There was no time for guns. Nick blocked the thrust and tried a forearm strike. He took a hard shot to his injured shoulder. It missed the nerve center. Adrenaline flooded him and he entered the zone.
The zone was a place where time changed. An altered state where everything slowed around him. It didn't always happen. When it did, life hung on the edge. It was as if he'd entered a dimension where everything moved in slow motion. Except him. He could see the moves of his attacker coming. He simply wasn't where the blow was supposed to land and could counter with ease.
This man was good. But in the zone, Nick had the advantage. He easily slipped a high kick to his head. The attacker's foot passed through space where Carter should have been. Nick drove three hard punches into his enemy, right below the sternum. The knife came up as the man doubled over and Nick stepped to the side in a fluid ballet of death, twisting the arm up and over and snapping the elbow.
The man screamed. Nick drove fingers stiff as iron into the throat. The man went down. Time speeded up again. He turned. Selena was in a fight for her life, parrying and striking. It was Mali all over again. She was bleeding where the knife had slashed her arm. As Carter moved toward her she spun and landed a blow directly over the heart. Her opponent faltered. She uttered a primal scream, a wild yell that echoed through the airport. She struck again, her face contorted in fury.
It was over. People were screaming and running in all directions in the terminal. Carter could see security guards headed their way. He bent down and pulled back a sleeve on one of the bodies. He knew what he would find.
The ambigram of the assassins.
Later, in their room, Selena fingered the bandage on her arm. "How did you know?"
"The ear. The ear never lies. When it gets like that, bad things are going down. It's usually right then or it's about to happen. It's been that way since I was a kid."
She gave Nick a look of appraisal. Of approval. "You were way above your level, back there. I've never had opponents like these people. They're world class."
"I was in the zone, or he would have had me. You know about the zone?"
"Where everything slows down?"
He nodded.
"It happened to me twice in competition. No one can beat you then. Not if you know what to do."
"We'd better call in. Let Steph know what's happened. What I wonder is why they came after us. And how did they know where we were?"
"Maybe it's revenge. For Mali"
"It could be. Or they think we know where to find Bausari. But we don't know anything. We don't even know where he's gone."
"Remember how we did it in Africa?"
"We made assumptions."
"So, start assuming. We know he went north."
"No, we don't know that. What we know is Hemmings says he heard Bausari's men say they were going north."
"We have to start somewhere." Selena brushed a hair away from her eyes. "If he didn't go north, we're in trouble anyway."
"Great," Nick said. "We've got more than twelve hundred miles of coastline and the rest of the country where Bausari could have gone. North of San Diego narrows it down by twelve miles from the Mexican border. Helps a lot."
"Hemmings thinks they were talking about a long drive."
"If it's true. If it is, assumption number one is that Bausari wouldn't stop until he got as far as here, at the soonest. If he stayed on the coast."
"Bausari isn't just another terrorist with a bomb. He's the one making way for the Messiah. He wants to start a war. And he's dying. He's running out of time. I can't see him making a long journey inland somewhere when he's got a target rich environment right here in the West." Selena rubbed her bandage, caught herself and stopped. "If you were Bausari, what would you do to create the most impact with a nuke?"
"Kill a lot of people. Blow up something symbolic."
"The Red Death."
"Right. So assumption number two is that whatever he does will provoke massive reaction on the part of our government that leads to war. Piss us off enough. But a nuke would do that anywhere."
"He'd pick a population center." Selena frowned. "It's their style. Maybe he'd target the military directly at the same time. A big base."
"He'd never get on a base. All military airspace is controlled. He couldn't just fly over and drop his bomb out the door. Anything sensitive is protected."
"Where could he hurt us the most? Where is there a combination of big military presence and a lot of people at the same time?"
Nick got up and began pacing across the room. Back and forth. "LA. San Diego. But we've ruled those out. Maybe we should pin a map up and throw darts at it."
"Maybe we should."
"What about Washington," Carter said.
"Washington? The Capitol?"
"No, the state. There are a lot of bases up there. Air Force, Navy. Most of the bases are clustered around Seattle, near the port and Boeing and the other big defense contractors. There's a big naval base. There's the Needle, that's pretty symbolic."
They looked at each other. Carter got goose bumps. It could be Seattle. It felt like Seattle. As hunches went, it was a good one.
His ear tingled. "The bomb is six kilotons. It would take out the naval base and most of the city. Seattle has over half a million people."
"Big enough."
He took out his phone. "I'm calling Stephanie."
She picked up on the first ring. Carter told her what they'd figured out.
"You were right," she said. "He went to Seattle."
"What? How do you know?"
"The Bureau found him. But it won't do us much good. Someone else found him first."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm sending you a picture."
They watched the photo appear. Selena went pale.
Three bodies lay on the floor of an apartment. The heads had been hacked off and were lined up in a row on the table. Blood was everywhere. Through the window beyond Nick glimpsed a large body of water. One of the heads had belonged to Bausari. His hair was dyed black, his beard shaved off.
"The Feds found one of those discs." It was all she had to say.
Nick rubbed his ear. "What about the nuke?"
"Not there. We have to assume the assassins have it now." Stephanie paused. "Rice wants you back here. He wants us to go after them."
"How are we going to do that? We don't know where they are."
"Langley may have something."
Part Three:
Judgement Day
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Satellite photos littered Steph's desk. Carter, Stephanie and DNCS Hood were in her office. Nick rubbed his shoulder. It ached like hell. He could make the arm work, but it hurt. He was practicing Tai Chi again, the fighting form with swords, pushing through the pain. Comfort wasn't important. Function was. Carter didn't practice the slow, stylized sword form people saw in demonstrations. His was the other kind. Meant to kill. Harder, effective, useful even in unarmed combat. It wasn't the sword that mattered. It was the quick, ingrained response to block an attack and counter with lethal force.
His back hurt. His stomach was upset. His ear itched like hell. What Hood was saying didn't make him feel any better.
"The terrain is difficult." Hood pointed at the photos. "The objective is across the Afghan border, on the Paki side. We're pretty sure this is what we're looking for."
"Pretty sure? What does that mean?"
Hood looked annoyed. "What I said, Nick. Nothing else fits. Landmarks match what you found in that manuscript in Mali."
Carter studied the photo. A building made of stepped tiers of stone sat at the end of a winding box canyon, recessed into a black mountain. Rock walls rose on three sides, protecting the building. The front was protected by a high stone wall crossing the full width of the canyon. A large courtyard formed an open space in front of the structure. Entry was through a wooden gate flanked by pillars. The gate was closed. The ends of stout timber beams jutted at intervals from the eves and walls of the building. Narrow windows covered by carved wooden shutters looked out over the canyon. It was a fortress, old style.