“That decision is way beyond my pay grade,” Nicole said. “I’m just trying to establish the timeline.”
Alex looked at Ryan. “Do you think Jean could have teleported there? Or would she have to take a plane?”
Ryan shrugged. “How should I know? She’s working for the varcolac. My best guess is, she can go wherever she likes in an instant. Or at least, she can go wherever it wants her to go.”
“So we’ll assume teleport,” Alex said. “That means she’s had a full day there. She can’t have had any Turkish contacts, so it may take her some time to connect with the right people in their government. On the other hand, if she started showing off what she can do, it wouldn’t take long. It may depend what her demands are and how readily they agree to them.”
“Oh, they’ll agree to them,” Nicole said. “They’ll agree to anything, once they see what she can do.” She sounded bitter, disgusted. “Really, Ryan. She just waltzed in and asked for them, and you handed them over?”
“She would have killed me!”
“You could have lied, genius. You could have told her you didn’t have any. That you gave them all away. Or—better yet—you could have told me the truth and actually given them all to me like you said you did. Then when a mad, psychotic, escaped murderer-turned-traitor showed up in your lab you wouldn’t have had anything to give her!”
“I said I’m sorry.” Ryan’s voice was high-pitched and whiny.
“You could have been a hero,” Nicole said. “Now you’ll be lucky if you’re not prosecuted.”
“Prosecuted?” Alex said. “That’s a bit much.”
“He just handed our most significant military advantage over to our enemy,” Nicole snapped back. “American troops, perhaps thousands of them, will die because of him. I think jail time would be pretty lenient.”
Alex waved it away. “Fine. It doesn’t matter whose fault it is. What I want to know is, what are we going to do about it now?”
“That’s already done,” Nicole said.
“What do you mean, done?”
“It’s taken care of. Plans are in motion. It’s a bit earlier than we intended, but some people”—she glared at Ryan—“have forced our hand.”
“You sent troops into Turkish territory?” Alex asked. But no, a significant troop movement would have been public, would have made the news. All the fighter planes and bombers she saw at the airport wouldn’t have been on the ground. “No. You sent Special Ops teams in, to take out important targets, didn’t you? You sent them with Higgs projectors, to use the advantage while you still could.”
“That, and a few other preliminary attacks,” Nicole acknowledged. “Laser disruption of their satellites. Initiation of viruses we’ve insinuated into their comm systems. The full assault is outside my control, as I said, but the normal timeline will have the fighters scrambled within hours to take out their radar and SAM sites, followed by the bombers. The infantry should cross the line sometime tomorrow.”
“You don’t get it, do you?” Alex said.
Nicole raised her eyebrows. “I beg your pardon?”
“This isn’t about us and Turkey. It’s about the human race trying to survive against a powerful creature that wants to annihilate us. There’s nothing the Turkish army can throw at us that’s as dangerous as the varcolac. Forget about Jean Massey. Forget about Turkey. It’s the varcolac that’s the threat.”
Nicole nodded with a patronizing smile. “I’ve heard Ryan’s alien intelligence theory before. If you don’t mind, I’m going to worry about whether Turkey has the means to deliver its nukes before I worry about a ghost in the machine.”
Alex clenched her fists. There didn’t seem to be much point in arguing with Nicole. She had been there the whole time, presumably seen the evidence Ryan had that something intelligent was breaking out of the wormhole. If she didn’t believe him, nothing Alex could say would convince her, and there wasn’t time to sit around trying.
“Let’s go,” Alex said to Ryan. “Looks like it’s up to us.”
Ryan looked startled. “What?”
“Miss CIA here thinks she knows what’s going on. She’s not going to help us. We’re going to have to find Jean ourselves.”
“Oh, I don’t think so.” Nicole held up her hands. “You can stop right there. I brought Ryan here to analyze the Higgs projectors when the ops teams return, to make sure they’re working as well as they can be. I don’t need my prize physicist jumping off to who knows where in the middle of enemy territory. What if they kill you? What if they torture you and force you to tell them everything they know? Just because Jean gives them the technology doesn’t mean they’ll know how to use it.”
“Jean will tell them,” Ryan said.
Nicole stood up, exasperated. “That’s not the point. The point is, I don’t want my chief technologist falling into enemy hands!”
Alex opened her mouth to say something defiant, but then thought better of it. Nicole probably couldn’t stop her, but she didn’t want to give her the chance, either. Instead, she said, “Fine. We’ll do it your way.” She let her anger and frustration fill her voice. “We’ll stay here and help with the training. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Nicole’s smile was cold. “Thank you. I knew I could count on you.” She turned to Ryan. “The other thing we need to do is ramp up manufacture. I’ve commandeered a cell phone factory in town and set a team to work developing a large-scale production process. Within the week, I want enough Higgs projectors for every soldier in our army. I’ll take you to the site this afternoon; maybe you’ll have some suggestions.
“That’s it. Dismissed,” Nicole said. She began flicking her eyes at something they couldn’t see, presumably shuffling through files in her private eyejack space.
“I just have one more question,” Alex said. “Is my brother Sean on one of the Special Ops teams that went behind enemy lines?”
Nicole’s eyes refocused. “Those teams don’t officially exist. I can’t tell you who’s on them.”
“Come on,” Alex said. “I gave up something for you. Return the favor. This is my brother; I just want to know where he is.”
Nicole sighed. She dropped her voice to a whisper. “Yes,” she said. “Sean Kelley is on one of the advance parties. I couldn’t tell you which, because I don’t know. He’ll be back here tomorrow night.”
“Do you know the target locations?”
“What, so you can follow them? I’m not an idiot.” Nicole pointed toward the door. “Get out of here. Report to Vijay Bhargava and ask him how you can help.”
When Alex stepped out of the office, Tequila was there waiting for her. “You look like you could use a drink,” she said.
“Aren’t you working?” Alex asked.
Tequila laughed. “It’s nine o’clock at night,” she said. “We’ve been working for twelve hours. Time to hit the pub.”
Alex shook her head. “It’s night? Seriously? My internal clock is so scrambled.”
They had walked less than a block from the elementary school when Tequila turned and climbed down a set of stairs into what appeared to be the cellar under a row house.
“This is a pub?” Alex asked.
“Welcome to Krakow,” Tequila said. “Highest density of alcoholic establishments in the world. You’re always either in a pub or walking past one.”
The rest of the team was already there, all of them drinking bottles of Zywiec beer, except for Lisa, who clutched a glass of clear liquid. She held it up like she was giving a toast. “Wódka! Why come to Poland and drink beer?” she said in an attempt at a Polish accent that came out sounding Transylvanian.