Sahara (Dirk Pitt 11)

"You don't know that."

"Nonetheless, I've ordered a fighter squadron over the area and sent in an elite security force by helicopter to check out the situation."

"What of O'Bannion?" asked Massarde. "Hasn't he contacted you?"

"No response, nothing. Forty minutes after they denied an emergency, all communication with Tebezza went silent."

Massarde mulled over Kazim's report, but was lost for answers. "Why raid the mines?" he asked finally. "For what purpose?"

"Most likely the gold," Kazim replied.

"Stupid to steal ore. We remove all pure gold to our South Pacific depository as soon as it's processed. The last shipment was two days ago. A band of thieves with half a brain between them would attempt to hijack it during transport."

"For the moment, I have no theories," Kazim confessed. He held up his watch. "My forces should be landing on the plateau above the mines about now. We'll have answers within the hour."

"If what you say is true, something strange is happening," Massarde murmured.

"We have to consider the possibility that the same United Nations commando team that struck my air force base in Gao is responsible for the raid on Tebezza."

"Gao was a different operation. Why return and strike Tebezza? Under whose orders?"

Kazim finished off his gin and poured another. "Hala Kamil? Perhaps word leaked out about the abduction of Dr. Hopper and his party. So she sent in her tactical team to rescue them."

"Impossible," said Massarde, shaking his head. "Unless your men talked."

"My men know they would die if they betrayed my trust," Kazim said coldly. "If there was a leak, it came from your end."

Massarde gave Kazim a benign stare. "Stupid of us to argue. We can't alter the past, but we can control the future."

"In what way?"

"You said your pilot claimed a hit on the airliner."

"His final words."

"Then we can assume the raiding party's only means of escape from Mali has been eliminated."

"Providing damage to their aircraft was severe enough."

Massarde rose and turned to face a large plaster contour map of the Sahara that stretched on the wall behind his desk. "If you were in command of the raiders and your plane was destroyed, how would you see your situation?"

"All but hopeless."

"What are your options?"

Kazim came over and tapped his glass against the plaster map. "There are no options but one. Cut and run for the Algerian border."

"Can they make it?" asked Massarde.

"Assuming their vehicles are intact and fueled, they should be able to cross over into Algeria sometime around dawn."

Massarde looked at him. "Can you catch and destroy them before they reach the border?"

"Our night fighting systems are limited. I might shave them down a bit, but to wipe them out I would need daylight."

"Then you will be too late."

Kazim took a cigar from a ceramic humidor, lit it, and sipped from his gin. "Let us be practical. We're looking at the Tanezrouft, the most desolate and remote part of the Sahara. The Algerian military rarely sends a patrol into the uninhabited region along the border. And why should they. They have no quarrel with Mali, and we have none with them. My security forces can easily strike 100 miles inside our northern neighbor without detection."