Fallout

CHAPTER 39

Craig used his FBI badge and ID to convince the Rio’s night manager to let him into Paige Mitchell’s room. But the suite was empty, the bed made, showing no signs of a struggle. She had left no sign of where she had gone or what she meant to do.

Had she for some reason gone out to see her Uncle Mike… gotten herself involved in a dangerous situation while Craig was distracted with NEST searching for the warhead in Las Vegas?

In a daze, Craig rushed back through the Rio lobby, not hearing the slot machines or the buzz of gamblers, not seeing the lush jungle decor or the flashing lights and mirrors. He felt grimy, tired, sore, and hungry, and he couldn’t see any chance for relief in sight.

Especially not now, not if Paige was in trouble.

He thought again of the paraphernalia Waterloo had left in his house, wishing the DAF Manager had given some inadvertent indication of where the stolen nuclear device was hidden. But he had found no Las Vegas street maps, no diagrams of the downtown area, no target zone in the city. Only those maps of NTS and Nellis and Groom Lake.

Unless the warhead wasn’t in Las Vegas at all. Unless it had never been taken from NTS.

What if the bomb still remained on the vast reservation… hidden in the test range that covered thousands of acres? Perhaps the militia had simply smuggled the weapon out to an isolated gully, waiting for their chance. Who would think to look for the missing nuke out on the test range itself?

If Paige had figured it out for herself, figured out the connection with Waterloo, he could well believe that she would have made her own way out to the Test Site, snooping around, confronting her Uncle Mike at the DAF and getting herself in trouble.…

As he hustled out of the casino, his cellular phone rang. Craig stood at the front doorway, waiting under the bright lights as he flipped open the antenna. Goldfarb’s voice came in a rush.

“Craig, we’ve got the guy who blew up the railroad bridge yesterday! Staff Sergeant John Marlo. Found him in Dennisons, just like your tip said — but there’s no nuclear device here. Our guy says it’s in a place no one will ever find in time, somewhere isolated, somewhere with lots of security checkpoints. He also seemed baffled when I brought up the President’s layover. Chances are he didn’t even know about it. His papers say he was stationed at Nellis Air Force Range, north of the Test Site.”

Craig suddenly remembered his day up touring the test tunnels, and Waterloo’s weird fascination with the secret Groom Lake facility, Area 51 — and he connected that with the sketched map he had found in Waterloo’s house.

The Eagle’s Claw might have wanted to expose the suspicious testing programs, the covert activities at Groom Lake — or destroy them. He felt cold as all of his assumptions fell into place.

“Dreamland,” he whispered. If Waterloo could slip past all the security, it would be the perfect place to hide a nuclear warhead.

“I guess it’s good news then,” Goldfarb said. “It doesn’t look like the bomb is in Las Vegas after all.”

“Don’t celebrate yet,” he said, remembering what Paige had told him, “with the size of that bomb, and with this storm blowing, the radioactive cloud is going to still make half of Nevada uninhabitable.”

“Go ahead, rain on my parade.”

Craig scanned for where he had parked his car in the Registration Only spots. He spoke quickly into the phone. “I’m heading out to the Test Site right now. I just found out that Mike Waterloo is involved in the militia, some kind of big wheel.”

“Waterloo’s in the militia?” Goldfarb squawked. “Holy cow, who’s next?”

“I’ll explain later — but he’s disappeared, and he might even have taken Paige hostage. Meanwhile, have a helicopter meet me at the DAF — there’s a pad only a mile away — from there, we’ll need to head north into the desert. See if you can convince Major Braden or June Atwood to get me into Nellis Air Force base. I think Waterloo’s got the stolen bomb, and I think he’s hauling it to Groom Lake. That’s where he’ll set it off.”

“The militia is going to Area 51?” said Goldfarb, sounding incredulous. “What, they want to kidnap the aliens?”

“I’ll let you know when I get there.” He switched off the phone as he raced for his rental car — and then he felt a strong hand grab him by the forearm. Craig whirled, instantly alert, ready to struggle.

General Ursov stood there in his immaculate brown military uniform, dressed and ready to go. “I have found you, Agent Kreident, and I know something is going on!” the Russian said stonily. He stepped in front of the car door and waited, arms crossed, refusing to move.

His heart sinking as his thoughts whirled, Craig tried to brush past Ursov. “General, you must believe me. There is a national security emergency. I don’t have time for this —”

“Nyet,” said Ursov, pounding on the hood of the car. Two of the valet parking attendants turned to stare. “I do not have time! I will not let you out of my sight until I have answers. Enough of this! Nevsky is dead, information is being buried — you will tell me now.”

Craig clenched his fingers around the car door handle, ready to rip it off. It would take him half an hour to get to the Test Site at breakneck speed on rain-slick roads. Goldfarb was already setting things in motion, and he couldn’t waste the time appeasing Ursov right now.

On the other hand, he realized, the Russian ambassador had been the first to discover the missing warhead, and he had been murdered for it. In fact, the FBI would never have suspected the nuclear threat or the connection with the Eagle’s Claw otherwise.

Besides, he could always leave the general at the DAF once the FBI helicopter showed up.

“All right, General — I guess you’re part of this, too.” Craig looked forcefully at Ursov. “Get in the car. I’ve got something to tell you. I’ll explain on the way.”