The Ajax Protocol-7 (25 page)

On screen, the picture spun in a crazy arc as the satellite went out of control.

"NO!" Westlake shouted.

Nick body checked Westlake against the computer bench and the two of them went down. Someone was shouting. Abingdon got to his feet and started for the console. Ronnie launched himself at him and sent him flying.

On screen, the picture was a dizzying swirl. The red numbers cascaded in a blur on the right of the screen as the satellite tumbled toward the planet's surface. It entered the atmosphere. The cameras registered a brief, orange glow. Then the screen went dark.

The guards had Nick and the others pinned to the floor.

Westlake got to his feet. His face was flushed, the skin pulled tight. A vein throbbed on the side of his forehead.

"Stand them up," he said. His voice had a strangled sound. "STAND THEM UP!"

The guards pulled Nick, Selena and Ronnie to their feet. Abingdon looked shaken. Martinez seemed stunned by what had happened.

"Good job, Selena," Nick said.

"Give me your rifle," Westlake said to the man with the three stripes. A name stenciled on his shirt identified him as
Miller.

"Sir..." he hesitated.

Westlake's voice was filled with menace. "I said give me your rifle." Miller handed him the assault rifle.

"Stand them against that wall," Westlake said.

The guards moved Nick, Selena and Ronnie over to the wall and backed away.

Westlake looked at Nick. "You have no idea what you've done."

"I know exactly what I've done. You're missing a few cards in the deck, General. Like all the other assholes who think they can decide how the world ought to be run and who should run it."

"Ajax would have made America supreme. Secure. We would have taken back our rightful place in the world. It would have initiated a New World Order that would have lasted a thousand years."

"Where have I heard that before? We don't need a New World Order. Much less someone like you running it."

"Enough talk," Westlake said. He pulled back the bolt on the rifle, checked to see if a round was chambered. He let the bolt slide home.

Nick turned to Selena. "I love you," he said.

"I love you, too," she said.

"How touching," Westlake said. He raised the rifle.

One of the technicians called out. "Sir, we have a security breach."

"What? Where?"

"Terminal entrance, sir."

On the large screen, images appeared from cameras placed around the complex. Most of the cameras showed empty hallways and rooms. Two showed men moving down the hallways. They were in full tactical gear, black uniforms, vests, helmets. They carried MP-5s and a breaching ram.

"Looks like the cavalry's here, General," Nick said. "That makes us worth more alive than dead. You need hostages."

Westlake considered and lowered the rifle. Nick let out his breath. He hadn't realized he was holding it.

"You'll stay alive for now," Westlake said.

"What do we do?" Martinez asked.

"We evacuate and fight another day." Westlake turned to Miller. "You watch these. Bring up the rear with them. Any more trouble, kill them."

"Sir."

Westlake went to the computer console and pressed a sequence of keys. A door opened in one wall in the bunker. Nick saw a passage beyond.

"This way. Hurry up," Westlake said.

Westlake and Martinez went into the  passage beyond the door, followed by Abingdon and the rest of the technicians. There were two other guards besides Miller.

"You go ahead," he said to them. "I'll bring up the rear with the prisoners."

"You sure?"

"Go. Protect the General."

The two men entered the passage. Miller looked at Nick. "You were a Marine?" he said.

"Yes. What about it?"

"So was I."

"What do you expect me to say? Semper Fi?"

"Westlake was going to shoot you. It's not right."

"He's crazy," Nick said. "He'll take you and everyone else down with him."

"I heard everything he said, about Ajax and what it would do. I didn't know that. I thought it just caused trouble."

"He used it against a city in Russia," Nick said. "Thousands of people died. The city was left in ruins. He was going to do the same to Riyadh and London, but we stopped him."

"Riyadh
and
London?" Miller said. "That doesn't make sense."

"It does if you're crazy," Nick said.

Miller looked at the screen. The black-clad shock troops were close.

"It's not right," he said again, "shooting unarmed prisoners. I cut you loose, you put in a word for me?"

