The engines powered up and Tyler could feel the altitude increasing. He shot down the stairs and ran to the back of the cargo deck where Jess was waiting at the open door. She had a death grip on the life raft to keep from being sucked out by the airstream.
“You ready?” he shouted over the wind.
She nodded, no trace of fear. If anything, she looked pumped for the experience.
Tyler put both hands against the raft, and Jess did the same.
He called out, “One! Two! Three! Push!”
They surged toward the cargo door, until the raft tipped over the edge and flipped out.
“Go!” he yelled, and Jess sprinted forward with a whoop, as if she were on one of her extreme tourism adventures. She leaped off the lowered cargo door, and the slipstream ripped her away.
Tyler, who was right behind her, wished that he were as exhilarated by the jump. The only thing that was making his feet move was the knowledge that this was no longer a perfectly good airplane.
Then he was freefalling into space. The air was sucked from his lungs as he was bombarded by a wind shear unlike anything he’d experienced in previous jumps.
Tyler watched the C-17 rise into the sky above him, so mesmerized that he almost forgot he wasn’t on a static line. He pulled his ripcord and strained at the harness as the chute yanked him to a sudden stop.
He scanned the ocean for the other chute and saw Jess floating lazily below him. The bright banana-colored raft splashed into the water only a few hundred yards away. The fully inflated boat’s wind resistance had kept it from getting too far behind them.
The calm ocean rose to meet Tyler quickly, and he readied himself to release the chute. Drowned by his own parachute was not how he wanted to go.
He plunged into the water and held his breath as he wriggled out of the harness. After an agonizingly long thirty seconds, he was free and swam for the surface.
He burst into the air and took a deep breath. He whirled around looking for Jess and the raft.
He saw the raft first, its color easily spotted against the blue horizon. Then he saw Jess paddling toward it with a smooth stroke.
It took him several minutes to meet her there. They climbed in and caught their breath. The flashing light of the homing beacon was activated automatically by the water, but the survival kit was gone, probably lost while the life raft was tumbling through the air. They could do nothing now but wait for rescue.
Jess sat up and leaned against the outer tube.
“You all right?” Tyler said.
“That was amazing! You?”
“As good as can be expected.”
She drew the folded Leatherman from her pocket and handed it to Tyler. “I thought we might need it if we’re out here for long.”
“I can’t seem to lose this,” he said, and put it in his own pocket. “Unfortunately, I don’t think the Air Force will consider it a fair trade for a two-hundred-million dollar jet.”
“I can’t see it,” she said. “How far away do you think it is?”
Tyler checked his watch. Fifteen seconds to detonation.
“I’m hoping it’s at least thirty miles away by now. It should still be accelerating.”
“Will we be able to see the blast from here?”
As if in response to her question, Tyler squinted as a fiery orange glow pierced the sky. He counted while he awaited the sound of the explosion.
Two minutes later a tremendous crack split the air.
“Twenty-five miles away,” Tyler said.
“Is that far enough?”
“At this distance the gamma radiation is going to be minimal.” He pointed at the extinguished homing beacon light. “But the electromagnetic pulse reached us. That’s why the electronic beacon shut off. We’ll have to hope someone with a sailboat is headed our way.”
“I hope it’s soon,” Jess said, her teeth chattering.
Tyler’s adrenaline subsided and he realized he was shivering as well.
“Come here,” he said.
She nestled against him, and he wrapped his arms around her for the shared warmth.
That was about all they had going for them. No food. No fresh water. And because of the EMP, the only populated area within two thousand miles was now a technological wasteland.
FORTY
Halfway to Santiago, Colchev finished watching the video from Fay’s camera for a third time. He concluded that there were two possibilities for where they would find the xenobium at the Nazca plateau. Either it was at the Mandala geometric figure or it was somewhere in the pyramid of Cahuachi.
The photo from Ivan Dombrovski’s lab in 1947 proved that the Russian scientist had found a ball of xenobium three inches in diameter as a result of his search all those years ago. The unnamed cave had pointed the way, he’d recorded, but Dombrovski never explained why he didn’t bring the xenobium back with him. The only puzzle piece Colchev had been missing was the location of the cave. Thanks to Fay Turia and Tyler Locke, he’d found it.
The problem now was deciding where to begin the next part of the search. Fay was going to help him decide.
He walked to the rear of the Gulfstream, where Fay stared through the window at the ocean below.
He took a seat opposite her. “Mrs. Turia.”
She turned her gaze on him, her eyes blank. “What?”
“You seem to be an expert on the Nazca lines, and I need your assistance.”
She barked a raspy laugh. “You must be dumber than the sheep on my station.”
Colchev wasn’t accustomed to women talking to him like that. He clenched his armrest tightly. “If you don’t help me, I don’t have a reason to keep you alive. You’re saying I should just shoot you right now.” He drew his pistol and aimed it at her head.
Fay didn’t flinch. “Go ahead. I’ll be dead in a few months anyway.”
That was not the reaction Colchev was expecting. He lowered the pistol. “What do you mean?”
“I mean I have malignant pancreatic cancer. Apparently it’s not a pleasant way to go, so you’ll actually be doing me a favor by pulling that trigger.”
He’d never seen someone so unafraid of death. Men he’d threatened like that were more likely to wet their pants than talk back. He put the gun away and tried a different tactic.
“I’m giving you a chance to save your granddaughter.”
Fay’s eyes softened. “You will
“You
He didn’t tell her that the armed Killswitch would have irradiated the entire island with gamma rays. It was quite likely that both Jess and Tyler were now dead or soon would be, along with the two models Colchev had left behind in the hotel.
He leaned forward to make his point. “If, for some reason, my mission fails because you didn’t help me, I will have no choice but to hunt your granddaughter down and kill her.”
“How do I know you won’t do that anyway?”
“Because I won’t have any reason to.”
“I’m not naive. I’ve seen your faces. I know that you have something called the Killswitch. And I know you’re after more xenobium. Why would you let me live?”
“I won’t go into the details, but I will tell you that Washington, DC, will cease to be the center of global power once this is over. Once America is on its knees, China will fall with it, as dependent as it is on the US economy. Moscow will take its rightful place on the world stage as the dominant force, and so I will have nothing to fear.”
