Cybernation

As she reached for the phone, somebody knocked on the cabin’s door. No, not knocked, pounded on it, as if they were trying to punch a hole in it.

“Jackson! You in there, boy? Open up!”

Santos!

“No! No! Go away!” Keller yelled, before Toni could stop him.

Uh-oh. They were in trouble now—

* * *

Chance felt like a caged beast. She paced back and forth in her office. Where was Keller? Where was Santos? Why hadn’t he left yet? Neither man was absolutely necessary at this point — the plan would go with or without them — but the lack of either would cripple things more than a little. Dammit! What was happening here?

In the Air

It was dark, the wind rocked the copter like a leaf blown by the winds of fate, and the rain was coming down pretty steady. Not a great night to be flying way the hell out over the ocean.

“There it is,” Howard said.

Michaels looked through the window. A smear of bright light shined through the darkness. The helicopter barge. Past that, at least half a mile or so, he’d guess, was the gambling ship, also lit up like a Christmas tree.

Fernandez lurched back from the front of the copter, holding onto the seats as he came down the aisle, just barely able to stay on his feet. He got to them, sat, buckled up. “Landing is gonna be tricky,” he said. “Our pilot wants to let the captain do it, it’s his bird, he knows her better. The barge is rocking some, and their flight control doesn’t really want to let us try it, but we have insisted — too dangerous to fly back, the captain said. They said we’re gonna have to ride the storm out tied to the deck, ’cause they ain’t running the transport boats, it’s pretty choppy out there.”

“It’s a little far to be swimming in this weather, isn’t it?” Michaels said.

Howard grinned. “Oh, I’m sure we can convince them to let us use the shuttle boat, if we ask real politely.”

The copter dropped lower, spiraling in toward the landing barge. The deck didn’t look very big from here. Kind of like a postage stamp.

Michaels leaned back from the rain-streaked window. The helicopter bounced and jerked to the left, then back to the right, and caught another wind shear that dropped them like a stone so suddenly that his stomach tried to climb up into his mouth. Behind him, he heard somebody vomiting. Into a puke bag, he hoped.

“Hang on, folks,” the captain said. “We’re going in.”

36

On the Bon Chance

Toni had, she figured, about two seconds before Santos came through the door, either by using a keycard or by kicking it down. He knew Keller was in here, no question.

But Keller was a quivering lump on the bed, curled now into a fetal position, hands over his face.

She had to get this information to Alex. And she didn’t want to go one-on-one with Santos, not in a space as cramped as this cabin. Maybe she could take him. Maybe not. He was big, strong, fit, and trained, and she couldn’t risk losing the data she had gotten from Keller. What to do?

The moment of panic flared, but then her brain started working. She realized that Santos didn’t know who she was, or what she was doing in Keller’s cabin. She could play that, but she’d have to do it fast.

She grabbed her shirt, pulled it off, then peeled off her sports bra. She held them in one hand, loosely covered her breasts, and hurried to the door.

Santos was having trouble getting the keycard override to work. He kept dragging it through the slot, but the little light stayed red. He was about to kick the door when it opened.

A half-naked woman stood there.

The secretary!? She was here with Keller!?

What god had he pissed off that this man, this picaflor, was sleeping with two of his women? That was it. He was gonna kill the guy.

“Roberto? What are you doing here?”

“I need to talk to Keller. He’s supposed to be working. But I guess I can see why not. No wonder I couldn’t find you.”

“He’s putting his clothes on,” she said. “In there.”

“Yeah, well, you wait right here. I got something for you.” He cupped his groin, hefted it. “Bigger and harder than anything Keller has.”

She smiled at him. Moved her hand with the shirt in it out of the way and took a deep breath.

Ah. Nice mambas.

Oh, yeah, this would have to be quick, but he could do that. Get Keller out of here, pronto, and get back to her. Leave Missy with a little something to think about — he’d make sure Keller told her about it.

He was already halfway ready as he moved past her through the short hall toward the bedroom.

* * *

Toni ran. She sprinted as if she were trying out for the Olympic hundred-meter dash team. She passed a couple in the hall, saw the man grin at her. Well, a half-naked woman running down the hall was probably not something they saw every day. She didn’t have time to stop and dress. By the time Santos realized something was wrong, she wanted to be far away. She had to find another hiding place, fast.

* * *

The rain slashed down like a first-class hotel shower with good water pressure, and the blue-and-white- striped canvas roof on the shuttle boat didn’t do much to keep the people under it dry.

Michaels was soaked by the time he got on the craft, as were the other “tourists.” The rain came in almost horizontally when the wind gusted. The spider silk vest he wore under his shirt didn’t help anything.

Next to him, Howard yelled, “I’ve left the pilots watching the crews of the two birds and two other troopers guarding the barge crew. They just developed serious radio and com trouble.”

The way the boat was bobbing up and down, pitching and yawing, the helicopter crews were the least of Michaels’s worries. There was enough light here to see the whitecaps and foam blown from the waves. He tasted salt then yelled, “Nice night for a boat ride!”

Whichever trooper was operating the engine cranked it up, and the shuttle, built to hold sixty people and only half full, moved away from its moorings against the barge. The motion got worse. Anybody who was prone to sea-sickness was going to be giving up everything they’d eaten for a month. Fortunately, that wasn’t one of Michaels’s afflictions.

The boat rocked and shook, pitched dangerously, but with its back finally turned to the wind, straightened out a little. It was still a long way to the ship.

As the boat slogged through the four-foot seas, Michaels’s virgil buzzed against his hip. He’d left it on vibratory mode. Good, since he’d never have heard it in this wind and rain. He grabbed the unit. The caller number ID didn’t mean anything, and the little screen was blank, no visual. He held it to his ear so he could hear better.

“Hello?”

“Alex, it’s me.”

Toni!

“Babe, what—?”

“Where are you?” she cut in.

“On a boat heading for the ship,” he said. “We’ll be there in five minutes.”

“Thank God. Listen, I’m on a public phone. Jay was right, about everything. The balloon goes up tomorrow. I’ve got all the details. I’ll call again later, but right now, I’ve got to go. I love you.”