anything came of it, she would tell him. Why bring it up and ruin the
mood now, since it might not amount to anything anyhow? A conversation
with the director was all it was.
As they passed the young parents and children, Alex grinned at the
little girl, who had finally gotten tired and plopped upon the neatly
clipped grass, where she sat quietly cooing.
'Ever think about having children?' Alex said.
Toni was caught flat footed She stopped, as if she had forgotten how
to walk. She stared at him. Children? With Alex? Of course she had
thought about it. Dreamed about it, even. But before she could gather
herself enough to say anything, he shrugged.
'Just an idle thought,' he said.
Sunday, June 12th Gakona, Alaska
No Chinese assassins materialized to try and intercept them as they
drove from the old pipeline airstrip just north of Paxon toward Gakona.
Ventura said it wasn't likely, and he had ten of his people checking
possible ambush sites along the route, plus cars in front and behind of
theirs. The older man. Walker, drove again, with Morrison in the
front and Ventura sitting in the back.
'If anybody shows up, they'll probably think I'm you, since the V.I.P
usually rides in the back,' Ventura had explained.
'You think they'll be here?'
'Oh, they are here, somewhere. I'm not sure they'll try for you yet;
they may be waiting for the test, to be certain you can do as you say
before they get really serious.'
'You think once we're inside the facility we'll be safe?'
'No. I have a roster of the guards, and if any new faces show up,
we'll deal with that, but that fence and a few half-trained guys on
patrol won't stop somebody really determined to get inside. I'll have
my people watching the roads and the air, so if they show up in force
we'll know about it in time to haul ass. I've worked out a few escape
routes from the facility.'
Again, Morrison was surprised at the man's thoroughness.
Everything he did seemed thought out to the last detail.
The trip was uneventful, however--if you didn't count a small elk herd
crossing the road--and within an hour they were inside the auxiliary
trailer, warming up the system.
As Morrison worked, Ventura prowled around like some kind of big
cat--alert, watching, listening.
'About ready,' Morrison said. He picked up a dogeared phonebook-sized
tome of locations by latitude and longitude and thumbed through it
until he found the ones he wanted. There it was... 45 degrees, 28
minutes, 24 seconds North; 122 degrees, 38 minutes, 39 seconds West...
Not the center of the city, but it would take in all of of downtown on
both sides of the river... Ventura nodded.
'Okay.'
'It'll have to run for a couple of hours to get the optimal effect. Not
as long as it did in China, since the target is closer, and we lose
less energy for the beam.'
'Fine.'
