Sacred Stone

At that moment, Michael Halpert entered the control room. “They dummied up the chain of ownership,” he said, “that’s why we missed the threat.”

“Who is the true owner?” Hanley asked.

“The Hammadi Group.”

“Al-Khalifa,” Hanley said. “We knew he was pla

Eric Stone swiveled around in his seat. “Chief,” he said, “I have the link you requested established. The helicopter ident is on the screen. The make is a Eurocopter and the model an EC-130B4. I’m ru

Hanley glanced over at the screen. “Why are there two blips?”

Stone stared at the image then enlarged the screen. “That second return just appeared,” he said. “Just guessing, I’d say another helicopter is in the area.”

CABRILLO HELD OUT his green light, reached down, and placed his fingers on Ackerman’s neck. He felt a faint beat. Then the archaeologist stirred and opened his eyes. His eyes were watery, his skin a ghastly gray, and his lips barely moved.

“You’re not…,” he whispered.

“No,” Cabrillo said, “I’m not the man who shot you.”

Pushing Ackerman’s coat aside, Cabrillo took a knife from his pocket and cut away Ackerman’s shirt. The wound was bad, and arterial blood was pumping out of the opening like a fountain with too large a pump.

“Do you have a first-aid kit?” Cabrillo asked.

Ackerman motioned to a nylon bag near a folding table a short distance away. Cabrillo ran over, unzipped the bag and removed the kit. Opening the plastic case, he removed some gauze pads and surgical tape. He tore open the packets as he walked back toward Ackerman, then pressed a wad of pads over the wound and taped it in place. Then he reached over and placed Ackerman’s hand over the wound.

“Keep your hand here,” Cabrillo said, “I’ll be right back.”

“The Ghost,”Ackerman whispered, “ the Ghostdid this.”

Turning on his heels, Cabrillo sprinted toward the entrance to the cave. As he peered out into the gloom he could hear the turbine of the Eurocopter winding up and see the outline of the flashing lights on its fuselage.

Then a second set of blinking lights appeared in the distance.

AL-KHALIFA WAS AN excellent helicopter pilot. A falsified student visa and $100,000 in fees, as well as a year at the South Florida flight school he had attended, ensured that. Looking through the windshield, he carefully sca

Fate is fu

A second later, Al-Khalifa had assessed the situation and formed his plan.

CABRILLO SLID CAREFULLY out of the cave and then flopped down behind a rocky outcropping. He needed to make it to the Thiokol and recover his rifle, but the second helicopter was facing him directly. Sliding the satellite telephone from his pocket, he glanced at the readout. Now that he was outside the cave he was receiving a signal again. He hit the speed dial and waited until Hanley answered.

“It looks like the fall of Saigon up here,” Cabrillo said. “I arrived to find a helicopter on site, and now another one has just arrived. Who are these people?”

“Stony just identified one,” Hanley answered. “It’s a charter from western Greenland owned by a Michael Neilsen. We ran the owner for ties to any organizations but no hits yet, so I’d guess he’s just a pilot for hire.”

“What about the second one?”

Stone had been furiously typing on the keyboard. “It’s a Bell Jet Ranger leased by a Canadian mineral company.”

“The second one’s a Bell Jet Rang—” Hanley started to say.

“I’m staring at it right now,” Cabrillo said. “It’s not a Jet Ranger, it looks more like a McDo

Stone typed in some more commands and a second later a picture of a wrecked helicopter filled the monitor. “Someone has stolen the registration and ident to avoid detection. Can Mr. Cabrillo see any tail numbers?”

“Stone says we have a stolen registration,” Hanley noted. “Can you see any tail numbers?”

Cabrillo removed a pair of small binoculars from his pocket and stared through the darkness. “Two things,” he said slowly. “The first is that there’s a weapons pod hung under the fuselage. The second is that the tail numbers aren’t visible, but I can make out letters painted on the side. There is an A, followed by a K, followed by a B.

Then the rest are covered in ice. The next is maybe an A, I can’t be sure.”

Hanley related to Cabrillo what they had uncovered about the yacht named Akbar.

“It’s that son of a bitch Al-Khalifa?” Cabrillo blurted. “Who’s in the other helicopter? Al Capone?”

NEILSEN HAD THE rotor blade up to speed and he pulled up on the collective, taking the Eurocopter into a hover just as the other helicopter appeared in the windshield.

“Look there,” he said through the headset to Hughes.

“Take off, now,” Hughes shouted.

“I think we’d better set down and see what’s up,” Neilsen said.

With a lightning-fast move, Hughes pulled a pistol from his pocket and pointed it at Neilsen’s head. “I said take off.”

One look at Hughes and the pistol was enough; Neilsen moved the cyclic and the Eurocopter lurched forward. At that instant a flame erupted from the bottom of the other helicopter and a missile streaked toward where they had been hovering. The missile went wide and veered out into the frozen wasteland.

STONE BROUGHT UP an image on the monitor in the Oregon’s control room. “This is a DOD satellite shot one hour ago,” he said quickly. “Helicopter number two came from a location offshore of eastern Greenland on a straight course for Mount Forel.”

Just then Adams walked into the control room. “Our helicopter is armed and ready.”

“Do you have enough range to make it from here and back?” Hanley asked.

“No,” Adams admitted, “we’ll be thirty to forty gallons short on the return.”

“What kind of fuel do you burn?”

“One hundred octane low-lead.”

“Mr. Chairman,” Hanley said over the satellite phone, “we have Adams ready to go, but we’re short fuel for the return trip. Do you have extra fuel on the snowcat?”

“I have a hundred gallons or so left,” Cabrillo said.

Hanley looked up at Adams, who had listened to the transmission carefully.

“If I take along some liquid octane booster, we can bump the gas up so it might work. One way or another, I want to get over there and help the boss.”

“I’ll call the mechanical shop and have the booster delivered to the flight deck,” Hanley said quickly. “You do your preflight and take off as soon as possible.”

Adams nodded and raced for the door.

“I’m sending in the cavalry, Juan,” Hanley said into the telephone. “He’ll be there in a couple of hours.”

Cabrillo watched as the second helicopter lined up on the Eurocopter to take another shot. “That’s good,” Cabrillo said, “because the helicopter with the fake registration just fired a missile at the chartered ship.”

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Hanley said in amazement.

“That’s not all, my friend,” Cabrillo said. “I haven’t had a chance to deliver the really bad news yet.”

“What could be worse?”

“The meteorite is inside the chartered helicopter,” Cabrillo said. “They grabbed it before me.”

INSIDE THE EUROCOPTER, Hughes was holding the pistol to Neilsen’s head with one hand and a satellite telephone in the other.

“Fly west toward the coast,” he said, “there’s been a change in plans.”