She smiled weakly, and then pressed the switch.
The device sent out a radio signal that was picked up instantly by a receiver unit on the ground. The receiver in turn sent a small electrical charge surging through several hundred feet of copper wire that disappeared into the cave opening. That charge detonated a small conventional explosive, which scattered a cloud of powdered aluminum high above the maze of elephant skeletons.
A fraction of a second later, the fuel-saturated air ignited.
The thermobaric bomb transformed the elephant graveyard into a miniature sun. The bones and ivory teeth of ancient elephants, crushed to dust by the initial blast front, were subsequently incinerated in a firestorm that exceeded 5,000° Fahrenheit. The force of the explosion hammered into the domed ceiling, opening enormous cracks in the stone. An instant later, the vacuum created by rapid cooling of the scorched air, caused the entire cavern to implode.
From high above, King watched a cloud of dust rising, the result of the shockwave traveling through hundreds of feet of rock. When it cleared, a new crater was visible on the landscape of the Great Rift Valley.
The elephant graveyard had ceased to exist.
›››Your services are required, General.
I didn’t think I’d hear from you again.
›››The Brainstorm network remains operational.
Sure. I just thought you would be keeping a low profile. At least until some of the heat dies down.
›››Recent events have not compromised operational efficiency.
Maybe not for you. But I need to be very discreet. Everyone is under suspicion now.
›››There is no cause for concern. Key network personnel have been positioned to minimize the consequences of this investigation. However, no external action is demanded of you, General.
What then?
›››Information about the man who caused the recent disruption. I want to know everything about Jack Sigler.
Sigler? I didn’t realize he was behind all this. It makes sense now.
›››You are familiar with him?
I am. Look, it’s not safe for me to do this right now, but I’ll put some information together. Contact me in a week to set up a dead drop.
›››There is a 93.9% probability that Sigler will pursue further action against Brainstorm. The need for this information is urgent.
I’ll get it to you.
Graham Brown read the text message reply. He deleted it without responding and put his smartphone away.
A week after the destruction of the facility site in Algeria…a week after Jack Sigler had showed up to ruin the most audacious enterprise he had ever conceived…he found that he still could not keep the anger and desperation from creeping into his Brainstorm communiques. He had spent decades cultivating the myth that Brainstorm was something larger-than-life; a sentient, even omniscient computer, and not just an ordinary- well, maybe extraordinary -gambler from Atlantic City with an uncanny ability to accurately assess the probabilities of almost any event.
“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,” he muttered.
Like the Wizard of Oz, his real power wasn’t his genius, but the illusion that he was something more than human. Maintaining that illusion required him to behave like a computer, to be logical and emotionless when interacting with the men and women whose service and loyalty he had surreptitiously purchased over the course of thirty years.
That kind of clinical detachment hadn’t been a problem for him until Jack Sigler entered into the picture. Fortunately, there was an easy solution.
Kill Jack Sigler.