Word came back that SO19 had the rooftop covered. Meanwhile, we watched the two men get into position. There could be little doubt now that they were there to bring down a plane. And we were watching the frightening scene, without being able to stop it.

"Arseholes!" Lodge swore at the monitors. "Not going to be anything for you bastards to shoot at. How do you like that?"

"They look Middle Eastern to me," said one of the other detectives. "They certainly don't look Russian!"

"We don't have the go-ahead to shoot," a man wearing headphones announced. "We're still on hold."

"What the bloody hell is going on?" Lodge complained in a high-pitched voice. "We have to take them out. Come on!"

Suddenly there were gunshots! We could hear them on the video. The man with the launcher on his shoulder went down. He didn't get up, didn't move at all. Then the second suspect was hit. Two clean head shots.

"What the hell?" someone shouted in the van where we were watching. Then everyone was cursing and yelling.

"Who gave the order to shoot? What's going on here?" screamed Lodge.

Word finally came back, but nobody could believe it. Our snipers hadn't made the hit. Somebody else had shot the two men on the roof.

Madness.

It was total madness.

Chapter 66

Everything was a wild ride like nothing anyone could imagine, like nothing anyone ever had imagined. The latest deadline was hours away and nobody in the rank and file knew what was happening. Maybe the prime minister knew something? The president? The chancellor of Germany?

Every passing hour just rubbed it in for us. Then it was the passing minutes that hurt. There was nothing we could do, except pray that the ransom would be paid. Soldiers in Iraq, I kept thinking to myself. That's what we are like. Observers of absurdity.

Back in London, at one point in the late afternoon I took a brief walk down near Westminster Abbey. There was so much powerful history on display in this part of the city. The streets weren't deserted, but traffic was very light around Parliament Square, with few tourists and pedestrians. The people of London didn't know what was happening, but whatever it was, it wasn't good.

I called my house in Washington several times. Nobody answered. Had Nana moved? Then I talked to the kids at their aunt Tia's in Maryland. No one knew where Nana Mama was. Another thing to worry about—just what I needed.