“You really think Colchev wants to smuggle a Killswitch back into the US?” Grant said.
“That’s the only reason I can come up with for why he would want to seek out a drug gang. They’re the best smugglers out there. It’d be much easier to fly it into Mexico and drive it across the border than land in the US and try to get it through customs.”
“Seems like a lot of effort when the weapon was already in America a couple of days ago.”
“Until it got to Australia, the Killswitch was on an Air Force base the entire time. Trying to steal it there would have been suicidal. And they needed the xenobium from Pine Gap to make it operational.”
“Well, we know they ain’t suicidal,” Grant said. “That’s why they needed the robotic truck. None of his men were fanatical enough to blow themselves up.”
Either that or they were saving themselves for a suicide attack on American soil. But where?
“You’re an expert on explosives and electronics,” Morgan said. “What would be the likeliest target?”
Grant considered that for a moment. She was impressed that he didn’t just blurt out an answer.
“I’ve been wondering about that. Nadia Bedova mentioned Wisconsin Avenue. How many are there in the US?”
Morgan brought up the data on her cell phone. “Ten. Six in Wisconsin, two in Illinois, one in Iowa, and one in DC.”
“I don’t think this guy wants to take out corn farmers, so I’m betting DC is the target.”
“It could also be Chicago. One of the Illinois locations is in a suburb.”
“We know that if Colchev gets a large enough sample of xenobium, it could take out the entire city’s grid. I’d still say Washington, unless Air Force One is visiting Chicago any time soon.”
Morgan nodded. “We’ll check on that. But if a terror attack is his plan, then taking out either Washington or Chicago would meet that goal.”
Grant rubbed his head. “That’s the part about Wisconsin Avenue that I don’t get.”
“Why?”
“Well, we know the Killswitch’s effective range goes up the higher it is when it detonates. So why set it off at ground level? I spoke to Collins before we left Pine Gap just to get a sense for what this thing could do. If Colchev had the same amount of xenobium that was at Pine Gap, he could have flown the Killswitch to 35,000 feet and taken out a huge swath of territory.”
“How huge?”
“In the right location it could take out everything from Washington to New York.”
Morgan went silent for a moment as she realized the enormity of the situation.
Grant put on his night-vision goggles and swept the street.
“Colchev could be selling it on the black market to a terrorist network. Maybe the buy is going to happen somewhere on Wisconsin Avenue in DC.”
She shook her head. “If he were in this for the money, he could have found a hundred easier ways to make it.”
“And why specifically on July twenty-fifth? Why is the date so important to Colchev? Is that when he’s planning to set off a Killswitch or is that when he’s going to acquire another component he needs for his scheme?”
“I don’t know. There’s something we’re missing.”
“Then we need to find out what it is. Let’s hope I’m wrong about his men not showing up.” After two more sweeps, Grant said, “I wonder if we have any kung pao chicken left.”
Without taking the goggles off, he stood and turned, then abruptly halted. He cocked his head up, slowly moving it down as if he were watching something drip from the ceiling.
“What are you doing?” Morgan asked.
“You need to put your goggles on.”
For a second she thought he was joking, but she realized his voice was deadly serious for the first time today.
She whipped the goggles off her lap and fitted them over her eyes. When she saw why Grant had told her to put them on, she whispered, “Damn it.”
She could see red ID dust crosshairs descending, superimposed over the bedroom wall like ghostly apparitions.
Right where the hotel’s elevator shaft was located.
She could have kicked herself for making such a boneheaded oversight.
Morgan’s targets had been watching for Kessler from the hotel the entire time, several stories directly above her. And because the scientist hadn’t shown up, her only links to the Killswitch were about to get away.
THIRTY-THREE
The light piercing the narrow crack they’d opened in front of the cave entrance did little to penetrate the gloom. Except for the thin beam of his flashlight reflecting off the basalt walls of the lava tube, Tyler could see nothing.
Although the Moai protecting the cave had done an admirable job of concealing the entrance, apparently the seal had not been tight enough to prevent moisture from entering. The cave surface felt damp to Tyler’s touch, and the air reeked of fungal decay. If mold had grown unchecked in here, whatever they were meant to find might have been destroyed centuries ago.
Jess guided Fay into the tight confines of the cave. Tyler instructed Polk to guard the entrance outside, but it was as much to keep him from seeing the results of their search as it was for protection. Not that he didn’t trust the guy. After all, Polk was the one with the gun. But Tyler saw the wisdom in following Morgan’s need-to-know rationale.
“Be careful,” Tyler said, his voice reverberating into the distance. “The floor’s slippery.”
“You watch your head,” Jess said. “Without hard hats, you could get a nasty bump.”
“It sounds like you have some caving experience.”
“Nana introduced me to it in New Zealand.”
Fay took a deep breath. “Do you smell that? It’s the aroma of history.”
She removed a state-of-the-art video camera from her knapsack and turned on its powerful floodlight. It provided as much illumination as the two flashlights put together.
When she saw Tyler’s appreciative look, she said, “I use this to record all my trips.”
“Paratus et validus,” Tyler said.
“What does that mean?”
“Ready and able. It was my Army unit’s motto.” He showed Fay the Gordian camera he’d had delivered to the C-17 during the Sydney stopover. The equipment was only slightly more advanced than hers. “You would have fit in well. Especially with the way you handled that shotgun.”
Fay grinned. “Flatterer. Come on. I want to see what’s in here.”
She led the way into the darkness. No fear at all. Tyler was even more impressed.
Ten yards in, the path turned, and the echo effect increased. Tyler was shocked that he could now see light coming from the far end of the tunnel.
He exchanged glances with Jess. She was as surprised as he was. They continued on until they emerged into a massive chamber, its thirty-foot-high ceiling domed like a planetarium. Sunlight streamed through a one-foot-diameter hole in the ceiling, providing a weak supplement to the illumination cast by their flashlights. The tall grass must have hidden the hole from view when they were topside.
They all stopped, slack-jawed, as they laid eyes on what the Rapa Nui people had been hiding for more than a thousand years.
The ceiling was covered with images that were exact copies of the Nazca lines. Tyler took out his smart phone and brought up the map of the lines that he’d stored on it. Not only were the symbols identical to the geoglyphs on the Peruvian plain, but they were arranged in exactly the same locations and orientations. Each of the symbols was stippled with dots that didn’t appear on the Nazca plain. Straight lines connecting the symbols matched straight lines in Peru, but there were far fewer of them on the ceiling.