He looked at the computer screen:
YOU NOW HAVE
00:00:16
MINUTES TO ENTER DISARM CODE.
ENTER DISARM CODE HERE
Sixteen seconds…
The tank screamed through the sky.
Race looked forlornly at the timer as it counted inexorably downwards.
And then suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement. He snapped to look up—and saw Earl Bittiker crawling in through the driver's hatch up at the top of the falling tank, his Calico pistol in his hand!
Oh fuck!
00:00:15
Forget about him!
Just think!
Think? Christ, how the hell is a guy supposed to think inside an Abrams tank that's plummeting to earth at about a hundred miles an hour, with a guy climbing in through the driver's hatch carrying a gun?
00:00:14
Race tried to clear his mind.
All right, last time he had known that Weber had set the disarm code. But this time, he didn't have the first clue who had set the code, principally because he didn't know who had designed the device's ignition system.
00:00:13
Ignition system…
Those were Marty's last words, the words he had spoken as he lay dying in Race's arms.
00:00:12
The Abrams hit terminal velocity, began to emit a shrill screaming sound like that of a falling bomb.
Bittiker was halfway through the driver's hatch now. He saw Race, fired his pistol at him.
Race dived out of the way, ducked behind the Supernova, grabbed the cellular phone from his pocket as more bullets slammed into the steel wall of the tank beside him.
'Demonaco!' he yelled over the din of the falling tank.
“What is it, Professor?'
'Tell me quickly! Who designed the ignition system on the Navy's Supernova?'
Three thousand miles away, John-Paul Demonaco snatched up a nearby sheet of paper. It was the list of the members of the Navy-DARPA Supernova team.
His eyes zeroed in on one line.
RACE, Martin E.
Ignition system DARPA D/327997A
design engineer
'A guy named Race. Martin Race!' Demonaco shouted into the phone.
Marty, Race thought.
00:00:11
Marty had designed the ignition system. That's what he'd been trying to tell him before he died.
Therefore Marry had set the disarm code.
00:00:10
Eight-digit numerical code.
Bittiker was fully inside the tank now.
What code would Marry use?
00:00:09
The tank was still falling, screaming through the air at a thousand feet per second.
Bittiker saw him, raised his Calico again.
What code did Marry always use?
00:00:08
Birthday? Significant date?
