Betrayal (30 page)

 
You all harbor a deep desire for world peace. It’s in America’s blood. It’s the default answer in every religious sermon, political race, and beauty pageant. Yet despite all your means and rhetoric, all your promises and potential, and all your fine examples of individual and private efforts, your government is actively working against it.

Your politicians are the problem.

Our action today is a result of their inaction yesterday. We do this destructive act in the hope of building a better tomorrow. My colleagues and I are executing the twenty-five members of the Senate Armed Services Committee in order to shed light on their crimes. The American voters deserve to see the enormous gap that exists between these politicians’ promises, and their deeds.

They spout bromides about Christianity, democracy, education, and world peace much as a fountain does water—with great volume and much show but little thought. Then they quietly shovel billions out the back door and into the pockets of their war-mongering corporations in exchange for campaign contributions.

We hope that the sacrifice we make today gives the good people of America the chance to reevaluate the world, to see it not as the ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ politicians peddle, but for what it really is: one people under God.

Chapter 54

Asgard Island, Chesapeake Bay

C
ASSI
WATCHED
OPEN
mouthed as Odi sprang from the floor, instantly recognizing the desperate act of a man with nothing to lose. She remembered his line from the Potchak video: The only antidote to Creamer is death. Since Odi’s hands were bound behind his back, he tried to ram Wiley with his head. Cassi wanted to join him but before she could rise she saw Stuart’s Beretta flash and heard the sickening crack of metal on bone as he brought the butt down on the back of Odi’s charging head.

“You bastard!” She screamed.

Stuart turned to point the Beretta at her face.

She ignored the gun barrel inches from her nose and gave Wiley a contemptuous stare. He and Stuart backed out the door. As Wiley lifted the remote control, Cassi screamed, “Wiley, for God’s sake, don’t do this!”

“It’s already done,” Wiley said. Then he dialed the non-emergency code, and pressed the red panic button.

The door slammed closed and Cassi heard bolts sliding into place. Titanium shutters began rolling down to cover the bulletproof windows. In seconds the study would be a fortress. For the second time in as many days, she was locked in a room with a bomb. At least this time she was not alone. And for better or worse, she could not see the clock. On the downside, she was the bomb. Escape was not an option. Strangely enough, Cassi found that fact calming.

She struggled to her feet and used a shoulder to turn on the lights as the shutters dropped into place. She walked over to Odi and knelt down beside him. He had a nasty lump where Stuart’s pistol butt had cracked the back of his head, but he was breathing.
 

“Odi ... Odi wake up ... Wake up. I need your help.”

He did not respond.

She repeated herself, louder.

Still nothing.

She gave him a vigorous nudge with her knee and then turned her attention to the floor. She needed to find a piece of glass sharp enough to cut her bonds. Unfortunately the aquarium had shattered like a car windshield. It lay strewn about the floor in a thousand little pieces. She knew that this was a safety feature, but in her case it would do more harm than good. Most of the pieces were far too small to be of use.
 

After brushing a dead fish aside with her foot, she spotted a triangular piece wedged into the thick carpet pile. It was more round than pointed, and each side was less than two inches long. Still, it was better than any other piece available, so it would have to do. She squatted and found it with her fingers. Picking it up, she rotated it to feel each side. The edges were only mildly sharp. “No problem,” she told herself. “You can compensate for sharpness with force.” A few seconds later she knew that she had spoken too soon. It was too small and slippery to afford a forceful grip.

She stood and walked over to the desk and leaned against it so that if she dropped the glass, it would not fall far. As she scraped the edge against the tough zip-tie, she continued shouting Odi’s name. She knew that he would not be able to change their lot. Death was the only antidote. But that was not the point. Odi would want to face his fate head-on, teeth gritted and eyes opened wide. Since she had put him in this position, she owed him that final wish. For her part, she wanted to go out of this world as she had come into it—holding her twin brother’s hand.

Trying to sever her bonds, Cassi lost her grip on the shard more often than not. Each fumble rewarded her with another gash in her palm or wrist. Adding insult to injury, the slippery blood made it even harder to work. She ignored the pain and kept at it. What else could she do? After two more fruitless minutes, however, Cassi realized that her current approach was not going to work. At least not in time. She needed to find another way to free her hands.

She considered slitting her wrists and lying down to die beside her unconscious brother—but only for a second. Wiley had her ire up. She wanted to go out fighting. She wanted to leave a note, an accusatory message from the grave. To do that properly, she had to free her hands.

Cassi turned and began looking about Wiley’s desk for something sharp. The desk itself was glass, so there were no drawers. She looked into his pewter FBI pencil holder. It held a miniature broadsword that functioned as a letter opener. Her hopes jumped until she saw that it too was made of pewter, a soft metal. She dumped the pencil holder out onto the desk to test the edges just in case. They were dull as Des Moines. She studied the remainder of the spilled contents. There was the usual assortment of short wooden golf pencils and logo stamped ink pens. Her eye jumped to the single shiny object and she felt a glimmer of hope. Winking at her from the desk was a pair of nail clippers.

She found it slow going, trying to maneuver the tiny object behind her back with slippery fingers and bound hands. Oddly enough, it even left her struggling for breath. She did not care. It was working. The nail clippers were making headway against the tough plastic. She had gotten nearly halfway through when her eyes darted from the zip tie to her hands. The sight she saw brought the terror of the moment crashing home, provoking a guttural scream. Despite the blood she could clearly see that the tips of her fingers were blue.

