66. Chapter Sixty-Six
Chapter sixty-six
Noble gripped the steering wheel with one hand while he concentrated on the road spooling out before him, framed by a pair of dim headlamps that should have been replaced a decade or two ago.
Xanders’ tired old Citro?n made occasional hitching noises, followed by loud clanks.
The temperature gauge kept creeping higher and higher.
Mehmet rode in the passenger seat, still inside the balding tire. Noble had used the safety belt to tightly wrap his wrists together before buckling him in. The tire forced him to slump forward, his head lolling. He had complained the first few miles. Now he rode in sullen silence.
The car smelled like pastry, cold coffee, and dried blood.
Hot air whispered through the vents, probably coming off the engine block, turning the little Citro?n into a sweatbox.
Noble had tinkered with the knobs for a while but never managed to get any cold air.
Large wet beads rolled down his cheeks. On the plus side, the hot air blowing through the vents was probably helping to keep the engine from overheating.
Small price to pay.
“We are going to need gas soon,” Noble said as he eyed the indicator. The Citro?n was below a quarter tank. “If I stop for petrol, are you going to behave yourself?”
Mehmet opened his hands as if to say, ‘what can I possibly do?’
Noble nodded and reached for a coffee cup in the center console, but his phone started buzzing and he picked that up instead.
He’d already called Burke and he’d been waiting for a call back.
Kadare was scheduled to meet his IRGC contact in Ban Jela?i? Square at 8am.
Noble put the phone on speaker, dropped it in the console and picked up his coffee.
“Sam, you’re on speaker and there’s a third party. ”
“Thanks for the heads up.” Her voice was unusually subdued.
Jake already knew what was coming. The exchange was taking place in less than three hours, in a busy pedestrian center, and he was a few hundred miles away.
He searched the roadside for a kilometer marker while he drove, spotted one, and did a quick conversion in his head.
Less than two hundred miles now. His foot edged down on the accelerator.
Sam said, “Our options are limited. We are working to put together another fast reaction team, but…”
Noble cut to the chase. “I’m on the A3 now,” he told her. “Headed north.”
She let out a breath. Silence filled the line. At last she said, “Ja… Goodman, you don’t have to do this.”
“If I don’t?” Noble asked. His eyes went to Mehmet then back to the road.
“My source tells me the Iranians are going to use the virus on the Serbs first, as the final part in Kadare’s twisted revenge plot.
Then what do you think they’ll do with it?
Wipe out Israel? Or maybe New York? Or maybe Saint Pete, Florida? I can’t let that happen.”
“Okay,” Sam said in a small voice. “But it doesn’t have to be you. The National Security Advisor and the SecDef war are gaming alternative options as we speak. They might—”
“They might take too long,” Noble cut her off. He sipped the coffee in the hopes it would drive some of the exhaustion from his brain and returned the cup to the center console.
“If things go wrong,” Sam said. She was on the verge of tears. “If the virus gets out...”
“I’ve got two ampules of antivirus in my pocket,” Noble told her.
“You do?”
“My friend was carrying them with him.”
“That—that changes everything,” Sam said. “We can use those to synthesize a cure.”
“How many people will die while that happens?” Noble asked. “You and I both know it takes time and money to mass produce an antibody. We going to let every man, woman, and child in Serbia die while we work on a cure?”
“There has to be some other way,” Sam said.
“There’s not,” Noble said. “I’m going to stop the sale. You get on the horn with Washington and tell them to put the pedal to the medal on a military response.”
“Promise me,” said Sam, “that if things go bad, if the virus gets out, you’ll take the cure.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
“Promise me.”
“Okay, I promise.” One hand went to his breast pocket where he felt the two vials. “Do me a favor?”
“Name it.”
“Say a prayer for me.”
“I won’t stop praying,” Sam assured him.