“Yes. It was released nine years ago.”
“So? It’s just some kid who can’t play very well. What’s the problem?”
“Because elements of the message seem to have connections to the Lightfall program, we think it may be a code. When is the Killswitch supposed to arrive in Australia?”
“Two days from now. The weapons test is scheduled for ten days after that.” Kessler’s eyebrows knitted together. “What are you getting at?”
“The arrival date is July twenty-first,” Morgan said. “Seven twenty-one.”
“Are you serious?” Kessler said with a laugh. “That has to be a coincidence.”
“What happens on July twenty-fifth?”
Kessler shrugged. “We’ll be prepping for the test firing.”
“And what about the username?” Morgan asked. “PG0915. You’re using the Pine Gap facility for the test prep. PG may mean Pine Gap.”
“More coincidence.”
“And what if 0915 is a time?”
“Oh, come on. Did you track this person down? It’s probably some pimply-faced teenager in his mother’s basement.”
“We did try to find this person,” Vince said, “but whoever it was used an anonymizer to register the username. George Hickson didn’t pan out either.”
“Then what do you want me to do?”
“It’s possible that hostile forces are targeting one of those dates for some reason,” Morgan said. “Perhaps someone is planning to take photos or smuggle information about the weapon out of Pine Gap. They may even try to sabotage the weapon somehow. It’s our recommendation that you postpone the test until a later date.”
Kessler’s face darkened. “Agent Bell, do you know how much has been spent getting ready for this test?”
“That’s irrelevant.”
“Over one billion dollars and seventy thousand man-hours of work.”
“And all of that time and money will be wasted if someone steals information about the weapon or disables it somehow.”
“I don’t believe this.”
A knock at the door.
“Yes?” Kessler said.
The door opened and Collins poked his head in. “Sir, we’re having a problem with the magnetic flux density analyzer.”
“What’s wrong with … Never mind. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“Yes, sir.” Collins closed the door.
“Why is this test being conducted in Australia?” Morgan asked.
Kessler sighed. “We have to use the Woomera Test Range in South Australia.”
“We have test ranges here in the US.”
“Woomera is the biggest land-based weapons testing area in the world. It’s larger than England and allows the evaluation of rockets and explosives far from prying eyes. No facility in the US is that isolated.”
“Who chose Australia as the test site?”
“The Australians. This is a joint project with them.”
“I know. Do you think someone on the Australian side could be the leak?”
“It’s only a handful of people on their end, but go ahead and waste your time delving into that side of it.”
“We will investigate every possibility thoroughly,” Morgan said. “In the meantime I’m going to recommend that you postpone the test until we can verify who sent that message.”
“Agent Cameron,” Kessler said, turning dramatically toward Vince, “you seem to be the more reasonable person here, so I’ll address this to you. Unless I get a call from the Secretary of the Air Force himself telling me to call off the test, we are going forward with it. Now, you are the investigators, so investigate. You may interview whomever you want. Look into their backgrounds. Put extra security on the transport. I don’t care. Just stay out of my way.”
Before Morgan could respond to the disdainful comments, Vince stopped her. “Putting extra security measures on the transport will only draw attention that what they’re transporting is valuable. We might as well put a sign on the plane saying, ‘Top secret weapon inside. Please don’t steal it.’”
Kessler waved a hand. “Security is your job, not mine.”
“Dr. Kessler,” Vince said, “are any of your employees gamblers?”
“I have no idea. I don’t get involved with their private lives.”
“Any of them been acting strangely at work?”
He spoke without hesitation. “Not at all.”
“You’re absolutely sure you don’t remember anything out of the ordinary?”
“Not that I recall.”
“You seem to be very blasé about the possibility that your project has been compromised by potential spies,” Morgan said.
“I handpicked all of the scientists and engineers on this project myself. I work with them daily. I can state for a fact that none of them is a spy.”
“What about you?”
Kessler’s eyes burned into Morgan’s. “Are you insane? I’ve spent the last ten years of my life on this program. I’ve staked my entire reputation on it. Why would I do anything to sabotage it?”
“You tell me.”
“I can’t, because this is ridiculous. You’re fishing for something to justify your jobs. Unless you can come up with a more credible threat than a stupid message on a discussion forum, we will continue as planned. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to make sure Collins will be finished in the next thirty minutes.”
He stood and walked to the door, waving Morgan and Vince out of his office. He shot Morgan a withering stare as he locked it, and he was gone.
“What do you think?” Vince asked her.
“I don’t like coincidences,” Morgan said.
“Neither do I.”
While Vince took a bathroom break, she called her section head. The conversation didn’t go well. She hung up and waited.
When Vince returned, he said, “By the fact that we aren’t hustling after Kessler, I’m guessing the boss said he wasn’t going to the director with this.”
Morgan shook her head. “He doesn’t think there’s enough to warrant cancelling the test.”
“It is pretty flimsy evidence.”
“Not too flimsy to merit two tickets to Australia, though. We’re on United out of LA this evening. I convinced him to send us to Pine Gap just to keep an eye on things.”
Vince groaned. “Are you kidding? Fifteen hours on a flight to Sydney? At least tell me we’re flying business class.”
Morgan shook her head. “Coach.”
Another groan.
“It gets worse. Did you look at Pine Gap on the map?”
“No. Why?”
“Sydney isn’t our final destination. We’ve got a connecting three-hour flight. Pine Gap is in the middle of the Australian outback, near Alice Springs.”
This time Vince didn’t groan. “You just love trying to make me miserable.”
“No,” Morgan said. “You do just fine on your own.”
FIVE
If the bullet had gone through one of the front tires, the Land Rover would have skidded off the road and plummeted into the Shotover River long ago. And although the right rear tire was punctured, it hadn’t shredded, so Tyler was able to open up some distance between him and the rear-wheel-drive Toyota on the snowy road. With the curves throwing off their aim, the pursuers’ shots went wild. So far luck had favored the pursued.
But two new problems faced them. Grant was now out of shells, and they had come down to an elevation where snow no longer covered the road. At the speed Tyler was going, the pavement would rip the punctured tire to tatters in minutes.
“Where are the cops?” Tyler said to Grant in the backseat.
“The dispatcher says they’re about two miles away.”
Tyler saw in the mirror that the Toyota was closing fast. “If we stop, we’ll never be able to hold out until the police get here.”