Go Out With A Bang! (18 page)

'Frank...'

'Hear me
out. I suspect you're a tumbleweed, never putting down roots. Let
him down gently.'

There
was the sound of other people appearing behind them. It was time to
go back to work. 'Maybe I don't want to let him down at
all.'

* * *

'Is this
the letter S?' Hank asked.

'Let me
see,' said Nick. 'Yes. Which makes the word number six.'

'And
this is a D?'

'Yes.'

'Then I
have an address.'

Ferret
took the sheet of paper from him and went to the whiteboard.
'That's an A not an E.' He wrote the address out. 'Twenty six,
Darwin Road, Tarrville.'

Nick was
already on the computer. 'Here it is. A small farming village,
about eighty miles away.'

'Go
satellite,' said Sandra.

'Zoom
in,' said Ferret.

'Looks
like an old farmhouse,' said Steve. 'We should pay a
visit.'

'No,'
said Sandra.

Frank
said, 'No? Are you serious?'

'Deadly. Which is something I
am and you aren't.
We
aren't going anywhere. Ferret and I will go.'

'I'm not
letting you do that,' said Steve. 'I'm going with you.'

'We need
you here. We don't need you there. Time to go, Ferret.'

Chapter 59

Sandra
could tell Ferret was thinking hard. 'What?'

Fred
Ducket hadn't spoken a word as he drove them to their destination.
'He's falling in love with you.'

She
didn't try to deny it. 'I can't afford love. Not now.'

'Suppose...'

'Just
drive.'

'Suppose
you were normal.'

'Thanks.'

'I meant
not a woman who could kill a man twice your size with a flutter of
your eyelashes.'

Sandra
looked out at the passing scenery and chuckled. 'Even I can't do
that.'

'All I'm
saying is, a woman of a certain age...'

'Fred,
don't piss me off.'

'Don't
get angry. Anyway, you wouldn't kill me while I'm
driving.'

'I
wouldn't kill you full stop. Are we there yet?'

'That
depends on whether you want us to drive up to their front door and
press the bell.'

'We need
to stretch our legs.'

Ferret
drove through the village, pulled up and parked off the road. 'The
house is nearly two miles further on. We can park the car here and
leg it. This enough exercise for you?'

'As long
as you can keep up.'

She
wasn't joking. Ferret was panting running after her. They ran out
of the village, ducking and diving, until they reached the dry
stone wall surrounding the target house. 'You really need to work
on your fitness.'

'I...I...I'm the computer guy. I fly a desk.'

'Six
months with me, you would almost be useful.'

'I
thought I was useful.'

'You can
drive. That's a skill. Right. A test for you. We are out in the
open, middle of nowhere, hiding behind a wall, there are probably
external cameras all around the property. We are here. We want to
be in there. Suggestions?'

'We wait
until dark?'

'Seriously? That the best you got? Stay here and play I spy
for the next six hours?'

'I'd win
that game. There's only one spy here, and I'm looking at
her.'

'Right
now, that's probably a good thing. See that?'

'What?'

'Nothing. No vehicle.'

'It
could be in the garage.'

'Take a
good look at the drive. Lots of muddy ruts up until the house.
Beyond that, nothing. He might have other stuff in the garage or he
can't be bothered to use it. Nobody home.'

'Got
that. But if the cameras are on, they'll know we have paid a
visit.'

'I
thought you were some kind of technical wizard. You can doctor that
once we are inside.'

'What if
the house has an alarm?'

'Don't
be stupid. Of course it has. I have every faith in your abilities.
You just need to deactivate it.'

'Sandra...'

She ran
up the drive and Ferret followed. She smiled at the camera above
the front door. From her pocket she took what she needed. Five
seconds of fiddling with the lock and the door opened. 'Wipe your
feet. We don't want to leave a calling card.'

'Heaven
forbid.'

'Here's
the alarm. Twenty seconds.'

Ferret
closed his eyes. 'Something stupidly simple.'

'You're
the man for the job, then.'

Ferret
keyed in the year. 'Done. Not much thinking been going on in
here.'

'I find
that strangely reassuring.'

Inside,
it looked like any other basic farmhouse. Sandra said, 'You fix the
camera recording. I'll do the useful stuff.'

Ferret
couldn't be bothered to respond. He found the CCTV recording, wiped
his and Sandra's uninvited entrance and looped the previous half
hour of recording.

Sandra
asked, 'Got a memory stick on you?'

'I never
leave home without one. What are you doing?'

'Getting
into this guy's hard drive.'

Ferret
shook his head. 'Like that? Mind if a real expert does
it?'

'I'll
check the yellow pages. See if I can get one.'

'Go take
a look around. I got work to do.'

'Okay.
I'm guessing that's the on switch.'

'What
would I do without you?'

'Live
happily ever after?'

'Go.'

'I'll
check the garage first.'

Leaving
Ferret to deal with the computer, she went out the back door. It
was quite clear why the garage wasn't used to park a vehicle. The
roof, what was left of it, had collapsed and was beyond repair.
Taking a quick look inside through a broken window, she could only
see some rotten old timber and rubbish. She went back in the house
and searched drawers and cupboards. Three minutes later, they were
done.

'Anything?' asked Ferret.

'Only
everyday life stuff. Invoices for power bills, that kind of thing.
I've photographed some of it, and made a note of the alias he's
using, but I doubt it will lead anywhere. This place is fully paid
for, just an old house and small section of land carved off the
farm. No evidence of earning a living.'

'He's
being funded. These people aren't short of money.'

