McGarvey screwed the silencer on the end of the Walther’s barrel, and keeping his eyes on the media rep, knocked on the door. “Captain Attwood?” he called softly. He tried the doorknob, but it was locked.
“Who is it?” a woman called.
“A friend. Do you have the door locked from the inside?”
“No, they locked me in.”
“Do you have the key?” he asked Moriyama, who shook his head. “Stand back, Captain, I’m going to shoot the lock off.”
“Okay,” she called hesitantly.
McGarvey fired one shot into the locking mechanism, the silenced shot nothing more than a dull pop. He pushed the door open, and waiting just a moment to make sure that no one was coming to investigate, he shoved Moriyama inside, went in himself and closed the door.
Maggie stood next to the bed, her suitcase packed and ready to go, a frightened, but determined expression on her narrow, pretty face. “Who the hell are you?” she demanded.
“I talked to Frank Ripley the day before yesterday. He was on top of one of the launch gantries. He told me they’d switched satellites.”
Maggie’s hand went to her mouth. “My God.”
“I’m here to stop the launch. Where’s Ripley?”
“He’s dead,” Maggie said. “They pushed him off the top of the launch gantry. Doesn’t anybody in Houston know about it?”
“No,” McGarvey said. “When did it happen?” He looked at Moriyama, who flinched.
“It must have been when you were talking to him. Who are you? What are you doing here?”
“I’m here to stop the launch. How do I do it?”
“You don’t,” Moriyama blurted.
“Captain Attwood?” McGarvey prompted.
Maggie glanced at Moriyama. “The launch can be delayed if there’s a glitch somewhere in the system. Evidently they ran across something yesterday because it was pushed back until tonight.”
“Who makes that decision?”
“The launch director on advice from his systems controllers.”
“Can anyone else stop the launch?”
Maggie thought about it for a moment. “Someone in Tokyo, I suppose. The head of NSDA.”
“How about here at the center?”
“Other than Mr. Kunimatsu, I wouldn’t know.”
“There is no one else,” Moriyama said smugly. He was regaining some of his composure. “And unless you mean to take launch control center by storm, you can’t get to him.”
“How about Joseph Lee?” McGarvey asked. He watched Moriyama’s eyes very closely.
The media rep blinked, and fumbled. “Who?” He was lying.
McGarvey turned to Maggie. “Do you know how to reach the launch director by telephone?”
She nodded.
He took out his satellite phone and handed it to her. “I want you to call over there and demand to speak to Joseph Lee.”
“You can’t do this,” Moriyama objected.
McGarvey silenced him with a look. “When he comes on the line tell him that Kirk McGarvey called you from Fukuoka. Tell him that you know about Kimch’aek, and that I want to cut a deal, otherwise the launch will be stopped.”
Moriyama lunged for the door. McGarvey reached him before he could get out into the corridor and hauled him back. He lightly tapped the much slighter man on the temple with the butt of his pistol, and Moriyama went down like a felled ox.
“Call him now, Captain, we’re running out of time,” McGarvey said. She got on the phone as he shoved the suitcase off the bed, pulled the covers back and pulled off the top sheet, from which he tore several long strips.
He was just finishing tying and gagging the media rep, who was starting to come around, when Maggie motioned that she had Lee on the phone.
“Mr. Lee, this is Captain Attwood, and I think you and I have a serious problem. You’d better come over here right now so we can talk about it.”
McGarvey rolled Moriyama over on his side so he wouldn’t choke to death.
“Don’t hang up, Mr. Lee. I just spoke with Kirk McGarvey. I think you know that name.” Maggie’s face lit up and she flashed McGarvey a big smile. “No, sir. He called me from someplace in Fukuoka with a message for you.”
She nodded.
“Your security people missed this phone. The point is that we know what really happened at Kimch’aek, and Mr. McGarvey would like to cut a deal with you, through me.”
She laughed bitterly.
“You’ll have to come here alone to find that out, because I want my safety and that of my crew assured.”
She looked at McGarvey and shrugged then turned sharply back to the phone.
“No, sir. The launch will be stopped. And I can assure you that Mr. McGarvey has the means to do it unless you cooperate with us.” She smiled again, and broke the connection. “He’ll be here in five minutes.”
“How did he sound?”
“Shook up,” Maggie said. “Now, would you mind telling me who the hell you are, who Joseph Lee is and who or what the hell is Kimch’aek?”
“It’s a long story, Captain, and we don’t have the time.” He gave her a smile. “Besides you don’t want to know.”
He took the phone from her and pocketed it, then went to the window. The two guards were still by the van. One of them was speaking into a lapel mike.
“What about the others on my team?” Maggie asked after a couple of minutes.
“They’ll be better off staying out of this for now. When Lee shows up we’re going to go downstairs, get in his car and he’s going to take you over to the media grandstands. I want you to find a woman by the name of Judith Rawlins. She’s a reporter for the New York Times. Tell her that you believe that your life and the lives of your team are in danger. She’ll help you.”
“Just like that?”
McGarvey nodded. “Just like that.”
“What do I tell her about you?” She glanced at Moriyama on the floor. “About all this?”
“Nothing, she’ll work it out on her own.”
“How the hell am I supposed to do that?” she blurted. “What about Frank?”
McGarvey looked her in the eye. “Listen to me, Captain. There’s going to be a lot of confusion around here, and your life might depend on you keeping your cool. Do you understand?”
She nodded tentatively.
“You’re going to have to trust me, even though that sounds stupid.”
“If I don’t?”
McGarvey looked out the window again. A limousine was passing under a streetlamp at the entry to the parking lot. “He’s here.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
McGarvey turned to her. “Call me at the CIA.”
His reply took her breath away, and she was visibly staggered. “I think you’re right,” she said in a small voice. “I don’t think I want to know what happened here.”
“Are you ready?” McGarvey asked her. The limo was pulling into the driveway.
“Yes.”
“No matter what happens, don’t say anything to anybody, don’t answer any questions and keep moving until you reach the New York Times reporter.”
The corridor was clear, and by the time they got downstairs to the dayroom the limousine was parked next to the van. McGarvey took Maggie’s right elbow, and keeping his pistol out of sight behind his right leg, went outside and headed directly for the limo’s rear door which was starting to come open.
The two guards by the van, their attention distracted by the limousine, turned around. One of them started to raise his hand. The limo’s door was all the way open. McGarvey shoved Maggie into the arms of a startled Joseph Lee and then climbed in behind her, pulling the door shut behind him.
He jammed the muzzle of his silencer into the base of the chauffeur’s skull. “Drive right now, or I’ll put a bullet in your brain.”