Nixon stared at the clipboard with the sheet of paper Cabrillo had prepared earlier. “Looks like Ross wants earpiece communications for the ground operators, with a secondary channel to reach the ship.”
“Make sure the batteries are charged, and check everything out,” Hanley said. “I’ll break out a repeater we can place on Barra Hill so we’re not using local channels.”
“Better place a beacon up there, too,” Nixon said, glancing at the clipboard. “Murphy wants a fixed targeting point if he needs to loose a missile.”
“Murphy,” Hanley said, shaking his head, “he’d drive a thumbtack with a sledgehammer.”
Nixon turned on an exhaust vent, then slid his leg over the motorcycle and poked the kick starter. The machine roared to life and settled into an idle. Shutting it off, he moved toward the second motorcycle and repeated the process. The hours passed as the pair of men
checked then double-checked the equipment.
AT the same instant, closer to the stern, Mark Murphy was in the armory. The room had a bench containing reloading equipment and rows of drawers containing ammunition, charges, timers and fuses. Along the walls were a series of recessed cases that housed automatic weapons, rifles and handguns. The room smelled of gunpowder, metal and oil.
Parts of a U.S. Army M-16 sat atop a piece of cloth on the bench. Murphy pushed the button on a digital timer, then reached for the stock and began to assemble the weapon. A minute later, he pushed the timer again, then raised his hands in the air. One minute and four seconds—he was slow today. Walking over to an ammunition drawer, he began to remove banana clips and load them with different types of ordnance.
“God, I love my job,” he said aloud.
THE van was entering the bridge leading from Macau to Taipa.
“The Minutemen,” Cabrillo said. “Where did you come up with that name?”
“It could be construed as an homage to Paul Revere and the revolutionary way,” Truitt said, laughing.
“Wouldn’t that be Paul Revere and The Raiders?” Jones said.
“But in fact,” Truitt continued, “it’s the name of the band that was already hired.”
“Won’t it be crowded when two bands show up?” Ross asked.
“It would be, but the real Minutemen, a California cover band doing a tour of the Far East, was detained in Bangkok after a two-week stint in the Phuket bars. Apparently a customs official found a joint in the drummer’s shaving kit.”
“Planted?” Cabrillo asked.
“Had to,” Truitt noted. “The Minutemen are probably the only band in these parts that are clean—they met one another in a twelve-step group.”
“The boys sound all right,” Meadows said. “You can’t fault someone who’s turned his life around—we shouldn’t let them rot in a Thailand prison.”
“Not to worry, the customs official is on our payroll,” Truitt said. “There’s no record of the stop. One of our people in California made contact with their management company and explained the situation, and we upgraded them to first class for the flight home since the Macau gig was the last one on the tour. Right now, the Minutemen are convinced they were critically helpful in the war on terrorism—as per our standard cover story.”
The van rolled onto Taipa and started across the island.
“I just have one question,” Cabrillo said. “Which one of us is the lead singer?”
11
THE Dalai Lama walked down the steps of the jet in Jalandhar, in the Punjab province of India, into an unusually hot day. Despite his forty-five years in exile in India, he had never learned to adjust to the weather. His Holiness was a man from the mountains and he missed snow and cold temperatures. He sniffed the air for the slightest smell from the glaciers far to the north. Instead of snow and pine trees, his nose was assaulted by fumes from the trucks passing by the airport on the traffic-packed highway.
He smiled anyway and gave thanks.
“Looks like my transportation is here,” he said to Overholt, who had joined him on the tarmac.
A large, single-engine Cessna Caravan was nearby, with a pilot doing a walk-around.
“Very good, Your Holiness,” Overholt said.
“As soon as I return, I will meet with my advisors and the oracle,” the Dalai Lama said, staring directly into Overholt’s eyes. “If they agree and you can ensure me no bloodshed, then I will agree to the plan we have designed.”
“Thank you, Your Holiness.”