“I know.”
Marie frowned. “But I’m the one who’s been away, haven’t I?”
Dalton nodded. He was afraid to get closer to her, afraid her form, which he could see through, would break apart and float away like a mist before a strong wind.
Before his eyes the young woman aged, lines that Dalton knew his army career had contributed to greatly began to materialize, flowing across her, giving her an imprint of the years she had lived, producing in Dalton a deep sense of sadness.
Marie smiled again, this time with sadness resonating through. “I’m hurt too bad to come back Jimmy.”
Dalton nodded once more, not trusting even his mental voice.
“Is it all right if I go? It feels so much better like this, being free, rather than trapped like I’ve been.”
She had always been there for him, but she had always done what she wanted also. The question was the courtesy the two had always given each other over the years.
“I think it’s fine if you go, Treasure.”
“You look like an angel,” Marie said. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” Dalton said. He reached his hand up. The image of Marie did the same. The two hands flowed into each other. Dalton felt an electric shock run up his arm/wing.
“You’ve always been my Treasure,” Dalton said.
“I know,” Marie said, “and you ’ve been mine.”
Chapter Fourteen
Feteror dumped the data he’d stolen out of the GRU mainframe into one of his memory cells inside Zivon. He found it ironic that the code for the encrypted information he had was also most likely inside of Zivon, but inaccessible to him, even though the scientists considered him part of the computer. He activated a decoding program and the mechanical part of Zivon went to work on the data while Feteror waited.
It didn’t take long.
Feteror was impressed. The GRU was taking no chances with the arming codes for the nuclear weapons. They were shipping them via military helicopter direct from Kazakhstan to Moscow. There would be a four-fighter escort. Feteror noted the time of departure and the proposed flight route. And the name of the officer who would have the codes: Colonel Verochka.
Now he only had one problem— being on the outside during the flight— but the other data he had stolen would help with that.
A bright light flashed. Feteror would have smiled if he could— Rurik wanted him.
Feteror accessed his outside links.
“Yes?”
Rurik wasted no time. “We need you to find something.”
“What?”
“I’m having the data loaded.”
Feteror was not surprised to note the physical description for the phased-displacement generator entered into his data banks.
“What is this thing?” he asked.
“A weapon.”
“What kind of weapon?”
“That is not your concern,” Rurik snapped. “Just find it. As you reported, it was stolen from the site you just checked. So find the men you saw there and you will find the weapon.”
“That will be very difficult,” Feteror lied. “Practically impossible.”
“Do it!” General Rurik yelled.
“I will try.” The tunnel opened and he was gone.
In the chamber the red light began flashing. General Rurik stared at it for a few moments, then turned to his senior technician.
“What was Feteror doing before I summoned him?”
The technician typed into his keyboard. “He was working within the hardware, running a program.”
“What kind of program?”
The technician didn’t answer right away, checking the machine. “A decryption program.”
Rurik leaned forward. “What is he trying to decrypt?”
The expert shook his head. “We don’t know. It’s inside his memory database section.”
“Can we access his memory section?”
The technician shook his head. “He has cyber-locked and encrypted all that data.”
“We can’t access our own damn computer?”
The technician backtracked. “We can access it, but I don’t think we can get the data stored there out in legible form. Also, the way I am reading what Feteror has done, it would cause some permanent damage to Zivon for us to do that.”
The technician saw the look on the general’s face and hurriedly continued, “For security reasons, Feteror only has access to certain parts of Zivon. We have, in effect, put a wall up to keep him from having free access. But you must remember, General, that when you build a wall, it blocks traffic both ways. That wall also keeps us from freely going into his part of Zivon.”
Rurik looked at the steel cylinder. “He’s up to something,” he whispered.
“Excuse me, sir?”
Rurik spoke in a louder voice. “I want you to find out what Feteror has stored. In a way that can’t be detected and will cause no damage to Zivon. I want to know what is happening on Feteror’s side of the wall.”
The technician opened his mouth to say something, but his teeth snapped shut as he saw the expression on his superior’s face. He nodded and turned to his computer console.
“You’re down to six,” Raisor said accusingly.
Dalton wiped the embryonic fluid off his face and threw the towel to the floor. He felt a chill spasm through his body and he shivered uncontrollably for a few seconds. He felt an empty space in his chest, a sick feeling.
“Six what?” His mind was elsewhere, Raisor’s words registering distantly on his conscious mind.
“Six men,” Raisor said. “One of your so-called special men has flaked out on us.”
“You talked to Trilly?” Dalton asked dully. He could still see Marie fading away, her spirit disappearing, growing ever fainter until there was nothing there. He’d stayed in the room as the medical alarms had gone off and Dr. Kairns had rushed in. He was grateful the doctor had obeyed his written wishes that Marie not be resuscitated. He had finally left when Kairns had tenderly pulled the sheet over Marie’s body.
“He came to me,” Raisor replied. “Said he had talked to you and told you he wasn’t going in the tank again.”
“That’s not his decision,” Dalton said.
“If he’s not willing, there’s not— ”
“It’s also not your place to talk to my men,” Dalton said, cutting the CIA man off.
Raisor shook his head. “I’m in charge here, Sergeant Major, not you. You may be in command of your men, but I’m in charge of you. So in effect, I’m in charge of your men too.”
Dalton jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the isolation tank he had just come out of. “Fine. Then you go in there and lead the team.”
“I just might do that,” Raisor said.
Dalton realized Raisor would take over. “Let me lead my team,” Dalton said.
“You go over one more time for practice,” Raisor said, “then it’s for real.”
“Fine,” Dalton said. He didn’t particularly care one way or the other at the moment.
“Can you do it with six?” Raisor asked.
“I didn’t think we could do it with eight,” Dalton said. “But we’ll have seven. Orders are not optional. Trilly’s going with us.”
“I’ll supplement your team with some of the RVers,” Raisor said.
“I thought the reason we’re here is because they couldn’t do the mission,” Dalton said.
“They can’t— by themselves. But three of them are military and have had basic military training. I’m sure with your leadership, they’ll be of help.” Raisor’s cold smile matched his tone. “And they have experience in the virtual plane.”