“Where is it right now?” Kate asked.
“At its current rate of speed, it’s crossing out of Missouri and into southern Illinois. How about putting it down in a large body of water?”
With the tap of a finger, Kate brought up a map of the southern half of Illinois and highlighted every body of water. “The only problem is finding one that isn’t right next to a populated area.”
“You better find something fast, ’cause this sucker’ll be hitting Indiana in about ninety seconds. Why not Lake Michigan? It’s close enough by now.”
Kate increased her scrolling, searching for any lake large enough to serve her purpose. “Now’s who’s putting the pressure on? Besides, I want that warhead, assuming it survives impact, and I’d rather have it not irradiating a Great Lake for about fifty thousand years.” Kate scanned through huge swathes of land with finger flicks, trying to find the right combination of depth and remoteness. “Jesus, why couldn’t they have flown over Minnesota? Wait a minute—I might have something. It’s not perfect, but it’ll have to do. Can you put it down in the westernmost fork of this lake?” She transmitted coordinates to B2S.
“I can try—you realize there’s a good chance the whole thing might burst apart on impact and scatter plutonium all over the place?”
“Better than plunging several million people into chaos.
I’ll fix it with the DNR later. Just do it now.”
The hacker switched to a phone line so she could talk to Kate as she worked. “Okay, here goes…coming up on the coordinates…sending the new change of course.
Guidance system has accepted it. According to my calcs, it should be hitting the lake right about…now. Hope we didn’t scare the crap out of some early-morning fisher-men.”
As Kate watched, the red line abruptly terminated in the southeast quadrant of Illinois. She sighed with relief.
“Congratulations, B2S, you probably saved about a million people’s lives.”
“I’ll be sure to remind you of that at my next evalua-tion. You need me for anything else?”
“Yeah, as long as you’re inside the Spaceworks network, make sure they can’t destroy any of their data. I have a feeling the FBI folks are going to find it very interesting. Let me know when you’ve got it locked down.”
“I’m on it.”
Kate was already switching to another channel to the Super Hercules. “MR-1, this is Primary. Repeat, this is Primary. I am altering your flight plan, priority one.
Change course and proceed to the downloaded coordinates. And tell the team to break out their hazmat gear and their scuba tanks, because they’re about to go swimming.”
Next, she dialed Tracy’s line, wanting to tell her the good news.
Tracy noticed a dull ringing in her ears, accompanied by a throbbing behind her temples that felt like a hundred tiny men were playing drums inside her skull. An acrid smell invaded her nostrils, and her eyes fluttered open to see a SWAT team member crouched over her, holding something under her nose.
“Hey, you are alive.” He helped her sit up slowly. “Careful, you took a pretty nasty jolt.” His voice sounded muffled, as if he was talking through thick cotton.
Tracy tried to speak, but her throat felt as dry as the desert. “Water,” she whispered. The SWAT officer produced a canteen, which she grabbed and lifted to her lips.
“Slow down, too fast and—”
“I know, I know, I might get cramps.” Tracy took one more big gulp of water, then looked around. “What happened? The last thing I remember was Nate going into a small room….”
“We heard an explosion. When we found you, Briggs was knocked out, lying on top of you—we think he tried to get you out of harm’s way—and there was what was left of a person blown across the hallway. Uh, don’t look over there.”
“Nate…oh, my God…” Tracy’s gaze involuntarily went to the red spray against the far wall. She winced and looked away and swallowed, trying to control the bile rising at the back of her throat.
“Was that his name? He must have triggered some kind of booby trap on the hatch in the floor. It collapsed the entrance to the tunnel or whatever’s down there. He took the brunt of the blast, too, actually ended up protecting both of you. I’m afraid that’s what’s left—it was pretty nasty, sorry.”
“What about the rocket?” Tracy asked.
“We couldn’t stop it in time. It’s already launched.”
“Can’t we stop it from here?”
“They’ve locked us out of the system. No one’s willing to give up the codes to gain access. They say they’re all willing to die for Allah.”
“Shit.” Tracy pulled out her cell phone, hoping it hadn’t been broken in the impact. It rang just as she flipped it open. “Stephanie?”
“Tracy, we’ve stopped the rocket. It’s splashed down in Illinois, and we’ve got people heading over there right now. Is the compound secure?”
Tracy asked the SWAT member who nodded. “Yeah, but al-Kharzi got away. He took off in a bolt-hole that led to an escape tunnel—Nate was killed going after him.”
“How’d you like to catch up with him?” Kate asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Our plans show the main tunnel under the building. It goes north, and comes out near a normally unused access road. If you hurry, you might be able to intercept him. Take him alive, if you can.”
Tracy rose, fighting off a wave of dizziness. “I’m on it.
Thanks, Stephanie, for everything.”
The SWAT officer eyed her dubiously. “Where are you going? You need to lie down, and should really have someone look at your head. You’ve probably got a concus-sion—”
“I’ve got one more thing to take care of. You got keys to a vehicle?”
“Well, yeah.”
Tracy scanned the corridor for her pistol, finding it a few yards away. “Hand them over.”
“What?”
“Listen, Officer, the man behind this entire plan, who almost destroyed half of the United States, is about to get away if I don’t stop him. I’d hate to have to tell my superiors—and yours—that he got away because I couldn’t get a vehicle. Now hand over those keys, dammit!”
Stunned by her commanding tone, the officer produced the keys. “The truck is out by the back entrance to the compound. Two doors down, turn right, go past the huge room and out the back—you can’t miss it.”
“All right. If your superiors ask, Agent Tracy Wentworth commandeered your vehicle. If they want to make an issue of it, have them contact the FBI. Who’s your commanding officer, so I can let them know who to expect to hear from?”
“Lieutenant Marcus. Uh, ma’am, shouldn’t I accompany you, for reinforcement?”
Tracy was already trotting down the hallway. “Thanks, Officer, but you’ll probably be in enough trouble as it is.”
Following the officer’s directions, Tracy quickly made her way out of the main building, flashing her badge at any SWAT or Border Patrol agent who even looked at her.
Another minute brought her to the armored vehicle, which was being guarded by another officer.
“You Collins?” she asked, reading his name tag on his shirt pocket.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Tracy showed her DHS badge again. “Your commanding officer, Lieutenant Marcus, is here. He wants to see you inside. I’ll keep a watch out here.”
“Thanks.” He jogged inside, and as soon as he was out of sight, Tracy got into the truck, turned the key, strapped herself in, flicked on the headlights and gunned it into the desert.
The trip through the barren land was much like the first one she had taken only a few hours earlier, but now Tracy drove without hesitation, without any fear at all. The events of the past twelve hours had changed her in some fundamental way—shattered her preconceived notions of how things operated in the field. What she had seen had reshaped them profoundly. Everything she had seen and done, from the illegals to the break-and-enter to the
