The Krakow Klub (48 page)

She knew that John was supposed to be
sleeping at the moment, so maybe, just maybe, she could find Number
Eleven before he woke up. Maxx was right. She would hate
for John
to chew her out. That would be very
painful for her to endure.

****

Number Eleven had already begun to relax in
her bunker. She took a long, hot bath and sipped champagne while
pondering her next steps.

Stoellar was now a liability. It
was
time for him to go. The only question was whether or
not to keep any of the other members of the Krakow Klub. She mulled
the matter carefully and came to the conclusion that the only one
she
truly
needed was Carla Montrose. And she
only needed her if, and it was now a very big if, the plan for
taking over the United States government remained viable.

She would find a way to dispatch Stoellar as
quickly as possible. After all, she knew all his secrets
—
even the location of his bunker. The job would be quite
easy for someone of her talents. The other members of the
organization were little more than sitting ducks. And even Carla
Montrose would be no problem when the right time came.

She would get to work on it all tomorrow.
Tonight was to
be devoted
to relaxing.

After an hour, the water had
cooled,
and the candles surrounding the tub were
flickering low. She got out and put on an exquisitely embroidered
silk robe and gown and stretched out on the sofa
in
the living area. She had brought a silver brush from
the bath area and began to brush her long, jet black hair idly.

Within five minutes, she was drumming her
long fingernails on the arm of the sofa in boredom. She
was accustomed
to constant challenges and action. She
needed danger and excitement the way most people needed air. It was
essential to her existence.

She rose and began to pace the floor in
frustration. She had never planned to use the bunker and thought of
it only as a place of last resort. What was going on in the streets
above her? She longed for the hustle and bustle of the city and
even for its uncomfortable humidity throughout the year.

For the briefest of seconds, she considered
leaving her lair and going out among the people. How could she,
just one of twenty-four million people, ever be found by her
adversaries? Then, she cursed aloud and ranted against the unseen
forces that had caused her to be in this situation. It was
impossible. It was unbelievable. She was furious.

Nevertheless, she soon calmed down and
searched her agile mind for a solution to her solitary condition.
After several
minutes,
it came to her. She
reached for the telephone that linked her to the outside world and
made a single, brief call.

Several years ago, she had started an
extremely profitable business. Most would consider it to be an
escort
service,
but it was far more than that.
She had “escorts” based in several countries, particularly in Asia,
both male and female who were physically perfect, beautiful in
appearance, cultured and well educated. They had graced the arms of
the rich and famous throughout the world on many occasions. In
fact, one former elegant beauty was now the wife of a very
well-known head of state in Europe. The fee for one night with one
of her “agents” would stress the budget of a small country.

She smiled to herself as she remembered how
much money she had earned from members of the Krakow Klub itself.
It had been quite the delicious joke on them.

Now, she would use her services for her
own
pleasure. Within the hour, she received a
message that her guests had arrived in the lobby above. She crossed
the room and pressed her private elevator button to send the car up
for them.

She arranged her silk robe carefully and
dropped back down on the sofa to await them. She was not
disappointed. Her two favorites had
been
summoned
. The man was quite tall for an Asian with shoulder
length hair pulled back into a ponytail. He was muscular with the
wide shoulders of a
swimmer.
He took her hand,
raised it to his lips, and kissed it gently. She looked into his
face and saw absolute perfection. But that wasn’t enough for
her.

There was more.

The woman was exquisite with a perfect
porcelain complexion and startlingly beautiful eyes. She
was dressed
in a traditional, long cheongsam
with a slit along the side that revealed a perfectly shaped leg and
ankle. Her hair was pulled back and secured with jeweled pins and
tiny flowers. She sat down beside the Dragon Lady, picked up the
hairbrush from the nearby table, and gently began to pull it
through Number Eleven’s long dark hair.

Eleven was delighted. It would be a very long
and very entertaining evening. She spoke in a soft and sexy voice,
“Yes, it is so good to be back home again.” Unfortunately for her,
that was the exact moment that she
was
identified
by one of the remote craft positioned far above
the city.

There was a blinding flash of light
unaccompanied by no sound whatsoever. The two guests were shocked
and blinded for a few seconds before they gathered their wits and
looked around to see what had happened.

The room was empty, except for
themselves.

“The supreme art of war is
to subdue the enemy without fighting.”
-
Sun
Tzu
,
The Art of
War

Captain
Popovich
heard
of Scott Key before he had received his orders. The Navy, like all
military units, is
usually filled
with
rumors,
and his
aircraft
carrier
was no exception. Scuttlebutt had it that two jets
from Key West Naval Air Station already attempted reconnaissance
flights over the island unsuccessfully. It
was even
rumored
that they had temporarily disappeared. They had then
returned to base with no apparent harm having befallen them after
their mysterious disappearance. Strangely, neither pilot could
remember anything that had happened
from the
instant
they entered the cloud bank surrounding the island
until they awoke later headed back toward Key West.

The only source of information had been from
the helicopter crew nearby that had reported that both planes
entered the cloud bank and failed to exit on the far side. Now, he
had a very strong feeling that this rumor was, in fact, truth.
Something on that island was very, very powerful
and,
therefore probably very, very dangerous.

He would need to proceed with caution.

Unfortunately, he only had a short time until
he must decide what to do. His CSF was almost in position near the
island. It would be dawn in only a few minutes.

