Veles opened fire in reply, and hit the man in the leg. The agent went down as Kavanagh reached a security door. She opened it with a swipe card, and Veles unleashed a couple of wild shots, forcing Jack, Fuller and Dinara to take cover behind columns that lined the corridor walls.
When Dinara broke cover, Kavanagh, Veles and the hostage were gone, the security door was closed, and Jack and Fuller were beside the fallen Secret Service agent.
“Veles,” Dinara observed as she joined them.
Jack nodded. “And Kavanagh. I think they’re going for the servers. Can they switch the system on from in there?”
“I don’t know,” Fuller replied. “We can’t wait here to find out, but if someone doesn’t stay with this man, he’s going to bleed out.”
The sound of gunfire crackled along the corridor, rising above a bed of screams and commotion.
“I have to finish this,” Jack said.
Fuller studied him for a moment, and then nodded. He handed Jack his sidearm. “Take this.”
Jack rose, and Dinara made to follow.
“No,” he said.
“What do you mean, no?” Dinara replied haughtily. “You think I’m sitting this out after what they did to Leonid?”
Jack thought for a moment, and quickly relented.
“Here,” the wounded Secret Service agent said, and he handed Dinara his pistol.
“You’ll need this.” Fuller gave Jack his swipe card, and then set about using his belt to tie a tourniquet around the injured agent’s leg.
“Come on,” Jack said.
He ran down the corridor; Dinara followed. She checked her pistol as they came to the security door.
Jack paused, gave her a confirmatory nod, and she replied in kind. He swiped the key card and the pressure door unlocked with a clunk and a hiss. He pulled it open, and Dinara followed him inside.
Chapter 111
We entered a vast, super-chilled server farm. Rows of in-active servers ran back as far as I could see. They were stacked in floor-to-ceiling racks inside climate-controlled glass cabinets.
The security door closed behind us, and thick mortise locks snapped into place and the pressure seal gasped as it inflated.
None of the computers were on, and the thick door had muted the sound of the gun battle. Veles’ team must have used ceramic weapons to circumvent the base’s security measures.
I looked at Dinara and could sense her anxiety. I felt it too, and the silence somehow made it worse.
We crept through the huge room. Dinara checked the aisles running away to our left, and I kept my eyes on the ones going right. There was no sign of Veles, Kavanagh or Secretary Carver.
We picked up our pace as we passed one deserted row after another. After another two dozen rows, the narrow alleyway seemed to open up a short distance ahead, and I signaled Dinara to slow. We crept forward, and I saw we’d reached a control station at the heart of the server farm. A thirty-foot-square space was broken only by a ten-foot bank of screens and computer terminals set in an onyx plinth.
Ann Kavanagh stood at a computer in the center of the console, her back to us. I signaled Dinara to stay put, and inched into the control station.
“Don’t bother, Mr. Morgan,” Kavanagh said without turning. “Veles isn’t here. He’s with the secretary. An insurance policy in case you try to be disruptive. I needed Secretary Carver’s biometrics to override the FORCE System’s security controls, but I don’t need him anymore, so his life is very much in your hands. Behave yourself and you both might live.”
I was startled when every single server suddenly came to life. Thousands of operating lights illuminated, and the machines began to hum as one.
“Step away,” I said.
“Shoot me, and the secretary dies. Stop me and the secretary dies,” Kavanagh said. “I’ve worked far too long to let you interfere with what’s happening here, Mr. Morgan. In six minutes, the system will link with the Pentagon satellite network and it will go online.”
She turned to face me, and I saw triumph writ large. “And you know what that means?”
I didn’t dignify her gloating with a response.
“We’ll be able to access every single American military and intelligence system. They put everything in here” — she gestured around the huge room — “thinking it would give them real-time strategic advantage. They thought it would make them stronger, but it is their biggest weakness.”
“Karl Parker wanted me to stop you,” I said. “Doesn’t that tell you something?”
“It tells me he was weak,” she replied.
“He’d come to love America,” I countered.
“He’d forgotten who he was,” Kavanagh declared. “I haven’t. And I never will.”
I cast around, looking for Veles. He had to be nearby. Somewhere he could watch and listen. As I looked around the room, I realized Dinara was gone.
Chapter 112
Dinara crept around the server racks. She didn’t have long, and her options were limited. She couldn’t clear her plan with Jack, and in truth it wasn’t much of a plan, but pressure had made her desperate.
Once she reached the end of the row, she started jogging swiftly, moving silently between the racks. She kept looking right to see Jack and Kavanagh in a standoff. Passing up the rows made the scene flicker like a movie playing through an old projector, and Jack moved toward Kavanagh in jagged jump cuts. Dinara realized he couldn’t possibly see the pistol Kavanagh held behind her back.
When Dinara was to Kavanagh’s rear, she ran along the row, flanked by high cabinets on either side. She gathered speed as she reached the last rack, and was sprinting by the time she burst into the open space. Kavanagh looked startled, and tried to bring the pistol up, but she wasn’t quick enough, and Dinara tackled her.
They went down, and as Kavanagh tried to rise, Dinara smacked her with the pistol, and the Russian spy hit the floor, dazed.
“Find Veles,” Dinara said. “I’ll make her deactivate the system.”
“Now you’ve done it,” Kavanagh said in Russian. “The Secretary of Defense won’t be alive much longer. And neither will you.”
“Then there’s no point playing nicely,” Dinara replied.
She pressed her pistol into Kavanagh’s knee and pulled the trigger. The thunderous gunshot resounded around the room, and the older woman screamed. When her cries of agony had subsided, Dinara said, “Tell me how to deactivate the system or I’ll kill you by inches.”
Dinara glanced at Jack, who had frozen. He seemed shocked and torn.
A feeble cry came from their right.
“Go!” Dinara yelled.
Jack hesitated for a moment, and then started running.
Chapter 113
I sprinted toward the noise I’d heard — a guttural cry. I came to the end of a row of servers and discovered an access aisle. I ran left and soon reached a service area full of giant power transformers, refrigeration compressors and communications boxes. Eli Carver stood in the center of the space. His hands were bound behind his back, and a length of cord was tied around his neck. The other end of the noose was attached to a hook, which was connected to a winch and gantry system used to move heavy gear around the facility.
“Help,” Carver cried as he caught sight of me.
I heard the hum of a motor and the rattle of a chain being wound. The winch coiled, dragging the hook up, and pulling the cord tight around Carver’s neck. His legs flailed and he made a horrible choking sound as he was hoisted into the air. He didn’t have long, and his eyes locked onto me, pleading.
Every fiber of my being wanted to rush to his aid, but I knew it was a trap. I was meant to go to him, and once I reached his side, I’d be executed and he’d be left to die. I looked around the space, trying to figure out a way to save the man without dying in the process.