Sea of Fire

I participate in marathons.'

'Do they really?' Darling laughed.

'They do,' Herbert said. The insincerity of this conversation was killing him. He wished Darling would get a phone call or something.

'Fascinating. You wouldn't think five miles an hour would be a threat to anyone.'

'It isn't about the speed,' Herbert said. 'It's the idea of an assist. A marathon is supposed to be about physical endurance.'

'Have you ever won one, Mr. Herbert?'

'I've never lost,' Herbert replied.

Darling grinned. 'I like that.'

Where the hell is that chime? Herbert wondered.

Darling walked back behind the chair. 'I'm curious, Mr. Herbert. That's a Ku-band uplink on the back of your chair.'

'That's right,' Herbert said. Alarms began ringing inside his head. This was not good.

'Why do you need an antenna to send E-mail?'

'I don't,' Herbert replied.

Darling bent slightly to get a better look at the box. 'But I notice the light on the power box is lit.'

'Is it?'

'You didn't know?'

'That must have been from earlier, at the fire outpost,' Herbert said. 'I was downloading data.'

'No, that couldn't be,' Darling said. 'It was not on when you arrived.'

The outside security camera, Herbert realized with a jolt. He was watching their arrival.

'I must have turned it on by accident,' Herbert said, smiling again. His soul ached as he reached behind the wheelchair and shut the antenna off. That cut the link to Op-Center. He unplugged the cable from Darling's telephone. He shut the computer, which would erase Matt Stoll's program. There would be no evidence it had ever existed.

Unfortunately, the computer still had not pinged. That meant none of the data had been downloaded from the telephone. This whole enterprise had been a freaking waste of time. Or worse, it could hurt them if Darling suspected that they were here for something other than a stray koala. Herbert had had a choice to make. He had made it.

Darling came back around the front of the wheelchair. He folded his arms again and paced back and forth. Jervis Darling suddenly looked as impatient as Bob Herbert felt.

'You know, R. Clayton Herbert,' Darling said, 'when people show up at odd hours for unusual reasons, it is typically a reporter hoping to get a story or a business rival trying to collect information. What is your reason, Mr. Herbert?'

'Actually, Mr. Darling, my reason is much more serious than nailing a story about you,' Herbert said.

'Ah.' Darling stopped pacing. He regarded Herbert. 'You have the floor. And my attention.'

Herbert hesitated. He was about to put himself, FNO Loh, and Captain Leyland in jeopardy. Their careers, possibly their lives could be ruined. He had the right to do that to himself but not to the others. And what would he gain? Darling would not give him information. If Darling were guilty, talking might cause him to send his operatives deep underground. Or it might cause him to get angry and expose himself. Or it might cause him to have the lot of them shot for trespassing. There was no way of knowing.

Screw it, Herbert thought. He had come here to do a job. That job was to collect information and by so doing, save lives. The primary method had failed. Herbert was obligated to try another. Besides, when pressed, Darling might inadvertently answer one critical question: whether or not he was guilty.

'Mr. Darling, I honestly don't know jack-shit about animals,' Herbert said. 'I don't even like them much. Though there are some creatures I like even less. I do work in security, however. I won't tell you who employs me or how I know this. But here's the bottom line. Nuclear materials are missing from a radioactive waste site, and one leg of the trail leads here.'

Darling did not react. Which, in a way, was a reaction. He did not ask what that statement had to do with him.

'No comment?' Herbert asked.

'Were you jacking into my telephone system in an effort to spy on me?' Darling asked.

'I was,' Herbert admitted.

Darling looked down slowly. His expression was blank. He walked over to the phone and removed the unit from the desk. His slippered feet rubbed the hardwood floors of the study as he made his way to the door.

'Please show yourself out,' Darling said over a very rigid shoulder. 'Immediately.'

'You're not calling the police?' Herbert asked.

Darling stopped in the doorway and turned. 'Why bother? I don't know what data you hoped to glean from this telephone, but it is simply an estate intercom.'

Herbert said nothing. That explained why his laptop did not ping. The phone had no numbers in memory.

'Do we have any other business?' Darling asked.

'Yeah,' Herbert said. 'I've got a suggestion for you. I know more than I just told you. So do the people I work with. We're going to get you and everyone you work with. My suggestion is that you cooperate with us.'

'It's time for you to leave, Mr. Herbert,' Darling said. 'You are a man rich with suspicion, not knowledge.'

'And you're a man with zero conscience,' Herbert said angrily. 'You and your associate Mahathir bin Dahman.'

That was it. Bob Herbert had just played the only name he knew, the only other information he possessed. He hoped it was enough to rattle Darling into doing something careless or impulsive, such as attacking him so the fire chief could have him arrested. Or spitting out additional information in a rage. Or even better, cooperating.

It did not.

'Mr. bin Dahman is indeed an associate,' Darling replied affably. 'I'm lucky to have a partner of his local and international standing. And you are a sad, flailing fellow, R. Clayton Herbert.' That was the last thing Darling said before he left the room.

Herbert wanted to punch something. Hard. Jervis Darling was guilty as Judas F. Iscariot. By not calling the police he had proved that to Herbert. But the impromptu interrogation had backfired. Herbert had gambled and lost, because now Darling was on guard. He could send his people into hiding, leaving Herbert without the two things Op-Center needed.

One was proof.

The other was the missing radioactive materials.

Chapter Fifty

Cairns, Australia Saturday, 11:27 P.M.

Jervis Darling returned to his bedroom on the second floor. He encountered Andrew on the way and told him to make certain Mr. Herbert left the house and that the others left the grounds as soon as they found their koala. Darling did not doubt the animal was there. They would have made certain of that before coming to the door.

Darling quietly shut the door and went to the back, to a large dressing room. He was numb and furious at the same time. The silence weighed thick and heavy in his ears. Darling sat at the restored Louis XVI desk and rang his nephew. He pulled over the only telephone in the mansion that had the number of the Hosannah in memory. He punched in his personal code, 525, to obtain a dial tone. Obtained by bin Dahman from the Russian air force, the secure phone was named the konsulstvo, or the 'consulate.' It was the secure phone in use at Russian embassies around the world. The konsulstvo was a large, square unit with a computer-style keypad