The IR and radar imaging problem worried him
the most. His
warplanes
and missiles could
function in zero visibility conditions, but without IR and radar
capability, he was up a
well-known
creek
without a paddle as far as accurate targeting was concerned.

After only a few minutes, he made his final
decision. It would be risky but necessary. He had to know how the
island would respond if attacked. He concluded that a single air
to ground
missile fired into the center of the
cloud would get their
attention but most likely cause
minimal damage. If the people on that island possessed
sophisticated weaponry, they would surely respond immediately after
the missile strike. That information would be crucial to his next
step in taking the island.

He relayed his orders to his air commander,
Colonel Michael (Mike) Morgan.

“Colonel Morgan, I want you to send a flight
of F-18s to Scott Key immediately. Have the flight leader select
one plane to make an attack dive at the island from high altitude.
He is to fire a single air to ground missile before he enters the
cloud cover. Configure the missile for contact detonation. There
will be no radar imaging feedback, so simply tell the pilot to fire
the missile into the center of the cloud cover
and
pull up before the aircraft enters the cloud.
I will listen
in on the mission radio frequency.”

A few tense minutes later, Captain
Popovich
heard the following radio
transmission:

“Fargo-one to Fargo-three, commence attack
run.”

“Roger, Fargo-one.”

A few seconds later, “Fargo Three,
missile
launched!”

The other pilots witnessed a horrific sight.
Immediately after the F-18 launched its missile, there was a
blinding explosion. The jet and the missile
were
instantly reduced
to flaming debris that tumbled downwards
toward the cloud bank. As the debris neared the cloud bank, some
unknown force deflected the wreckage away from the island. Not a
single piece would land on, or within several miles of, that small
island beneath its protective cloud.

Fargo-one radioed, “Fargo three down, I
repeat, Fargo three down. The pilot did not eject.”

Everything seemed to be perfectly normal
until the pilot launched the missile. Now, it and the
F-18
were both blown
to bits in a
stunning explosion.

“Fargo-one to base, we’ve lost an aircraft.
There’s no way that the pilot survived! Standing by for further
orders.”

Captain
Popovich
listened in amazement. But, his nightmare was just beginning. He
yelled at his executive officer, Commander Neil Wilcox, “Get me
COMNAVSURFLANT ASAP! I need to know what the hell is going on out
here.”

Captain
Popovich
was
incredulous. He had lost a plane and its pilot on a mission that
should have
been accomplished
without
incident. The situation he faced was obviously not what it had
seemed. He was a well-trained professional who never lost control
of a situation no matter how dangerous, but, now it was time for
help. He needed Rear Admiral
Morningstar,
and
he needed him now.

Grabbing
the radio
handset from
Wilcox’s hand, Popovich loudly
exclaimed,
“Hugh! What have we gotten into here? You ordered
me to take that island by force. The damn place is covered by a
dense cloud and is invisible to radar. I ordered an air-to-ground
missile strike for the center of the island. It was meant to be a
simple
wake-up
call for them. I just wanted to
take the residents into custody as easily as possible and get the
mission behind me.

“But the damned
missile
exploded
almost immediately
after
launching
and took out the
F-18 that fired it as well.”

Morningstar replied, “Our Maverick missiles
have always been extremely reliable and safe to handle. There’s
never been a problem with early detonation before. I can’t believe
that it just exploded by itself. Are you
sure
that there wasn’t some foreign craft in the area that could have
brought down our aircraft? Or a missile fired from the ground?”

Popovich
replied
angrily, “Yes, I’m certain that
an incoming missile
didn't cause the explosion
. Again, I ask you, what’s going
on? What have we gotten into here?”

Admiral Morningstar was at a loss as to what
to say. He knew nothing. The so-called raid was to be on a civilian
island with less than a dozen people. Even if they were
well-trained
terrorists and armed with
ground
-to-air missiles, there was just no way that they
could have pulled something like this off.

“Listen, Poppy, I’m as blindsided on this as
you are. We simply had orders to take that little sandbar and its
handful of residents. No mention of heavy resistance was given us
and certainly no indication of any advanced defensive weaponry. The
only advice that I can offer is to continue with the mission as
ordered. We’ll sort out the loss of the jet
afterward
.”

“Thanks, Admiral. We will continue as
ordered.”

Turning to Commander Wilcox,
Popovich
said, “Wilcox I want an AAV full of Marines to
hit the beach on that island ASAP. And have both frigates stand by
to lend support if needed. There is something fishy going here. We
have no idea what we are up
against,
and we
have already lost a warplane and a pilot. We will proceed under the
assumption that we are at
war
and that the
damned island is inhabited by
well-armed
enemy
combatants.

“And, damn it, I want to know who the hell
the enemy
is, and
I want to know NOW!”

Commander Wilcox replied with a salute. “Yes,
sir, right away, sir.”

****

John awoke early to take a walk along the
sandy beach just as the sun peeked over the horizon. He needed time
to think. The next few hours were utterly
critical,
and the smallest misstep could lead to
disaster. The fate of the nation, and probably the entire world,
rested on his shoulders and that weight was an enormous burden.

Just before he started his walk
on the beach, he ordered Maxxine to take into custody the Krakow
Klub members and Carla Montrose.

By the time he arrived at the
beach, Maxxine reported that she had taken all twelve members of
the Krakow Klub and Carla Montrose into custody. They were all in
cells aboard his space station.
He could now proceed to
Washington, DC, and the White House early this morning as planned.
He planned to
arrive
there
at
about 7:30 AM, so he had about an hour.