First Team

“Let’s focus on the problem,” Corrigan said. “Where is Bin Saqr now?”

“Good question.” Thomas scratched his side with his folders. “The evidence points to Chechnya, but that’s a big place.”

“We need a place where the SF team can make a pickup,” said Corrigan. “Colonel Van Buren has a couple of suggestions, but we want to make sure there are no guerrillas there. Or Russians, for that matter.”

Corrigan handed him a piece of paper with the names of three villages written phonetically.

“These are in Chechnya?” Thomas asked, looking at the names.

“The spelling may not be correct,” said Corrigan. “They were former Russian bases that were abandoned. I think there may be a civilian field in there. Anyway, check them out and see which would be closest to those coordinates at the bottom, where Ferg is. When you’re done with that, let’s put together a theory on what the delivery system would be. Truck bomb? Ship?”

“UFOs,” said Thomas.

“UFOs?” said Corrigan, so incredulous he couldn’t say anything else.

“I recognize one of the names, I think, from a UFO sighting,” explained Thomas. “I didn’t mean they were using a UFO to drop the bomb.”

“Oh,” said Corrigan, still unsure.

Thomas thought he sounded disappointed.

“If it were UFOs, we’d really have trouble, right?” he said brightly. His suspicions about Corrigan were confirmed — his new boss was a believer. God had finally smiled on him.

“We’ll figure it out. I’ll be back as soon as I can,” said Thomas, snapping the paper in the air. He turned and practically ran out of the room as Corrigan rubbed his forehead, worried that Debra Wu’s assessment was too kind by half.

2

TASHKENT, KAZAKHSTAN, NEAR THE BORDER WITH KYRGYZSTAN — SEVERAL HOURS LATER

Corrine gave the binoculars to Rankin and got out of the car, stretching her stiff back. She missed her workouts. Who would have thought that this job actually involved more sitting than her old one?

It isn’t my old one, she told herself. She was still the president’s counsel.

Rankin got out of the car. “Fresh truck of Russian troops,” he told her, gesturing with the binoculars. “We ought to get ready.”

Corrine nodded. The train had been met by a contingent of uniformed Russian border guards near Kzyl-Orda. They had added two flatcars at the very end of the train, boarding them and riding along. Obviously, the Russians were worried about something, though they, too, had missed the action.

“I have the next few stops mapped out for us,” Rankin told her. “The tracks parallel the road for a ways, and we can use the transceivers to keep tabs. Little town about ten miles from here where we can quick grab something to eat — there’s a long stretch with no sidings or any possible stops, so it’ll give us some leeway.”

“Yeah.”

“You down about the missing boxcar?” he asked.

“You could call it ‘down.’”

“At least we figured out what they’re doing.”

“Uh-huh.”

“You were right about following the train. We can’t expect to pull it all together in one shot. Nobody does that, not even Ferguson.”

“Thanks for the pep talk,” she said, walking around the back of the car. “You drive.”

* * *

Guns called her on the sat phone just as they parked at one of the spots Rankin had picked out for a food stop.

“Lost it totally. Massette thinks they took the trucks north, because the road connects in that direction, but anything’s possible. What do you want us to do?”

There was no one right answer, Corrine realized — it wasn’t like she could pull down a few law books, find some precedents, and present an invincible argument. Whatever she told them to do would be open to second- guessing and interpretation.

As were Ferguson’s decisions on the original mission, Corrine realized.

“Damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” McCarthy would have said — his point being to do something.

“All right,” Corrine told Guns. She could see the train pulling up an embankment ahead. “Figure out the most likely route to Chechnya. At the moment it’s our best bet for a destination. Consider that they probably would prefer to drive at night over decent roads where they’re less likely to be stopped. It’s a wild-goose chase, I know, but it’s better than sitting around with our thumbs in our noses. I’ll tell Corrigan what’s going on and see if they can supply any information that will be useful. In the meantime we’ll see if the survey of the satellite photos has turned up anything.”

“You sure you don’t want us to come and back you up?”

“No,” said Corrine. “I think the theft has already been made. Stay in touch,” she said, hitting the kill button.

Rankin pulled open the passenger door and got in, filling the car with a strong odor.

“Some sort of cabbage bilini thing,” he told her. “It was the only thing that sounded edible.”

Corrine was too busy to argue the point. The train had rounded the curve and was out of sight. She pulled back onto the road ahead of a slow-moving bus, accelerating quickly. It didn’t take long to get the train back in view.

“Want some?” asked Rankin.

“It smells hideous.”

“It doesn’t taste as bad as it smells.”

“Gotta make a phone call first.” She juggled the phone in her hands, hitting the preset to connect to the Cube sit room. As she did, the wheels slipped off the pavement; she nearly lost the phone regaining control.

“We want to stay in one piece,” Rankin said.

“Preferably,” she said, glancing at him. She started to laugh.

“What?”

“You have cabbage on your chin.”

“Just camouflage,” he said, wiping it off.

Corrigan, meanwhile, was asking what was going on.

“I’d like Mr. Ferguson to set up some surveillance at the border areas of Chechnya,” Corrine told him after a brief summary of the situation. “I don’t know what extra resources we can spare, but at the moment that’s the most logical destination.”

“Um,” said Corrigan.

“Um?”

“Uh, I think you’re probably right about that being the likely destination,” said Corrigan. “Did Ferg talk to you?”

“No.”

“He’s already in Chechnya.”

“I thought he was waiting for us to find something.”

“He had a lead he was working on. I was under the impression he was going to tell you about it himself.”

“Mr. Ferguson did not inform me,” she told Corrigan. Corrine felt her face flush. “Connect me with him.”

“You can probably do that yourself.”