"You cut us loose, they'll probably give you a medal," Nick said.

Miller set his rifle down. He took out a knife and cut the ties on Nick's wrists, then Selena's and Ronnie's. Nick rubbed his hands together, getting circulation back.

Ronnie bent down and picked up the rifle. "What about Westlake?" he said.

"He's long gone by now. Let the others go after him." He turned to Miller. "You did the right thing."

Miller said, "Westlake has some kind of backup plan."

"What plan?" Nick said.

Miller shrugged. "I don't know. I heard him talking with Martinez. Something with a Greek name like Ajax, only different. A second satellite."

"Drop your weapons!"
Nick looked at the doorway. It bristled with rifles pointing in their direction.

"Better set it down, Ronnie." Nick raised his hands.

Ronnie raised one hand and held the rifle away from his body. He bent over in slow motion and set the rifle on the floor.

Selena raised her hands.

"That was sweet," she said to Nick, "what you said when Westlake was about to shoot us."

CHAPTER 55

The tactical unit in black was part of an FBI SWAT team. Once things got sorted out, Nick called Harker.

"Nick. Are you all right?"

"Yes. Westlake and Martinez got away. Korov is dead."

"What?" she said, "Martinez? Who's Martinez? Korov is dead? You'd better start at the beginning."

Nick ran it down. When he was done, there was silence at the other end of the connection.

"You still there, Director?"

"I'm here. What's happening where you are now?"

"The team leader sent men after Westlake and the others, but I don't think they'll have much luck. How did the FBI know about this place?"

"Hood sent them. He gambled that the Bureau wasn't part of whatever was going on. He went to see Rice. Hood briefed him and got full authority. He knew where the underground entrances were and told the Feds where to go."

"They got here just in time. Westlake had us lined up against a wall and was going to shoot us. He's crazy, Director. When he escaped, one of his men kept us back and freed us. He thinks there's a back up plan. Selena brought down the satellite, but there might be another one, with a Greek code name. If there is, and Westlake gets to somewhere that lets him control it, he could still make a lot of trouble."

"Hood and the Bureau are tracking down officers who may have been involved. The DOJ is trying to sort it out but it's a snake pit. Rice has reassumed the duties of the Presidency. When Hood told him about the Ajax Protocol, he almost blew a gasket. He's pissed."

"I'll bet."

"He ordered Hood and the FBI to pull out all the stops. The Director of Homeland Security is under arrest, though it's not being called that. Officially, she's on administrative leave until it can be determined what role she played."

"What about Edmonds?"

"There's no evidence against him, but Rice has isolated him. He has no power. He couldn't order a cheeseburger in a fast food joint. We didn't know about Senator Martinez. I don't think Rice is going to like that when I tell him. The DOJ will follow up."

"There have to be other politicians involved," Nick said. "Look at all the preparations they made to take over. They've been getting ready for a long time. The new FEMA centers, the AFVs for Homeland Security, all that. It took political clout to do that and it can't be a coincidence. It's a long-standing conspiracy."

"The Ajax Protocol," Harker said. "They were really going to implement it."

"We have to find Westlake," Nick said.

"I'm still in Texas with Stephanie, but we're going back to Virginia. I want you and the others back as well," Harker said. "We can't do anything without more intel. You might as well be where we have resources."

"All right."

"I'm sorry about Korov," Harker said.

"Yeah," Nick said.

"I'll make the arrangements to send him home. I'll talk to Vysotsky after we're done here."

Selena saw him put his phone away.

"What did Elizabeth say?"

"She wants us back East. Nothing we can do until we get an idea of where Westlake went, or what he might do."

"I'll be glad to get back," she said. She paused. "What about Korov?"

"Harker is taking care of it."

"He saved my life, Nick. He jumped in front of me."

"I know."

"Why did he do that?" her eyes were moist.

"I don't know," Nick said. "I don't know why he did that. I don't mean this to sound cold, but I'm glad it's not you lying back there."

She put her arms around him. "Let's go home," she said.

