I returned fire. I fired from memory, two handed, at exactly where Azad sat behind the windshield. I fired, and then I fired again, and again, and again. I emptied the mag. Then I clicked the trigger on the empty chamber, just to be sure. That was when a great flash of light shot out from the sphere. It was like a ball of lightning, but bigger and more powerful, so powerful that it lit up the entire sky like day. I had to shield my eyes. I no doubt would have been blinded if I had been looking at the sphere head on. Everything was bright for as far as the eye could see. And then the horizon burned with angry orange flame.
Chapter 65
Azad had a thumb-sized hole in his forehead and a smile on his face. There was blood and glass everywhere in the cab. He was smiling because of what he had seen on the laptop screen. The screen showed a satellite image of the Sixth Fleet, command boats and aircraft carriers and supply ships, all out on exercises outside of Naples, Italy. Overlaid above the image were two words.
TARGET DESTROYED
The image was very close to the satellite imagery I had seen aboard the Fox. The screen then cycled to show a low-angle video feed. The video feed was as black as night and showed a huge fire at sea. It clearly showed that the Sixth Fleet had been reduced to a burning pile of slowly sinking steel.
That was when I smiled.
I smiled because it was only then that I knew that I had succeeded. Because even though I’d been able to tether my iPhone to Azad's laptop, and even though Mobi Stearn and the other techs at Langley had had access to Azad's machine, I hadn’t been sure that they would be able to fool him. But they had fooled him. I saw it on the screen. It was the flames and smoke that told me so. Because, though Meryem's people had many resources, Azad had already said that they were reliant on observation ships for the position of the fleet. And given the blast radius of the Tesla Device, any observation ship would have been blown sky high by that point. Which meant that the low-angle video feed had to be a fake.
I pulled out my phone to be sure. At some point, the screen had cracked, but the half of it where the liquid crystals hadn’t gone black showed an instant message. The message contained a text and a web link. The text was about a ship. When I clicked on the link, I saw a video mirror of Azad's laptop. As I suspected, Azad's laptop was running four or five routine programs: virus protection, a browser, etc., and two core programs. Those core programs were the ones I was interested in. There was the real targeting program and the false one — the emulation that Mobi had cobbled together.
I had known that once the network password was cracked, it would be possible for Mobi to patch into their machine. The CIA was tethered to me, and I was tethered to Azad. What I didn’t know was whether Mobi would have had enough time to create a false targeting program. Apparently, he had had too much time. Adding the visual effect of the destroyed fleet had been a step too far. Though Mobi couldn’t have been certain, given the blast radius of the weapon, there was no way for Azad to get that information in real time, and if he hadn’t been dead, he would have been smart enough to realize it. Then he might have checked his machine and fired again using the original targeting program. Which would mean he might have actually hit something other than the empty stretch of desert that he had blown up.
When they debriefed me, I thought I’d mention that in the face of uncertain information, the tech guys might want to ease up on the visuals. Less is generally more with those things. Then I cut the wire leading to the sphere, dropped Azad's laptop into my backpack and assessed my options. My adrenaline was still running freely, but I was beginning to feel my ribs, which meant that Meryem's 9mm bullet might have done more damage than I’d initially suspected. They were disorganized below. But though the head had been cut off the Hydra, it didn’t mean the soldiers couldn’t rally around the next in command. I checked my phone. An instant message read: TRANSPORT CONFIRMED. That was good, but it meant I still had my escape and the delivery of the sphere to negotiate.
Then a flash of light caught my eye and I realized that the rest of my task was going to be both easier and harder than I imagined. Easier because the crane again had power. I saw it in the control panel which had lit up in front of me. Harder, because I also saw Kate. She had been on the castle floor, but not any longer. Now she stood outside the cab with her Glock in her hand.
“I’ve restored power to the crane, Michael.”
“Good. Keep us covered and I’ll try to swing this thing around.”
I’d checked my phone. I had five minutes before our scheduled departure, but I figured it was enough time to get the sphere into position, providing Kate put her gun down. Instead, she raised it toward me.
“Lower it here, Michael. It’s been great working with you, but I have a delivery to make.”
“So do I,” I said.
“I’m aware of that, Michael. But this is where our paths part.”
I watched Kate’s finger move on the Glock’s two-part trigger. Four point seven more pounds of force and she’d have me.
“It doesn’t have to be like last time, Michael. I like you. You lower this sphere and you and I are good. I have a team en route. They don’t need to know about you, they don’t want you. Lower the sphere, you go your own way.”
“And my father? Wasn’t the deal that you’d release him if I helped you find the Device?”
“Well, you didn’t exactly take us up on that deal when we offered it, Michael.”
I thought about it. I was tired and sore and I wanted to end the whole thing. Plus, I could still see Meryem lying on the catwalk, grasping her wounded leg, and the whole damn thing left a sour taste in my mouth. But I wasn’t about to give up so close to the prize either. That wouldn’t be sporting. Or professional.
“I’m taking you up on it now,” I said.
“And you’ll give us the Device?”
“You win, Kate,” I lied.
The smoke-laced wind blew in through the shattered window as I scanned the crane’s controls. There were dual joysticks on either side of the vinyl seat. A plexiglass window in the floor below let me see straight down. I pushed Azad's dead hand to the side and hit the joystick. It was tough to maneuver over him, but I’d played enough video games to figure out the controls quickly enough. After moving the sphere back towards me a couple feet, I began to lower it. The big winch began to spin, the squeaky cable unravelling as it slowly lowered, the sphere headed for the castle floor. I watched it descend through the window in the floor below me. Kate looked pleased, her tight trigger face beginning to relax. Then I hit the joystick again.
The big crane swung slowly, right to left.
“Michael, what are you doing?” Kate asked, the tension returning to her cheeks.
“I’m making my appointment,” I said.
“You said you would give it to us.”
“Changed my mind,” I said. “I don’t think you were ever going to give my dad up. And even if you would, I don’t think they will.”
I watched through the scratched plexiglass floor as the sphere swung in the smoky wind, its pendulous motion exacerbated by the movement of the crane. It looked like a giant wrecking ball headed straight for the castle wall. It was going to be close.