“Roger that. But understand this, Major; if we don’t get that signal from you within thirty minutes of you making landfall we’re going to drop an E-bomb over the island. Your electronics will be fried along with everyone else’s.”
“So I’ll send up a flare. Blue if I have the device, red if I don’t.”
“I’d rather see that blue flare,” Church said, then added, “Grace… we can’t let Cyrus send that code. If he’s on that island and I don’t see a blue flare at the agreed time, then the EMP may not be the only bomb I’ll be forced to drop.”
“I understand. There’s no ‘I’ in ‘team.’ ”
He laughed. “Good hunting, Major.”
He disconnected, and Bug contacted her a minute later to say that she had a secure line to Joe Ledger.
“Go for Cowboy,” Ledger said.
“Joe… this is a secure line,” Grace said. “Just us. No ears of any kind.”
“Wow,” he said. “It’s good to hear your voice.”
“Joe, I’m sorry about this morning. I didn’t mean to snub you-”
“Don’t sweat it. Been a funky few days.”
“About this morning… about what I said.”
“Yeah.”
“I… can we pretend I didn’t say it? Can we roll back the clock and reset the system?”
“I don’t know. Can we?”
“We have to.”
“Do we?”
“You know we do.”
Ledger said nothing.
“Joe… there’s too much at stake. When you reach the island, you have to be smart about this. I’m just another soldier. So are you. We’re professionals, not a couple of kids. If this gets hot tonight, then we have to follow procedure, stick to training, and not let any emotions interfere with our actions. End of story.”
There was a five count of heavy silence; then Ledger said, “I hear you.”
Grace said, “This… isn’t what I want. You understand?”
“I do,” he said sadly. “The mission comes first.”
“The mission comes first. Joe… I’ll see you there.”
“I’ll be there,” he said. “And Grace…?”
“Yes?”
“Good hunting, Major.”
“Good hunting, Captain.”
She disconnected.
That was an hour ago.
Now she lay on the Hydrospeeder as it cut through the water toward the Dragon Factory. Behind the clear glass of her goggles, Grace Courtland’s eyes were the hard, heartless eyes of a predator. They were the eyes of a soldier going to war.
They were a killer’s eyes.
Chapter One Hundred Six
In flight above the North Atlantic
Thirty-five minutes ago
I stood behind the pilot, and if my fingers were dug a little too tightly into the soft leather of his seat, then screw it. I stared out of the cockpit window at the blackness of the ocean below.
The pilot said, “Captain… wishing won’t make this bird fly any faster.”
“It might,” I said, and he laughed.
The co-pilot tapped my arm. “You have a call coming in on secure channel two.”
I went back into the cabin and screwed my earbud into place.
“Go for Cowboy,” I said.
“The fish are in the water,” said Church. “Two minutes to landfall. What’s your ETA?”
“Bailout in twenty, then drop time.”
“Good hunting, Captain.”
“Yeah,” I said, and switched off.
Top and Bunny were ready to go, their chutes strapped on and their weapons double- and triple-checked. All of us were heavy with extra magazines, frags, and flash bangs, knives, and anything else we could carry. If we hit water instead of land, we’d sink like stones.
“Alpha Team will hit the island in under two minutes,” I said.
“Wish we were with them, boss,” said Bunny.
Top studied me for several seconds. “It ain’t my place to offer advice to an officer,” he said, “me being a lowly first sergeant and all.”
I gave him a look.
“But I’m pretty sure there’ll be enough beer left by the time we get to this kegger.”
“There goddamn well better be,” I growled.
Chapter One Hundred Seven
The Chamber of Myth
Tuesday, August 31, 2:21 A.M.
Time Remaining on the Extinction Clock: 33 hours, 39 minutes
Hecate and Paris stared in shock and horror as their father tossed the dead sea serpent aside and got to his feet.
“What… what are you talking about?” Hecate said.
Paris sputtered, unable to talk.
Cyrus mocked his son’s startled stutter, “I-i-i-’m sorry, Paris, did I speak too quickly? Use too many big words? Or are you simply as stupid as I’ve feared all these years?”
If Paris had been on the verge of saying something, those words struck him completely dumb.
Cyrus turned to Hecate. “And you, you feral bitch. I’d held you in higher regard until now. Did you actually think you had me fooled. ‘Daddy’?” He spit the distasteful word out of his mouth. “The day I become a fawning dotard I hope to God Otto puts a bullet in my brain.”
Otto smiled and bowed, and then he and Cyrus laughed.
Hecate looked back and forth between them. “What… what’s going on here?”
“I believe the Americans call it ‘payback.’ ”
“For
“How much time do you have?” sneered Cyrus. “For all those years when you two thought you had me imprisoned at the Deck. For treating me like a vapid old fool. For the disrespect you show me in every action, even when you are faking respect. For trying to steal Heinrich Haeckel’s cache of records. For trying to control me by staffing the Deck with your toadies.”
Otto laughed.
“Wait-you sent the Russian team to Gilpin’s apartment? And to Deep Iron?”
“Of course. Those records were supposed to come to me. It was an incident of mischance that Heinrich died before he could pass along the information about where the records were stored. Even his own family didn’t know what he had stored or
