CHAPTER 71
The B1 Lancer did a turn and burn, stopping only long enough to pick up its two passengers.
Quinn was surprised to find Major Brett Moore in command of the aircraft. Moore had been an assistant physics instructor at the Academy when he was a brand-new captain and Quinn was a cadet. A tall man, dressed in the green flame retardant flight suit pilots called a “bag,” his dark hair was beginning to gray at the temples. He’d been quite a boxer during his days at USAFA and followed Quinn’s success throughout his Academy career.
The two shook hands and the pilot showed them onboard, anxious to get underway.
“You’ve dropped off the radar, son,” Moore said, helping Quinn and Aleksandra get settled in the two weapons systems officer seats in a compartment the size of a phone booth, six feet behind and slightly above the cockpit.
Quinn smiled. “You warned me how OSI types were. ‘Got their hands in all sort of secretive mojo,’ isn’t that what you said?”
“And here you are proving me right,” Moore scoffed. “This bird burns sixty thousand dollar bills every hour her fans are turning. By my estimation that means I’m giving you two a four-hundred-thousand-dollar taxi ride home from whatever you’ve been doing down here. Not to mention the fact that the president’s national security advisor called me personally and ordered me not to spare the horses. I’d say that qualifies as secretive mojo.”
Moore handed each of them a helmet and headset. He pointed to the array of instrumentation on the console in front of the weapons system officers’ seats. “You can make encrypted calls with this.” He pointed to a touch-screen keypad. “Just put us on mute if you need to discuss your secret-agent shit. But don’t touch anything else.”
A consummate pro, Moore asked no questions about Aleksandra, assuming that whoever she was, it was Quinn’s business. He turned to duck down the center hatch toward the cockpit, then looked back.
“You hear Steve Brun is finally tying the knot?”
“I did,” Quinn said, pushing away thoughts of his last conversation with Kim. “He’s invited me to be in the saber arch if I survive this mission.”
“Roger that,” Moore said, turning to go. “You’ll be there then. I’ve seen you fight. You’re too mean to die.”
With the wings swept forward, Major Moore had the Bone off the runway in a matter of seconds after he started his takeoff roll. Climbing at nearly six thousand feet a minute pushed Quinn’s stomach down like someone was standing on it. Moore leveled off three miles above sea level and kicked the plane into gear.
Quinn took a deep breath, letting his stomach settle. He shot a glance at Aleksandra. Her face hidden by the shaded face shield of her helmet, she gave him a thumbs-up and settled back in her seat. He was unsure what the gesture meant in Russia—“it’s all good” or “up yours”—but felt he knew Aleksandra well enough now that if it had been the latter she would have followed it up with a knee to his groin.
Taking a long hit on the oxygen, he put the cockpit on mute and dialed his boss.
For all Winfield Palmer knew, Quinn was dangling off a parachute over the Pacific Ocean, but he started talking the moment he recognized Quinn’s voice. There was, after all, a nuclear device headed toward an unknown target on American soil.
“Bexar County sheriff’s deputies just found Yazid Nazif’s body along with that of his brother Ibrahim and two unidentified males dumped in a Penske moving van outside San Antonio. We’d sent out Nazif’s photograph in a BOLO just two hours before, so they were able to identify him right away.”
Quinn nudged Aleksandra awake, flipping the radio bug so she could hear his conversation as well.
“I’ve got Kanatova on the air with us,” he warned. “We can use all the help we can get here.”
“Very well,” Palmer said, sounding a little annoyed.
“What of Baba Yaga?” she asked.
“Still missing,” Palmer said. “Do you think Borregos double-crossed him?”
Quinn shook his head, though only Aleksandra could see him. “Makes no sense. He didn’t need AQAP to get the device into the U.S. Why drag him all the way across the border just to kill him?”
Quinn thought for a moment. “You said Nazif has a cousin in Houston.”
“The FBI’s swarming every known place associated with him,” Palmer said. “But he’s still at large.”
“How about changing the parade route?” Aleksandra chimed in. “Or canceling it entirely?”
“We’ve discussed that,” Palmer sighed. “But the moment we deviate from a normal schedule, we show our hand — and they pick another target.”
Quinn drummed his fingers on the desktop in front of him, thinking. Something wasn’t right. He thought for a full minute, the time it took the B-1 to travel nearly fifteen miles.
“Did they take any crime scene photos?” he asked.
“As a matter of fact, they did,” Palmer said. I can send them to your phone if you can get a signal.”
Quinn checked with Major Moore and found that though there was no cellular signal, the plane had its own version of satellite Wi-Fi to aid in communications when loitering for hours at a time over targets.
By the time he’d switched the radio dial back to Palmer, the supersonic bomber had already transited Guatemala and sped over the Gulf of Mexico.
“Go ahead and send ’em,” he said. “We have a signal.”
“Already done,” Palmer said. “Listen, while you’re waiting — Thibodaux led the raid on a farmhouse outside Moscow, Idaho. The professor’s wife and baby are safe.”
“Are the kidnappers giving you anything useful?” Quinn asked, watching his phone for the incoming photos.
“Only a woman survived,” Palmer said. “And she’s giving us zero. Looks like they killed one of their own and dumped him in a hole they dug for Marie Pollard and her kid. Garcia took care of the only other guy. According to Jacques, it’s lucky they got there when they did. Sounds like Lourdes Lopez was Zamora’s main squeeze and she had just given up hope on him coming back alive.”
“And Boaz?” Aleksandra asked.
A twinge of guilt cut Quinn’s heart at the thought of dragging his baby brother into all this.
“He’s still in intensive care,” Palmer said. “President Clark assigned his personal physician to see to him. He’s not out of the woods, but things look positive. Your mom is already down from Alaska sitting with him night and day.”
Quinn nodded, smiling to himself. That figured. A woman who’d raised two boys like Jericho and Boaz Quinn had to be tough as a boot, but no matter what they did for a living, they were still her babies.
His phone lit up with an incoming message.
The crime scene photos were small but clear until he tried to zoom in. Quinn raised his visor to get a better look, then flipped the switch so he could talk to the cockpit.
“Major,” he said. “You there?”
Moore came back at once, voice crackling over the intercom. “Sure hope so.”
“I need to ask a personal question… ”
“Relief tube is at your feet,” the pilot answered. “Looks like a little horn.”
“I’m fine that way,” Quinn said. “I’m wondering though, an old codger like you is probably wearing cheaters to read the fine print, right?”
“Don’t you have anything better to do than pick on your elders?”
“Seriously, Brett,” Quinn said. “I need something to magnify a photo.”
“Well, shit,” Moore said. “Why didn’t you tell me my failing eyesight was a matter of national security? Heads up and I’ll toss them back.”