The Heisenberg Legacy was locked up again, the band and cuff discreetly out of sight around Smith’s wrist. The man had worked for the CIA for several decades, if he remembered correctly.
“Sir?”
“All that fuss over a single piece of paper?”
“Yes, sir,” Smith said, with some feeling.
“Well, be off with you. May you have a safe journey taking that to its new resting place.”
“Yes, sir.”
Suddenly, Smith held out his hand.
Bemused, the old man shook it. “What was that for?”
“I just want you to know that some of us know what you sacrificed, sir. You’re respected for that.”
The old man was touched. “I appreciate that, son.”
Then the hand was withdrawn, the CIA agent gone, and the old man staring off toward the White House as it peeked through the trees off the edge of his balcony.
If only old Mike had still been around. He would have taken care of all of this with a snap of his fingers. Nobody had been harder than Mike…
Old Mike wouldn’t have hesitated before ordering what he had dithered over for so long.
Finney picked up the telephone and dialed.
“Sir?” a man answered.
“There’s nothing for it, Painter,” he said, profoundly tired. “It’s time for Phase Two.”
“Yes, sir,” said Painter, his voice somber.
Well, and why shouldn’t he feel subdued?
Innocent people were going to die.
It was the price they had to pay to keep the world safe.
God knows, I paid the ultimate price to keep it secret.
Chapter Forty
Sam kept moving at a quick pace along the now empty street, heading toward the memorial.
The bright sun shone overhead, pounding down into Sam's skull. He shaded his eyes and turned around in a circle. Everyone here had gone inside. The streets were strangely deserted, especially after they'd been so packed earlier. Both sides of the street were packed with cars, in some places double-parked.
There was a hush in the air. No music, no kids playing, no traffic.
Sam's throat tightened.
His grandfather had been a pilot in World War II. One of Sam's memories of the man was listening to him talk about the bombing of London. He said that first came the dual tone sound of the civil defense sirens. These were initiated by the Royal Observer Corps when they spotted Luftwaffe aircraft flying toward Britain.
This frightening sound caused civilians to stop whatever they were doing and rush into air raid shelters. Total blackout, everyone underground if possible — except for those brave souls waiting on top of buildings as spotters.
Suddenly, the sirens would cut off, and an eerie silence would come over the city. That utter soundless hush occurred — right before the bombs exploded.
The nightmarish contrast had stayed in Sam’s mind.
That hush was what it felt like to Sam right now. A million innocent people, waiting to find out whether it was their day to die.
If he wasn't standing in the middle of the street witnessing this, he would have expected chaos. Streets full of panicked rioters, people on their cell phones screaming that they needed to get out of here now and to hell with everyone else. Horns honking, gas shortages, power out…
Instead, this eerie silence.
He had to fix this.
He had to stop letting the terrorist call the shots.
Given what he knew so far, he had two choices: track down this game-playing lunatic or track down the explosive device.
He was no bomb expert, but a bomb built in the 1940s shouldn't be that sophisticated — unless the terrorist had modified it. He should be able to figure out enough to dismantle any transmitting equipment, though, at least long enough to bring in a real bomb squad.
Then again, the Secretary of Defense, the Metropolitan police, the National Guard and many others likely had searching for the bomb covered. He might end up duplicating their efforts — and letting the terrorist escape.
If he were the terrorist, though, he wouldn't be here, in D.C. Why stick around to get vaporized by a nuclear fireball? No point.
But that led him back around in a circle. If he wasn't supposed to track down the bomb and this madman was somewhere else, what was he supposed to do then? Keep following the clues?
Continue to be led around by the nose?
The terrorist wanted him to know something about the Russians, the German nuclear bomb program, and — what?
First, he'd been sent to the National Air and Space Museum, to see altered evidence that the Germans had manufactured a bomb, called "Die Koloratursoubrette," at the Haigerloch Research Reactor during World War II, and that somehow Heisenberg and the Russian Andrei Sakharov had been involved.
Next, he'd been led to the Library of Congress, to see a fake copy of the North-Atlantic Treaty that had included Russia.
Finally, he was sent to the pizza joint, where he'd seen an old photo of Global One, where a group photo had been doctored in, including his grandfather, Heisenberg, and Andrei Sakharov, and a third person he couldn’t locate.
Elise was still trying to work out the name of the fourth person in the photo.
He had no idea what Tom would find in the wreck of the Clarion Call, but the fact that it was on one of his grandfather's ships said something.
Start with the most obvious thing:
This all had to do with World War II.
Another obvious thing:
The Reilly family was unequivocally tied into this. Sam got the feeling that he was being blamed for the sins of his father, or grandfather, rather. But his impression of the old guy was that he had been harmless.
He rubbed both hands over his face, trying to think clearly. Sam knew he was confusing his memories of a sweet old grandfather with the real guy. Of course, old man Mike Reilly had treated his grandson with fond interest and care. But he was also a man who had founded a worldwide shipping company worth billions of dollars. "Ruthless" should probably be in Sam's description of him somewhere.
Important point: if holding Washington D.C. hostage was about World War II, that was before Mike Reilly had started up his shipping company.
Could this attack be concerned with something his grandfather did during World War II?
If he ever got the chance, he'd have to ask Elise to research who Mike Reilly had been involved with, and what he was doing during World War II. With luck, Tom might have already asked her to look into it.
Damn it. The mystery was eating at him. What was so important to the terrorist that he was willing to put a million people in danger? What could his grandfather have done that could possibly justify this to a terrorist’s mind?
Even if Mike had flown a bombing run that wiped out the terrorist's hometown, it could never have totaled the equivalent of a million people. The Bombing of Dresden was estimated to kill 25,000 people. The bombing of Berlin, perhaps 50,000. Besides, his grandfather wasn’t the only one involved in bombing Germany in WWII.
His grandfather wasn’t responsible for hundreds of bombing raids.
Sam shook his head. It didn't make sense. Someone who just wanted the truth to be known from an old injustice didn't threaten innocents. Did a person burning for revenge lead people around on elaborate treasure hunts?
If this guy was ever found, he'd be one for the psychology books, no doubt.
Sam blew air out of his puffed cheeks. Either way, he was wasting time. Until he thought of something, the best thing was just to keep playing for time. Give the bomb squad time to criss-cross the city with Geiger counters. Give Tom time to find whatever was in the Clarion Call.