Encrypted (61 page)

“Had you allowed me to kill Francois at the field office
,
we would not be here,”
Lino
remarked. “At this tentative juncture.”

From the corner of his eye
,
Lino
saw the deacon scowl. “We would have had to kill the entire office.”

“Yes
,
and how more efficient that would have been, no?”

Havar’s
cheeks billowed in and out. His fleshy nostrils constricted
,
making every breath a wheeze. “It was not my failing during the assault on El Paso or the Met. That falls on your narrow shoulders.”

A grin flickered on
Lino’s
lips. So many had tried to intimidate him because of his lean stature. So many had failed.

“Again, fruit from the poisoned tree. Indecisive action requires so much tidying afterward.”

Now each breath of the
d
eacon’s rang in
Lino’s
ear. He tired of this man’s pomp and dyspnea. In addition
,
the fly grew so much closer. Nearly within range of their missiles.

“Go back to your chambers,
Havar
. Enjoy your last moments indulging yourself.”

The man took in a sharp breath. “You have so little faith in our defenses?”

Lino
finally turned to the
d
eacon
who
thought himself the better. “God is our defense. It is only that you should not see our ultimate victory. Regrettably, you shall be in stage four of the plague by the time it is accomplished.”

“I am anointed,” the deacon hissed.

“El Paso was your true baptism, Father. Had you succeeded you would have been vaccinated at a ceremony in Venice. Again,
regrettably
, you failed…”

Deacon
Havar
shook his head side to side, yet
Lino
could see the man’s mind begin to grasp his new reality. A hand flew to his neck
,
where the glands were already swelling.

“You said it was a side effect of the vaccination.”

“I
lied
.”

With as much satisfaction as a man of God could enjoy
,
Lino
watched as the
d
eacon realized he would be no better than the paupers who died spitting up blood in the street.

“Sir, they have passed the outer marker.”

He urged the deacon to the door. “Enjoy the next few hours…before your lungs fill with blood.”

Havar
defeated, sagging, shuffling, left the room.

Lino
turned back to the radar.

Finally. Time to end this stalemate.

CHAPTER 29

Skies over Maine

2:03
p
.
m
.,
EST

The helicopter skimmed over the roiling sea. The
threatening
storm
was
now in full rage. Rain hit the windshield in sheets, clattering like gunfire. Ronnie steeled herself. Soon
,
that would be real gunfire.

She glanced over to find Quirk typing rapidly. “Is there a problem with the countermeasures?”

“Did you know
that
there have been seven shark attacks in the region?” Quirk informed the entire aircraft. “That basically
,
we are flying over the same waters
that
Jaws
swam
in
?”

“First off
,
that was Martha’s Vineyard
.
A
nd secondly, it was a
film
.” She turned to Zach. “Which was
not
Steven
Spielberg’s
first.”

He put his hands up in mock defeat. “I got it.”

Quirk
returned
to finding YouTube footage of local shark attacks as Zach nodded to
ward
the distant speck on the cliff. The castle. Although
,
with the weather and distance, the structure looked more like a Hobbit house.

“Are you worried?” Zach asked her.

“That they haven’t thrown anything at us
,
despite the fact
that
we’ve been in range for two minutes?” Ronnie said with a sigh. “Yes, but this could be an instance of
‘
they know that we know that they know
’
kind of thing.”

Zach didn’t seem entirely satisfied by that answer
,
but let it go as the helicopter swooped left
—
taking them overland. This close to the castle, the Hidden Hand’s underwater defenses were nearly as good as
its
ground
defenses
. Ronnie checked the screen monitoring
the various mines and water-to-air missiles. All were quiet.

This assault was like a hack
—
only they weren’t
dealing with
code, but
with
actual lives. And like a hack
,
this attack was as much a mind game as anything. The target
s
knew
that
they were vulnerable to attack. They planned for it. The hacker
s
knew
that
the target
s
planned for the attack
,
so they always had to find
chink
s
in their cyber armor.
Back door
s. Side entrances. Weak firewalls.

It basically came down to who knew what in which order
,
and whether they had time to adapt.
Lino
must
have
know
n
what went down in Mexico. He also knew that he had been outflanked at the Met. Ronnie had a pretty deep bag of tricks, but even she was running out
of them
. What if she’d shown
Lino
enough to anticipate her next move?