Chapter 55

Asgard Island, Chesapeake Bay

O
DI
JOLTED
AWAKE
to the sound of his sister screaming. He looked in the direction of her voice and asked, “What happened?”

As he spoke, Cassi’s hands flew out from behind her back and a shiny object soared across the room. It splashed down near his feet. “Odi, thank God you’re awake. Stuart pistol-whipped you.”

“Right after Wiley told us of his plans,” Odi said nodding, wishing all the while that he could rub the back of his head.

“And made us drink your Creamer,” Cassi confirmed.

The urgency of their predicament struck him like a hammer. “How long ago was that? How long was I out?”

“It was about fifteen minutes ago, I think. Look at me.” Cassi held up her bloody hands and Odi saw the discolored fingertips. His stomach dropped. They did not have long. The explosive was already sweating, and they had each swallowed the equivalent of eight hand grenades.

“There may still be hope,” he said, trying to sound more optimistic than he felt. “Can you free my hands?”

Cassi looked at him with wide eyes and then grabbed the nail clippers off the floor. Ten seconds later Odi’s hands were also free.
 

“We’ve got to purge our stomachs. Use your finger. Gag yourself.” Odi got up on his knees as he spoke and then plunged a finger into his throat after noting that it was not yet blue. The gag reflex came on fast and strong. His throat protested but his stomach began to heave. He ignored the pain. His mind was working overtime now, churning as fast as his stomach. He was desperate to prevent 10/12. He was willing to endure anything for that shot at redemption. He was straining to think of how they could possibly pull off such a miracle when an idea came to him. He pulled his finger from his mouth and shouted, “Wait!”

Cassi looked over at him, obviously scared.

Odi got off his knees and retrieved the plastic wastebasket from the bathroom. After emptying its contents onto the floor, he set it down before her and said, “Vomit into this.”

Cassi looked at him funny from the corners of her bloodshot eyes but did not question why.

Over the next couple of minutes they knocked heads a few times over the can, but eventually all their heaves were dry. Cassi had expelled three or four marble sized chunks whereas Odi’s effluent looked more like milky peas.

“I’ve got nothing left,” Cassi said, her voice hoarse. “Is it safe to stop?”

Odi was not sure. It did not look like they were accomplishing anything, and there appeared to be roughly a pint of effluent in the bucket, but the penalty for underestimation was severe. “Let’s give it a couple more tries.”

Thirty seconds later he said, “That’s enough.”

“Is it really that simple?” Cassi asked.

“I don’t know. Probably not. It only takes a few drops to provide a bomb with critical mass. It’s time for phase two.”

Odi pulled a line of clear plastic tubing from the ruins of the aquarium. “You have to swallow one end. Once you’ve got it down the right tube, I’ll push it all the way down and suck the remaining contents out. It will hurt like hell, but it beats the alternative.”

Cassi grew a shade paler, but nodded stoically. His sister was the best.

The next couple minutes went by in a disgusting, painful blur as Odi purged Cassi and she returned the favor. He kept stealing subtle glances at the tips of her fingers, and was encouraged to see that they had gotten no worse.

With phase two complete, Odi ran back to the half bath and flung open the medicine chest. He saw Aspirin, Band-Aids, Triaminic, and Mylanta. “Bingo.” He grabbed the green plastic bottle and gave it a good shake. It was nearly full. He tossed it to Cassi. “Drink this. The acid in your stomach catalyzes the reaction. No acid, no explosion. In case we didn’t get it all, this should neutralize any Creamer that’s left.”

Cassi drank half the bottle in the time it took Odi to walk back to her. She gave the Mylanta back to him. Odi guzzled the rest and wiped his lips with the back of his hand.

“What do we do now?” Cassi asked. “We’re still stuck here in Wiley’s panic room, completely incommunicado. Six thousand people are about to die. Tell me you have a plan.”

“Of course I have a plan, Sis. That’s why we threw up into the wastebasket. You can help out by getting me some coffee filters. There should be some under the bar.”

While she searched, he took the basket off Mr. Coffee. Then he grabbed the wastebasket and set it next to the bar’s small sink.

“Here you go. What else can I do?” Cassi asked.

Odi put two clean filters into the basket and positioned it over the sink. “You hold the filter-basket,” he said. “I’ll pour.”

The milky liquid seemed to take forever to drain through the filter. As it dripped out the bottom, Odi studied Cassi’s hands. They were regaining their original color. His had never changed. Although he had no empirical evidence, intuition told him that this was a very good sign. “Why don’t you wash up and make use of the Band-Aids. To get out of here, you’re going to need your hands.”

“Okay,” Cassi said. “ But while I’m doing that will you tell me what’s going on?”

“The acid in your stomach causes the explosive to congeal like curdling milk. As the process progresses, the curds combine with one another. Eventually only larger curds are left and they form a crust. The crust sweats a substance toxic to hemoglobin. That is why your extremities turn blue. By drinking the antacid, we raised the pH in our stomachs, halting the reaction. Now all we need to do is keep the pH in our stomach neutral until everything passes into the small intestine, where the pH is too high to catalyze the reaction.”