Page 96 of Clive Cussler Ghost Soldier
Fortunately, Plata and the others had the same problem he did—lack of information. Also, the size of the island meant they could have no assurance of finding him within the forty-eight-hour period.
So what was the next logical move? To secure the flags as quickly as possible—especially because the mercs had the advantage of knowing where they were located.
Given that likely scenario, Rahul’s strategy had been to embrace the probabilities. He was already familiar with the island and had accessto a topographical map that included the underground mines beneath the city along with their entry points.
He had also been informed by the Vendor the flags were relatively evenly distributed between the city, the surrounding jungle, and the mines.
A quick survey of the topographical map showed him where the soldiers were most likely to travel—and were to avoid—in their journeys across the island.
With these parameters in mind and the topo map uploaded, Rahul unleashed theMak?i’s AI-generated surveillance and targeting package. That package was a modified version of the “Gospel” AI-targeting program, stolen from the Israelis by the Vendor’s network.
TheMak?ihad divided up the island into ten zones of approximately equal size both above and below the surface. It excluded those portions of the island least likely to contain a flag, such as stretches of beach, large ponds, and the like. The city and the mines received additional resources since they were more confined spaces and thus harder to surveil.
Rahul’s drones were then automatically programmed with their respective surveillance and combat algorithms and launched. And thanks to other tech on board his drones, he would soon gain access to the mercs’ comms net, as well as acquire visuals on them when they inevitably came out from under cover. And the ones that didn’t? They would trigger one of the sensors his drones were distributing even now.
Rahul checked the time. The battle would soon be joined. The thought of besting these battle-hardened mercs pleased the young gamer, but taking their twenty million dollars as his own prize money excited him even more. Poverty was more terrifying than death.
A vast array of colored lights activated on his handheld device. Each type of drone was indicated by a certain color. Aerial drones would soon finish depositing their loads of ground sensors and then take up their positions for electro-optical surveillance. This would give him nearly total informational awareness of the battle space.
Once his targets were identified and tracked, he would unleash thekinetics. His launch trailer would remain in place and keep launching drones as the automated network program dictated.
Rahul pulled on his helmet with its heads-up display (HUD) shield. Instantly the interface that was on his handheld device appeared on his HUD shield and theMak?iwhirred to life, no longer hitched to the launch trailer.
The slim engineer headed up the mountain trail, his mechanical monster dutifully marching behind him.
It was time for war.
49
Aboard theOregon
Off the Coast of Kuala Lumpur
Max sat in the Kirk Chair, drumming his thick fingers on the cool metal of the arm console. The chill air smelled of ozone from the op center’s electronics. But for all of theOregon’s computational power and vast array of intelligence-gathering equipment, Max was still completely in the dark about Juan and Linc.Where were they?
“Tell me you found something,” Max asked over the intercom. Eric was in the electronics lab with Murph.
“We finally broke the encryption on all three phones. Surprisingly sophisticated,” Eric said in the speaker.
“And?” Max tried to hide his growing irritation.
“The Cray translated the voicemails and texts,” Murph said. “Our Islamic extremist friends shared a lot of porn sites and soccer scores, along with a couple of halal recipes and a few verses from the Quran. But there was bubkes about any information on the Vendor or where Juan and Linc might be.”
“Thanks guys—for nothing,” Max said as he punched off the call.
“Not their fault, Max,” Linda said standing by his chair. Callie was next to Linda at her invitation. Callie was trying to stay out of the way, but she was also really concerned about her new friends and wanted to help if she could.
Max rubbed his face with a meaty paw, beyond frustrated.
“I know. I’ll apologize later.”
In truth, Max was more afraid than he was angry—or maybe equal parts of both, since anger and fear both came out of the same vent hole in his magnanimous heart. Angry because he was helpless; afraid because he knew his friends were in danger.
Every sat phone call they made to Juan failed to connect and their trackers were still offline. It had been more than a couple of days now. Safety protocols required that Juan and Linc call in after forty-eight hours if at all possible. The fact they hadn’t called in meant they were under duress or in a place where contact was impossible. Neither prospect was acceptable.
Max bolted out of his chair and stormed over to the wall-sized map of the region displayed on one of the big screens. Linda and Callie followed him over.
“Where could they be?” Max asked, studying the map for the umpteenth time.
