The gas tank ruptured and exploded, lighting the night with fire. Burning gas enveloped two of the guards. One rolled on the ground, trying to put out the flames. One man ran screaming into the darkness, a human torch.
Selena got to her knee. The last two guards were illuminated by the flames. She shot them before they recovered from the blast. She stood and limped as fast as she could toward the broken gate.
Inside the house, Nick, Ronnie and Lamont had heard everything over the comm link and watched on a monitor as the Suburban hurtled toward the gate. The camera had gone dark when the vehicle struck.
Haltman's right eye began twitching as he faced them.
"It won't make any difference," he said. "She won't get here in time. I assume it's your lovely wife, Carter? Even if she did, she couldn't get past the lasers. We wouldn't want to fry that little being inside her, would we?"
"What?" Lamont said.
"How did you know about that?" Nick said.
"I've been keeping an eye on you. I have many friends, Carter, in many places. Not so hard to obtain medical records, even if they're in Russian."
"Selena is pregnant?" Ronnie asked.
"Yeah."
"Well, Tonto? Aren't you going to offer congratulations?"
"You know, you really are an asshole," Ronnie said.
"Sticks and stones…" Haltman said.
"He's bluffing," Lamont said. "Shoot him."
"Let me demonstrate how this button works," Haltman said.
"Wait," Nick said. "I believe you. But I don't understand why you're doing it. I understand you think we're responsible for your brother's death. We're not, but I don't think I can convince you of that."
"Got that right," Haltman said. He giggled again.
"Okay. You want to punish us. But why start a war? It's kind of overkill, don't you think? Besides, the missiles on that system don't blow up. They're designed to destroy an incoming missile on impact, not land and set off a big explosion."
"Very good," Haltman said. "You're right, those missiles don't explode. But these do."
He pressed the button on his controller and a third monitor lit. It showed what appeared to be another THAAD installation.
"This is in Poland," Haltman said. "Take a good look, Carter."
Nick studied the image. Something wasn't right. Then he realized what it was.
"Those are cruise missiles. Tomahawks, nuclear tipped. There aren't supposed to be any offensive ground missiles in Europe."
"Go to the head of the class, Carter. It seems that someone in the Pentagon has been concealing things from your President. When I press this button, those will be launched along with the defensive missiles at the other locations. I expect the Russians will be quite upset when they see all those pretty streaks on their radar screens. They won't know which one to shoot down first. What would you do, if you were in their shoes?"
I'd retaliate, Nick thought. Shit, he's got nukes pointed at them.
Outside on the grounds, Selena limped as fast as she could toward the building. She didn't see the dog until it leapt at her with a low growl. She fired as the beast landed on her and knocked her down. The dog twitched and lay still.
It made her angry, that someone would take an animal and turn it into a killing machine. It helped fuel her will to get past the pain and keep going.
She was thinking about the plans to the house. If she remembered correctly, a panel controlling all the electrical power going into the building was located in the garage. If she cut the power, she'd take the lasers off-line. She spoke into her comm unit.
"Nick, I'm heading for the garage and the power. Keep him talking."
A single cough sounded in her ear piece.
The adrenaline surge was running out. A sudden wave of fatigue tried to overwhelm her. She pushed on, using the pain in her leg to keep going.
The garage was big enough for a second home. It featured three sets of arched, wooden doors and walls of stone. The parking apron in front of the garage was lit, but the interior was dark. She hoped there were no more guards or dogs to deal with. As she approached the garage, she changed out the magazine in her HK for a fresh one. She worked the charger and moved toward an entry door on the side of the building. She tried the handle.
Locked.
Screw this, she thought.
She stepped back and put a three round burst into the lock, then pushed the door open. A half dozen expensive cars were lined up inside, partly illuminated by light coming through windows in the garage doors. She moved toward the back of the garage, past a silver Bentley, looking for the power panel.
It has to be in here somewhere. Probably painted gray.
She saw what she was looking for next to a long workbench. Tools hung in orderly rows over the workbench.
"Don't move, bitch," a voice said behind her.
Most people would have done as they were told. Instead of freezing in place, Selena dropped and turned and fired at a man standing next to a low-slung Corvette. He fired as her rounds struck home. The bullets went over her head and into the rack of tools, sending wrenches and sockets flying. They made ringing, metallic noises as they bounced on the parked cars and the cement floor.
She waited to see if there were any others, then got painfully to her feet. She went over to the gray panel and opened it. Rows of circuit breakers greeted her, lined up one above the other.
Which one fed current to the lasers? She had no time to experiment. Selena moved back from the panel.
"Nick," she said, "get ready. I'm taking out the power."
She raised her MP-7 and fired. The result was spectacular. The panel erupted with cascades of orange sparks and arcing, violet-white light. The interior of the garage went dark as the lighting outside failed.
After images danced in her eyes. Sparks and crackling noises came from the panel. A tongue of flame crawled in a line up the side of the wall. In a minute, the wall was burning. Acrid smoke seeped out into the garage, smelling of burnt insulation. She coughed and limped back out into the air.
Inside the house, everything had gone dark.
"No!" Haltman shouted.
Then an emergency generator started up.
The lights flickered and came back on, along with the monitors. But the laser beams were gone. Nick and the others stepped into the room and stopped a few feet away from Haltman's chair.
"Stop," Haltman said. He had his finger over the red button.
"Don't do it," Nick said. "Please."
Haltman looked at him and Nick knew he'd lost.
"That's what Carissa must have said." He pressed the button.
On the monitors where the live satellite feed displayed the THAAD deployments, the systems came alive. Nick watched in horror as the platforms swiveled and elevated.
Flame and smoke shot from the back of the missiles as they streaked away toward Russia.
Haltman began laughing. His hand slipped down into his chair and came up with a pistol.
Ronnie shot him.
"Who the hell is Carissa?" Lamont asked.
CHAPTER 50
Nick looked down at Haltman's body and then back at the empty missile launchers on the monitors. Then he took out his satellite phone and called Harker.
"Yes, Nick." Her voice sounded clogged with sleep.
"Director, it's a code red. Haltman just launched missiles at Russia. Some of them are nukes."
"What?"
Any trace of sleep had disappeared from her voice.
"He triggered the THAAD deployments in the Ukraine and Romania. Plus one in Poland armed with Tomahawks."