Jack was sure, now, that this was undoubtedly the reason they had blown up the Oeste Mesa border crossing. They used the diversion of all the other terrorist attacks to dilute the importance of that one. Different terrorist organizations claiming credit for various attacks created confusion among the intel agencies as to what was going on. That confusion had helped them to get the plutonium pit and associated material needed for the bomb across the border and into the United States.
Everyone thought all those attacks were the big event. The other terrorists might not have realized they were pawns being used as a diversion, but they had served the desired purpose anyway, and while all that was going on this group had gotten the most crucial material for their bomb into the country. Everyone was searching the country for Muslim extremists, raiding mosques, making arrests, pulling in and questioning known radicalized people on watch lists, and poring over Islamic chatter.
No one was looking for Mexicans.
Jack estimated that the bomb was possibly only hours but no more than a day away from being fully assembled and ready. He was sure that by morning it would be loaded into the van and on its way. From what Miguel had confessed, the target was New York City. There was no reason to doubt that.
With no time to waste, Jack slid back down the roof and jumped to the ground. He moved quickly but as quietly as possible as he made his way back from the building with the bomb to where he had left Angela.
When he got to where she was supposed to be he didn’t see her. He looked around when he heard dripping water and finally spotted her, bathed in moonlight, just climbing up out of a large metal tank that had been cut in half and was lying on its side. It was partially filled with rainwater. Dripping wet, Angela climbed out over the side.
Jack was incredulous. “What the hell are you doing?”
She frowned at him like it was the stupidest question she’d ever heard. “Washing off all the blood.” She shook water off her hands. “I don’t want to get blood all over the interior of my truck.”
In an odd, crazy way, he had to admit that it made sense.
He ushered her a safe distance away from the building with the nuke. He had seen at least a couple of dozen men inside working to assemble the bomb. There could easily have been more that he couldn’t see through the small hole. He had seen a lot of AK-47s leaning against posts and tables.
He didn’t know if there were men other than the two Angela had killed who might also be walking around, taking a cigarette break, or even walking guard duty. If there were, he didn’t want to run into them.
He scanned the area one last time, then pulled his phone out and pressed one of the numbers he had programmed in.
When a woman answered, Jack gave her the code in. She checked briefly, then asked what she could do for him.
“Give me Dvora. It’s an emergency.”
It was the middle of the day in Israel, so he expected she would be available. As Jack waited he continued to watch for trouble. Angela was doing the same.
Dvora quickly picked up. “Jack—what’s the emergency?”
“I’m in Milford Falls—”
“Did you find Angela Constantine, then?”
“Yes. Listen to me. You need to tell the Americans to activate NEST. They’re going to need to get people in here.”
There was a brief moment of stunned silence before she came back. “The Nuclear Emergency Support Team? Has there been a radiological accident?”
The purpose of NEST was to be ready to send teams to recover any kind of nuclear material or devices like dirty bombs. He wasn’t sure they were prepared for a fully functional, live nuclear bomb, but if anyone was prepared to deal with it, it was the NEST team.
“No. Listen to me. We’ve got a live atomic bomb.”
Again, there was a moment of silence. “All right, we’re contacting them right now. Is the site secure?”
“Hell no it’s not secure. The device is shortly going to be on its way to New York City.”
“They monitor for radiation levels all over the place around the East Coast.”
“This is a plutonium bomb. Plutonium is hard to detect in the first place and this one has a lead tamper around the pit. From the looks of the sophistication of it, they will probably use other shields to protect it on their way to New York City. These people know what they’re doing. I expect their truck is shielded. Any radiation will likely be tightly contained. It’s highly unlikely it would be detected.
“But even if some new, supersecret detection equipment did pick it up before it got into the city proper, that will be little consolation if they set it off when they’re intercepted. The blast radius, the firestorm, and the radiation would devastate a vast area. They don’t need to have a direct hit. With a nuke, close will do.”
“I’ve got red lights going up across the board with our contacts,” Dvora said. “Do you have coordinates?”
“I took the coordinates right at the site of the building they’re in. Sending them now.”
“Okay, got them.”
Jack knew that once the authorities secured the weapon they would need to get the NEST team in to disarm it.
“Let the Americans know that it’s not likely to have any fail-safe systems. But I would bet they have contingency plans for an attack.”
“I’ve got other operators notifying the DHS, NSA, and the FBI as well as the Pentagon as we speak. I don’t know what kind of tactical team they are going to want to deploy.”
“I suspect that whoever is closest will go in.”
“All right, Jack, we’re on it. We’ve got our entire center activated. We’re lighting up the Americans.”
Jack let out a sigh of relief. “Thanks, Dvora. I’ll stay on site until they get here just to make sure the terrorists don’t leave with the bomb. If they do we’ll follow them and I’ll update you with any information. Call me if you need anything more.”
“Stay well back from the area in case they can’t get boots on location fast enough. They may decide to send in a drone or jet to put ordnance on the site.”
“For god’s sake, I really don’t think they ought to be using explosives around a nuclear bomb.”