While the Hidden Hand was filled with soulless bastards, it did not make them stupid. If anything
,
it made them all the more dangerous. Lines
that
Ronnie would not cross, the Hidden Hand would leap over with joy.

And clearly
Lino
was holding back
,
waiting until he saw the whites of their proverbial eyes. But waiting for what?

“Did you know
that
shark attacks rise steeply during a storm? The agitation of the water
—
”

“Quirk.” She waited until he looked up at her. “Did you get my laptop in the box?”

He rolled his eyes and went back to his shark research. Yes, Quirk’s quirks even got on her nerves at times. But
Ronnie
knew
that
when her assistant was on a roll,
she couldn’t
stop him. Or
at
least not without wild horses. Instead
,
she simply double-checked herself as they sped over the thick forest surrounding the castle.

The clear box seemed so benign
.
Y
et in the end
,
it
could save all their lives.

“I take
it
that isn’t just plastic,” Zach said
,
leaning over to study the construction of the clear box.

“Not exactly. It is lead
-
impregnated, airtight, watertight, and maximum EM-shielded.”

Zach’s eyebrow lifted. “That’s been field-tested?”

Ronnie felt her cheeks flush. “Okay, so maybe I should have said, ‘in theory’ to start off with.”

“Okay, but if your computer is in that impenetrable box, then…”

She pulled out an older version of the keyless
-
keyboard gloves. These ceramic tiles on her fingertips were much larger, heavier, and quite frankly
,
a fashion eyesore. But at least they had all their keys.

“These are
—
”

“
KeKe
-
G’
s,” Quirk interrupted.

Okay. That
was
a cooler name. Ronnie went to explain to Zach what her assistant was talking about when alarms blared.

Guess it was time to find out who was faster on the draw.

* * *

Zach steadied the launcher against the floor of the helicopter
,
which was easier said than done. Between the bucking winds and the pilot’s maneuvers to evade the six missiles flying toward them the best Zach could do was not fall out the open door.

“Fire!” Ronnie yelled from the other side of the chopper
,
where she manned her own launcher.

He hit the lever
,
and three countermeasures flew out from the launcher, spraying out in a fan pattern. The missiles took the bait, sharply banking to hone in on the new heat signature. Explosions rang out as the missiles detonated far away from them.

Pretty slick.

“Oh
,
crap
!
” Ronnie blurted
out
.
She
turned to see
that
one of her missile
s
not only did not detonate
,
but also
had banked around, heading straight for them. “It must be backtracking the countermeasure’s path.”

That smart missile was hauling ass in their direction.

“Zach, fire another countermeasure!”

He wanted to argue
that
he was on the other side of the helicopter from the missile, but why bother? Ronnie
was
giving the orders
.
He hit the lever
,
and the countermeasure shot out of the launcher.

“Keep us parallel
!
” Ronnie shouted to the pilot.

The missile came straight for them through the downpour. It felt impossibly wrong that the helicopter stopped its forward momentum and hovered in the battering winds, awaiting its doom.

“Get down!”

Zach threw himself to the floor as the missile flew in Ronnie’s door
.
It s
corch
ed
them as it exited his door, streaking after the countermeasure. It exploded just above the forest, setting treetops ablaze despite the soaking rain.

Ronnie had one of those smiles
people
get when
they
know that
they
just cheated death. He rose to join her when Francois exclaimed, “Dear God
!
”

If something caused Francois to take the Lord’s name in
vain
…

The sight through the chopper’s window should have been something out of the Dark Ages. The castle before them loomed on the horizon, every bit the symbol of power and domination that the builders had intended. The 3-D holographic image did not do the enormous structure justice.

Red flags emblazed with gilded angelic script whipped in the fierce wind atop stone turrets. Dotted all along the towers were narrow archers
’
windows
—
the ancient equivalent
for
modern
-
day sniper
s
. And the Hidden Hand had shown
itself
more than willing to adopt technology. How many gunmen were hidden in the shadow of the stone?

Long, wide ramparts, equally well guarded, connected each tower
.

Talk about a tough, protective outer shell.

A huge, elaborately carved wooden gate stood closed
.
A
nd
,
Zach guessed
,
locked pretty damned tight.
T
he empty m
oat
e
ncircl
ed
the castle. Were they expecting the storm to fill it?