Everyone blamed the OTM. Riots filled the streets in the Middle East as Muslims blamed them for propping up repressive regimes. The Iranians were livid. They were sure the OTM had supported the Shah. Central American despots were delighted. Many were blaming the 2009 coup that ousted Manuel Zelaya on the OTM. Hugo Chavez called for an international response to the American meddling, and other communist countries were falling in line.
Russia’s response was caustic but muted. Dmitry Medvedev refused to comment, but unnamed sources in the Kremlin suggested that the entire Cold War had been an OTM plot, with NATO playing a key part in creating a false sense of urgency to help subjugate smaller nations into the American hegemony.
People were angry, and terrified, and it made his heart soar.
The Russians will soon have their own problems. A few more days and then the end will be upon them, as well. The American and Soviet empires will finally collapse!
He was savoring the moment when an alarm flashed on his monitor. He checked his network map and found that someone had logged in to his external DMZ firewall.
No! Not yet!
His fingers flew across his keyboard, trying to determine how another user had accessed the admin account on the firewall, but even as he typed, the user was disconnecting the admin port on the firewall, locking him out.
The OTM has found me. How? I’ve been so careful!
He gritted his teeth.
It doesn’t matter. My plan will continue and there is nothing the OTM can do to stop it.
His mouse hovered over the script.
It’s too late for them. In two hours, the Americans and the Russians will pay the ultimate price.
He clicked the button.
The coms dinged as the Gulfstream prepared to land, and when Eric answered, Clark appeared on the screen. Clark’s face was flushed, and the corners of his eyes were taut. “We have a problem.”
Eric glanced around at Nancy, Alexandra, Karen, and Lila Cavanaugh. Lila was staring out the window at the desert below with a stunned look on her face.
Eric had been considering when to tell her that, after all she had seen and done, she was either going to join the OTM or she was going to wind up in a cell somewhere. “Is it Deion?”
“No,” Clark said. “Deion caught up to John and is bringing him in. It’s Huang Lei.”
“Huang Lei?” Eric said. “You’ve found him?”
“You could say that. We received an email addressed to Fulton Smith. It contained an IP address that we tracked to an office building in Pittsburgh.”
“And you think it’s Huang Lei?” Eric asked, trying not to get his hopes up. Huang Lei had vanished after Hawaii, and the OTM had poured considerable resources into a fruitless search for him.
“The company that leases the office is a shell, like his other companies. Dewey penetrated their network, and we found evidence of other shell companies around the world.”
“That’s fantastic,” Eric said. “This might be the break we’ve been waiting for.”
“Now comes the bad news,” Clark said. “Right after Dewey penetrated the network, he intercepted outbound traffic. Luckily, Dewey had hacked the AT&T backbone and stopped the outbound packets.”
“What’s the problem?”
“The code Dewey intercepted isn’t regular network traffic.”
“Then what is it?”
“Some kind of numerical control code.”
“I don’t understand,” Eric said.
“Dewey guesses it controls stepper motors. He thinks the code manipulates some kind of mechanical device.”
Alexandra had been listening to the conversation with interest, but her face went white, and she leaned forward in her seat. “Where was this code deployed to?”
Nancy saw the look on her mother’s face and frowned. “Mother?”
“Where?” Alexandra asked.
Clark’s eyes narrowed, and Eric nodded for him to continue. “Los Angeles,” Clark said. “Boston, Chicago, and Dallas.”
“Oh, no,” Alexandra whispered.
“Those were the cities,” Eric said. “You said those cities had the bombs.”
“It can’t be,” Alexandra said. “How long ago?”
“A little less than ten minutes ago,” Clark said. “Why?”
“You said you intercepted this network traffic?” Alexandra said. “You are sure?”
“Yes,” Clark said. “As sure as we can be. Dewey also shut down the backbone hubs at each office location in the other cities.”
Alexandra fists clenched and unclenched, a tic startlingly similar to that he had observed in Nancy.
“This office building in Pittsburgh,” Eric asked. “Where is it?”
“The corner of the Boulevard of the Allies and—”
“No!” Alexandra cried. “That’s impossible. He found them. This man found the bombs.”
Everyone on the plane was watching in horror.
“The numerical code,” Alexandra said. “Could it be used to manipulate twelve discs on a panel approximately one half meter across?”
“Let me check,” Clark said.
The screen froze. Eric’s stomach was doing flip-flops. “You’re saying one of the bombs is located in that building?”
“I have no idea how this man discovered their location, but that is where we placed the bomb in Pittsburgh.”
“I don’t like where this is heading.”
“The bombs had a twelve-disc mechanical arming device,” Alexandra said. “Once the code was entered, the bomb would be armed with a two-hour countdown timer. It only required a handful of conventional batteries to power the detonators.”
“You think Huang Lei tried to activate these bombs,” Nancy said.
“It’s just not possible,” Alexandra said. “This man, this… Huang Lei. He doesn’t have the codes.”
“What kind of codes?” Eric asked. “Could he have tried every combination?”
“No,” Alexandra said. “If he had been successful, the countdown would have begun. There’s no way to stop it.”
“Why two hours?” Lila asked.
Alexandra turned to the young woman. “What?”
“Why two hours?” Lila asked again. “Why not three? Why not one?”
“That’s a good question,” Eric asked, making a mental note to accelerate her recruitment. “Why two hours?”
“That gave the arming crew time to flee,” Alexandra said. “Any less and they risked being killed in the blast. Any more, and there was the possibility of discovery and physical removal of the bomb.”
“It can be moved?” Karen asked hopefully.
“They’re the size of a refrigerator,” Alexandra said. “With their radiation shielding, they weigh almost six hundred kilograms. They don’t move easily.”
Clark returned to the screen. “Dewey said yes, the code could be manipulating twelve different steppers.”
“Could?” Eric asked. “Can he be a little more specific?”
Dewey appeared on the screen in split-view mode. “Hey, what kind of thing needs stepper manipulation? Is it some sort of puzzle?”
Before Eric could yell at Dewey, Nancy snapped, “How sure are you of this, Dewey?”
Dewey jerked back from the camera. “I’m pretty sure—”
“But you intercepted the code,” Eric said.
“Yeah,” Dewey said. “I’ve locked down the backbone.”
“What about cell phones?” Karen asked. “Could they send the data over a tethered hot spot?”
Dewey’s face lit up. “Good point! I could shut down the cell phone towers, but that would take some high-level authorization—”
“You’re authorized,” Eric said. “Damn it, Dewey. Those destinations hold nuclear bombs.”