Impact

the killer wanted information--the hard disk. That's what the garrote was for. You wrap that around someone's neck, they're gonna talk. Except Freeman.'

'What a fairy tale,' said Chaudry with an easy laugh. 'Why are you listening to him?'

Suddenly Marjory Leung spoke up. 'I believe it. I believe Dr. Chaudry is guilty.'

'Marjory, have you lost your mind?'

She turned to him. 'I'll never forget what you said about Pakistan, India, and China. That evening?' She flushed. 'That evening we spent together? You said that Pakistan's destiny was to become a world technological power. That the U.S. was finished, that it was spoiled by wealth and materialism and easy living, that we'd lost our work ethic, that our educational system was collapsing. And I'll never forget when you said that China and India were too corrupt and would eventually lose out to Pakistan.'

'Pakistan?' Lockwood said. 'But I thought Dr. Chaudry was from India.'

Leung turned. 'He's Kashmiri. Big difference.'

Chaudry remained grimly silent.

'I know how it works,' said Leung. 'I've experienced it myself. A few of my Chinese colleagues, they drop a hint here, a hint there. They think that because I'm ethnic Chinese that I should naturally pass on information to help their space program. It burns me up. Because I'm an American. I'd never do that. But you--I know what you said that night. I know how you think. That's what this is all about: you were passing information to Pakistan.'

'It wasn't about money,' said Ford. 'But something a lot deeper. Patriotism, perhaps, or religion. This is the greatest discovery of all time. Very, very tempting to get your hands on it, to own it. Who knows what technological advances could be gleaned from an alien machine--a weapon no less. And then when a hard drive with all the information on it miraculously escaped from NPF, there was the opportunity.'

'What rubbish,' said Chaudry.

'I knew the mole was probably in this room. So I set up a little sting operation. With the password. And look who we caught.'

'You finished?' said Chaudry coolly.

Ford glanced around, meeting a mass of skeptical faces.

'Well, well, that's quite a story,' said Chaudry. 'There's only one problem with it: it's all supposition. It's true I had a little thing with Marjory, like so many others at NPF. Bad judgment. But I'm no spy.'

'Oh yeah?' said Leung. 'Then why did Freeman tell me, right before he was fired, that you wanted his entire analysis of the gamma ray data? Only to get it and tell him the next day you'd fire him if he kept working on it? Why did you go to such great lengths to discourage anyone at NPF from looking too closely at the gamma ray data? You got Derkweiler here to fire Corso--because he got interested in gamma rays.'

Comprehension blossomed on Derkweiler's face. 'That's right. And then you asked me for all of Corso's gamma ray analysis. I wondered why you were suddenly so interested.'

Chaudry said, 'What utter nonsense. I have no recollection of that.'

'That was just a week ago.'

'I won't stand for these ridiculous accusations.'

Ford held up the slip with the password on it. 'You could have asked me for this. But you didn't. You stole it. Why?'

'I told you, it was for security reasons. You just left it in your coat pocket.'

Leung said, 'You asked me repeatedly, that night: 'What did Freeman tell you about the gamma rays?' ' She paused, then pointed a trembling finger at him. 'You . . . are a murderer.'

'Pakistan?' said Lockwood, finally speaking up. 'But that's a backward country. What in hell would they want with information like this? They have no space program, no science, nothing.'

'I beg to differ,' said Chaudry, his voice icy. 'We are the country of A. Q. Khan, one of the greatest scientists who ever lived. We have the bomb, long-range missiles, uranium enrichment. But most importantly, we have God on our side. Everything that happens is Fate, which is another word for God's plan. The die was cast long ago. Those who think they can affect the true course of things are delusional. Einstein called it Block Time. We call it Fate. Who, I ask you, is more powerful than Allah?'

Ford turned to one of the duty officers standing dumbly in the hall. 'I think you better take this man into custody.'

Nobody moved. The duty guard seemed frozen into place. All that could be heard was Chaudry's hard breathing.

Mickelson removed his sidearm and pointed it at Chaudry. 'You heard the man. Cuff him.'

Chaudry held his hands out, crossed his wrists. His face twisted into a smile. 'Please.'

As the cuffs went on, Chaudry went on quietly, 'It doesn't matter now. You're finished as a country and you know it. We are pure and we have God's favor. In the long run, we will prevail. Mark my words: the future belongs to Pakistan. We will defeat India, God willing, and usher in an era of Pakistani science that will dazzle the world.'

Tucking the gun back into his rumpled uniform, Mickelson spoke sharply to the duty officer. 'Get him out of here.' He turned to the group. 'We've got ninety minutes before we brief the president, so pull yourselves together.'

Ford said, 'Now that we've exposed the mole, I can give you the location of the machine. Because it's not on Mars at all.'

The group, shaken up, fell silent.

'It's on Deimos.'

88

Jackie kept the boat in a slow circle in the lee behind Devil's Limb while Abbey and her father examined it for damage. He leaned into the main hatch, scrutinizing the engine compartment, while Abbey held a light for him. She could see black, oily bilgewater sloshing around in the well; the boat was leaking.

'How bad is it?'

Straw emerged, straightened up, and wiped his hands on a paper towel. He was soaked and his light brown hair was plastered to his forehead. He had a black eye and a cut on his cheekbone. 'There're some nasty cracks in the hull that could get worse in a heavy sea. Nothing the bilge pumps can't handle now.'

He came back up the companionway stairs into the pilothouse. Jackie had tuned the VHF to the marine weather channel, and the computerized voice droned out the ugly statistics: wave heights to fifteen feet, winds thirty knots gusting to sixty, heavy rain, a tidal surge five feet higher than mean, small craft warnings . . . The storm was going to get worse before it got better.

Jackie stood at the helm, peering at the paper chart spread on the dashboard tray. 'I think we should go around Sheep Island and take the inside passage to Rockland.'

Straw shook his head. 'Put us in a beam sea. We'd be better off making a straight shot across the bay--in a following sea.'

A flash of lightning lit up the sky, followed by a boom. Abbey caught a glimpse of the wreckage of the other boat, now just a tangled mass of shattered fiberglass being pounded into nothing by the relentless breakers on the reef.

'We could always head to Vinalhaven,' said Jackie. 'That would put us in a heading sea.'

'That's a possibility.'

Abbey finally said, 'We're not going to Rockland or Vinalhaven.'