CHAPTER 56

Hood had someone from the Agency waiting for Elizabeth and Stephanie at Andrews. He gave them the keys to a black suburban, Ashley if there was anything else he could do for them and left them to it.

They stopped on the way and retrieved Burps from the cat boarding house. They parked in front of Project HQ. When they went into the building, they both stopped short. Stephanie set the cat down. He seemed nervous and uncertain. It was easy to see why.

Elizabeth looked at the mess left behind by the Homeland Security agents sent by Edmonds and swore under her breath. She tried to tell herself that they were under orders, doing their job. She wondered if that's what people said in Germany in the 30s, when they saw thugs destroying shops and breaking into homes.

"Those bastards," Stephanie said. "They didn't have to do this."

Elizabeth's office looked like it had been looted. The desk drawers had been pulled out and dumped on the floor. The desk itself had been tipped on its side. The locked drawers had been smashed open. Her computer monitor was trashed. Her chair was slashed, the guts of the cushion spilling out where someone had cut it open, searching for God knew what. Half a dozen plants in pots had been ripped out and strewn around the room.

The rest of the floor wasn't much better. Stephanie's office had been searched, but her monitor still functioned. Downstairs, the room where Lamont had been staying was torn apart.

The armory was still locked. It took serious electronic savvy to breach the security for that room. The computers were untouched. They were big, taking up an entire room, not the kind of thing you could throw in the back of a truck.

"Do you think they got into them?" Elizabeth asked. She stood with Stephanie looking at the Crays.

"I doubt it," Stephanie said. "My firewalls are better than NSA's or the Pentagon's. There aren't more than two or three people in the world who might be able to get past them. None of them work for the government."

"Edmonds really makes me angry," Elizabeth said. "I knew he was an ass, but I didn't think he'd do something like this."

"Do you think he's part of the plot?"

"I don't know, but somehow I don't think so. Would you trust a man like that to keep a secret?"

"Not a chance," Stephanie said.

"I think it will turn out that Westlake manipulated him, had him thinking we were a threat to national security, something like that."

"I don't think Edmonds will be a problem in the future. The President will force him to resign."

"At least Rice is all right. I'm worried about Lamont."

"So am I," Stephanie said.

"I talked to his doctor earlier, while you were asleep on the plane. He has a staph infection. They haven't got it under control. He's weak, barely hanging on."

Stephanie sighed. "When do Nick and the others get back?"

"Later today," Elizabeth said.

They went back upstairs to Elizabeth's office.

"Ajax was developed by DARPA under Westlake's oversight," Elizabeth said. "I want you to look at everything else he did with them. See if you can find anything besides Ajax with a Greek name."

"That's a long shot."

"I know, but we have to figure out what Westlake has in mind. It could be something DARPA developed. Whatever it is, it can't be good. While you're doing that, I'm going to call Vysotsky. He needs to know about Korov."

"Better you than me," Stephanie said.

"Let's get this desk up," Elizabeth said.

They set the desk back on its feet.

"I'll get started," Stephanie said. She went to her office while Elizabeth called Vysotsky.

Rice had talked with Harker and given her access to the Pentagon's computers.
If only they knew,
Stephanie thought as she entered the access codes. She couldn't remember how many times she'd hacked into the Pentagon servers to find out something the Pentagon or DARPA didn't want anyone to know about. It felt strange to go in with official blessings.

She gained entry to the DARPA servers. She began looking at weapons recently developed or under development, anything with a Greek code name. She'd found Ajax. If there was anything there, she'd find it.

The heart of DARPA was a hundred of the most brilliant technological minds in America. Originally conceived by Eisenhower as a brain tank and technological development group for both civilian and military projects, DARPA's mission had been subverted in the 70s. Now it focused only on the military applications.

Stephanie worked her way through a list of current and past projects that read like scenes from a Terminator movie or pages from an H.G. Wells novel. An hour later, she still hadn't found anything with a Greek name or the suggestion of one. Something nagged at her about the list. She couldn't pin it down. What was it?