A little less than an hour later they were over Circle. It didn't look any different than the satellite photo. The airstrip looked old and neglected.
"Used to be a wild place in the old days," Newhouse said. "Supplies for the mining camps came up the river and got unloaded here. All gone, now."
Nick consulted his GPS. "You know where you want to set us down?"
"Yeah, there's a flat meadow about a day from where you want to go. I bring hunters there sometimes. It's a good base camp."
"What do they hunt?" Selena said.
"Grizzly, mostly. Moose. You need a permit and you'd better know what you're doing. This isn't the season, right now. You won't run into any hunters."
"I'm not worried about running into hunters. It's the bears I worry about."
"Don't bother them and they probably won't bother you," Newhouse said. "They keep to themselves and they don't like people much."
"That's comforting," Selena said. "Especially the part about probably not bothering us."
Newhouse laughed. Five minutes later, the clearing appeared below. He brought the helicopter in with practiced ease and set it down in the field. He sat and watched them unload while the engine idled. Nick came over to him.
"We shouldn't be more than a couple of days. I'll call you when we're ready to go back." He held up his sat phone. "We'll meet you here or where we're going. Either way, I'll let you know."
"Keep your head down. Don't let the bears eat your lady friend."
"I think they probably ought to be afraid of her," Nick said, "not the other way around. Have a good flight back."
He stepped away from the helicopter. The turbine wound up and the bird rose into the air. They watched it go. The sounds of the Alaskan wilderness replaced the whine of the turbine and the beat of the rotors. There was a rustle of wind in the trees. The air was clean and smelled of the forest.
They were alone.
"Spray for bugs," Nick said. "They'll be on us soon." They sprayed the exposed parts of their bodies.
"Better give Selena a heads up," Ronnie said. "About the wilderness."
"What about the wilderness?"
"It looks like we're just walking through a park but it's not what it appears to be. Sam wasn't kidding about the bears. Most of the animals won't bother us but the bears are no joke. A big grizzly can go over 1000 pounds and twice as high as a man when he stands on his hind legs. When they get going, they're hard to stop. This time of year there's plenty of food, so I don't think we'll have any trouble unless we surprise one. The rangers want you to make a lot of noise as you walk to warn off the wildlife but we can't do that. So keep an eye out. Stick close."
Nick turned on his GPS. "That way," he said. "As much as possible, we'll stay under the trees, just in case someone's looking."
They shouldered the packs and set off.
Once inside the forest, there was little movement of air. It was hot. Selena was sweating within minutes. She walked behind Nick while Ronnie brought up the rear. She was wearing one of the new armored vests over her shirt. It was hot and uncomfortable and rubbed against her skin. She could see a dark patch of moisture spreading out from under Nick's vest as he sweated. The ground underfoot was uneven and treacherous. Sometimes they seemed to climb, sometimes move downhill. She knew her legs would let her know about it later.
Tiny black flies found them. The bug spray helped but it didn't keep them away. The insects swarmed around her. When they bit, it was a sharp pain like a needle stick. Afterward, the bite itched.
"Beautiful from the air," Selena said, "but this is something Dante might have dreamed up."
"Can't be helped," Nick said. "At least no one is shooting at us."
Selena almost said not yet but held her tongue. It wasn't something to joke about. She'd never been on a mission yet when someone didn't shoot at her. The MP-5 chafing her shoulder and the heavy pistol on her thigh were reminders she wasn't here to take in the scenery.
By the time they made camp that night in a hollow of rocks, Selena ached all over. With the darkness came cold that hinted of the Arctic ice not far away. She wished they could start a fire, but they couldn't risk being spotted. They ate a cold meal.
"Selena, you take first watch. I don't think anyone knows we're out here except the animals, but I don't believe in taking chances. Ronnie, you next. I'll do the last one. I figure we're about an hour from the objective," Nick said. "We'll leave at first light."
"Look," Selena said.
A green curtain of light swept and shimmered and filled the northern sky.
"Aurora Borealis. The Northern Lights," Nick said. "That's something."
They watched the display. After about twenty minutes, it faded.
"Get some sleep," Nick said. "Long day at the office tomorrow."
CHAPTER 21
While Nick and the others were making their way through the Alaskan forest, General Louis Westlake was having dinner at his club with Senator Martinez. They sat at a table in the corner, away from the rest of the diners. They could talk without being overheard.
"We had good results in Novosibirsk," Westlake said, "but Thorpe wants some modifications before we move to the next part of the plan."
Alistair Thorpe was the research engineer who had developed Ajax. He'd based Ajax on designs developed by Nazi scientists in World War II as part of Hitler's Wunderwaffe secret weapons program. The Germans had built an electron accelerator called the Rheotron. It projected hard x-ray beams to disrupt the engines of enemy planes. From there it wasn't much of a leap to target the pilot and a prototype of a radio transmitter that disrupted brain function had been designed. In April of 1945, the Americans captured the Rheotron and the designs for the transmitter near Hamburg.
The German scientists had found a new home in America and a patron in the Pentagon. Their research had continued. 70 some years later, it had borne fruit in Ajax.
Martinez sipped his martini. "What did you have in mind?"
"I want to repeat the test."
"Where?"
"Riyadh. It will give the Saudis something to think about."
Martinez nodded. "I like it. We can give them a taste of what's to come if they don't cooperate once we've taken over. "
"A receiving unit's already in place," Westlake said. "Thorpe is on his way to Alaska to install the new circuit boards. He says it should improve intensity by twelve percent or better."
"Twelve percent? Excellent. When do they arrive on site?"
"Tomorrow morning. It shouldn't take long to upgrade the system. Then we can reprogram the satellite and give the sheiks a lesson."
Martinez toyed with his glass. "Riyadh should be enough. After that we could go ahead and implement here."
"We've already discussed this, Senator. London is the best test. We have to see how a Western democracy reacts when the population of a major city starts trashing everything in sight. How will the government respond? Whatever they do, it will provide on the spot, real-time data for what's going to happen here. We can anticipate and influence the course of events, but the more data we have, the more certain we are of success. Besides, it diverts attention."
"It does make sense," Martinez said. He speared the olive in his glass with a toothpick and ate it.
"We have to be patient," Westlake said. "We've waited this long, another week or two isn't going to make much difference."
"What about Prometheus?"
Prometheus was another, different kind of satellite, named for the Greek god who defied Zeus and brought fire to humans.