Maybe she had found a lover? Was lying in bed letting the roll of the sea rock her and some lucky man into easy sex?
Well. It didn’t really matter. Pretty soon, he would have to leave. Too bad.
His com rang. He pulled it from his belt and opened it. “Yes?”
Missy said, “Have you seen Jackson? He’s supposed to be in Computer Operations and he’s not.”
“Haven’t seen him,” Santos said. And wasn’t likely to, if Jackson saw him first. “You try his room?”
“He’s not answering his phone, his pager, or knocks on the door.”
“Maybe he’s in a bathroom throwing up? Boat’s moving some, and that Jackson, he’s got kind of a weak stomach. So I heard.”
“I doubt that.”
“Or maybe he’s getting himself a little pussy. I hear he likes that.”
“Grow up, Roberto!” There was a short pause. “You’d better get going. The storm is getting worse, and you have to be on the Mainland.”
“Don’t worry about me, I’m not gonna disappear like Jackson.”
He flipped the phone shut, tapped it against his other palm, then stuck it back on his belt. That was odd, that Keller wasn’t around. He lived for his computers. Maybe before he took off, he should check Keller’s cabin, make sure he hadn’t had a heart attack or something.
Toni listened, astounded by the scope of the planned attack on the Internet. Keller, once he got started, was babbling like a man stoked on amphetamines, talking so fast he kept running out of air and had to suck more in big gasps.
Hacks. EMP devices. Men with guns and cable cutters. This was major. She was going to have to call Alex with this, it was too big to risk letting it get started. People were poised to do all this in a few hours, and authorities around the U.S., around the world, had to know.
Keller knew some of it, but not all. They needed to get the locations for attacks on the hardware, so they could stop them. Undoubtedly those were in the computers. Could Keller access those plans from here?
Yes, he could. He had his flatscreen. He could download those files. Would she like him to do it?
Toni smiled. This would justify her staying here! “Do it,” she said.
It didn’t take that long. When he was done, he burned the download into a mini-DVD and ejected it from the machine. “Here it is,” he said.
Toni took it. She would call Alex, right now. If he wasn’t on the way, this would be important enough to scramble a military copter and get help here. Toni said, “You did good, Jackson. Now just sit there for a minute while I make a call.”
As she reached for the phone, somebody knocked on the cabin’s door. No, not knocked, pounded on it, as if they were trying to punch a hole in it.
“Jackson! You in there, boy? Open up!”
Santos!
“No! No! Go away!” Keller yelled, before Toni could stop him.
Uh-oh. They were in trouble now—
Chance felt like a caged beast. She paced back and forth in her office. Where was Keller? Where was Santos? Why hadn’t he left yet? Neither man was absolutely necessary at this point — the plan would go with or without them — but the lack of either would cripple things more than a little. Dammit! What was happening here?
It was dark, the wind rocked the copter like a leaf blown by the winds of fate, and the rain was coming down pretty steady. Not a great night to be flying way the hell out over the ocean.
“There it is,” Howard said.
Michaels looked through the window. A smear of bright light shined through the darkness. The helicopter barge. Past that, at least half a mile or so, he’d guess, was the gambling ship, also lit up like a Christmas tree.
Fernandez lurched back from the front of the copter, holding onto the seats as he came down the aisle, just barely able to stay on his feet. He got to them, sat, buckled up. “Landing is gonna be tricky,” he said. “Our pilot wants to let the captain do it, it’s his bird, he knows her better. The barge is rocking some, and their flight control doesn’t really want to let us try it, but we have insisted — too dangerous to fly back, the captain said. They said we’re gonna have to ride the storm out tied to the deck, ’cause they ain’t running the transport boats, it’s pretty choppy out there.”
“It’s a little far to be swimming in this weather, isn’t it?” Michaels said.
Howard grinned. “Oh, I’m sure we can convince them to let us use the shuttle boat, if we ask real politely.”
The copter dropped lower, spiraling in toward the landing barge. The deck didn’t look very big from here. Kind of like a postage stamp.
Michaels leaned back from the rain-streaked window. The helicopter bounced and jerked to the left, then back to the right, and caught another wind shear that dropped them like a stone so suddenly that his stomach tried to climb up into his mouth. Behind him, he heard somebody vomiting. Into a puke bag, he hoped.
“Hang on, folks,” the captain said. “We’re going in.”
36
Toni had, she figured, about two seconds before Santos came through the door, either by using a keycard or by kicking it down. He knew Keller was in here, no question.
But Keller was a quivering lump on the bed, curled now into a fetal position, hands over his face.
She had to get this information to Alex. And she didn’t want to go one-on-one with Santos, not in a space as cramped as this cabin. Maybe she could take him. Maybe not. He was big, strong, fit, and trained, and she couldn’t risk losing the data she had gotten from Keller. What to do?
The moment of panic flared, but then her brain started working. She realized that Santos didn’t know who she was, or what she was doing in Keller’s cabin. She could play that, but she’d have to do it fast.
She grabbed her shirt, pulled it off, then peeled off her sports bra. She held them in one hand, loosely covered her breasts, and hurried to the door.
Santos was having trouble getting the keycard override to work. He kept dragging it through the slot, but the little light stayed red. He was about to kick the door when it opened.
A half-naked woman stood there.
The secretary!? She was here with Keller!?
What god had he pissed off that this man, this picaflor, was sleeping with two of his women? That was it. He was gonna kill the guy.
“Roberto? What are you doing here?”
“I need to talk to Keller. He’s supposed to be working. But I guess I can see why not. No wonder I couldn’t find you.”
“He’s putting his clothes on,” she said. “In there.”
“Yeah, well, you wait right here. I got something for you.” He cupped his groin, hefted it. “Bigger and harder than anything Keller has.”
She smiled at him. Moved her hand with the shirt in it out of the way and took a deep breath.
Ah. Nice mambas.
Oh, yeah, this would have to be quick, but he could do that. Get Keller out of here, pronto, and get back to her. Leave Missy with a little something to think about — he’d make sure Keller told her about it.
He was already halfway ready as he moved past her through the short hall toward the bedroom.
Toni ran. She sprinted as if she were trying out for the Olympic hundred-meter dash team. She passed a couple in the hall, saw the man grin at her. Well, a half-naked woman running down the hall was probably not something they saw every day. She didn’t have time to stop and dress. By the time Santos realized something was wrong, she wanted to be far away. She had to find another hiding place, fast.