Dark Zone

88

“French television is just getting images of the battle at the Eiffel Tower,” Telach told Rubens.

“The surveillance network we tapped into?”

“That went out when the terrorists blew up the stairs and the elevator on the north and south legs. The news feed is all we can get.”

“Put the French news feed on the screen,” he told her.

A blurred blue image filled the screen, too shaky and distant for Rubens to make out. Then the Eiffel Tower came into view, the old grid work stark against the backdrop of the sky. Smoke curled from the side and top.

Rubens knew from Tommy’s description that the terrorists were clustered around a girder about twenty feet below the third level. There wasn’t enough detail for Rubens to make out what was going on, but he assumed that they were stitching their bomb vests together. They’d be almost done now.

“Tell the French not to let them put their bomb packs together,” Rubens told Telach.

“We already have.”

“Tell them again.”

Johnny Bib burst through the door at the side of the room, two of his analysts behind him.

“Johnny, things are chaotic here,” warned Rubens.

“I know where the old French atomic warhead is,” said Johnny Bib. “We found another simulation, this one involving a nuclear device.”