“So we’re not too excited about seeing them again?”
“I think they’d let their guns do the talking.”
The man who’d jumped Tyler was now perched on the running board, looking for a graceful way back into the car. Colchev obviously wasn’t planning on stopping to let him off.
“How much distance you figure we need?” Grant said.
“I’d like two miles, but I don’t think we’re going to get it.”
The man leaped onto the top of the car, which immediately began to slow down. The truck, which was now more than a mile from Tyler and Grant, sped away from the sedan.
“It’s now or never,” Tyler said. They both crouched behind the boulder, covering Stevens and Beech. If this didn’t work, they’d only have seconds to warn Pine Gap before those men returned to finish them off.
Tyler waited for Grant to cover his ears, then pressed the TALK button on the phone and covered his own.
Grant’s phone was now hooked up in an electrical circuit with one of the detonators sitting in an ANFO barrel in the back of the truck. It received Tyler’s signal and sent a current through the detonator.
The world ripped apart as if a volcano had erupted in the middle of the desert. The deafening blast, louder than a thousand sonic booms, shattered the air and transformed the earth into an undulating ocean of dirt and sand.
Even with the boulder protecting them, Tyler could see the reflected glow of the gigantic fireball through his closed eyelids. His bones rattled from the overpressure wave, and the heat from the explosion singed his hair.
Shards of metal rained down around them. Tyler covered his head with his arms, but it would do little good if any large engine parts were flung this far. He just had to hope the boulder would do its job.
After what seemed like an eternity, the reverberations of the blast subsided. Tyler opened his eyes.
Tyler checked Stevens and Beech. Both were breathing and uninjured.
Grant blinked like he was coming out of a coma.
“You all right?” Tyler said.
“Definitely two miles next time,” Grant replied.
They stood and staggered from behind the rock to survey the damage.
As the dust settled downwind, they could see that the road train had been wiped from the earth. In its place was a crater a hundred feet wide. The car had vanished, reduced to mere fragments by the explosion. Any remains of Colchev’s men would be microscopic.
Grant handed Tyler his Leatherman without taking his eyes off the wreckage.
“Thought you might want this back,” he said.
“Thanks,” Tyler said as he mechanically replaced it in his belt holster.
“So,” Grant said, “shall we call the police now?”
“I doubt that’ll be necessary,” Tyler said as he gazed in awe at the smoking hole in the ground. “I imagine we’ll have plenty of company in a few minutes.”
TWENTY-TWO
Thirty seconds after he lost the video and data signals from the road train, Colchev felt the shock wave from the immense explosion shake the van like a paint mixer. He tried reaching the men in the Ford, but all he got was static in return. He tore his headset off and smashed it against the console, swearing a stream of Russian curse words in violation of his own directive.
Locke had somehow caused a premature detonation, literally vaporizing his carefully designed plan. At least the man was likely dead, but his operatives were also gone.
Colchev sat back in numbed silence to consider his next move. If someone at the base had discovered the Killswitch didn’t arrive from the airport, the explosion of the truck bomb was intended to bring any investigation to a dead stop. But with Pine Gap still intact, the Americans would act quickly to track down the weapon. That meant he had to act decisively. Quitting just as they were starting was not an option. He’d never get a chance like this again, so he could not waste time hesitating.
The van slowed.
“Keep driving,” Colchev said, moving to the van’s passenger seat. “Head to the rendezvous.” A mushroom cloud rose in the distance.
“What the hell happened?” Zotkin said. “Wasn’t that early?”
“We lost the truck,” Colchev said.
Zotkin’s grip on the steering wheel tightened until his knuckles were white. “How?”
“An intruder got on board and blew it up. It was Tyler Locke, the engineer who killed Golgov and Popovich in New Zealand.”
Zotkin gaped at him. “Locke is here?”
“He must have been with Bedova.”
“Did he survive?”
Now that Colchev thought about it, there was a chance Locke was still alive. He had to operate under that assumption.
“He may have made it,” Colchev said, “but there’s nothing we can do about that now. The site will be crawling with police before long. Gurevich and Lvov are dead, too.”
Given how soon the explosion happened after Gurevich got out of the CAPEK cab, they had to have been caught in the blast.
Zotkin’s jaw clenched. “The US government will put every resource they have into finding the weapon.”
“We have a solid plan for getting the Killswitch back to America. Our larger concern is retrieving the xenobium to power it.”
“Can we still accomplish our mission?”
“Absolutely,” Colchev said, betraying not a flicker of doubt in his voice. He did, however, have grave doubts. Without the xenobium, the Killswitch was just a regular bomb, and not a very powerful one at that. With the xenobium, the Killswitch could change the world.
Colchev’s phone rang, and he answered the blocked call warily. Other than his operatives, only his mole at Pine Gap had this number.
“Yes?” Colchev said.
“It’s me,” a man’s voice said. They didn’t risk using names. The call was forwarded by a VOiP service, so there would be no way to trace it to Colchev from the source. Still it was a risk they’d avoided until now. His mole was desperate.
“What do you want?”
“I want to know what the hell happened!”
“The package wasn’t delivered as planned.”
“I know that! Don’t you think I heard? What am I supposed to do now?”
“Can you get out?”
“No. They put us on immediate lockdown.”
“What about the trigger?”
“I can’t smuggle it out now, for God’s sake! You’ll have to wait.”
“We can’t. I’ll have someone check the drop in Sydney tomorrow. If the—” In his anger at the ruined scenario, Colchev almost said “xenobium”, but mentioning the word would raise alarms. “If the trigger isn’t in the planter box by midnight, our business is concluded.”
“You can’t leave me hanging out to dry! It’s only a matter of time before they realize I helped steal the weapon.”
“You knew the risks, and you were paid a lot of money to take them.”
A long pause. “I’ll tell them everything.”
“What will you tell them? You have no idea where we’re taking the package. I will be fine. You, on the other hand, will be executed for treason. So keep your wits about you and figure out another way to get me the trigger. And don’t bother trying to call me again.”
Colchev hung up and opened his window. He erased the phone’s contents, removed the battery, wiped both parts clean of fingerprints, and tossed them into the desert.
“Do you really think he can do it?” Zotkin asked.
Colchev shook his head. “Doubtful, but there’s nothing we can do to help him at this point.” Without the truck bomb to divert attention from the theft, it would be almost impossible for his mole to get the xenobium out of Pine Gap undetected. Colchev massaged his forehead to ward off the headache he could feel coming on.