“What are you doing?” Nick blinked constantly trying to improve on the shadows he was coming up with. “I need atropine. Do you have any?”
“Yeah, in my bag.”
“Then what are you waiting for?”
The man didn’t say anything.
“What’s your name?” Nick asked.
“Kelly.”
“Kelly,” Nick blinked, “are you listening to me, or have the biological weapons impaired your hearing?”
Kelly pushed a button on the probe and the blue light grew more intense in the darkness. Nick sensed soldiers advancing on the cabin behind him.
Kelly smiled. “No, Agent Bracco, my hearing is just fine. And there is no chance that we’ve been exposed to any biological weapons.”
“What are you talking about?” Nick gasped, sucking up thimble-sized pockets of air.
Kelly smiled at his handheld device. “This here is the TIMS 2000. It’s the latest in fiber-optic biosensors.” He pointed to the tip of the umbrella-shaped tool like a proud father. “You see this probe is covered with antibodies that bind to specific bacteria — anthrax and the like — then the system pipes light from a laser diode through the fiber probe. It turns orange, we’re in a heap of trouble.” He held the probe closer to Nick. It glowed with a deep purple mist. “You can see that we have a strong negative result. Virtually no chance for a false negative. If there were any biological agents within a hundred yards of this spot, this thing would be a sparkling shade of orange.”
Nick tried to get his elbows, but a jolt of pain ripped through his chest. His ribcage pinched every time he took a breath. Steele was tightening a thin butterfly bandage around his index finger to close up the laceration. “What about chemicals?” Nick asked.
Kelly nodded. He reached over to his right and returned with a flat plastic tray that had ridges symmetrically etched into the face. An LED display beamed a numerical value across the screen. It read zero. He showed it to Nick. “Primary Ion Detector,” he said, as if he were handing him something as simple as a screwdriver.
Nick looked up at him. He was confused and Kelly seemed to sense it. He traced a penlight over Nick’s eyes and said, casually. “It hasn’t detected anything pernicious. Plus, if you were exposed to any nerve agents, you’d have tiny, little pupils. Your pupils are quite large, despite constant attacks from our penlights. If it were a blister agent, you’d have obvious lesions. And if it were a choking agent, you’d be, well… choking.”
The more Nick listened to Kelly, the more confused he got. He could hear McKenna ordering his troops to teargas the windows and moments later the whoosh of the propelled canisters flung upward.
“Then what the fuck was in that balloon?” Nick asked.
“That’s the question, isn’t it?” Kelly grinned.
Nick’s breathing had slowed considerably. His anxiety lowered itself to a level he could control.
Kelly took the tip of his pinkie, licked it, then dabbed it into the inner part of the busted balloon. He stuck his tongue out and, with sharp precision, lightly touched his pinkie. He methodically moved his tongue around the inside of his mouth, then looked skyward and appeared in deep thought.
Steele removed her mask and she and Nick took to the time to look at each other.
“Well?” Nick asked, after he waited almost a full minute for Kelly to contemplate his taste test.
“If I were to guess,” Kelly said, then took a swig of water from his canteen and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. “I would say mustard.”
“Mustard gas?” Nick said, appalled at the cavalier manner the man investigated an unknown substance.
“No. More like dry mustard.”
“Dry mustard?” Jennifer Steele asked. “Why in the world would they put dry mustard in a balloon, send it down a wire, then shoot it with a rifle? It’s a complete waste of time.”
Nick looked at his watch. Thirty-nine minutes before the White House missiles ignited. They’d wasted ten minutes dealing with the damn balloon. Nick knew exactly what Kharrazi was doing with those precious minutes.
He pulled out the satellite photos taken of the cabin just before sunset. He forced himself to sit up and the grimace he made seemed to startle Steele.
“Please,” she said, holding him upright to prevent him from toppling over. “You need to stay still. You could have broken some ribs.”
In between short, well-paced breaths, Nick said, “There’s not much that could be done for that anyway.” He worked his way to his knees and his peripheral vision began to clear up. Matt was only a few yards away, crouched down, providing cover for the assault on the cabin. It didn’t seem as if there was much resistance left. Matt was close enough to hear everything that Nick and Kelly had discussed. He looked at Nick and said, “You got lucky, partner.”
Nick spit powder from his mouth. He realized that it tasted like mustard. “Are they inside yet?”
Matt peered into the magnified scope of his rifle. With his cheek clenched up against the butt of his rifle, he said, “Yes.”
“You know Kharrazi’s gone already, don’t you?” Nick said.
In the corner of his eye, Nick saw Kelly swivel his head and take in the muzzle flashes from the wooded terrain surrounding the cabin. Nearby, McKenna barked orders like a born leader. McKenna was behind him now and Nick suspected he was close to the cabin.
“I think that dry mustard is affecting your judgment, Agent Bracco,” Kelly said. “There’s nobody escaping from that cabin. Not tonight.”
Nick looked at Matt and saw his partner make a scooping gesture with his left hand without removing his right eye from the scope. Both of them thought the same thing. They’d seen the tunnel that Kharrazi had built in the basement of the safe house back in Las Vegas.
Nick returned his attention to the satellite photos. Steele handed him a miniature single-lens microscope with an illuminator tip. He smoothed out a patch of dirt and lay the photo on the ground. He pressed his eye into the lens and searched a particular distance around the perimeter of the cabin. It took a couple of passes, but he found what he was looking for. It was just a glint. Normally it wouldn’t be enough to warrant a second glance. But under the scrutiny of the powerful lens, Nick had discovered the unmistakable reflection of a mirror. It winked out from the middle of a large bush. Once Nick examined the shrub itself, he realized that it didn’t have the symmetrical canopy that nature would provide a mountain bush of its type. It seemed to be a manmade covering.
Surmising how Kharrazi was going to escape only complicated matters. The next thirty minutes had to be dedicated to finding and disarming the detonator. Nick’s vendetta with Kharrazi had to be put aside for now. They didn’t have the resources to mess with him.
Nick tried to get to his knees and stopped for a quick breath.
“You know,” Steele said, “you could puncture a lung if you aren’t careful.”
With every intake of air, Nick worked to increase his capacity. He got greedy with one breath and his lungs rejected it immediately. His entire chest stung as he coughed a short, staccato cough.
Matt grabbed his arm. “Are you okay? McKenna’s inside. They’ve got the basement secure. He’s asking for you.”
The shooting subsided. Nick muscled his way to his feet, careful to stay behind a wide tree trunk. “What’s the status?” he asked.