terrified.
“Goddamn it, James!” snarled Brierly. Then he yelled into his cuff mike, calling for a medic.
The car jerked forward again, and once more Brierly and the presidentcollided. The president snapped a hand out to fend off a second collision and accidentally struck Brierly’s mouth. Blood erupted from the director’s mashed lips.
“The onboard computer’s going crazy,” bellowed James. “I can’t turn it off.”
The doors of the Beast were whipped open and hands reached in, closed around the president, and pulled him out. He was immediately surrounded and, in a run-walk,taken to a second car. Two WHMA sergeants piled into the Beast. One released Houston from her belt and began guiding her to the doorway; another slid in beside Brierly, whose lower face was painted with blood. James was pulled out of the driver’s seat.
The car jerked forward again. And again, throwing Brierly and the sergeant to the floor. The edge of the door clipped Houston’s ankle and trippedher, and as she fell, she dragged her escort down.
Then the lights switched off, the horn stopped blaring, and the Beast’s engine growled down to silence.
WHMO sergeants and Secret Service agents assigned to the motorcade pointed guns in a dozen useless directions, including at the car itself. One agent took a risk and leaned quickly in to throw the car into park. But it already was. When heturned, confused, he saw James hold out the keys.
Four heavily armored cars peeled off into a smaller motorcade and whisked the president away. The rest of the vehicles and all of the remaining agents stared at the car, uncertain about what had just happened. The driver had put the car in park, turned off the engine, and removed the key. However, the car had still jerked forward, and its enginehad run for several seconds after that.
Linden Brierly, holding a compress to his torn lips, expressed the thought that was on everyone’s mind.
“What the hell—?”
Chapter Ten
The Resort
208 Nautical Miles West of Chile
October 13, 1:23 A.M.
“I uploaded a lot of data to MindReader already,” I told my guys. “Do the same with any computer you see. If bin Laden told them anything about what the Kings have running, maybe it’ll be on the drives.”
“You think that’s likely?” asked Bunny. “It’s my impression that the assholes in the splinter cell were stillmore or less on our side, just going about it the wrong way. If they caught wind of anything, there’s a dozen ways to slip that info to us.”
Top shook his head. “You more trusting than I remember, Farm Boy. I think you been hit in the head too many times.”
We left it at that. Everyone went about their jobs.
The lab building was mine. I placed Bug’s uplink doodads into the USB ports of everycomputer I could find. MindReader gobbled up all of their data.
“Geez,” said Bug, “there’s a lot of stuff here. A lot of eyes-only and above-top-secret files. Encrypted, but that won’t be a problem.”
“Let me know if you get anything on the Kings.”
“There might be, but you know the Agency. They have code names for everything. They might have reams of stuff hidden under some name we won’t recognize.I’m seeing files labeled Dora the Explorer, Getaway Weekend, Cinco de Mayo, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. These guys are hilarious.”
“Yeah, I’m laughing my balls off. Pull it apart.”
“Sure, just know it’ll take time. Nikki’s doing a simultaneous pattern-and-keyword search as this stuff comes in.”
While that process ran its course, I scouted around for anything else of use. Except for the computersand some personnel records, there wasn’t anything lying around with the word “Evidence” stenciled on it. These guys were careful. Had to keep looking, though. Found a porn stash in one guy’s desk. DVDs with cover images of Asian girls who looked way too young to be in the kind of horror show they were in. Some of those kids couldn’t have been older
“Goddamn it, James!” snarled Brierly. Then he yelled into his cuff mike, calling for a medic.
The car jerked forward again, and once more Brierly and the presidentcollided. The president snapped a hand out to fend off a second collision and accidentally struck Brierly’s mouth. Blood erupted from the director’s mashed lips.
“The onboard computer’s going crazy,” bellowed James. “I can’t turn it off.”
The doors of the Beast were whipped open and hands reached in, closed around the president, and pulled him out. He was immediately surrounded and, in a run-walk,taken to a second car. Two WHMA sergeants piled into the Beast. One released Houston from her belt and began guiding her to the doorway; another slid in beside Brierly, whose lower face was painted with blood. James was pulled out of the driver’s seat.
The car jerked forward again. And again, throwing Brierly and the sergeant to the floor. The edge of the door clipped Houston’s ankle and trippedher, and as she fell, she dragged her escort down.
Then the lights switched off, the horn stopped blaring, and the Beast’s engine growled down to silence.
WHMO sergeants and Secret Service agents assigned to the motorcade pointed guns in a dozen useless directions, including at the car itself. One agent took a risk and leaned quickly in to throw the car into park. But it already was. When heturned, confused, he saw James hold out the keys.
Four heavily armored cars peeled off into a smaller motorcade and whisked the president away. The rest of the vehicles and all of the remaining agents stared at the car, uncertain about what had just happened. The driver had put the car in park, turned off the engine, and removed the key. However, the car had still jerked forward, and its enginehad run for several seconds after that.
Linden Brierly, holding a compress to his torn lips, expressed the thought that was on everyone’s mind.
“What the hell—?”
Chapter Ten
The Resort
208 Nautical Miles West of Chile
October 13, 1:23 A.M.
“I uploaded a lot of data to MindReader already,” I told my guys. “Do the same with any computer you see. If bin Laden told them anything about what the Kings have running, maybe it’ll be on the drives.”
“You think that’s likely?” asked Bunny. “It’s my impression that the assholes in the splinter cell were stillmore or less on our side, just going about it the wrong way. If they caught wind of anything, there’s a dozen ways to slip that info to us.”
Top shook his head. “You more trusting than I remember, Farm Boy. I think you been hit in the head too many times.”
We left it at that. Everyone went about their jobs.
The lab building was mine. I placed Bug’s uplink doodads into the USB ports of everycomputer I could find. MindReader gobbled up all of their data.
“Geez,” said Bug, “there’s a lot of stuff here. A lot of eyes-only and above-top-secret files. Encrypted, but that won’t be a problem.”
“Let me know if you get anything on the Kings.”
“There might be, but you know the Agency. They have code names for everything. They might have reams of stuff hidden under some name we won’t recognize.I’m seeing files labeled Dora the Explorer, Getaway Weekend, Cinco de Mayo, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. These guys are hilarious.”
“Yeah, I’m laughing my balls off. Pull it apart.”
“Sure, just know it’ll take time. Nikki’s doing a simultaneous pattern-and-keyword search as this stuff comes in.”
While that process ran its course, I scouted around for anything else of use. Except for the computersand some personnel records, there wasn’t anything lying around with the word “Evidence” stenciled on it. These guys were careful. Had to keep looking, though. Found a porn stash in one guy’s desk. DVDs with cover images of Asian girls who looked way too young to be in the kind of horror show they were in. Some of those kids couldn’t have been older
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