“Was anyone hurt?”
“No, ma’am, but Senator Pulaski is a little, uh, agitated, as is Mr. van Dyckman. He’s upset that the tour wasn’t a flawless demonstration of the Valiant Locksmith program. I’m sorry about that, Madam Secretary.”
“No one anticipated an unfortunate plane crash, Rob. Are they safe for the time being?”
“Of course. We should have them out the moment the lockdown is lifted. They just have to wait patiently in the meantime.”
“Patiently?” Harris heard a suppressed chuckle across the line. “Keep me in the loop, and give my regards to the Senator. It’s good for him to have some genuine in-the-field experience, and for Assistant Secretary van Dyckman as well. They both think the real world ends outside the Beltway.” She hesitated. “That was a good call on your part getting Undersecretary Doyle and Ms. Rojas on your committee. And a personal thanks for asking Dr. Garibaldi. We go back a long way.”
“Yes, ma’am. I remember.”
Still unsettled, Rob hung up the red phone and went to the window of his Eagle’s Nest, hoping to hear confirmation from his own people that the crash was as innocent as it seemed, that the pilot and his handful of passengers posed no national security threat. After that was confirmed, he could rejoin the review team and keep them moving along. He would insist that they inspect the rest of the Mountain, and he’d make sure the committee saw what he needed them to see.
Through the large window overlooking the operations center floor, he spotted a light blinking on an enlarged schematic of the Hydra Mountain tunnels. Another sudden flurry of activity on the floor sent a chill down his spine. What now?
He hurried back to his desk and scanned the monitor, unable to believe what he was seeing: a disruptive electronic signal had been detected in the first storage tunnel, a radiofrequency transmission! He caught his breath. Who was sending a signal? A transmission like that would trigger a series of countermeasures cascading through the sensitive safety and security systems!
He hit the intercom and his voice boomed out onto the ops center floor. “Who’s sending a signal? Who’s transmitting in there? That’ll cause—”
Before anyone had time to react, higher-level countermeasures automatically engaged to address the threat.
Simultaneously, the Mountain’s entire system crashed, freezing the lockdown.
14
Right after the Senator activated his cell phone, another ratcheting alarm blasted through the tunnel. The deafening interruption startled him, but he seemed oblivious to what he had done. Pulaski scowled and pressed the phone against his ear, ready to shout as soon as anyone on his staff answered.
Shawn reached him first, grabbing his arm. “What the hell are you doing!” He tried to seize the cell phone.
Simultaneously, Adonia yelled, “Any signal will trigger RF sensors—”
The Senator yanked his arm away from Shawn, dropping the phone to the ground. As it clattered on the sealed concrete, Adonia dove for it, hit End Call, then powered it off, but it was too late. She held the phone and looked up at Shawn, her eyes wide as the emergency alarm continued to clang.
Pulaski looked at both of them, indignant. “What the—”
Adonia shook the phone in front of his face. “Your call just triggered another set of security countermeasures on top of the lockdown!” She wanted to strangle him, whether or not he was a senior senator. As she considered how he had just thrown the equivalent of a live hand grenade into all the interconnected sensors inside Hydra Mountain, the safety and security systems, the automated responses, she couldn’t articulate how furious she was.
Shawn barely restrained himself from shouting. “How many times were you told no electronics inside the Mountain? We couldn’t have been more clear!”
Pulaski looked at the two of them as if they were nothing more than insects. “You can’t talk to me like that. Hydra Mountain is under my oversight. This is an encrypted phone, approved by the NSA—”
Adonia made a disgusted noise. “Missing the point! With all the defensive systems in this facility, who knows what your signal just triggered?”
Garibaldi pursed his lips, rocked back on his heels. “Well, I think the technical term for the situation is ‘The shit has hit the fan.’ Good job, Senator.”
Booming alarms continued all around them.
Glaring, Pulaski turned to van Dyckman, but the other man looked just as distressed. His expression began to waver. “But what does it matter? I couldn’t even get a connection — all this rock must be blocking the signal.”
“You’re deep inside a mountain — of course you won’t get a signal,” Victoria Doyle said in a withering voice. “But your transmission triggered a lot of detectors and automatic countermeasures.”
Battling anger with every diplomatic skill he possessed, Shawn opened the thigh pocket in his battle fatigues and yanked out the blue electronics-storage bag. He took the cell from Adonia and zipped it inside the bag, which he held in front of the flummoxed Senator’s face. “I’m confiscating this phone. This packet is a miniature Faraday cage, so signals can’t get in or out.”
Pulaski raised his voice into the continuing alarms. “Colonel, I will have that phone back. It contains my calendar and all my contacts.”
With forced calm, Shawn secured the packet in his thigh pocket; Adonia knew him well enough to read even his well-concealed expressions, and she had never seen him so upset.
Shawn spoke in a measured tone. “Senator, you knowingly carried unapproved electronics into a classified, special-access area and put us all at risk. That could cost you your clearance and your committee position — if not time in jail. But if it makes you feel any better, the packet is padded and waterproof.” He patted his thigh. “You’ll get it back when we’re safely out of here.”
Pulaski seemed about to lash out, but faltered as he realized that everyone else in the group looked at him with equal consternation.
Adonia raised her voice over the continuing siren. “Listen up! Mr. Harris told us to stay close to the vault door — and not set off any sensors. Thanks to the Senator’s phone, we’ve already failed there, so let’s move back near the intercom. Maybe Rob can turn off this new alarm and get us out of here.”
Shawn’s voice was clipped. “First, does anyone else have electronics on them? Anything that might emit electromagnetic radiation — including smart watches? I thought we were perfectly clear, but I don’t want this to happen again. Last chance for amnesty.” He looked around the sheepish group, but no one produced undisclosed electronics.
As they headed back to the vault door that blocked off the main tunnel and the ops center, Garibaldi’s face scrunched up in a quizzical look. He sniffed deeply. “What’s that odor? I’ve smelled that before.” Then he coughed and staggered backward. “I remember that from one of the Sanergy protests that got out of hand. Tear gas!”
Adonia blinked, then shook her head and blinked again. Suddenly, she felt as though her skin erupted in a hot, painful rash. Her eyes watered and burned, and she started to gag, unable to breathe.
Pushing her way to the intercom, Doyle bent over and started to cough. “It’s… coming from up ahead, by the vault door. But that’s where we’re supposed to go!”
“That’s our exit when the lockdown ends,” van Dyckman said.
Garibaldi pointed down the storage tunnel to the metal door. “Look, the vents!” Small plumes of gas curled into the tunnel, crawling out of openings in the granite wall. The plumes quickly diffused into the air, but the vapor was apparent once they knew where to look.