“Enough!” he roared.
Everyone froze.
Church came around the table, hooked a hand under my arm, and hauled me to my feet. He was not gentle about it. Then he put one hand on Harry’s arm and the other on Violin’s shoulder and pushed them to the side so he could face Bolton. Bolton and Church were about the same size, they looked like they were the same age, and I knew they both had years and wars behind them. Bolton stood with balled fists, ready to swing. I thought he was going to hit Church. Or try to, anyway.
In a quiet, cold voice Church said, “I think it would be in everyone’s best interests if you were to go attend to your duties, Harcourt.”
Bolton fixed Church with a look of pure, unfiltered contempt.
“You run a sloppy shop, Deacon. Maybe it’s time you thought seriously about getting out of the game.”
Church nodded. “I’ll take it under advisement.”
They held their ground for a long moment. Any trace of civility and affability was gone from Bolton’s face. He looked at Violin and dismissed her as nothing, and his eyes swept past Harry as if the kid wasn’t even there. Bolton focused on me and raised a finger to point at me. “You’re done, Ledger. You’re a psychopath and it was a mistake to ever give you a job here. Consider yourself relieved of duty. You and your team are to turn in your badges and weapons. Security will escort you out. If you have a lawyer, I’d call him, because we will be filing charges for negligence and wanton destruction of government property because of what you did to Gateway.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe I ever tried to be nice to you.”
Then he turned, whipped the door open so hard it banged into the wall, and stalked out.
Violin wanted to go after him. I saw her touch one of the concealed knives she always carried. I wanted to either shoot Bolton or throw myself out of the window. Even split. Poor Harry Bolt looked like he either wanted to run away or cry. He was deeply embarrassed. He sat down on one of the chairs and looked at his hands, and said nothing. Church had a calculating look in his eyes as he walked over and sat down.
My phone rang. Bug.
“What?” I asked listlessly.
“I got something, Joe,” he said, his voice charged with excitement.
CHAPTER EIGHTY-TWO
Bug laid it on us. I put him on speaker so they could all hear. Mr. Priest, aka Esteban Santoro, the Gateway book sequence decryption, the coercion. All of it.
“Wait, I’m confused. Why would this guy Priest or Santoro or whatever his name is need to steal it?” asked Harry. “Isn’t he part of Gateway?”
“Doesn’t seem like it,” I said. “He’s running the Closers who raided FreeTech and hit Toys’s place last night. And the crew that was at San Pedro’s office. If I had to guess, he got left out in the cold when everything went to shit down at Gateway. Maybe he’s freelance or maybe his contract has been picked up by someone else who’s now after the Kill Switch master code sequence.”
“The latter would be my guess,” said Church.
“Dr. Hu thinks there has to be some kind of master control unit,” said Bug. “Maybe it’s a full-sized God Machine like they had down at Gateway. Hu thinks the master code sequence would allow that machine to interface with all the others. That way one person would have control over a fully functional and fully regulated process.”
“Who?” asked Harry. “This Mullah character?”
“I suppose,” said Bug. “I mean, who else? Everyone at Gateway is dead. And I don’t read this Priest guy as brains. He’s muscle.”
“Agreed,” said Church.
“Then the code sequence is our target,” I said. “We need to find Priest and get it from him, and it would be nice if he resisted arrest.”
Church got up and went to a quiet corner of the room to make a call. He spoke for several minutes. When he was done he turned and stood there, lips pursed, thinking for a long moment. “I spoke with Dr. Kang. He did not personally work on the master code sequence from the Unlearnable Books, so he put the project supervisor who did on the line. After scanning and collating the pages from each of the Unlearnable Truths, a numerical pattern did, in fact, emerge. The numbers are coordinates.”
“Coordinates for targets?” I asked. “We can put teams in position and—”
Church shook his head. “They are coordinates for three stars as seen from Antarctica. The Large Magellanic Cloud, Sirius, and Alpha Centauri. If you calculate their positions, you come up with set numbers. The Large Magellanic Cloud is fifty-seven degrees altitude, azimuth one hundred ninety degrees. For Sirius you have six degrees of altitude and two hundred and sixteen degrees of azimuth. And Alpha Centauri is seventy degrees of altitude and three hundred twenty-one degrees azimuth.” Church paused. “However, if we can place any stock at all in the writings of Lovecraft — and so far his work, however fantastical it may appear, seems to be our most reliable source — it indicates that the builders of that city arrived there one billion years ago. References in two of the Unlearnable Truths pin the time down to within half a million years. This changes things considerably. The Large Magellanic Cloud would be altitude sixty-three degrees and two hundred seventy-three degrees azimuth, Sirius would be fifty-two degrees altitude and one hundred thirty-five degrees azimuth, and Alpha Centauri would be thirteen degrees altitude, two hundred sixty-eight degrees azimuth. These are the local coordinates; what you would see by eye, looking up. Astronomers use a different set of coordinates to plug into our telescopes and map the sky. Right ascension and declination. These coordinates are not dependent on location, but are dependent on time. And we have those, as well.” He read off the numbers. “The first set, however, matches the code lifted from the Unlearnable Truths by Dr. Kang.”
“Then we have the code,” gasped Violin. A great smile bloomed on her face.
“But… we don’t know where the God Machine is,” said Harry. “Jesus… we’re screwed.”
“Santoro’s on the run,” I said. “He knows we’re going to be on his ass. If he’s as smart as he’s supposed to be he’ll figure we’ll be throwing a net and putting eyes on roads, trains, airports, boats. That’s going to slow him down. Even if he slips past us, he’s not going to do it fast. And then the code has to be input and his team has to coordinate with the ISIL dickheads. We might have two or three days before they hit us.”
“Can we shut down all the airports?” asked Violin. “Minimize the potential damage?”
“I’ll speak to the president,” said Church.
“Good luck with that,” I said, “but I need to run Santoro down and get that code. If he’s in L.A., then I need to be there.”
“My dad just grounded you,” said Harry weakly.
Church picked up his phone and called Brick. “I want you to locate Director Bolton. He’s in his office? You’re sure? Good. Prep Captain Ledger’s helo. Do it as quietly as possible. If anyone asks, it’s for me and I’m heading to the airport to fly back to New York No, that’s a cover. Have Bird Dog on board with a full field kit. I want it fueled and smoking in five. Contact any Echo Team members currently in the building and have them meet the captain on the roof. We’re going off the reservation. Thank you, Brick.”
Church turned to me. “I’ll reroute ops from here to the Hangar. Bug can hack into CCTV to try and locate Priest.”
I smiled, and maybe in the back of my head I heard the Killer turn over in his sleep. “You trust me to do this?”