Soon the gals are in Kentucky. Sam has landed the plane at the airport, and the gals cycle over to Fort Knox. The girls are talking to the head of Fort Knox, General Phelps.
"Are you really going to load the gold bullion on a barge, General?" asks Clover.
"No! We'll use some Iron Pyrite bricks and load them instead! Can't tell the difference between that and real gold, unless your up close! We'll see if we can trick Saldo into giving his position away!"
Fort Knox loads five semi trailers with the iron pyrite bricks. They then convoy the bricks to the Port of Charleston where they are transferred to a barge. The convoy was heavily defended, so as not to give the plan away. The barge will then be taken by ocean tugboat, again in a heavily defended convoy, to the coordinates Saldo demanded.
The gals accompany the truck convoy to the port.
"So far so good," remarks Sam cautiously.
"Do you think Saldo is watching?" asks Alex.
"I wouldn't be surprised, Alex! But I wonder how he expects to grab a huge barge without being seen!"
"Maybe he's a magician!" remarks Clover, off-handedly.
"He needs to be a pretty good one, to pull that off!" responds Sam.
"Maybe Saldo is really the Great Kandinski!" adds Alex. Clover and Sam shudder at the thought of having to deal with HIM again!
At the port, the semis are emptied onto the barge. The gals quietly also get on the barge and hide below deck in a forward hold.
"Ok, gals! This is it! Remember, keep your barrettes turned off until we get to Saldo's hideout!" says Sam quietly, as the tug starts to take the bullion barge out to the designated spot.
"Gotcha, Sammy!" replies Alex, as Clover nods in agreement.
But Saldo is no fool. He watches from a distance as the barge is anchored at the spot he designated.
"Run the sonar scan! Any submarines or other boats in the area?"
"No, sir!" replies a technician.
"Run the radar scan! Any aircraft?"
"None!"
"Now run the radio frequency tracker. Any tracking devices?"
"No, sir!"
"Excellent! Now focus the spectrum analyzer on the bullion! Is it really gold?"
A technician studies the analyzer results and responds, "No sir! The bricks are made of iron pyrites!"
Saldo turns away in disgust. "Did the fools really think I'd be so unsophisticated as to fall for that?"
Turning to another technician, Saldo asks, "How long before the 24 hours are up?"
"Another 2 hours and 33 minutes, sir!"
"At that time, we will broadcast again! Norshman!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Train the torpedo tubes of our submarine on our barge of fake gold! I want to show them how we deal with double crosses on our transmission!"
"Yes, sir!" and Norshman moves the submarine into firing position on the barge, waiting for Saldo's command.
Back on the barge, the gals are getting antsy.
"We've been waiting here for over an hour, Sam. Do you think something went wrong?" asks Clover anxiously.
"They're probably waiting for it to get pitch black dark before they make their move!" responds Sam.
"Well, it's pretty black outside right now!" exclaims Alex.
As the time turns to 9 PM Eastern Time, Saldo again pirates all radio and television transmissions.
"People of the United States. I told you what I would do if my demands for all the gold bullion were not met yesterday. Look at this picture!" A picture of the barge is shown, enhanced on a targeting screen.
Saldo continues, "Your government took me for a fool and sent out a barge of iron pyrite bricks on a barge. This is what I think of that ploy!" With that Saldo signals Norshman, who fires two torpedoes at the barge. After a few seconds, the barge explodes in all directions!
Saldo drones on, "And now I will turn off all the electricity until my demands are met!"
With that, Saldo ends his transmission, and turns off the electricity.
The country is in a panic! This brown out isn't just lasting for five minutes! The Utility companies are frantically trying to restore power, but to no avail! People in the cold Northern USA try to get to a building with emergency power, so they do not freeze to death! Hospitals are overcrowded with people without power, as are any other buildings that have emergency generators.
An emergency session of Congress is convened, and they reluctantly agree to surrender the gold bullion. Orders are flown from Washington to Fort Knox ordering them to load the real bullion onto semis trailers, and another set of orders are sent to Charleston for another barge.