Sandra
said, 'He's just keeping his head down, waiting to strike. Have you
got everything off his computer?'

'Yes.
This one is off-line so it can't be hacked into. This is where
anything useful would be stored. I'm ready to go. Let's move
it.'

Sandra
was peaking out the front window, making sure the coast was clear.
'Wait. I thought I heard...damn. He's here.'

Ferret
froze. 'That's not Ringo Starr, is it? What the hell do we do
now?'

'Out the
back way. Reset the alarm. Hurry.'

They
heard the car door slam on the drive at the side of the old farm
house. Ferret reset the alarm and he followed Sandra out of the
back door. She relocked that door as the front door was being
opened.

'Keep
down,' she whispered. 'This way.'

Crouching down, they went along the far side of the house.
The nearest wall was fifty yards away. Sandra beat Ferret to it and
cleared it in a single bound. Ferret wasn't as nimble, his foot
catching the top of the wall and he landed heavily on the grass
verge.

'You
poor old thing,' said Sandra, helping him to his feet.

'I'll
live.'

Ferret
limped behind Sandra to the car and they drove back to the mansion.
The relief on the faces of the eight men told of the anxious three
hours waiting for their return.

'I've
been so worried,' said Steve. 'Ferret. What happened to
you?'

'Don't
ask.'

'We had
a narrow escape,' said Sandra. 'Nick. Work with Ferret on the
computer. Maybe get him something for the pain. I guess he's
getting old.'

Chapter 60

Nick
couldn't believe his eyes. 'No.'

'Yes,'
said Ferret. 'It makes sense, Nick.'

'Are you
saying they've built this?'

'They
built it. You saw it yourself. Straight off the main dude's
computer. We can get somewhere with this. I'll get the others in
here.' Ferret called the others into the library and they gathered
around the computer.

'Oh,
Jeez,' said Steve. 'Is that thing for real?'

'That's
impressive,' said Frank. 'A mobile missile launcher. How on Earth
did they put something like that together?'

'A team
effort,' said Sandra. 'For nearly a year they have been getting all
the components together. They would have had the funds to set up a
good engineering workshop. Between them they'd have all the skills
they need. Ferret. Can you and Nick translate the text that goes
with the graphics?'

'These
are rudimentary schematics,' said Ferret. 'They aren't engineering
blueprints to manufacture anything from, so not all the graphics
are detailed with text. Give us an hour and we'll get what we can
from it. If somebody could rustle up some grub for us, we'll get
onto it.'

Leaving
Nick and Ferret in the library, the others went to the kitchen to
eat. It was a simple feed of crusty bread sandwiches and juice.
Titch took a tray full to Nick and Ferret who were so absorbed in
their task, they hardly noticed him. Titch quietly returned to the
others.

'How the
hell do we stop a missile launcher?' he asked.

'We have
to find it first,' said Steve. 'Maybe there's a clue on their
computer.'

Sandra
said, 'The big problem for the terrorists was getting the weapons
into the conference centre. This way they don't have to. The air
force will have the no fly zone covered by radar, but the missile
will be much faster than any aircraft. Impossible to shoot
down.'

Hank
said, 'Being mobile, it can be anywhere, moved at a moments notice.
Ah, Nick. Ferret. Success?'

Ferret
said, 'To a degree, yes. We still have some text to decode, but we
can tell you what we have found so far. There are three types of
warhead.'

'Three?'
said Sandra.

'One is
a powerful explosive. Big enough to blast a hole in the side of the
building. They have two of those. The second type is a nerve gas in
a highly pressurised container. Two of those. The third is a
thermonuclear device. Only one of those.'

'Good
God,' said Steve. 'Thermonuclear? Is that like an atom
bomb?'

'No. Not
really. That would use either uranium or plutonium. One word we
have for sure is hydrogen. This is like an H bomb.'

'Not
radiation, then?' said Frank.

'We
can't rule that out,' said Nick. 'The fusion or thermonuclear
warheads are not only very destructive, they can give off lethal
gamma radiation.'

'Oh,
shit,' said Steve. 'What sets it off?'

'That's
where the detail is lost, so we had a look at how other missiles
worked.' said Ferret. 'In the full sized missiles, an atom-bomb
trigger could be used. That releases neutrons bombarding the
lithium liner, which starts the fusion process generated from the
isotope. The fission of the uranium jacket and the emitted by the
reaction, produces the radioactive fission material. Gamma
radiation. It isn't an area I'm familiar with, but our research has
suggested that they'll probably use tritium. It's an isotope of
hydrogen mixed with deuterium. Pretty old science from the nineteen
fifties. This means a lower ignition temperature can be used. The
isotope would be in a lithium liner and the whole device in a
uranium jacket.'

'That is
one hell of a sophisticated piece of kit,' said Hank.'These people
know what they're doing.'

'So,'
said Frank. 'The explosive missiles breach the outer building. The
missiles carrying the nerve gas would enter the building through
the hole made, as would the thermonuclear warhead. The nerve gas
would stop the evacuation and create more confusion. The nuclear
missile would also enter the building for maximum impact and then
it would be...well. Game over.'

Sandra
said, 'If that nuclear missile goes off, what sort of death and
destruction are we talking about?'

Ferret
said, 'I'm no expert, but from what we found out on line, the
physical destruction from the thermonuclear or fusion, device,
compared to a comparatively sized nuclear or fission weapon is
actually far more devastating. But the gamma radiation is pretty
damned awful. Being on the edge of the city, it would kill
hundreds, if not several thousand, in a very nasty way.'