Outside the hanger, the thunderous roar of jet engines and helicopter rotors continued to swoon the masses.
Despite there still being no indication of tachyon emissions coming from the mine shaft, he and Raine would be going down alone and relying on their natural immunity rather than the suits to protect them once they found what was hopefully down there.
“It’s heavy,” he complained about the case.
“Its outer shell is solid lead,” O’Rourke explained. “It’s pretty much impervious to anything you can throw at it — fire, water… you name it. This bad boy ought to survive a nuclear blast.”
King grimaced. “Let’s hope it doesn’t have to.”
“Amen to that,” the soldier replied with a smile. King decided that he liked the man. Out of all of the Special Forces soldiers he had been forced to work with these past days, O’Rourke seemed to be the most… human.
“Inside, there is foam padding. The bit of the mask you found in Venezuela is already in there so you can check the pieces you find against it to make sure you’ve got it all before the rest of the team come down. But, just to be sure these tachyon things Nadia’s so worried about don’t seriously damage a potential Mrs O’Rourke’s baby-dreams, she rigged this up.”
King placed the case on the ground then took the proffered device from O’Rourke. “What is it?”
“A tachyon particle detector,” he replied. “A fancy Geiger Counter. Miss PhD over there has rigged it up to read the tachyon levels. Once all the pieces of the mask are safely snuggled up inside the case — and it’s locked, tight — the readings should drop to almost nothing.”
“Almost?”
“Well, she reckons there’ll be some residual tachyons like, I dunno, floating about, or whatever they do, but not enough to cause any harm.”
Just then, the door to the office opened and Raine emerged. Gibbs was instantly on his feet, moving in like a predator about to strike, but Raine ignored him. Instead, he marched resolutely across the hanger towards Sid and Nadia. King could instantly tell that something was wrong. The ‘other’ Raine was there again. Not the easy-go-lucky flyboy that he portrayed, but the intense, searing, determined man whose shockingly blue eyes held menace and danger. The air practically buzzed with an almost palpable charge. A storm about to erupt.
Quick as a flash, Raine grasped Nadia and hauled her off her feet, slamming her down on the bonnet of the jeep parked in the hanger.
“What the hell are you doing?!” Sid demanded, rushing forward to grasp his arm, but he held tight to Nadia’s throat, pinning her down.
“You sold us out to the Russians!” Raine spat, his face twisted in anger.
“Nate!” King bellowed at him as he ran to join the commotion. Gibbs was there also, pulling Raine away from the Russian woman. Everyone was yelling at him but Raine was focussed solely on Nadia.
“You nearly got us all killed!”
Nadia tried to protest, her hands clamped around the man’s wrists, trying to prise him off but to no avail.
“Let her go!” Gibbs shouted. “That’s an order!”
“What are you talking about?” King barked. By now, the entire team was gathered around. Outside, a Merlin helicopter bowed to the audience in a display of the machine’s agility. “Nadia’s not betrayed anyone.”
“I won’t tell you again, Raine!” Gibbs un-holstered his sidearm and jabbed the muzzle firmly against the side of Raine’s head. “Let. Her. Go.”
Raine’s eyes locked on Nadia’s, fury seething from them. His face was hard and unforgiving. Despite her lack of breath, Nadia’s remained cold and impassive. Fire and ice.
“Nate!” Sid snapped.
As though it was a physical struggle, Raine pushed away from Nadia, allowing her to slide to the floor, gasping for breath. She wheezed, pulling long breaths down her bruised wind pipe. Sid was at her side, her hands supporting the trembling woman. King immediately felt a pang of concern at his fiancée’s proximity to the woman who had just been accused of betraying them. He felt guilty for thinking it, but what if Raine was right? What if Nadia was working for the government of her birth? What if, now cornered, she took Sid hostage?
Then the ice cracked and Nadia’s face twisted in anger. “You crazy fucking son of a bitch!” she spat.
“What’s going on, Raine?” Gibbs demanded. He hadn’t holstered his weapon yet, but neither had he decided where to point it: Nadia or Raine? King noticed also that the other soldiers all had moved their hands to their respective weapons. They were twitchy. The situation was tense and King feared that one false move could result in a bloodbath.
“Sid,” he said softly, trying to catch her attention and draw her away.
“It’s okay, Ben,” Nadia replied for her, her voice scathing. “I’m not going to hurt her if that’s what you’re worried about. I’m not going to hurt anyone.” She looked pointedly at her accuser. “Because I have nothing to hide! Nothing to fear.”
“That’s what Langley wanted to talk to you about?” Gibbs asked. Raine nodded. He briefly summarised his conversation with the ambassador.
“And so, because the data was sent to Moscow, it is obvious that I am the traitor!” Nadia declared, sarcasm dripping off every word. “How very astute of you Nathan. I am Russian, therefore it must be me, yes?” Her face twisted into a sneer. “You have the intelligence level of a Neanderthal!” As she spoke, more vehemence rose in her voice. She pushed up to her feet but all eyes remained fixed on her. Jumpy. Twitchy. Ready to gun her down at the first sign of trouble.
“You are an idiot!” she shot at him. “And you have now tipped off whoever the real traitor is.” She glanced menacingly at each member of the team, King and Sid included. Her stare was accusing.
“I checked the com-logs,” Raine said. “You tried to delete the data-burst once it was sent but it left a digital fingerprint on the laptop’s hard drive. Three bursts altogether. One, shortly after we landed in Jamaica, when we on our little shopping trip in Kingston. Not only do the data traces left on the laptop prove it, but your login was active at the same time that the transmission was received in Moscow. A second burst,” he counted down, “when we were en route to Patagonia. What was that for, Nadia? To give Bill Willis a heads-up that we were coming?”
“No—”
“And a third time,” he cut her off. “When we were on the jet heading to England.”
King saw the concern suddenly flash over Gibbs’ face. The enemy knew where they were… again.
Slowly, Gibbs brought his weapon around and pointed it at Nadia. Garcia and West both followed their commander’s action and pulled out their own weapons. King hurriedly pulled Sid away.
But despite the three weapons pointed directly at her, Nadia’s complete attention remained focussed unwaveringly on Raine. His gaze didn’t flicker either.
“Garcia,” Gibbs barked his orders. “Secure Miss Yashina.”
“You nearly got us all killed!” Sid suddenly erupted. King held onto her as she lunged towards the Russian woman. O’Rourke moved in to intercept her as well. “Ben nearly died because you sold us out! You bitch!”
“Hold her back!” Gibbs shouted.
“Sid,” King said, trying to restrain her. The shock of Nadia’s betrayal erupted like Vesuvius in his fiancée. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She pulled against him again and nearly broke loose but this time Lake intercepted as well.
“Get her back!” Gibbs yelled again. “Garcia—”
“This is a mistake,” Nadia protested. “Do you really think I would betray you? To the Russians?!” The question was directed solely at Raine, totally oblivious to the commotion Sid was causing or the three guns pointed at her. Garcia holstered and secured his weapon and then stepped forward. Nadia didn’t resist as he took her hands behind her back and bound her wrists with plastic ties.