
calmly.
“I know.”
He then looked at Christine
who smiled back at him over Sarah’s response.
The crowd was bigger
than anything Christine had ever seen.
Columbus Avenue, which eventually turned into Morningside Drive near the
church, was simply a
wall
of people.
They were packed in much tighter than she expected.
Incredulous, she walked behind Rand and
Avery, holding Sarah’s hand tightly.
“My god,” she whispered
as they entered the very outskirts of the crowd.
They walked their next block; the crowd
quickly grew dense, prompting Christine to reach out and hold the back of
Rand’s jacket.
He felt her behind him
and glanced back.
He slowed and took
Sarah’s other hand as Avery forced his way through the crowd, where everyone
was pushing to get any kind of view.
As
they continued walking, Christine watched some people trying to scamper up onto
the small roof of a bus stop.
Rand and
Avery continuously scanned the crowd as they pushed forward.
Between them, Sarah
looked back and forth with wide eyes.
She had never seen so many people in one place, nor had she seen so many
shadows
.
It was incredible.
Christine watched her
expression.
“What does it look like,
Sarah?”
She shook her head in
disbelief.
“Colors, everywhere!”
Ahead of them, Avery
turned a corner and continued down a side street, when Sarah tripped and lost
both Christine’s and Rand’s hands.
An older Asian woman
behind them reached down to help Sarah up.
As she stood, the woman’s gaze fell onto Christine who was reaching back
for Sarah.
Something looked familiar about
them.
The woman continued watching them
and suddenly remembered, they were the two she had seen on the news program.
“Hey!” she said, with a
trailing voice.
“HEY!”
Almost in slow motion,
several of the others in the crowd looked at the woman and then followed her
gaze to both girls.
“It’s them!”
The woman began pointing.
“It’s them!
The two on the news!”
The faces of the
others, staring at Christine and Sarah, flashed a look of recognition as they
studied the pair closer.
“I think you’re right.”
hollered a man standing behind her.
He
pointed along with the woman.
“It’s
them!”
Christine turned to see
several people staring at them now.
As
more people turned around, more eyes widened, and the same phrase was repeated,
louder.
“It’s them!”
Christine grabbed
Sarah’s hand tighter and rushed after Rand who was now pushing through the mass
of people with Avery.
More and more people
turned to follow the noise which finally reached three policemen on a nearby
street corner.
The officers looked up
and peered over the crowd to see people shouting, and something or someone
surging forward through everyone.
Rand stopped and put a
hand on Avery.
He could see three
uniformed officers approaching.
He
turned and looked over Christine’s head at the crowd behind them, and found two
more officers trying to get through from the rear.
He spotted a small storefront less than
twenty feet away and grabbed Christine and Sarah, pushing them forward toward
the building.
It was a small dentist’s
office which appeared to be closed.
Rand kept the girls
back and kicked in one of the tall narrow windows.
Instantly, an alarm began shrieking from
inside as Rand jumped through and reached back out for Sarah.
He then ran toward the back of the dark
office with Christine and Avery right behind him.
Less than a minute
later, the officers reached the front and flattened themselves against the gray
wall on both sides of the broken window.
With guns drawn, one officer quickly leaned out and peered through the
broken pane then ducked back.
He
immediately did it again, taking a longer look.
He pulled back again and looked at the other officers, shaking his
head.
One by one, they began jumping in
through the window and over the broken glass.
Rand reached the back
of the office and opened the back door, which led into a long, white
maintenance hallway, connecting a string of neighboring offices.
He spotted the large exit sign at the end of
the hall, hanging above a large metal door.
With Sarah still in his arms, he glanced over his shoulder to make sure Christine
and Avery were still behind him and ran the length of the hallway.
The door at the end of
the complex opened out near the street, which like the others, were crowded
with even more people.
Some of them were
standing just a few steps away and turned, curious when they noticed the door
behind them opening.
Rand peered outside and
scanned the crowd.
Sarah, suddenly
squeezed his neck and began screaming when she saw several shadows change color
in front of them.
“BLACK!
BLACK!
BLACK!”
In the moment Sarah
screamed, Rand recognized someone across the street who spotted them and
immediately raised his rifle to his shoulder.
It was one of the men from the Delta Force team.
Rand instantly turned
to shield Sarah and grabbed the door handle, pulling it back in as quickly as
he could.
As it was closing, one large
man slammed against the wall, lifeless, just before the door clicked shut.
Immediately, large dents appeared on the inside
of the door, as it became a giant shield.
Still carrying Sarah,
Rand turned and looked back down the hall.
He knew there was no escape without putting her at risk.
She had to survive, yet any moment the
officers would reach the back of the office and find the hallway they were
in.
Several blocks away,
Burk rushed back inside the cathedral.
He, along with everyone else, heard the warning over their tiny
earpieces.
Gunshots fired nearby!
Burk entered through
the west end of the church and ran past a large group of security agents who
were running the other way.
He passed
the altar and the church’s famous stained glass windows and sprinted for the
large sacristy.
When he burst into the
room, Burk found the Pope kneeling in his gold and silver striped vestment.
Outside in the distance, he could hear the
Vice President’s speech abruptly end as he was rushed off the large stage.
Burk was certain the Secret Service already
had the President in his limousine and headed away from the church.
The Pope looked up at
Burk as the three Swiss Guards already in the room stepped in behind him.
“We’re
evacuating,”
Burk said firmly.
The Pope nodded at Burk
and stood up.
He could hear that
something was wrong.
The crowd outside
was beginning to yell out questions.
He
could also hear shouting within the church as the various security teams
scrambled to get all of the dignitaries out.
Burk looked over the
Pope’s shoulder at the three guardsmen.
“Benziger and Gavin are getting the others and securing a path to the
car.
We’ll escort him in standard two by
two positions.
Once we-”
Burk was suddenly interrupted when four men
walked into the room with AK-47 assault rifles shouldered.
Irritated, Burk turned
and began to wave them away, insisting they were already moving the Pope, when
he noticed the make of their guns.
He
jumped in shock when the men raised their rifles and fired on the three Swiss
Guardsmen next to the Pope.
Burk’s hand
was already in motion, reaching for his sidearm when he was shot in the arm and
the gun tumbled to the floor.
The impact
caused him to stumble backward and fall over one of the large chairs.
He quickly scrambled to reach his dropped
weapon with his left hand, but was shot twice more in his other shoulder.