“Searing Gorge?” Matt said.
Rampert hesitated. “Yeah, they told me that was you.”
“Why’d you give it to Zach?”
“That’s a stupid question. He’s the best. That simple.”
“You put him in a bad spot. Going in daylight. What gives?”
“We needed a fight for it to work.”
“You got a bunch of men killed, General.”
“It was combat. We had it under control but Jergens fell out of the damned chopper.”
Matt backed off and changed his tack.
“Do you know what will happen if the enemy gets the report on these minerals that these State Department weenies made public?”
“You think I’m an idiot?”
“You sure you want me to answer that, General?”
Rampert paused. Matt knew that the man had a complex history with Zach and him. Just before the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Zach had fought a resurgent Japanese army in the Philippines and was reported as killed in action. Rampert and some of his Delta Force troops had been part of that fight and had rescued Zach, kept him alive, and clandestinely evacuated him to Fort Bragg where the special operations doctors nursed him back to health under a pseudonym. As Zach recovered from his coma, former Iraqi general Jacques Ballantine decided to attack the United States with the missing weapons of mass destruction that he had been stockpiling in Canada. The Canadians refused to allow U.S. military action on their soil, leaving Ballantine’s team free to operate. So Rampert had Zach Garrett, operating under the nom de guerre, Winslow Boudreaux, jump into Ballantine’s Canadian fishing hole where he dueled with the Iraqi general before being captured.
Complex, Matt thought, was probably an understatement.
“There’s definitely some things we don’t want them to get,” Rampert said.
“Well, all we can hope is that Zach and his team did what they needed to do.”
“We’ll know soon enough.”
Matt studied Rampert a minute, pushing his feet off the front of his desk and leaning his chair back. He turned his head toward the map that was a blow up of the Kunar and Nuristan areas.
“Biggest Lapis mines in the world right in there,” Matt said.
“A lot of timber, too,” Rampert added.
“Have you looked at that mineral map?”
Rampert paused. Matt could tell he had only scanned it with passing interest.
“You know what the term Searing Gorge means?”
“Like a hot valley,” Rampert said.
Matt grimaced and stood, the legs from his chair sounding like a gunshot.
“Searing Gorge is an online gaming name coined by World of Warcraft,” Matt said.
“Why do I give a rat’s ass about that?”
“The Searing Gorge is where the Thorium Brotherhood have their base of operations.”
Rampert shrugged.
“Check your periodic chart, General.” Matt walked to the map and pointed at the border between Kunar and Nuristan along the Pakistan border. “Thorium itself is not fissile, but it is a close kin to Uranium, but it doesn’t sterilize you when you handle it. Except for one kind — Thorium232—which is considered fissile.”
Rampert stared at Matt.
“That means the bad guys can make nukes out of it.”
“No shit.” Rampert stood and walked to the map.
“And the deepest, richest Thorium 232 mine in the world is right there,” Matt said.
He was pointing at a spot near the Kunar River where it scraped against the border of Pakistan.
“What was on that flash drive, Garrett?” Rampert asked.
“A two phased plan.”
“That we want the enemy to know?”
Matt nodded.
“Absolutely.”
CHAPTER 12
“Dagus is only trying to help you, Amanda.”
“I know, but everyone’s making way too big a deal out of this,” Amanda replied as Jake drove her into Dilworth to meet with Ms. Riley Dwyer for the first time.
“I don’t know him that well, but you’ve been working with him for a couple of years now. So, cut him some slack.”
She considered his comment. “Fine. You deal with him, then.”
Jake gave Amanda an amused look. “Well, I’ve got to turn in a review of Aerosmith for him. So maybe I’ll try to explain some things to him then.”
“I was being a smart ass, Jake. He’s fine. Let’s change the topic. So tell me again why I am doing this?”
“You know why.” Jake put his truck on cruise control at 70 mph as they sped along I-85, looped onto I-485, and then took I-77 south into Dilworth. They passed Charlotte Coliseum, which was nearly rebuilt after the bombing. A solitary crane arched over the north end of the sports complex like a heron in the marsh, the only indication that reconstruction was taking place.
“See that?” Jake said, pointing at the crane. “That’s why. Terrorists tried to blow up these malls almost exactly two years ago. Your dad was killed fighting those guys so they can’t do that anymore… or at least the bad guys will die trying.”
“Honestly, Jake, I have never felt threatened. Even when 9-11 happened, it was so far away. Even when this thing supposedly happened, I mean I felt bad for the families and everything, but it just kind of went away.”
Jake wore jeans and a black T-shirt that said “Gavin McGraw — Security” on the front and had a list of sponsors on the back. He had picked up an odd job working security for the McGraw concert at Clemson last spring. The T-shirt had been part of the benefits package. Since then he had been invited back as a regular.
The temperature was comfortably warm, a beautiful South Carolina spring day. Amanda was dressed in a tight pink T-shirt with the number 10 on the front and back, indicating her high school graduation year. Hip-hugger jeans belied the fact that she was en route to a meeting in a brick-and-chrome office building in Charlotte’s swankiest section. She still had her school books in her lap.
“Your dad is the kind of guy who makes those things ‘kind of go away,’ Amanda.”
“Was.”
“Was, what?”
“You said ‘is,’ and you meant ‘was.’ He’s dead, for real this time.”
“Right. Kind of a stupid point to make, don’t you think?”
He had parked in front of a tan brick building with a sign that said, “DWYER AND ASSOCIATES.”
“I’m not going in,” Amanda said with conviction.
“And I’m not leaving until you do.” Jake pulled the parking brake up, leaned back into his seat, and looked into her eyes. “Listen, Amanda. If you’re not going to do this for your dad, then do it for me. I’ve been troubled about this. Part of me just wants to hold you and support you, which you know I do all the time. Another part of me, though, feels like I need to lead you here. It’s like I’m with you for that reason. Like, your dad’s asking me to help you.”
“That’s good, because he never helped me,” she quipped. Amanda lifted the door handle, jumped out, and then leaned back in. “For you,” she said with a smile. Then she added, “Be back in a few.”
After taking an elevator to the fourth floor, Amanda found the restroom, went in, applied makeup and smiled at herself in the mirror. Don’t you look good, she said to herself. She pulled at the two strands of hair on either side of her face, sucked her cheeks in, and smacked her lips.
She exited the bathroom, found the correct office, and introduced herself to the clerk at the front desk. “Hi, my name is Amanda Garrett, and I’m supposed to meet Miss Dwyer now.”
“Miss Dwyer has a client in her office,” the clerk announced. “Fill out this paperwork and bring it back to me when you’re done, please.”