“Too risky to move her, don’t you think?”
“Probably. But just so you all know…” Kit made eye contact with each of them. “If Popov doesn’t make his play by tonight, I’m joining the search for Staci.”
Angel started to say something, then he looked over to Buzz, who in turn looked to Jen. It was Jen who spoke up. “Kit, we could use you here, but we all understand how you must feel. Anytime you want to join the search, just go. We’ll handle this end.”
Kit looked at his team for a long time. “Thank you.”
“I have to say, though,” said Buzz, “that we might not be the ones who find Staci.”
“Meaning?” asked Kit.
“I have a friend in Metro PD, Criminal Intelligence Bureau.”
“Buzz, how do you make all these friends?” asked Angel.
Buzz chuckled. “It’s called being old and having spent your entire life working in intelligence and federal law enforcement. Anyway, I checked in with her when we started looking for Staci yesterday, and she told me there were two guys from army CID already working with Metro detectives trying to find her.”
“CID?” Kit looked puzzled. He’d managed to get a short nap in the truck after Buzz had picked up him and Yulana at Jean Airport, but he felt like he could sleep for an entire day. He rubbed his red eyes. “Staci must have left messages on other numbers and they found one. Or they hacked my phone account. Shouldn’t it be the FBI trying to find her, not CID?”
“Kit, I think everybody and their brother is trying to find Staci right now. And that’s not a bad thing.”
“There’s probably one or two folks trying to find us, too,” said Angel.
“You think?” said Kit smiling. “Okay, I feel good that we’re doing what we can for Staci. Jen, what do you have on the jet?”
“The plane that carried the e-bomb from Albuquerque was a Citation XLS, tail number N313XXX. It took off from North Las Vegas Airport shortly after it arrived. Its present location is unknown, but it belongs to a shell corporation suspected of being controlled by Popov.
“Chances are no one on the ground saw anything,” continued Jen, “and there’s zero indication that Popov is using North Las Vegas as his HQ. There’s no sign he’s here at McCarran, and no evidence he’s working out of Henderson Airport, either.”
“For all we know, he’s going to use a drone to drop the bomb. So he could operate it off some remote paved road,” said Angel.
“Or take off from a dirt strip if he’s in a crop duster,” said Kit. “But that might be good news. If he has farther to fly to the target, the better chance we have of stopping him.”
“When the GPS signal returns, I can neutralize the bomb, regardless of its location, anywhere on earth. Which is what I recommend,” said Yulana.
They all nodded. “That’s good news,” said Buzz.
“What if they’ve installed some other guidance system? A different GPS guidance system that we can’t track?” asked Kit.
“Possibly, but that would be a gamble to use an untested guidance system. Too much chance of failure, so I don’t think so,” said Yulana.
Kit nodded. “Okay, but we have to proceed on the assumption that when Popov goes airborne he’ll be carrying both bombs. I would if it was me.”
“And I should remind all of you that if he detonates the Russian EMP device we assume he possesses, then those of you who will be responding on the ground must realize you will be heading into chaos,” said Yulana. “Everything operated with electricity will stop working. Traffic lights will go out. All lights. Backup generators may come on, if they are diesel, but the devices they power may already be worthless. No phones or radios will function. Anything that has a battery, from children’s toys to your laptops and iPods, will be ruined. Car and truck engines will stop and never run again. Except for some older diesels. Any aircraft flying in the target zone will likely crash.”
“That’s the big question: What is our target zone?” asked Buzz.
“Look at the military targets he could hit,” said Kit, turning to the map. “Nellis Air Force Base, the Nevada National Security Site, the drone operations at Creech Air Force Base, the Tonopah Test Range…”
“And then there’s the really secret stuff, a little farther north,” joked Angel.
“I don’t believe he’s going after a military target,” said Jen. “How could he benefit? And remember, just because the power and communications go out doesn’t mean that bullets won’t fire from soldiers’ guns. He doesn’t have enough thugs to overpower our security forces at sensitive facilities.”
“It’s got to be a casino,” said Angel.
“Popov would need a small army to physically remove the cash from a casino. When he steals money, he does it electronically,” said Buzz.
“Except for that armored-truck heist,” said Jen.
“Actually,” said Kit, “that’s not quite true.”
“What do you mean?” Buzz looked quizzically at Kit.
“I went back and did some research into that caper you told us about. The truck wasn’t full of cash. The cargo was gems. Diamonds. Everyone assumed it was cash because it was an armored truck that had just done a bank pickup, but there was very little actual money in the truck. The jewelers who lost the gems didn’t want publicity.”
“Okay, so maybe not a casino,” said Angel. “Unless one of them has some big diamond collection on display or something.”
“The Wynn Casino has tens of millions of dollars in fine art, but I haven’t heard about any diamond collection,” said Jen.
“The thing about Popov is that he’s primarily an information broker. What valuable information could he obtain by exploding the e-bomb?” asked Kit.
No one had an answer.
“Could it be information kept on computers in Faraday cages?” asked Jen. “That could explain hitting a military or government target.”
“A Faraday cage,” said Yulana, “is supposed to protect sensitive electronics from electromagnetic pulses. But the truth is that Faraday cages don’t always work when an e-bomb is detonated. Popov would know that.”
“And just to complicate our little puzzle further, don’t forget that Yulana figured out there are most likely two targets,” said Kit. “The first target requires the effects of an EMP weapon for the takedown, while the second target only requires a power outage from a rolling blackout.”
Buzz, Angel, and Jen all shook their heads.
“Whatever it is, it has to be a big score,” said Buzz. “Huge. Gargantuan. Popov would not risk having the full might of the U.S. government come after him for detonating an EMP device on our soil unless he stood to gain… hundreds of millions of dollars. Minimum.” They all exchanged looks.
“That’s more than I make in a month,” cracked Angel, breaking the solemn mood.
“A little more than you and me combined, Angel,” said Kit smiling. “We’re going to have to live with the fact that we don’t know the target yet. So we keep working the phones. Everyone is ready? Everyone knows their responsibilities?”
They all nodded.
“The truck and helicopter are loaded with goodies,” said Angel. “All of the weapons have infrared or thermal sights, in case we roll at night. And if Jen loses power here in the hangar when we’re out in the field, I rigged the generator to come on automatically.”
“Some of my local contacts who are well connected introduced me to the people who really run this town,” said Buzz. “And I’m not talking about the mayor or any politicians. I had a conference call with a few people and gave them a friendly, unofficial heads-up that there might be a big heist coming down soon, and I suggested they may want to tighten up their security. What does this get us? Right now, nothing. But if Popov pulls off a robbery that affects these people, we’ll have some new friends in this town who will go to bat for us.”