Divide and conquer - Tom Clancy [75]
"We picked up a ping," Korsov said excitedly.
"What kind of ping?" Orlov asked. A ping was how his intelligence officers described any kind of electronic communication.
"The same one we recorded as having been sent from Gobustan," Korsov replied.
"Was the call made from Gobustan?"
"No," Korsov replied.
"It was made from Baku to a site very close by. A site that was also in Baku."
"How close?" Orlov asked.
"The caller and receiver were less than a quarter mile," Korsov told him.
"We can't measure distances less than that."
"Maybe the Harpooner was calling accomplices who have another secure line," Orlov suggested.
"I don't think so," Korsov told him.
"The phone call only lasted three seconds. As far as we can tell there was no verbal communication."
"What was sent?"
"Just an empty signal," Krosov said.
"We've fed cartographic al data into the computer. Grosky is overlaying the signal and trying to pinpoint the exact location now."
"Very good," Orlov said.
"Let me know as soon as you have it." As soon as Orlov hung up, he put in a call to Mike Rodgers to let him know about the apparent NSA Harpooner connection and the possible location of the Harpooner. Then he called Odette. He hoped that the American she had saved was ready to move out. Orlov did not want to send Odette against the Harpooner unassisted, but he would if he had to. Because more than that, he did not want to lose the Harpooner. As Orlov punched in Odette's number, he began to feel hopeful and upbeat. The technology that he had helped put into space was actually a two-edged sword. The Harpooner had been using a secure satellite uplink to help destroy lives. Now, with luck, that uplink would have an unexpected use. To pinpoint the Harpooner and help destroy him.
Teheran, Iran Tuesday, 10:07 a.m.
The chief of the Supreme Command Council of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran had been called at home shortly after dawn.
Teheran maintained listening posts on many of their oil rigs in the Caspian Sea. From there, they eavesdropped electronically on foreign shipping and on military sites along the Caspian coast. Each post sent a pulse every five minutes to indicate that the electronics were still on-line. The sudden silence of Post Four was the first indication anyone in Teheran had that something was wrong in the Caspian. An F-14 Tomcat was immediately dispatched from the Doshan Tapeh Air Base outside of Teheran. The Tomcat was one of ten that remained of the seventy seven that had been a part of the shah's state-of-the-art air force. The fighter confirmed that the oil rig had been destroyed. Salvage experts and military engineers were immediately parachuted into the region by a Kawasaki C-l transport. While rescue patrol boats hurried to the site from Caspian fleet headquarters in Bandar-e Anzelli, the engineers found burn marks on the platform that were consistent with powerful high explosives. The fact that the underside had been struck suggested a submarine attack that had somehow eluded sonar detection. At nine-thirty a.m." the salvage experts found something more. The body of Russian terrorist Sergei Cherkassov. The report galvanized the often fractious officers of the SCCAF as well as the minister of the Islamic Revolutions Guards Corps, the minster of foreign affairs, the minister of the interior, and the minister of intelligence. The moderates had joined the extremists, and by ten a.m." the order had been given: the IRI military was ordered to defend Iranian interests in the Caspian at any and all cost.* On the sea, the initial thrust was to be an antisubmarine defense. That was spearheaded by antisubmarine aircraft and helicopters. Marine battalions in the region were also mobilized. The second wave would consist of destroyers and frigates, which were to be stationed around the remaining rigs. Chinese-made Silkworm missiles were rushed to the forces defending the