Local time – 9:40pm, Sunday 17th June, 2011.
Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
Alex half sat, half crouched in the cockpit of the nuclear missile transporter, willing herself not to throw up. In a cloud of complete and utter terror, she took a screen shot of the map on the iPad, and swiftly emailed the image to Gerome. She had time to write in the subject line ‘Help’ before bringing her attention back to Henry and Ahmed. The headlights from the row of army trucks lit up the scene. In the few seconds that she had looked away, it seemed an argument had broken out. From the animated hand gestures, and the sound of raised voices, Alex guessed what Henry was asking Ahmed for. He wanted the other code. Only one thing ran through Alex’s mind. She had to stop Henry getting anywhere near Ahmed’s phone. She clambered out of the cockpit and bolted round to the other side of the vehicle.
‘Henry, what are you doing? You can’t do this!’ Henry’s expression made her freeze on the spot. He no longer looked like the gorgeous Henry she had met outside Prague Castle the day before. He looked like a monster.
‘Get back in the truck, Alex. Stay out of this.’
‘Those coordinates you’ve been given, do you even know what they are?’
‘I said stay out of it.’ No amount of denial could now convince Alex that Henry was in the dark about his boss’s plans. She had assumed, or maybe hoped, that he was just blindly following orders, and had got caught up in a mission he believed was doing good. But the way he responded to her plea, there was absolutely no doubt he knew exactly what the coordinates were for. This realisation completely threw Alex, and she struggled to find words. Ahmed looked at her, shocked. The full realisation that Henry was prepared to use force to get the other half of the code hit him, and his boyish fear morphed into determined rage, making even Alex step back in surprise.
‘We cannot allow this general to take the weapon. Who knows to what use he would put it? But if you attack me, you’ll get us all killed,’ he hissed, indicating the army trucks behind them. It was only then that Alex realised that the Pakistani general wouldn’t just sit and wait. He was already out of his truck, marching towards them. Henry now looked towards the general too and Alex could see he was alarmed. Ahmed was more angry than frightened, and he whispered quickly:
‘We have the codes. We must work together to destroy it.’ Before Henry could respond, the general was close enough to address them.
‘What is going on here? It was not part of our plan to stop somewhere like this!’ Alex recognised a mixture of anger and confusion in the man’s clipped voice and a panic surged inside her. She noticed out of the corner of her eye that Henry was reaching into the back of his jeans for his gun. But then he hesitated, not yet ready to commit suicide by drawing a weapon in front of an army general and dozens of armed Pakistani soldiers. She glared at him, willing him not to let his stupidity kill them all. He seemed to understand her, and stood frozen with his hands behind him. Ahmed also said nothing, staring at the general open mouthed. Alex knew the silence was just making things worse. She had to say something.
‘We’re just, just reconfirming our plans. Everything is fine. We’ll get going again in a sec.’ Alex’s voice trailed off as the general’s face showed he wasn’t convinced. He seemed to visibly grow taller as his anger mounted.
‘You are not being truthful with me. I am going to call my superiors and confirm that this operation is correct. I do not feel that it is being run correctly. You stay right here. I am calling them now.’
Before Alex could respond, the general was marching back to his truck. She wanted to run after him, and stop him making the call. But what could she possibly say? How could she fix this now? Henry looked ready to race after him too, but his fear made him immobile. His wide eyes looked at Alex, and then back to Ahmed, waiting for them to act. Surprisingly, Ahmed was the one who spoke.
‘We can’t let him make that call. If he does, he will know we are all lying and then we’re all dead.’ Ahmed took a step closer to Alex as he spoke, and she could see that he seemed to be willing himself to say something. After taking a very deep breath, he continued. ‘There’s one possibility which might save us. I could call my father. If he is still alive.’ When neither Henry or Alex reacted, Ahmed let out a small sigh and said almost to himself, ‘He is the Foreign Minister.’
‘The Foreign Minister of Pakistan?’ Alex was astonished.
‘Yes.’
‘Call him then. He’ll help us. Quick, go tell the general that we don’t need him to make that call.’ She felt like physically pushing Ahmed forward, hoping to move him into action.
The general was back at his truck. He was talking to the driver, and they could all see him reaching forward to pick up his phone.
‘Go!’ she yelled again at Ahmed. This time he acted. Hurrying forward, he yelled out to the general:
‘Let me make a phone call and then you’ll see everything is good. Please give me a moment to make a call.’ As he ran, he put his hand into his pocket and pulled out his phone. The general turned and stopped, waiting for Ahmed to approach. Alex could hardly bring herself to watch, knowing that if Ahmed failed, her life would be over.