“No — remember, Sobotka was a nuclear physicist.”
“So?”
“So I don’t think this is a word. I think it’s a chemical symbol.”
“For what?”
“Cobalt — Co is the symbol for cobalt.”
“And what’s that when it’s at home?” Kim said.
Alex frowned again, trying to make sense of it all. “It’s a transition element, a metal to be exact. The transition part simply refers to its tendency to form into coordination compounds. Other examples of transition metals are things like iron or copper.”
“So what’s cobalt used for?” Lea asked.
“Cobalt has lots of uses — especially in industry, I think…”
“That’s right,” Camacho squatted to take a closer look at the grisly message. “They use it in the production of batteries and various alloys, not to mention the cobalt compounds needed to make catalysts. It’s also used as a pigment to color things like the old blue bottles the Victorians used to make.”
“So maybe Wade wants to take up glass-blowing,” Lea said.
Camacho gave her a look and ran a hand over the stubble on his shaved head. “Whatever he’s up to then, we know it has something to do with cobalt. Wait a minute,” he said, turning to Alex. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
Alex nodded. “I think so. I think Sobotka was trying to tell the world that Wade has a…”
Before she could finish her sentence, Hawke spoke up. “Holy buggeration — Wade’s got his hands on a cobalt bomb!”
“That’s what I was thinking,” Camacho said.
“And me,” Alex added finally.
“And what the hell is a cobalt bomb?” Kim asked.
Alex sighed. “Up until about two minutes ago I would have told you it’s a theoretical device that was never made, but not any more.”
“Alex is right,” Hawke said. “Look at the evidence. We know Wade was on the market for a WMD with fifty million bucks in his pocket. We also know he was shopping in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic. Now we find the dead body of a nuclear weapons specialist from Los Alamos who left us a clue in his dying moments… and that clue is the chemical symbol for cobalt.”
“So Wade really does have a nuclear bomb, in other words,” Kim said. “And we just lost it.”
“And not just any nuke,” Camacho said. “A cobalt bomb could be far more lethal.”
Before anyone could reply, they saw Scarlet and Lexi burst through the Mexican orange hedge that boxed in Wade’s north lawn. They walked across the grass, Scarlet dragging an overweight man in a soiled linen jacket behind her, courtesy of a painful ear-pinch.
“Hello Cairo,” Hawke said, eyeing the man. “On another date?”
“Drole, but no. I found this little woodlouse scuttling out of the east wing of the hacienda on his way to the garage block.”
“Emilio Perez!” Kim said. “The rat from the hotel drinking Tiger’s Claws with Soto.”
“Right,” Scarlet said. “Says he’s Wade’s accountant.” She tossed him to the grass where he fell in a heap and immediately began begging for his life.
Hawke sighed. “Just shut up and answer our questions. What are you doing here?”
“I run some of Morton Wade’s less public businesses. Please… don’t kill me!”
“You’d better explain what you mean.”
Perez sighed. “He’s a people smuggler, for God’s sake!”
Scarlet grabbed his hair and yanked his head back. “Less of the cheek, Perez — and give us details.”
“I’m sorry… he runs it mostly out of an abandoned concrete factory he bought because of its proximity to the railroad. After he has taken their money, he loads the migrants onto a train there — it’s part of the tren de la muerte.”
“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Lea said. “Go on.”
“The Death Train is a vast network of freight trains all over Mexico that’s used to smuggle illegal immigrants into the United States. He charges $10,000 per head to get them over the border in his trains. I… clean the money before it goes into the bank.”
“A nice little earner.”
“There are many coyotes as we call the smugglers, but Wade is the best.”
Hawke dumped the empty mag from his gun and smacked a fresh one in before sliding the gun in his belt. “Why would a man like Morton Wade be interested in a grubby little business like that?”
“You mean you don’t know?”
“Don’t fuck around, Perez.”
“Wade’s fund management business is finished. After the crash he lost nearly everything. But he’s a resourceful man and didn’t take long to find a very lucrative substitute.”
“Yes, he mentioned he was down on his luck. Now tell us about the cobalt bomb. Where is it?”
He shot nervous eyes at them, but made no resistance. “On a truck.”
Scarlet rolled her eyes. “Time for a penalty kick.” She planted an eye-watering kick into the man’s groin. He howled in agony and rolled over on the grass.
“What truck?” Lea asked.
“I can’t be sure,” Perez said, his mouth dry with fear.
Scarlet slapped him, turning his cheek a bright red color. “Don’t try and be funny with me, Buckaroo — you know exactly which truck.” She pulled back for a second penalty kick, this time from the corner.
Perez’s eyes widened.
“Oh… yes — I remember now.”
“Do tell.” She squeezed his throat and cut off his breath. He tried to struggle but Vincent held him down on the lawn.
“Okay…” he croaked. “I’ll tell you what you want to know.”
Scarlet released her grip. “I thought you might.”
Perez was deflated, and sat on his backside in the grass as he dusted himself down. “It’s an old Mercedes Atego but it left here hours ago. Wade has access to an airfield north of here. I’m not lying when I tell you the bomb will already be airborne.”
Hawke took a step closer to him. “Must be what he was referring to as his Hummingbird.”
Perez nodded glumly. “Si… that’s it.”
“Where’s the destination?”
“San Francisco.”
Before the words had barely left his mouth, Kim Taylor was on her phone.
Camacho got up in Perez’s face and grabbed his collar. “Are you sure, asshole?”
Perez nodded. “His cult believes he wants to sacrifice eight million people to the ancient gods, but I’m not so sure. I think the truth is a little more prosaic — he wants revenge against the tech industry that destroyed his business. In a few short hours most of America’s hi-tech sector will be vaporized. The eight million people he will sacrifice in the process are an added bonus.”
“Where exactly?” Kim said. “It’s a big city.”
“Alcatraz.”
“Alcatraz?” Camacho said with surprise. “Why there?”
“Wade chose the island as Ground Zero so it takes out the whole Bay Area, plus it’s out of the way, if you know what I mean.”
“I know what you mean, arsehole,” Scarlet said, kicking him in the ribs.
“Hey!” Kim said, pushing her back. “What is it with you guys and torturing prisoners?”
“Where is Wade?” Hawke asked, ignoring the reference to when he broke Nick Collins’s thumb back in DC. “I presume the little shit isn’t going to ride the Hummingbird into the Sixth Age?”
“No, he’s not. He’s gone to the temple.”
“Tell me about this temple,” Hawke said. “Your boss was strangely coy about the details.” He saw the man’s face turn a strange green color. “What’s the problem, Perez?”
“I’m not surprised he was coy…”
Scarlet rubbed the sweat from her forehead. “This just gets more exciting by the minute.”