Explosives wouldn’t set off a nuke—it needed an electrical charge to detonate it—but there was always the risk of radioactive contamination from debris. They could inadvertently turn it into a dirty bomb.
“Given the situation, and the potential risk, that may be what they need to do. It’s their call,” Dvora said.
Jack knew what she meant. If an atom bomb was going to go off, better it go off in central New York State than in a major population center.
“Please tell them I advise against any heavy ordnance.”
“Do you think they will listen to what we tell them?”
“No, I suppose not. By the way, don’t let them know who is providing this intelligence. I’m not exactly welcome on the inside anymore.”
“Already anticipated that, Jack. We’re only saying that we have eyes-on intelligence. Since it’s us calling they will assume that it’s one of our agents.”
“Thanks, Dvora. I’ll call you if anything changes on the ground.”
After he hung up, he turned to Angela. She was watching him.
“I think it would be safer if we got some distance away from here. There’s liable to be lots of gunfire. I wouldn’t want either one of us getting hit with a stray round. Is there somewhere with some elevation where we can watch and see what happens?”
Angela nodded. “I know a place.”
They rushed to the truck but drove slowly out of the industrial complex. If the terrorists had lookouts, Jack didn’t want to alert them to the sound of a truck racing away. That would surely get them riddled with bullets.
Once they were on the road leaving the complex, Angela took the first turnoff onto a dirt road. It took them up through heavy woods to the crest of a hill, where she parked the truck at a gravel area at the end of the road. She grabbed a pair of bi
noculars from behind the passenger seat before they got out. They walked a short distance through maple and oak trees to a spot where they could overlook the entire area.
Angela handed him the binoculars. Jack surveyed the sprawling complex. The moonlight was enough to allow him to see all the buildings and vast stretches of concrete. He located the building where the terrorists had the bomb. If their truck left, he would be able to spot it.
If their cargo van left, and no one showed up in time, Jack knew he would have to try to stop it. If necessary, they would have to ram it to disable it so it couldn’t get to New York City.
Angela and Jack sat down on a rock ledge and waited, watching to make sure the men down in that building didn’t leave with the bomb. The minutes felt like hours as they waited for someone to show up. Jack didn’t know if it would be police cars, a drone that would fire a missile, or something in between. The problem with getting a team like SEALs or Delta Force in here was that they were likely not close by. But then again, Jack didn’t know anything about what American forces were available, where they were deployed, or what kind of aircraft they had at their disposal. He did know that they were effective and always ready.
He hoped they were close enough.
FIFTY-FOUR
A little over half an hour later Jack thought he heard something. He stood and took a few steps farther out from under the trees. He could feel a rapid thump, thump, thumping in his chest more than he could hear it. For all he knew there could have been more than one running in total blackout mode. He caught a glimpse of a blurred black shape as it passed across the nearly full moon high overhead.
“That sounds a little like helicopters,” Angela said.
“It’s a military stealth helicopter. Whoever is on board a ship like that is going to be the best of the best.”
Jack was relieved it was that kind of team that would be handling the situation.
The sound of the stealth helicopter died out in the distance. The dark scene below them was silent again. Jack watched but couldn’t hear anything or see anything. He figured they would have landed some distance away and would be approaching the building on foot.
As they waited, listening to the night birds singing up in the trees and the monotonous chirp of insects, the night suddenly erupted in the crackle of gunfire. The birds broke out of the trees overhead, squawking in fright as they fled. Jack put the binoculars to his eyes and saw a crisscross of tracer rounds going in every direction. The sound of the gunfire was probably the outgoing fire from the building. That type of assault group would likely have suppressors.
He handed the binoculars to Angela so she could see, too. As he did so, a massive explosion suddenly lit up the night. The building with the bomb vanished under an expanding, bright yellow-orange ball of fire. Jack could see the shock wave racing across the industrial site.
He put an arm around Angel’s shoulders and took her to the ground with him, holding her down protectively as the shock wave and the sound of the blast slammed into the trees all around.
As soon as it was past, Jack jumped to his feet and looked through the binoculars. The building was virtually gone. Only a small portion of the rear wall was still there. Bricks from the walls had been thrown out in every direction.
He doubted the US forces would have set off an explosion like that with a nuke inside. It had to be that the terrorists inside the building had wired the place with explosives beforehand. Lots of explosives. By the size of the blast they obviously wanted to die as martyrs and make sure there were no survivors who could be taken prisoner and questioned. Clearly, they also wanted to take as many people with them as possible.
With an explosive kill zone that large, whatever force had gone in there would have lost a lot of men.
Angela took the binoculars so she could have a look. After a moment she said, “I can see people moving around. There are men going into what’s left of the building. That, and no more gunfire, is a good sign, right?”
“Right.” He put a hand on Angela’s shoulder. “You did a good thing, Angela. It looks like we were in time. The bomb was close to being assembled and then on its way to New York City. You saved the lives of a great many people.”
