âOH, MY GOD,â GRIMALDI WHISPERED
A pall of smoke rose above the fireburst, curling and swelling into a mushroom shape. The dust and debris sucked up into the superheated air began to fall back to earth. A dark cloud formed over the scene of destruction.
âCarl, what happened?â Brognola demanded.
âListen hard, Hal,â Lyons said from the chopper. âThereâs been a massive explosion near Bucklow. I mean massive. Call in all emergency services in the vicinity. Now.â
âWhat does it look like?â
âLike Hell landed on the county with a vengeance.â
âCarl, Gadgets is down there.â
Freedom comes at a high price and requires constant guardianship. Taken for granted, it can slip away all too easily. When the hand weakens and the eye turns aside, the time may come when the resolve needs to be strengthened. And in those times there may be a need for armed conflict to restore the balance. As always it is the men and women of the Armed Services who must carry that burden. They bear the brunt of the inevitable clash of arms, and they do so in the spirit of the pledge they made to ever defend and protect our peace. Their fight goes on. They continue to suffer and often to make the ultimate sacrifice. They deserve both our respect and our enduring gratitude.
San Remo, Italian Riviera
Abe Keen had a lead. The freelance investigative reporter was involved in a project chasing down former members of Saddam Husseinâs administration, and heâd been working on his story for the past three months. Keen had succeeded in identifying and photographing four of the former dictatorâs cabinet members who had managed to escape from Iraq as the coalition forces moved in. Working from tip-offs from his not-inconsiderable sources, Keen had journeyed to a villa on the Italian Riviera, where he was expecting to find a group of the hard-line inner circle. If the information was true and he managed to get the final batch of photographs, the journalist would have everything he needed to complete his series of articles.
Keen was perched on an outcrop overlooking the villa. From his vantage point, armed with his camera and telephoto lens, he was able to look down on the pool and the patio surrounding it. Three hours had passed, but as yet heâd seen nothing of significance.
He was used to long periods of inactivity. It came with the job. The great pictures seldom came easy. Not in Keenâs line of business. He wasnât looking for that defining moment when the lens caught a fragment of life at its most fragile. Keen was a hunter. His life paralleled the man in the bush, stalking his prey and waiting for the right time to squeeze the trigger. It was often a long time coming, and one of the first things the hunter had to learn was patience. The ability to sit for long periods, doing nothing. Just waiting. Waiting for that split second when his quarry presented itself in the crosshairs. Keen had honed his craft over the years. Now it was part of him. Just as breathing was a natural function, so was Keenâs ability to let the moment come to himâand when it did he grasped it and froze it on film.
Below him there was movement on the poolside. First, the armed bodyguards. Even though the villa was behind high walls, with electronic warning systems, the bodyguards always came out and scanned the immediate area. They moved with the precise actions of men who breathed security. Once they had the poolside secure, they stood back while the principals came out and took their places around the table, talking among themselves.