“Up ahead, take a left,” Alex said. “I can’t tell how clear it is to you, but there appears to be a path approaching that will lead you directly to the launch site.”
“Roger that,” Hawk said as he scanned the route for a path that veered off to the left.
After about fifty meters, he spotted a clearing on the left that looked like it turned off the main thoroughfare.
“Going left,” he announced. “Does this look right to you?”
Hawk slowed his pace a bit as he waited for confirmation from Alex. Her feed was a couple seconds behind him.
“That’s the one,” she said. “Keep going. You’re about a half-mile from the perimeter.”
Hawk resumed his torrid pace and rushed up to the fence.
“Talk to me, Alex. What do you see?”
“Looks like the coast is clear,” she said. “The rockets appear to be loaded onto a vehicle that’s slowly making its way to the launch site. I can’t tell if anyone is actually driving.”
Hawk pulled his binoculars out of his rucksack and then zeroed in on the front of the vehicle.
“How’s it look from the ground?” she asked.
“I think the launch vehicle is remote controlled.”
“Still be careful as you approach it, Hawk. Even though Sinclair might feel like he’s safe in the middle of nowhere, he’s no fool. This place is covered with cameras. As soon as you attach the transmitter to the vehicle, run like hell. Mia and I will take care of the rest.”
“Roger that,” Hawk said.
He dug the magnetized box containing the device out of his pocket with his left hand. In his right, he carried a Glock. The launch area was a clearing about a hundred square meters and surrounded by a twelve-foot steel fence topped with barbed wire. After surveying the area one final time, Hawk shimmied up the fence and hurtled over it, hitting the ground hard but rolling to the side to lessen the impact. Darting to his feet, he sprinted toward the vehicle.
When he was about thirty yards away from his target, he noticed two armed men barreling toward him at full speed. Hawk veered to his left, changing the duo’s angle to give him a chance to reach his destination. He fired a couple shots, but they failed to hit either of the men. As he closed in on the launcher, he realized that he wasn’t going to make it.
Instead of getting gunned down, Hawk slowed down and threw his hands in the air, dropping his gun. The pair of men kept their guns trained on him.
“What do you want me to do with him?” one of the guards asked on his coms.
After a brief moment, he responded. “Roger that.”
“Kick that weapon over here, pal,” the other guard said as Hawk promptly complied.
“Today’s your lucky day,” the other guard said. “You’re not going to die—yet.”
Hawk sighed and put his head down as the launcher passed less than a foot behind him.
“Oh, Hawk, don’t get yourself killed,” Alex said over the coms.
Hawk placed his hands behind his back and waited for the men to bind him.
CHAPTER 20
ALEX PACED AROUND the tent and contemplated her next move. With Hawk in custody, stopping the rockets from firing would be an impossible challenge. She and Mia simply didn’t have the time required to hack into Sinclair’s system and thwart the launch.
As Alex weighed all her options, Mia pumped her fist while staring at one of the laptop screens.
“Get over here, Alex,” she said. “We have work to do.”
Alex sighed. “Yeah, but not even you are good enough to crack the firewall Sinclair has here.”
“I don’t need to. Hawk came through.”
Alex rushed over to Mia’s computer and gaped at the information scrolling across the screen. From the satellite image, she never saw Hawk place the magnetic device on the rocket launcher, but based on Mia’s progress, he obviously had.
“When did he do that?” Alex asked.
“He must’ve slipped the transmitter on there when it rolled past him,” Mia said. “That’s the only time he got near enough to do it.”
Breaking into the rocket’s onboard computer was far simpler than fighting through an entire computer system protected by layers of security. The weapons relayed information with the control center and were presumed to be safe from outside interference. That is, unless someone had a way of communicating directly with the rockets. Alex and Mia now had a way.
The duo hammered away on their laptops, breaking through the simple defenses on the rockets’ mainframes and rewriting the way the weapons would communicate. They passed information back and forth, focusing on the task at hand. She still wasn’t convinced they had enough time to circumvent the mainframe, viewing the mission as a long shot. But as long as there was still time, she was going to keep working. If she and Mia didn’t establish a connection before the rockets were launched, there was little chance that the mission would be accomplished.
Alex’s fingers were flying as she worked on the code. However, she stopped when she heard one of the guards talking over Hawk’s coms.
“Sinclair wants to see him and make an example out of him,” the guard said.
Alex winced, worried that she’d never see Hawk again.
“We need to get a move on,” the guard said. “They’re about to fire up these rockets.”
* * *
SINCLAIR GROWLED as he studied the scene in the launch area through his binoculars.
“I apologize for the delay, gentlemen,” he said. “It appears as though someone is attempting to sabotage my demonstration.”
“There’s someone out there?” Young asked as he moved toward the window.
“It’s difficult to believe, I know,” Sinclair said, “especially given how impossible it is to get on this island. But some nut job found a way and is trying to subvert my plans.”
He watched as two of his security agents corralled the man.
“Okay, looks like the problem has been resolved,” Sinclair announced. “My security team has apprehended the
