‘How?’ Sophia said.
‘Using Jay’s phone,’ Nasira said. ‘He has Jaymien, I mean, Jay and Damien.’
‘OK, I have a plan,’ Sophia said.
‘No, listen up,’ Nasira said. ‘You have thirty minutes to hand over the rock. If you don’t, one of the boys gets blown up. He’s wired the platforms with explosives. Another thirty minutes, he blows another one.’
‘That doesn’t leave much time,’ Sophia said.
‘Yeah, no fucking kidding!’ Nasira said. ‘So turn around now. We need a new plan and we need it now.’
‘The commander is the only one on this island right now who has a chance at stopping all this,’ Sophia said. ‘He’s the only one with the numbers and the resources. I can’t just keep running the tunnels like a rat in a maze — you know that. With the commander, we can stop Denton before he blows anyone up.’
‘Listen to yourself. He’s Fifth Column,’ Nasira said. ‘He’ll kill you. If not now, later.’
‘That’s where you come in,’ Sophia said. ‘I’m drawing Denton’s fire. To the Waldorf Astoria and into the commander’s trap. That’s their plan. And we’re doing it now.’
Nasira realized where she was going with this. ‘He’ll be distracted. That’s when I make my move?’
‘Not on me,’ Sophia said. ‘On the boys. And not a moment before. If Denton makes it out alive and hits the trigger, the boys are safe.’
Nasira knew Sophia couldn’t say it in front of DC or anyone else who might be listening from her end, but she knew that once she’d got the boys out, Sophia was expecting her to come help with whatever shit storm she was about to walk into.
‘And then you want us to come for you?’ Nasira said.
‘You do what you need to,’ Sophia said. ‘The important thing is Denton doesn’t get the meteorite. The more people in play here, the worse his odds.’
‘Ain’t doing great for our odds either,’ Nasira said.
‘You know where I am,’ Sophia said. ‘You can see what I see.’
She was referring to her location, which Nasira could still access on Aviary’s iPhone. And that meant Denton could too.
‘Gotcha,’ Nasira said.
‘I’ll speak to you soon.’
Sophia ended the call.
Nasira stared at the phone for a moment, silent. She switched to the map. All three remaining Fifth Column operatives were clustered in Grand Central terminal. Even though Aviary had turned off her phone’s location, they could still see Sophia’s. She was moving toward the Astoria.
‘Sophia’s dot has an orange outline,’ Nasira said. ‘That wasn’t there before.’
Aviary nodded. ‘Below fifty-percent battery. I should’ve given her a backup.’
Jay and Damien were together on Lexington Avenue, or at least their phones were. They didn’t have an orange outline yet, and they hadn’t moved since the last time she checked. Probably due to lack of reception.
Only three buildings away from her and Aviary.
She couldn’t tell if they were actually on the avenue or underground. It seemed unlikely they’d be out in the open.
The map on her screen disappeared, replaced by an image of a subway station. The image was moving. Nasira realized it was some sort of live camera feed — from Sophia’s iPhone.
Nasira tilted the screen to show Aviary. ‘What the hell’s this?’
‘Oh shit.’ Aviary stood and reached for the handset. ‘That’s the wide-angle lens on the bottom of the phone; I put in there myself. Looks like a headphone jack.’
She turned her phone over and Nasira could see two headphone jacks, only one was fake. There was a very small glass lens inside, so small it almost looked like a tiny screw.
They watched as the camera feed moved through the subway platform. Sophia was walking with her phone in one hand.
‘You can see what I see,’ Nasira said, repeating Sophia’s words. ‘She wasn’t talking about the map, she meant the camera.’
Aviary reached for her ruck and removed a small laptop. She placed it on a nearby desk and flipped it open. Soon she had the camera feed onscreen. It was wider now. As Sophia moved with her phone, Nasira could see all the way to the left and right. She could see the people walking beside her. DC and that other operative.
Aviary hit the volume key on her laptop. ‘We have audio as well,’ she said.
Nasira could hear the trio’s footsteps bounce from the subway tunnel walls. They moved up a flight of stairs to a mezzanine level. At the end she could see masked Blue Berets waiting for them. Their carbines were lowered, trigger fingers pointed to the tiled floor.
‘Can you watch more than one stream?’ Nasira said.
Aviary, hunched over the laptop, rolled her eyes. ‘I can have eight if I want. As long as you don’t go too deep in a tunnel. I think the only reason Sophia could call you from the subway platform was ’cause her phone hijacked the cellular connection of someone else’s — probably one of those soldiers on the mezzanine above.’
‘Grand Central will work?’ Nasira asked.
Aviary straightened up. ‘Upper levels,’ she said. ‘Same as before.’
‘How many phones do you have?’ Nasira said.
‘Why?’
‘I have an idea,’ Nasira said, taking Aviary’s ruck and rummaging through. She found four more iPhones, each in a different colored rubber shell.
Aviary helped her, reaching in. ‘Here’s an earpiece,’ she said.
Nasira took it and slipped it into her right ear. Aviary also handed her a wireless microphone to pin under her T-shirt. Then she scooped up all four iPhones and started searching the nearby office desks.
‘What do you need all those for?’ Aviary said.
‘Denton has three operatives,’ Nasira said, finding a roll of duct tape and shoving it awkwardly into her jacket pocket. ‘I don’t.’
She slipped the iPhones into her jeans pockets — two in each side.
Aviary was staring at the map on her iPhone. ‘You’re not meant to go now: the operatives haven’t moved out yet.’
‘I’m getting into position,’ Nasira said, setting her watch to twenty-five minutes and counting. ‘Once Denton moves for the Astoria — if he moves — I won’t have much time.’
‘I’m not some stupid kid you can lie to,’ Aviary said, her voice rising. ‘You just ran from them and now you’re going straight back in? Before you’re even supposed to!’
Nasira felt her hands ball into fists. ‘What I’m supposed to do is save my friends.’
‘And Sophia isn’t your friend?’ Aviary said.
Nasira stepped toward her. ‘I’ve known her longer than you have,’ she said. ‘Maybe you’re forgetting where we came from.’
Aviary stepped up as well. ‘Pretty hard to forget, actually.’
Nasira exhaled slowly. ‘I know how much you mean to her,’ she said. ‘I ain’t gonna be responsible for you getting a round through the head.’
‘I’m still alive,’ Aviary said, her eyes suddenly glassy. ‘I know you think I’m some little girl who plays with computers and explosives.’
Nasira shook her head. ‘It’s not that, we’ve had years—’
‘I’ve had some training too,’ Aviary said. ‘But I get it. I get that I’ll never be like you. What you guys have, I’ll never have that,’ she said. ‘But it doesn’t mean I don’t care and it doesn’t mean I don’t want to help.’
Nasira turned away, but didn’t move.
‘It doesn’t mean I’m useless,’ Aviary said, her fingers descending on the laptop keyboard.
‘What the hell are you doing?’ Nasira said.
Aviary held up a finger to silence her. She was inspecting a blueprint of Grand Central terminal, but it wasn’t the same blueprint she found the last time they were in the terminal.