She didn’t show any emotion, but she said, “Thanks, Jack.”
After a short time, Jack’s phone vibrated. It was Dvora.
“They recovered the nuke and have it secured,” she said. “It’s still mostly in one piece. My god, Jack, that was close.”
“Too close,” he said. “Did the team report anything else?”
“They lost men. I don’t know any numbers. There are a lot wounded. But they have the scene secured. They haven’t found any terrorists alive. They don’t know yet if there might have been lookouts who survived, but they’re searching now.”
“Okay,” Jack said. “Now that they have everything under control, I think we’d better get out of here.”
“I’ll let you know if we get any other information. Just so you know, we kept your name out of it.”
After he hung up, he and Angela made their way back through the trees to the truck. Quiet had returned to the night. With the danger ended and the bomb secured, he suddenly felt drained.
“How about running me by the bar so I can get my car. I’m exhausted. I could use a good night’s sleep.”
“I think we both could,” she said. “I’m glad I was able to help.”
“Help? If not for you getting the information out of Miguel, an atom bomb would be on its way to New York City within a day or two. The world owes you a lot.”
“I’d rather be left out of it, if it’s okay with you,” she said as they reached the truck.
Jack chuckled his understanding of her rationale. They drove back out onto the highway and turned toward the city.
“You and I are a lot alike,” he told her. “I don’t want them to know I’m involved, either.”
Her face was lit in the glow of the dash lights as she looked over. “Why not?”
He sighed. “They don’t like that I work with people like you who can recognize killers. It’s not politically correct. They canceled the contract I had with them over it. The Israelis are thankful for my help, though.”
She looked skeptical. “You mean, there are other people like me?”
“Well,” he said, “I know a great deal about people who can recognize killers, but I’ve never met anyone like you.”
As she was thinking it over while negotiating the curving mountain road, a car closed rapidly from behind. Its high beams lit up the cab of the truck. When it cut into the oncoming lane and charged up beside the truck, Jack could see that it was a beige Toyota.
Angela glanced briefly out her window and saw the car.
“Hell no,” she muttered, “this isn’t happening.”
The car cut over toward them, trying to slam into her truck to drive her off the road and into the trees. Angela anticipated what they were about to do and floored the gas. The truck accelerated so hard it laid Jack back in his seat. The car cut over, but as the truck had already shot ahead they completely missed her.
Jack looked out the back window and saw what he thought were the silhouettes of AK-47s sticking out the passenger windows.
“I think you had better give me your gun.”
“You won’t need it,” she said, completely composed as she kept the gas pedal floored. “These guys don’t know what they’re doing.”
The truck flew into the night, the tires at the edge of adhesion as they arced around curves at speeds he would have thought impossible. He knew this was no ordinary truck and Angela was proving to be no ordinary driver. On top of that, she knew the road well. Jack had to brace himself between the door and the center console.
She led the car following them on a wild chase along the mountain road, sometimes only feeding in half throttle on the straights so that the Toyota could catch up, then accelerating to stay just far enough ahead to goad their predatory chase instinct.
/> As she reached a particularly twisty section of road that in places revealed steep drop-offs, she backed off just enough for the car to begin to catch up again, to let them feel confident they had her. Jack realized she was giving them slack and then reeling them in, playing them along, until she could get them where she wanted them.
As they came around a bend onto a straight section, she again accelerated at full power. Jack glanced to the speedometer and saw that they were surging past a hundred miles an hour. He looked up and in the headlights saw a road sign with an arrow curving to the right.
Angela backed off the gas as she approached the curve enough to allow the car to inch up beside them in the oncoming lane. Just as it did, she suddenly slammed on the brakes. As the car shot past, she cut the wheel to the left and caught the rear right quarter of the Toyota with her bumper. At that speed, they had no chance to regain control as momentum turned their car. It slid sideways into a sharp, right-handed curve around the side of the mountain. In a high-speed sideways slide, the Toyota flew off the road as Angela shot past them. The out-of-control, sideways Toyota hit a small ditch and flipped. It barrel-rolled down the embankment at tremendous speed, throwing chrome moldings, glass, and dirt flying everywhere.
Angela braked hard to a stop, then backed up and pulled off to the left side of the road just in time to see the car tumbling down below them abruptly slam roof-first into a tree. With a resounding boom it instantly came to a dead stop.
The world suddenly went dead quiet. Steam and wisps of smoke rose from the crumpled remains.
Angela, cool as could be, opened her door and calmly got out. “Let’s go have a look.”
She pulled her gun from the holster at the small of her back and started down the embankment. Jack pulled out his knife. In this circumstance he would rather have had a gun as well.
After making their way down a rocky, forested hillside, they came to the site of the wreck. It amazed him that the car had managed to barrel-roll over and over down the steep hillside, shearing off a series of saplings, without hitting any of the mature trees until it finally encountered a big one just before a drop-off over a sheer cliff. Had it missed the tree, it would have sailed out into thin air and landed far below on a boulder field. As it was, encountering the tree was no salvation. It was lethal.