“No need to ask,” Roper said. “I got clearance at thirty-seven thousand, an Air France flight from Paris found a two-hundred-knot tail wind.”
“Jet stream?”
“No, just winds aloft. Don’t know how far it’ll last, but we’re in it right now. ETA Andrews at 0800 local.”
“Good enough,” McGarvey said, patting Roper on the shoulder.
He got a cognac from the galley before he went aft and took his seat. It was pitch-black outside, only the stars, no moon, and a cloud deck below them, obscuring the lights of Paris, but they were chasing the sun.
Pete was in the head and Alex was still asleep, leaving him alone with his thoughts. From near the beginning, he’d thought that the killer had to be someone on campus. But everyone connected with Alpha Seven, except for Alex, was dead, so it wasn’t one of them.
The weapon was almost certainly American made and had been buried in Iraq, so when it was found, it would prove our case that Saddam did indeed have WMDs. At least the one nuke.
But Alex had told them the bomb had been meant to be detonated. Probably blamed as a last-ditch stand by the Iraqi military unit still hiding in the oil fields.
Evidently, the Mossad had somehow found out about it, and had sent George to find it and perhaps neutralize the thing. But the Alpha Seven team had come up with a better plan. They had reburied it, where it apparently was still hidden. The only one left now who knew the location was Alex.
Still, it left them with the final problem of the killer’s identity. Whoever it was had known about the plot — or had even been a part of it — and was now trying to cover up their tracks by killing just about everyone who had any knowledge of the incident. The Alpha Seven team members first, because they were loose cannons.
Then Jean Fegan because she had talked to Otto — and Otto himself because someone knew if he knew enough to seek out the woman, it meant he had to be getting close.
Pete came forward and sat down across from him. She took the glass from his hand and had a sip. “You need to get some sleep,” she said.
“It’s hard to shut down now that we’re close.”
“I know, but we have another five or six hours, and you won’t do anybody any good like this.”
“You’re right, of course,” McGarvey said. “But I was wondering what’s the worst that could happen, and what could we do to prevent it?”
Pete thought about it for a second. “You sent Otto home. And their place in McLean is like a fortress, so even if someone does go after him — maybe another hit man sent by the killer — it wouldn’t do much good. Louise would push the panic button, and the cops would be all over the place within minutes.”
“He’s the target, but as long as he stays put, he’ll be okay.”
“You’re a target. So am I and so is Alex. And in six hours we’ll be on the ground and outgun the bastard.”
“We’ll find him,” McGarvey said. “But Alex said the device was meant to be exploded.”
“Before we started the war, or shortly thereafter, to prove our case. That’s if you believe we put it there.”
“I think it was us. A rogue operation. But what happens to us in the region if someone sets the damned thing off?”
“No reason for it,” Pete said. “Who would gain?”
“The Chinese, for one. If they could prove it was our bomb — and that’s fairly easy to do from the signature radiation after a detonation — they could make a case for kicking us out of the entire region. They’d take over, and that would include oil.”
“Not to mention the Iranians, who’d love to thumb their noses at us,” Alex said, coming forward. She perched on the arm of the leather chair across the aisle from them. “We’ve been holier-than-thou over their nuclear program. It would make us look like the biggest hypocrites on the block.”
Maggie came back. “Would any of you like something?”
Pete finished Mac’s drink and handed her the glass. “Another one of these, please.”
“Water,” Alex said.
“Syria, Egypt, especially North Korea, because we’ve tried to keep a lid on their nuclear weapons,” McGarvey said. “We need to find the weapon and get it out of there.”
“That’s the problem,” Alex said. “Someone moved it again after we did. The guy who took out Walt and Isty and the others has been wasting his time. None of us knew where it had been reburied. It’s the part that’s been driving me crazy.”
“We have to find the killer, and Mac thinks he’s still on campus,” Pete said. “But if he doesn’t know where the device is buried, we’re on the edge of an even steeper cliff.”
Maggie brought their drinks back. “Will anyone be wanting anything to eat before we land?”
“No,” McGarvey said. “But if we do, we can manage. Why’d don’t you get a few hours’ sleep?”
She smiled. “Thanks, Mr. Director. I think I’ll do just that.”
“We have to find him first,” Alex said, and something occurred to her. “You say Otto went home?”
“Yeah. He’s next on the list.”
“Did you talk to him just now? I was half awake, and I thought I heard voices.”
“A half hour ago.”
“Was he alone?”
“Tom Calder was with him. Walt Page took a call from State about one of its employees who’d been hit by a car and killed. Otto was there when it happened.”
“Did you record the call?”
“No reason to,” McGarvey said.
“How about Otto? Would he have recorded it?” Alex pressed.
“Probably.”
Alex was excited. “Call him. Tell him to play it back for us.”
“His calls could be monitored. I had him take the SIM card out of the sat phone he usually uses.”
“God damn it, call him at home,” Alex insisted. “Do it right now.”
“You need to give us a reason,” Pete said.
Alex was practically jumping out of her skin. “I think I might have heard something. Maybe I was dreaming, I don’t know. Christ, McGarvey, just do it!”
McGarvey brought up Otto’s home phone. The call went through, and Louise answered on the first ring.
“It’s Kirk. Is everything okay there?”
“Otto and I are eating Twinkies, if that gives you any indication.”
“I need to talk to him for just a minute.”
Otto came on. “What’s up?”
“Did you record our phone call when Calder was with you?”
“I record everything.”
“Send it to me. Alex thinks she might have heard something that could be significant.”
“Let me get my tablet powered up.”
McGarvey’s phone was on speaker mode. Alex seemed as if she wanted to snatch it from where it was lying on the table between the seats, and Pete looked as if she were on the verge of slapping her down.
Otto came back. “Okay, here it is.”
They heard the door lock buzz and then Calder’s voice: I thought my eyes were bad, but yours are worse. The hours we keep to make sure our country stays safe.
You promised to make it only one minute.
Alex leaned in and cocked an ear.
Marty got a call from upstairs that he asked me to check out with you.
“Wait,” Alex said. “Go back.”
I thought my eyes were bad, but yours are worse.
“Go back again,” Alex ordered. “But take out the voices and enhance the background.”
A second later the recording started again, only this time Calder’s voice was gone, leaving something that sounded like church music faintly in the background.
“Do you hear that?” Alex said.