Chapters (12)
He told his caller that he would get back to them, hung up the phone, and then looked seriously at Kelsey. “Yes, Kelsey—the McLanahans are in terrible danger,” he said. “In fact, Wendy McLanahan is missing, and General McLanahan’s brother Paul is dead.” Kelsey’s eyes widened in fear, becoming shiny with tears, but she said nothing. “General McL—Patrick, is trying to force the Libyans to turn Wendy over to him.”
“What will he do?” Kelsey asked.
“He is going to attack some key military targets inside Libya, places that are vital to Libya’s defenses,” Jon replied. “All he has to help him are two men, Hal Briggs and Chris Wohl, with Tin Man battle armor; some soldiers, one or two aircraft.. . and us. The Libyans have over one hundred thousand troops, a very big air force, and nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.”
“What will you do?”
“Patrick wants me to launch several Wolverine and FlightHawk missiles against targets in Libya,” Jon replied. “Once the targets are destroyed, he’ll be able to fly in and attack more vital targets from the ground. He plans on attacking more and more targets in Libya until the president of Libya turns over Wendy and the others. We’ll launch two attack planes, twelve hours apart.”
“What if Wendy is dead?” Kelsey asked, her face drawn with fear.
“I don’t know,” Jon replied. “I hope Patrick will come home. He has a little boy, you know—his name is Bradley. He hasn’t seen Bradley in a long time.”
To Jon’s complete surprise, Kelsey Duffield started to cry. It was the first time he had ever seen her display any emotions at all, let alone such utter sadness. But then another completely unexpected thing happened: Jon Masters reached over and hugged the little girl. For several long moments, the two stayed in each other’s arms. Her weeping got more intense, deeper, and for a moment Jon didn’t know if he could maintain his composure—before he realized that tears were running down his cheeks too. Helen put her arms around her husband, and they shared that terrible moment together—the first time in their short but close relationship that they shared anything more than business together.
After a while, the little girl’s weeping subsided but they stayed in their siblinglike embrace. Finally, Jon asked, “Are you going to be okay, Kelsey?”
“I think so,” Kelsey replied, sniffing. She was silent for a moment; then: “Jon?”
“Yes?”
She sniffed away a tear again, still holding Jon Masters tightly, and asked, “What warheads are you going to put on the cruise missiles?”
“W . . . what?”
“What are you going to arm those Wolverines and FlightHawks with?” the sad little girl asked. Slowly but surely, Jon could hear the familiar business-like steel returning to her voice as she added, “I have some ideas that might help. . .