fifteen hours until he was to commence the biggest operation of his life. Never had he felt so unprepared; never had he experienced such misgivings. It did not bode well for the outcome.
SIXTY
Wildcat Catfish Farm
13:00 hours
Agent Jason Henry and Lieutenant David Morris arrived at the Louisville airport but did not immediately leave for Wildcat Fish Farm. Instead, Henry decided it best to wait for Emerson Palmer’s arrival; he had important information to discuss before they set out. In all the years he’d worked for the DOD there had never been a time when something this extraordinary was authorized. As he waited, Morris secured a rental car for the drive to Wildcat Farm.
Henry sat impatiently at the luggage claim for Palmer’s plane to arrive. To pass the time, he fell into one of his old habits: people-watching. A choice place to engage this pastime was in shopping malls, although amusement parks were also a target-rich environment. He enjoyed choosing a particular physical characteristic and counting the number of cases he could recognize, bemused by the seemingly infinite number of variations the human body could derive from forty-eight chromosomes. Tallying redheads was his favorite- a true redhead was a rarity and was easily distinguished from dyed red hair because it was actually orange. He wondered about the environmental significance of orange hair and what possible evolutionary advantage this genetic anomaly imparted. Fascinating, he mused. Today he focused on the escalator moving hundreds of people through the airport and waited, cutting through the boredom.
Henry’s daydreaming was interrupted by Palmer’s call signaling his arrival. After providing Palmer with his location at the Southwest luggage carousal, Henry informed Morris of the need for a brief confidential discussion with Palmer before leaving the airport.
Even though he hadn’t seen Palmer in several years, it wasn’t hard to recognize him as he approached the top of the escalator. He was still the compact, squared-away agent he’d always been, even though nothing much stood out about the man. The woman that accompanied him, however, stood out like a lighthouse beacon on a seaside cliff. Heads turned when she walked by, and he could tell from Palmer’s lively step that he relished having her by his side.
“Jason, ol’ buddy…holy hell it’s good to see you, man,” Emerson said, giving him a big bear hug. “Look at you…damn, you’ve aged, sport,” he added, eyeing him up and down with his hands on Henry’s shoulders.
“I can’t say you look much better, Emerson,” Henry rejoined. “Jesus, where’d you get all those wrinkles? I’ve seen better-looking Sharpeis,” he said with a chuckle.
“Very funny, Jason. Let me introduce Angelina Navarro,” Palmer said, turning his attention to Angel. “She’s been invaluable in my search for Sela Coscarelli.”
Jason greeted Angelina warmly, shaking her hand. “My deepest apologies for my friend’s boorish behavior, ma’am. He obviously has no idea how to handle himself in the presence of a beautiful woman,” he said with a mischievous grin.
“And I’m pleased to introduce you both to Lieutenant David Morris from the Palo Alto Police Department. Lieutenant Morris has been on this case since day one,” Henry said, completing the round of introductions as everyone shook hands.
“Pleased to meet you both,” Morris replied. “I’ve heard a great deal about your many exploits, Mr. Palmer. My admiration is considerable.”
“Well, don’t believe everything you hear, Lieutenant…especially from this joker,” Palmer chided, playfully shoving Henry.
“Okay, okay…everyone gets the point, Emerson.”
Henry turned toward Morris to suggest the need for privacy. “Lieutenant, would you kindly take Ms. Navarro for a cup of coffee? Emerson and I need to discuss a few things. Let’s all meet back here in twenty minutes.”
“Certainly…it would be my pleasure,” Morris eagerly replied.
He lightly touched Angelina’s elbow to guide her away. “Ms. Navarro…if you’d kindly follow me, there’s a nice deli just down the way.”
“Don’t leave without me now, Emerson,” Angel said, looking back anxiously as she left with Morris.
“Not gonna happen, Angel,” he said reassuringly. “I promised… we’ll find Sela together. You can bank on it.”
“Jesus Christ, man, when you said you were bringing Holloway’s mistress, you could’ve warned me she’s a ten,” Henry said as they both watched her glide effortlessly away.
“Brother, I have no idea what to make of her. But I’ll tell you this…without her, we wouldn’t know anything of Fort Knox. She’s smarter than she looks, and she’s earned a right to be here. Frankly, I wasn’t in any position to refuse her help. So, what’ve you got from the old man?” Palmer asked, anxious to get to the point.
Jason spent the next few minutes bringing him up to speed on all he’d learned from General Blake Freeman on the mission. The chairman of the joint chiefs had agreed with the assessment that something was stirring at Fort Knox. But because of the national treasury on the base, and the immediacy of a pending attack, he didn’t believe there was enough time to deploy the cleaners. Instead, he ordered that both men would be charged with securing Conrad’s machine and the missing nuclear material, if and when it showed up. How they were to do this remained unclear.
While Freeman’s orders were specific about containment, he was equally insistent that they obtain verification on the efficacy of Conrad’s antigravity technology. The research conducted at Quantum was the reason Henry had been assigned to track Conrad’s progress all along. The DOD had designs on this technology and the joint chiefs were of one mind when it came to controlling it. Fort Knox provided the ideal environment to test the weapons capability of this exciting new device.
“So, let me get this straight. It’s just you and me on this deal? What about the base commander?” Palmer asked, eyebrows askance, astounded by their orders.
“Well…here’s where it gets dicey. The Fort Knox commander, Brigadier General Sam Hershey, has been fully apprised of the potential for a raid on the vault. After all, we have no hard evidence to substantiate the theory. But Freeman’s ordered that Hershey not interfere with deployment after they make it onto the base. He wants the machine to reach its full operating threshold.”
“What the hell does that mean? We’re gonna let them break into the vault?” Palmer asked incredulously.
“I don’t really know how far this will go. I said it was dicey. We’re going to play this by ear. Hershey’s reinforcements will be on alert and available to respond as needed,” he said, disbelieving his own words. He recognized that Emerson’s distrustful look matched his own misgivings.
“What about the hostages?” Palmer asked. “If we’re at the base, who’ll rescue them? My priority’s Dr. Coscarelli…I gave the senator my word, Jason.”
“Listen, I realize this won’t be easy to swallow, but we’ve got to let Morris handle the hostages.”
“No way.”
“I know…I know, I don’t like it any more than you,” he quickly added, cutting off Palmer’s protest. “But I don’t see any other alternative. If we attempt a rescue too soon, everyone could be killed… including Coscarelli and Conrad. It’s better for the hostages to deal with just one or two gunmen rather than the whole crew. That means we wait.”
He could tell from the disbelieving look on Palmer’s face that he wasn’t convinced; he needed assurances. “I’ll vouch for Morris,” he added. “He’s no gumshoe…he’s good. We leave him at Wildcat and trust he’ll know when to call for reinforcements. Once he sees the majority of their unit deploy, he’ll rescue the hostages,” Henry said, making a defensible case for splitting up their resources.
“Besides, if we lose Conrad, we lose the machine. If that happens, you’ll have more than the senator to worry about. Freeman will have our asses and both of us can forget about seeing the light of day ever again.”
“Okay…I know you’re right,” Palmer sighed. “It’s just…I’ve never been concerned with collateral damage. This could be bad. Heaven help us, Jason, if Morris isn’t as good as you claim,” he said, deeply bothered about
