“He’s risking the launch window and he knows it,” Maggie said. “So what the hell is he up to?”
“They’re hiding something,” Ripley said looking around to make sure they weren’t being overheard.
“No kidding—”
“I mean something big, Maggie. It’s not the H2C, it has something to do with the satellite. And they’re nervous as hell that we’re going to find out what’s going on. At first I thought it was nothing more than extrastringent security, but these guys are really uptight. Kimura wouldn’t let me up to the payload level until after the hatch was shut.”
“If he really thought you hadn’t gone through sterile procedures he was within his rights.”
“He knew damn well that I was clean. But I got a glimpse of the satellite before they closed the hatch. It wasn’t the same bird that we’ve been working on.”
Maggie’s eyes narrowed and she gave him a look of skepticism. “What do you mean?”
“Unless they painted the gold foil black for some reason, the satellite in the payload bay wasn’t Hagoromo II.”
“What about the lighting up there, Frank? Shadows?”
“Gold foil reflects everything. I would have seen it if it was there.”
The activity on the floor of the launch center was beginning to pick up. More than half the consoles were lit up and operational now, including the positions for the Tiger team.
“Okay, so what are we going to do about it?” she asked. “Do you want to call Hartley and blow the whistle? I’ll back you up. So will the others, you know that.”
Ripley had thought about that option. “I wouldn’t know what to tell him. But if we did stop the launch, providing the Japanese went along with us, and the satellite turned out to be legitimate, and it was just some shadow I saw up there, we’d be in some serious shit.”
Maggie had to smile. “What do you want to do?”
“We have forty-eight hours plus before launch,” Ripley said. “I’m going to spend the time doing a little research, and you and the others, my dear, are going to cover for me. I have a ton of paperwork to catch up with. A deluge.”
Maggie joined Hammarstedt and the others at the Tiger team’s consoles on the upper tier in launch control. They would stay at their positions until the forty-eight-hour countdown clock started. Afterward they would alternate shifts depending on what procedures and tests were scheduled. The whole team would be on duty once again for the last few hours before launch.
“Oh, hi, Maggie,” Hammerstedt said, looking up. “Where’s Frank?”
“He had to go back to the office. Paperwork.”
Hammerstedt smiled. “Better him than me.”
The guards were no longer posted around payload building one, and the facility was deserted now that the satellite had been taken away. Ripley paused a moment in the middle of the main assembly bay and listened for a sound, any sound. But the place was as silent as a mausoleum. The lights were on, but turned low in the offices upstairs, and unless Kimura suspected something, he would still be out on the launch pad.
Ripley crossed the floor of the bay and took the stairs up two at a time. He would not be missed at launch control for at least another hour. After that he would either have to get back or be at his office, because questions would be asked.
He didn’t really know what he was looking for. Evidence that the Japanese had switched satellites, perhaps. Or, at the very least, that they had removed or covered the gold foil on Hagoromo II. But for the life of him he couldn’t figure out why they would do the latter.
Kimura’s office was unlocked. Ripley let himself in and powered up the satellite engineer’s computer, pulling up the launch menu. He entered the Tiger team’s password, then brought up the database for the satellite. The language was Japanese, but the mathematics and engineering details were all in English, since the Japanese had no technical terms. Starting with the main frame on which the satellite’s component subassemblies were attached, he began looking for inconsistencies. Something that might at least give him a hint what the Japanese were really up to. But, not knowing what he was looking for, and searching a database that was partially in a foreign language, Ripley didn’t think he had much chance for success. But he had to try.
Joseph Lee was walking alone on the beach five miles from the launchpad when a Toyota Land Cruiser with NSDA markings pulled off the road and came toward him. He had come out to clear his mind of discordant thoughts. If Miriam were here she would have cut through his present difficulties with a word or two of advice. He missed her dearly.
Shinichi Hirota, Tanegashima’s chief of security, got out of the Toyota and came over. He was dressed, as usual, in a military-style uniform without insignia. He saluted.
“Is it about Ripley?” Lee asked.
“Just as you expected, he broke into Kimura’s office and is at this moment searching through the computer files. He may have seen something before the payload doors were closed, as Kimura suspected.”
“He will find nothing in the computer.”
“No, sir,” Hirota said, somewhat impatiently. He had come with more important news. “The other matter you asked me to check.”
Lee’s mouth tightened. “Yes?”
“Our Washington embassy has received no direct news. But there have been unconfirmed reports about an incident or incidents in Momingside and Cropley, Maryland. An explosion, gunfire and police, plus the Federal Bureau of Investigation.” Hirota shrugged. “It may be nothing.”
Lee knew better, but he nodded and kept his true feelings of disappointment and rage from his face. Kondo should have called hours ago to report that the mission was a success. Once again his trusted aide had failed. The question uppermost in Lee’s mind was the extent of the failure. The countdown clock was about to begin. They needed forty-eight hours. Two days, no more. Time enough, he wondered. If Kondo’s mission had not been a complete failure he may have bought them enough time. However, the reverse could easily be true.
He glanced down the beach toward the launchpad lit blood red in the setting sun. “There is another problem that you may have to deal with,” he said.
“Here?”
“Yes, here,” Lee said. “His name is Kirk McGarvey, and there is an outside chance that he will be coming to us in time for the launch. You must be ready for him, because he is very deadly, and there is so much at stake here. Do you understand, Hirota?”
The security chief grinned. “Hai, Lee-san,” he replied.
TWENTY-TWO
The morning shift was just beginning to arrive when McGarvey finally got back and took the private elevator up to the seventh floor. Whatever was about to happen was going to break very soon, and he had at least one major hurdle to overcome before they were out of the woods.
Dick Adkins came out of an office as McGarvey emerged from the elevator. “Where were you? I’ve been trying to reach you all morning. Looks as if the Bureau might have got lucky down in Morningside.”
“I was there,” McGarvey said. He headed down the corridor to his office. His chief of staff fell in beside him, a look of exasperation on his face.
“Are you going to tell me about it? Or is it something else that you’re going to keep to yourself for my protection?”
“I’m sorry, Dick, but it was my show,” McGarvey explained. He felt bad that he was cutting Adkins out of the loop, but there had been no time to include him. Nor was there much time now.