“Wepps,” he said, calling Murph by the nickname for the weapons station. “How long until we’re in Exocet range?”
“At present speed, it’ll be at least forty minutes. If we can’t get an exact coordinate from Eric, we’ll have to be even closer to make a positive ID on the yacht.”
“Hali, get Eric on the line. I want to know if he has any more intel for us. Then, while we’re talking, call Langston Overholt and let me know when you’ve got him.”
Eric had previously established communications with them through the Oz cave’s landline and his voice issued from the op center’s speakers. “This thing is incredible.”
“Man, you have all the fun,” Murph said.
“I could spend weeks studying the technology.”
Juan looked at the ship’s chronometer. “You’ve actually got twenty-three minutes left, so give us the highlights.”
“Right. Okay, we’ve been able to establish Kensit’s location, but we’ll only have that as long as we’re in here and Sentinel is connected to his yacht. After that, he’s a ghost.” He passed the new coordinates on to Linda.
“He turned northwest,” Murph said. “We won’t be there for fifty minutes.”
“That’s a big problem,” Eric said.
“Why?” Juan asked.
“Because Kensit took over six QF-16 fighter drones over an hour ago. They took off from Tyndall Air Force Base and are headed in our direction. They should be almost directly above Kensit right now.”
Juan banged his fist in triumph on the arm of his chair. “That’s how he’s going to shoot it down.”
“I’ve got Overholt on the line,” Hali said.
“Patch him in.” Hali nodded, and Juan said, “Lang, did you get in touch with the president?”
“It’s not the president,” Overholt said. “He’s in Chicago this morning. But Vice President Sandecker is on his way back from Brazil.”
“Where is his plane?”
“It just passed over Haiti.”
“You need to get the pilot to turn around. Lawrence Kensit is about to bring Air Force Two down with drones he’s hijacked.”
“Oh, my God,” Overholt said. “We just got a flash report that the data feeds from six drones were lost as they were flying toward the Bahamas for a demonstration at the UNITAS naval exercise. They haven’t been able to make contact with either the drones or the chase planes.”
“If the drones are modified F-16s, they’ll be able to chase down Air Force Two unless their fuel is exhausted before they can intercept.”
“Convincing the Air Force that the vice president’s plane is about to be shot down by their own jets is going to be a tough sell, but I’ll see what I can do.”
The line clicked.
“Did you get that, Eric?” Juan said.
“Yes, and I might be able to help. I’m sending the transponder codes for both the drones and Air Force Two to Hali so you can track them. I got them off of Kensit’s remote control panel.”
“Good work.”
“That shot from Trono’s recording also might show Murph how to deactivate Kensit’s connection with the drones if he can figure out how Kensit is controlling them.”
Juan nodded to Murph and threw him Trono’s phone. Murph caught it with one hand and began downloading the video from the phone to the ship’s computer system.
“Before you go, I have another troublesome issue for you,” Eric said.
“By all means,” Juan said, shaking his head. “We’re just twiddling our thumbs anyway.”