"We don't need him. Everything he did is documented. Hell, any college sophomore could follow his directions and program the satellite."
"If he's a prisoner, that could be a problem," Martinez said. "He knows too much."
"Send someone up there and check it out. We need to know for certain."
"All right."
Westlake said, "We'll use Colorado for the rest of the transmissions. I wanted to reserve that for the final phase, but it will give us a chance to work out any glitches in managing the operation. "
"Have you chosen the London location yet?"
"Yes. We'll place the diversion in the financial district. The amplifier will go in an entertainment complex called the O2. There's a concert scheduled a week from Saturday. Some British rock star. It's sold out. There will be 20,000 people packed together and screaming their heads off. I thought that would be a good place to put our little gift box. The device will activate fifteen minutes after the bomb, while emergency services are responding to the explosion."
"There will be real panic in a crowd like that. A lot of people are going to get killed."
"You're not getting squeamish on me, are you Senator?"
"No, but are you sure it's necessary? After all, if we put it somewhere else it will serve our purpose just as well and there will be fewer casualties."
"Provocation has to be severe. We want to encourage the strongest possible response on the part of the British government. You can't make omelettes without breaking eggs."
"Please, Louis, spare me the clichés."
"Then spare me your false humanitarian concerns. I didn't hear you commenting on the numbers of dead in Russia."
Martinez thought about it. "I see your point. You're right."
"Of course I am."
"What shall we do about the Project?"
"The damage is done," Westlake said. "They screwed up the test but things are too far along for them to do much else. They don't know what we plan. By the time they figure it out, it will be too late. They won't be able to stop it."
"Still…"
"I'll talk with Edmonds and convince him the Project is interfering with a classified military operation. I should've done it before. He'll be so happy a four-star general is taking him seriously that he'll jump on the chance to do something he thinks is presidential."
"He could be useful. You think we should leave him in office afterward? He's familiar to the public. It might lend an air of legitimacy to the new government."
"I haven't decided that yet. Let's see if he'll cooperate."
CHAPTER 24
In Virginia, Stephanie waited until Elizabeth finished talking with Nick.
"Well?" Stephanie said.
"They're on the way back. Ronnie has cracked ribs and a bruised ego but everybody else is all right. They're bringing a hard drive and a logbook for you to look at. They didn't find anything of consequence on the bodies. Nothing to tell us where they came from. Whoever sent them won't be using that site anymore."
"How did they gain access to a secret defense facility?" Stephanie asked.
"I don't know. They had to know where it was and how to get into it. Not many people would have that information."
"That should make it a little easier to narrow down," Stephanie said. "The hard drive Nick found could help."
"If you can read it, it might."
Harker picked up her pen and began tapping on her desktop.
"We've reached the limit of what we can do on our own," she said. "This is getting complicated and there are too many implications for national security. It's been compromised. We can't risk making a mistake. I'm going to bring in Langley. We can't trust the White House to help while Edmonds is running things but we can trust Hood."
"Lucas likes him. He's a pretty good judge of character."
Lucas Monroe and Stephanie had been lovers for the better part of a year. He was on the fast track to become Director of National Clandestine Services. If he made it, he'd be the first black man to ever hold down one of the four top directorates at Langley.
"See? That's a powerful endorsement, coming from him. How are you two getting along?"
Stephanie twisted the bracelets on her wrist and took a deep breath. "We're going to move in together."
"Steph, that's wonderful."
"We thought we'd try it out." The words came out in a hurry. "Living together. If it works, we'll make it permanent."
"You're the first person I've told," Stephanie said.
"That's wonderful," Elizabeth said again. "Are you keeping your apartment?"
"No, it's too small. So is his. We've begun looking for a place with more room."
Harker set her pen back down. "It's good to talk about something normal for a change."
"Isn't that why we do this?" Stephanie said.
"What do you mean?"
Stephanie gestured around the room, at the monitor on the wall, the files on Harker's desk. "So we can have normal lives. Our job is all about stopping people who think normal means doing whatever they want. People who start wars because they're rich, sociopathic assholes who want to get richer, or religious lunatics who think God is on their side."
"I never thought of it quite like that," Elizabeth said, "but that sounds about right."
"What are you going to tell Hood?" Stephanie asked.
"Everything. That we're on the track of something that relates to Novosibirsk and that I'm waiting for more information. I want you to look at that hard drive Nick recovered before I talk with him. The more I know, the better."
CHAPTER 25
Stephanie was waiting for them when they got back to Washington. Nick handed over the salvaged hard drive and logbook.
"Meeting tomorrow with Elizabeth at 0900," she said. "Ronnie, you come with me and we'll get those ribs checked out."
Nick turned to Selena. "Do you want to stay at my place tonight?"
"It's better if I go home. All I want is a hot bath and a good night's sleep."
He pushed his disappointment away.
"I'll see you in the morning," he said.
Back at his apartment, Nick poured himself a whiskey. He thought about Selena. What was it between them, anyway? Sometimes it seemed like they were on the same wavelength, as close to each other as a person could get to someone else. Other times, it was as if they lived on two different planets.
The whiskey warmed his stomach. He poured another. What did he really want from her? He realized he had never thought it through. He loved her, but did he want to marry her? What did people usually want from a marriage? He knew what he didn't want, he didn't want all the complications that went with having children. As far as he knew, that wasn't an issue for Selena. She had never given any indication that she wanted kids. So what was it?
He knew that most men would envy a situation like his. He had his own place and she had hers. They could get away from each other when they needed to. The sex was great. They worked well together. She could hold her own in the unusual and dangerous world they shared and he could rely on her when the chips were down. What more could anyone want?
Nick thought about Megan, the fiancée he'd lost years ago, the only woman he'd ever loved before Selena walked into his life. It was getting hard to remember how she'd looked. He used to dream about her but there had been a dream where she said goodbye and she hadn't appeared since.
Megan had been so different from Selena. He'd wanted different things with her and he'd been a lot younger then. With Megan, Nick had looked forward to a life pretty much like other people had. A civilian life with a couple of kids, a house somewhere, a job doing something where nobody was shooting at him.
Then all that disappeared in a fireball of burning jet fuel and twisted metal. The image of her plane arcing into the ground as he watched was seared into his memory.