“Bombs?” Dewey said.
“Shut it down,” Clark yelled. “Whatever it takes.”
“Okay,” Dewey said, “but this is going to piss off a whole lot of people. And some federal regulators.”
“What about the network in Pittsburgh?” Alexandra asked.
“I’ve shut down all outbound connections,” Dewey said. The sound of clattering keys could be heard through the speaker. “Hey, are you Nancy’s mom? You look just like her. You’re still smoking hot, too!”
Nancy looked like she wanted to crawl through the video cam and strangle Dewey. “This isn’t the time or place.”
Dewey frowned, but the clattering continued. “I just don’t know when to stop. It’s funny, because I’m really an introvert, but my ADHD—”
“What about the internal network?” Eric said. “Please, Dewey, this is important. I need you to focus.”
The keystrokes stopped. “Right. Focusing. I already killed the outbound connections, but any local network would still be active. I can try and shut it off, but if they’re using dumb switches, the only way to do that is to cut power to the whole building. That’s going to take a while.”
“If he sent the commands,” Eric said, “he must think they’ll work.” He turned to Alexandra. “You said he didn’t have the codes. Who did?”
“A handful of agents were given the cipher,” Alexandra said.
“It wasn’t stored anywhere?” Nancy said. “You didn’t keep it written down?”
“No. It was too dangerous. The engineers who built the devices were executed shortly after to prevent them from speaking of what they had created. Many of the intelligence officers who knew the cipher were old. They are all dead now.”
“Are you sure of that?” Eric asked.
“Yes,” Alexandra said. “I had contacts that kept watch on such things. All who knew the codes are dead.”
“You planned on leaving the bombs in those cities?” Lila asked. She glared at Alexandra. “How could you just leave nuclear fucking bombs sitting around?”
“They were safe,” Alexandra said. “They were walled up in concrete rooms under old buildings. The cores aren’t active until the codes are entered. The PALs physically kept the pits from entering the bomb. The shielding kept the radiation from hurting anyone. They were safe.”
“They don’t sound so safe now,” Lila said. She pointed to Alexandra and then at Eric, Nancy, and Karen. “It’s people like you who are going to end the world. You people suck!”
For once, even Nancy was speechless. Eric considered the girl’s words. Everything she had said was true. “The codes. Were they ever stored anywhere? Like, in a computer somewhere?”
Alexandra pondered that for a moment. “Perhaps.”
“The man behind this, Huang Lei, ran a series of global corporations and companies involved in all kinds of technology. Could he have discovered them?”
“Perhaps,” Alexandra said so softly that he had to strain to hear her. “We never considered the possibility that the USSR would fall. Who knows what happened during that time?”
Eric shook his head. “Let’s assume that Huang Lei discovered the location of the bombs and the codes.”
“If the bombs detonate,” Alexandra said, “the blasts can be traced back to Russia.”
“The isotope ratios,” Dewey said. Everyone turned to look at the screen. “Each plant that makes fissionable material has a unique ratio of isotopes, kind of like a fingerprint. The START treaty? Really? You guys don’t remember the START treaty? We traded information with the USSR. We have each other’s fingerprints.”
Eric remembered the basics from his days in Delta. He had cross-trained with the Navy’s DEVGRU on tracking nuclear weapons and determining the origins if a weapon were used. “Dewey is right. If a bomb detonates, we could determine the actual point of origin in a couple of hours.”
“The world is going nuts,” Lila muttered. “Is this what your organization does?”
“She’s right,” Karen said. “It could set off a world war. If nothing else, it’s going to destroy the world order we have now.”
“A two-country system,” Eric said. Everyone turned to look at him, and he realized he’d spoken aloud. “Huang Lei blamed us for his father’s death. The United States and the Russians. If he detonates that bomb and we blame Russia, well…”
“It will destroy you,” Alexandra said.
“No,” Nancy said. “We can tell them—”
“Tell them what?” Eric asked. “Huang Lei outed the OTM with the data leak. You think anyone in the government is going to believe us?”
“The president knows,” Nancy said.
“The president will be under tremendous pressure to retaliate,” Eric pointed out. “Even if there’s no retaliatory nuclear strike, there will be sanctions. Political fighting. Military operations in any one of the current proxy wars. Thanks to 9/11, the country can’t afford another war. Neither can Russia. Our economies are intertwined now.”
“You said there’s a bomb in Pittsburgh?” Lila asked. “You think it’s been activated and there’s two hours until it goes off? What are you going to do about it?”
Eric eyed her appraisingly. The OTM analysts were busy thinking through all the negatives, but the young woman was already seeking a solution. If we make it through this, we’ve got to recruit her. “Lila has a point. How much time do we have?”
“One hour and forty-eight minutes,” Dewey said.
“That’s not enough,” Karen said. “We can’t get there in time. The nearest DHS security team is in Philadelphia. Can local law enforcement handle Huang Lei?”
“We have another option,” Eric said. “Where’s Deion?”
“No,” Nancy said. “Absolutely not. Frist can’t be trusted.”
Everyone turned to him, waiting for him to speak. “If he can’t, then we can kiss the United States goodbye. Clark, get Deion on the line.” He pointed to the screen. “Alexandra, you’re going to describe the bombs to Dewey Green. He’s a genius. If anyone can figure a way out of this, it’s him.”
Nancy started to speak, but Eric silenced her with a look before punching the intercom button. “Hot Dog, get this plane in the air. We’re heading to Pittsburgh. You have the authorization to push the airframe to the max.”
“Roger that,” Clayberg replied. “I’ve always wondered what this baby could do.”
Lila looked like she might vomit as she slumped into her chair. “Should we be flying toward a nuclear bomb?”
“Either we figure out a way to stop it,” Eric said, “or it won’t make a difference.”
Deion’s cell phone rang. He glanced at John and Kara sitting quietly in the backseat, then answered the call. “Go for Deion.”
“Deion, good buddy, how are you?”
“Good buddy?” Deion said. “I know I’m in trouble when you call me good buddy.”
“Yeah,” Eric said. “About that. We need you and John in Pittsburgh.”
“You’re kidding, right?” In front of him, a police cruiser whipped out and turned on its lights and siren and tapped the brakes until Deion’s rented Toyota Corolla caught up to him. “Are you doing that?”
“We’ve called in the local police,” Eric said. “They’ll escort you to the West Virginia border. We’ve got another police escort all the way to Pittsburgh.”
Pittsburgh? “I do not want to hear what comes next.”
“John is with you?” Eric asked.
“Yeah. He came peacefully, if that matters.”
“It matters to you,” Eric said. “You’ll need his help. There’s a nuclear bomb in Pittsburgh.”