High Alert

CHAPTER 32

The Gulfstream assigned to the Project was down for maintenance. They hitched a ride on a C-17 from Andrews to Misawa Air Force Base in Japan. From there they'd transfer to a smaller plane for the flight to Petropavlosk-Kamchatsky airport in Russia.

Selena did her best to get comfortable on the orange strap bench that passed for seating in the cavernous hold of the plane. She wore a white camouflage uniform with scattered gray and tan colored patterns. In almost any winter environment, she would be invisible. Thermal underwear, gloves, and a balaclava that covered her face in the same camouflage pattern meant she would stay reasonably warm. The outfit kept her comfortable in the hold of the C-17.

Her field pack and a suppressed MP-7 were stored by her feet. A pistol was holstered on her chest and a fighting knife strapped to her thigh. The plane, the boredom of the journey, the pack at her feet, the weapons of death strapped on her body were all too familiar, something she'd gotten used to since she'd joined the Project. Everything was the same as usual.

Except everything had changed.

Selena's mind was in turmoil. The pregnancy tests had been positive. She didn't know why her birth control had failed, but it was a moot point. She wasn't showing, yet. Morning sickness usually started about six weeks in, too soon for any outward indication. She listened to the monotonous drone of the engines and thought about the life growing inside her.

She hadn't told Nick yet. She'd rationalized that she didn't want to distract him before the mission, but the truth was that she didn't know how he was going to handle it. Hell, she wasn't certain how she was going to handle it.

She was thirty-nine years old and set in her ways. A baby meant upheaval. She wasn't even sure she could have a safe pregnancy or bring a child to term. She'd taken serious wounds in the past few years, wounds that had torn up her insides and almost killed her. A round from an AK-47 had taken out one of her ovaries. It was a miracle she could walk, much less conceive.

I have to tell him. After the mission, when we get back.

When she'd been younger, she'd thought about having children. Her drive for personal independence and the fact that she hadn't met anyone she trusted as a potential father of her children had combined to make her put off the decision. As the years passed, she'd thought about it less and less.

That was a luxury she no longer had.

She heard the pitch of the engines change. Nick had been talking with Ronnie. Now he came over and sat down next to her.

"We're in the landing pattern for Misawa," he said. "We'll be on the ground in half an hour."

"I'll be glad to get off this damn bench."

Nick laughed. "All these years, they haven't changed much. You never quite get used to them."

"I'm not looking forward to this," she said.

"Because of Valentina?"

"That's part of it. Maybe even most of it. I don't like the idea that we're not in charge. I trust you. I don't trust her, or the Russians."

"It worked out all right with Korov."

"Yes, but he proved himself to us, didn't he?"

"So has your sister. She saved your butt in Germany. If she hadn't acted in Egypt, we'd all be dead."

"I suppose so."

"Where we're going, we're all on the same side," Nick said.

"What if that bomb goes off when we blow it up?"

"It can't. The way a hydrogen bomb works requires a controlled sequence of events. You have to set off a smaller, atomic explosion that acts to start the reaction. It's a staged event. The first fission explosion triggers a second, larger one. A big bomb might require a third stage as well. But it all has to happen in an exact manner. Just blowing it up won't set it off."

"Why didn't we suspect that he was so far advanced with the technology?"

"I don't know. I think people assumed his facilities and resources were too limited. He's good at hiding things."

"I can't shake the feeling that something is going to go wrong."

"It's just pre-mission jitters, that's all. Once we're in the field, you'll be fine. You always have been in the past. This time is no different."

Yes, it is, she thought.