Line of Control - Tom Clancy [85]
"Shit!" he cried. He felt as if he had been slammed in the chest with a log. The line grew steel-taut as the chopper began to drop.
Hands reached for him from the ledge. The wind kept him buoyed.
Someone held the radio while someone else tried to undo the line.
Suddenly, someone in front of him raised an AK-47 and fired a burst above his head. The nylon line snapped and the wind bumped Friday forward. More hands grabbed his jacket and pulled him onto the ledge.
Because the wind was still battering him he did not feel as if he were on solid ground.
He lay there for a moment as he sucked air into his wounded lungs. He was facing the valley and he watched as the helicopter descended in a slow, lazy spiral.
Then, a moment later, it stopped spiraling. The chopper fell tail first, straight and purposeful, like a metal shuttlecock.
It picked up speed as it descended, finally vanishing into the low-lying clouds.
A moment later he heard a bang that echoed hollow through the valley.
It was accompanied by a burst of or angered that seemed to spread through the clouds like dye.
However, Ron Friday did not have time to contemplate the death of Captain Nazir. The hands that had saved him hoisted him up and put him against the wall of the cliff.
A woman put a gun under his chin and forced him to look at her. Her face was frostbitten and her eyes manic. Ice clung to the hair that showed beneath her hood.
"Who are you?" she demanded, screaming to be heard over the wind.
"I'm Ron Friday with American intelligence," he shouted back.
"Are you the FKM leader?"
"I am!" she replied.
"Good," he said.
"You're the one I'm looking for. You and Nanda. Is she with you?"
"Why?" she shouted.
Friday replied, "Because she may be the only one who can stop the nuclear destruction of your country."
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO.
Washington, D. C.
Thursday, 6:25 a. m.
"What the hell just happened?" Bob Herbert asked Viens.
Op-Center's intelligence chief was sitting at his desk in his darkened office. He had been watching the computer monitor with half-shut eyes until the image suddenly woke him up. He immediately hit auto dial on his telephone and raised Stephen Viens at the NRO.
"It looks like a chopper went down," Viens said.
"Chopper," Herbert said. It was more a question than a statement.
"You were dozing," Viens said.
"Yes, I had my eyes closed," Herbert said.
"What happened?"
"All we saw was the tail end of a chopper approach the cliff and lower a line with two men on it," Viens told him.
"It looks like the cell took the men in and the chopper went down. We did not have a wide enough viewing area to be certain of that."
"Friday had a copter," Herbert said.
"Could it have been him?"
"We don't know who was on the end of the line," Viens replied.
"One of them looked like he might have been carrying a radio. It was an electronic box of some kind. It did not look like U. S. intelligence issue."
"I'll call you back," Herbert said.
"Bob?" Viens said.
"If that was an Indian air force chopper they're going to know where it went down. Even if it wasn't, the explosion is going to register on their satellite monitors or seismic equipment."
"I know," Herbert said. The intelligence head put Stephen Viens on hold and called Hank Lewis's office. The NSA officer was not in yet.
Herbert tried Lewis's cell phone but the voice mail picked up. He was either on that line or out of range. Herbert swore. He finally tried Lewis at home. He caught Lewis in the middle of shaving.
Herbert told the NSA chief what had happened and asked if he knew for certain whether Ron Friday was in Jaudar.
"I assume so," Lewis said.
"I haven't spoken with him since our conference call."
"Do you have any way of reaching him?" Herbert asked.
"Only if he's in the helicopter," Lewis said.
"What about his cell phone?" Herbert pressed.
"We haven't tried that," Lewis said.
"But on the move, in the mountains, it may be difficult."
"True," Herbert agreed.
"And the radio?"
"We used a NATO frequency to contact him, but I don't have that info