Francine Desmond stood next to the Mareki Parliament building. A swarm of agents surrounded the building. Mareki troops stood around also, glaring at Francine. They spoke in low voices and pointed at the Americans with the muzzles of their automatic weapons. The truce between the agents and the troops was fragile at best. The agents were there at the request of the President of Mareki; the troops were there because of the Prime Minister. No one was happy with the situation.
Francine wanted to blame Lee. If he had stopped Christophe, then she wouldn't be standing here in the sun, getting burned. But, there was another part of her, a much larger part, that was worried. Lee hadn't checked in. He had missed all but one of his check-ins. No one had heard from either he or Amanda since they had called that the bombs were on their way to the airport. When the agents had arrived at the small airstrip all that had been there was nothing there except some cracked tarmac and the skeletons of two small planes.
Checking her watch for the 5th time in 10 minutes, she swore under her breath. The bug like hum of a small plane engine floated in on the strengthening breeze. Shielding her eyes, Francine looked skyward. From the west, a small propeller driven plane approached the city. It was only a shiny speck in the sea of blue. She turned her attention back to the building. They had to be sure that there wasn't any way that Christophe could get through. If Lee hadn't checked in then she had to assume the worst and assume that Christophe had the bombs. Teams were searching in Christophe's last known area, but the Sahara was big, and the longer it took to find them, the less hope she had.
'He could have left their bodies anywhere…' Francine tried to stop that train of thought before it got the better of her. But, with nothing else to do but stand around and wait, she found it hard not to let her mind wander to the worst-case scenario. Lee was the optimist, not her. She was realistic.
The plane worried her. Christophe could deliver one of these bombs on a small plane. And one bomb was all it would take to destroy the parliament.
Francine had made her case to the Prime Minister, but he had decided under her strong protest, to keep the government working anyway. He told her he would not let the MSA terrorists win by shutting down the government. She understood his point of view. Letting Christophe shut down the government would be like letting the MSA win in this insane war he was fighting. But she wasn't asking him to close the Parliament for good; she was simply asking him to close it today. He insisted on keeping it open. He didn't believe that the Americans had enough 'intelligence' on the MSA and Christophe. Instead, he was going to risk the lives of 200 people by ignoring Francine's warning that Christophe was armed and planning an attack today.
"Thompson, Andrews, Taylor, get some help and get into that building and start evacuations, now." The three men paused. "Look, I don't care what the Prime Minister says, I'll take responsibility just start getting those people out of there now. I'm going to call in." Francine grimaced and pulled her blonde hair back from her face. She wasn't sure what was making her sweat more, the heat, or Christophe.
"Yes ma'am." The three each took a small group and ran up the stairs.
Francine looked skyward again. The plane was getting closer, circling the outskirts of the city. She reached for her two-way, "Lancer, this is desert eagle. Respond?"
"Go desert eagle." Billy Melrose was on the other side of the city. On the scratchy two-way communicator, he sounded as if he were back in Washington.
"We have a small plane approaching from the west of the city. It's too small for an ID." She raised a pair of binoculars to her eyes. Still the airplane was little more than a speck. The heat rising off the desert caused the air to ripple and it the plane danced in the eyepiece.
"We aren't taking any chances. Get those people out of there."
"I've already sent in an evacuation team. The Prime Minister isn't going to be happy about this."
"Let me worry about the Prime Minister. Have you heard from Scarecrow?"
"Nothing yet. Ground teams are searching out from the airstrip in concentric circles. No word. There's nothing there Billy."
"Alright, as soon as you get word from them you call in."
"Bil…"
"Unless we hear otherwise, we're working on the assumption that this is a rescue mission, not a retrieval."
"Yes sir." She tried to keep the doubt out of her voice.
"And, I'll get a team in the air from here. Lancer out."
She threw the two-way onto the seat of the jeep and turned back towards the incoming plane. It was much larger now. She could tell it was a Cessna. She raised the binoculars to her face again. Now she could read the identifying numbers. Victor, Bravo, November 8845. Of course, she doubted very much that the mercenary had filed a flight plane with the Mareki airport. She swore again. It had to be Christophe. As she was about to ask one of the guards to get a hold of a commander for her, the squawk box in her car crackled to life. She almost picked up the two-way before realizing it was coming from the CB.
A man's voice, with a heavy Mareki accent came over the radio, "General Odweso this is Lieutenant Turoro, I have two Americans here saying that the plane coming in is from the MSA."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes General. The man is carrying American Agency ID. He says that the plane is Jean Christophe's and that it is armed."
"With the smart bombs they gave him." His voice dripped with annoyance. "Thank you, Lieutenant Turoro."
"Yes sir."
As Francine stared at the box, the order went out to mobilize troops. She again went for the two-way, "Did you get that last transmission, Billy?"
"Yes, Francine I did. It has to be Lee and Amanda. They're at the old parliament building. Lee must not have gotten the updated city plans. Who was supposed to get that to him?"
"Uh, a man from the Nairobi office, Sull…" Her voice trailed off as she heard the hollow fwump of the surface to air anti-aircraft missile launching from a truck. She followed the missile on its ascent to the Cessna. The orange-red explosion left nothing of the small aircraft. She breathed a sigh of relief.
"Francine? Francine! What's going on there? Francine!"
"Uh, sorry Billy. The Mareki army shot down the plane. I'll send out some janitors to make sure that it was Christophe." She motioned for two agents standing off to her left. As they trotted over she pointed in the general direction of the wreckage, "Take 10 men and make sure that it was Christophe in that plane. And I don't think I have to tell you to be careful."
People were starting to mill around. Judging by the number of people crowding the street around her, Francine figured that Thompson, Andrews, and Taylor had done their job. They refused to move too far from the white granite building. Most were annoyed, a few were confused, but the whole of the Parliament stopped talking as they watched the debris float to the ground.
"Francine, put Fielding in charge over there and go get Scarecrow and Mrs. King." Billy sounded mildly amused, even through his annoyance.
"Yes, sir." She frowned a bit and wondered just what her boss could find so funny in all of this.
Shaking her head, she climbed up into the jeep, and headed across the city.