“So!” said Otto sharply. “We have much work to do.”
Cyrus nodded and glanced over at the dead man on the floor. “I’m sorry I killed him,” he said. “Kimball was the best of the doubles.”
“He’s replaceable.”
“Oh, I know that… it’s just that I was saving him for a special occasion.”
“Today is special, Mr. Cyrus.”
Cyrus looked up at him, momentarily confused.
“Today we discovered where the Dragon Factory is located. So what if we didn’t breach it or kill one of the Twins? We know where it is now. Which means that by one method or another we will take it from your young gods and with their computer resources… well, we’ll remake the world.”
Cyrus’s eyes sharpened and he bared his teeth. “I want that facility, damn it, and I want it right now.”
Otto straightened. “Then what do you want to do?”
“Contact your Russian friend. I want as many men as he can provide. Don’t haggle, Otto. Pay him whatever he’s worth, but I want to hit the Dragon Factory with an army. I want to
“That will take at least a day or two.”
“I want to do it tomorrow at the latest. At the
Otto Wirths smiled. “Yes, Mr. Cyrus, I understand perfectly. But you need to understand that in a full-out assault we can’t guarantee the safety of the Twins. Neither of them.”
Cyrus answered with a sneer. “Then so be it. I made them; I can make more. And I still have the SAMs.”
“Very well.”
“And contact Veder. I want him in on the assault.”
“He doesn’t do team hits.”
“What is the line from that movie? ‘Make him an offer he can’t refuse.’ ”
“If we pull him now, then it’ll delay the final hits. Church and that bitch who calls herself Aunt Sallie.”
“So be it,” Cyrus repeated. “Taking the Dragon Factory is more important. All we need is access to their computers and six or eight hours to trans-load all of their data via satellite to our off-site networked hard drives our friend is supplying. Once that’s done we can hide it even from MindReader.”
Otto looked pleased. “Fair enough.” He looked at his watch. “I’d better make some calls. I’ll have to wake up the Russian.”
Chapter Sixty-Nine
In flight
Sunday, August 29, 6:01 A.M.
Time Remaining on the Extinction Clock: 77 hours, 59 minutes E.S.T.
Top and Bunny were still loading their gear into a Black Hawk when my earbud binged and I heard Grace’s voice: “Joe-Bug located the island. MindReader matched the geography to Isla D’Oro, a small island in the Pacific, forty miles due west of Playa Caletas.”
“Where’s that?” I asked.
“Costa Rica. I’ll have him download everything to your PDA. You have flight clearance to the Air National Guard Base at Martin State Airport. From there you’ll switch to an Osprey.”
“They’re slow as hell-”
“Not this one. It’s a prototype being developed for the Navy. Has a cruising speed of six hundred kilometers per hour and a twelve-hundred-mile range, which means you’ll be refueling midair.”
“Where’d you find something like that so quickly?”
“Mr. Church has a friend in the industry. The Osprey is on its way to the air base and should be refueled by the time you touch down.”
“Do we have any local support?”
“I called one of my mates at Barrier and he said that the carrier
“That’s fast work, Major. I’ll take the ride, but for now let’s go with me, Bunny, and Top. Until we know what’s what, I don’t want to bring in the Light Brigade.”
“I’d rather you took the whole fleet,” she said. “But I can see your point.”
It was clear she wanted to say more, but this wasn’t the time and certainly wasn’t the place. So instead she simply held out her hand. I took it and if we held our clasp a few seconds too long, screw it.
“Good hunting,” she said.
“Thanks.”
The Black Hawk was in the air in under five minutes.
I SPREAD OUT a map and we gathered around. “This is Isla D’Oro. Gold Island. Supposed to be uninhabited except for a biological research station funded by Swiss grants and managed by a team from the Instituto Tecnologico de Costa Rica. We’re looking into that to see if it’s legit. Satellite images tell us there’s a compound with buildings on the island that match with the construction plans filed by the university. Thermals are tricky because the island is mildly volcanic.”
“ ‘Mildly volcanic’?” echoed Bunny. “That anything like ‘somewhat pregnant’?”
“It hasn’t popped its cork in over a century, but there are vents and geothermal activity, so thermals won’t give us a reliable body count. We’ll probably be relying on what we see rather than gadgets.” I tapped the map. “Choppers from the
“What’s the op?” asked Bunny.
“Mission priorities are flexible,” I said. “We look first. If we can find the kid who sent the videos, then we extract him. Everything else after that is based on what we find.”
“Rules of engagement?”
“Nobody gets trigger-happy,” I said, “On the other hand, we’re not flying two thousand miles to take anyone’s shit.”
“Hooah.”
“The USS
“Wow… it’s nice when Washington
“Aim for the head,” said Top. “Always been a fan favorite.”
“Works for me.”
Top took a slow breath. “Cap’n… about Jigsaw…”
“Yeah.”
“We don’t know which team took them out. Russians or the other guys.”
“No.”
“I’m of two minds. On one hand, I want to know who did it and nail their hides to the wall, feel me?”
“Completely.”
“On the other hand, I get either side in my sights I’m not sure I’m going to indulge in a lot of restraint. You have any issues with that better tell me now and make it an order.”
I considered how best to answer that. “Top… Church and the geek squad are working on connecting the dots. We got some new info off the second video, and he has a lip-reader working on recovering info from the hunt video.
