Long Road to Mercy

Chapter 56

Pine and Kettler looked at each other and then stared at the nuke.

Pine finally settled her gaze back on Roth. “You’re going to have to explain that.”

“It’s fairly simple. The Russians supplied us with this tactical nuclear weapon, and our country placed it here.”

“Why in the hell would our country want to blow up the Grand Canyon?” said Pine.

“This bomb can’t detonate. Which is the definitive reason I know that the North Koreans did not place it here.”

“But how do you know it can’t go off?” asked Pine.

“Because it’s lacking vital components.”

“What components?” asked Kettler.

“I can give you the layman’s thumbnail.” He pointed to the device. “This is what is termed a fusion bomb, or a thermonuclear weapon. It actually creates its destructive force in much the same way the sun creates energy. A conventional detonation is called the primary stage. That sends the fissionable uranium into a chain reaction, which results in an explosion producing heat at several million degrees. This heat and power is reflected back into the uranium core, which commences the second stage. This phase initiates fusion, and the explosion resulting from this secondary stage destroys the uranium container. The released neutrons then result in the fusion that makes for the thermonuclear event. Do you follow?”

Kettler scratched his cheek. “Damn, if that’s the dumbed-down version, I don’t want to hear the complicated one.”

Roth added, “The parts that were left out include the lithium-six deuteride, a functional reflector, and an appropriate tamper. Without that, you’ve basically got a pile of uranium and hydrogen atoms with nowhere to go.”

“Then what the hell was the purpose of placing it here?” asked Kettler.

Pine answered. “So we could use it as the reason to attack North Korea. That’s what Sung Nam Chung meant when he said he agreed with me that if the nuke went off, North Korea would be destroyed. He was trying to find the bomb and stop the plan.”

“Only he couldn’t know the real plan,” said Roth. “The bomb was never going to go off, but it nonetheless would be used against North Korea as though it had.”

“But if it lacked the vital components, wouldn’t that raise suspicions of it being bogus?”

“Who would know that?” countered Roth. “Journalists weren’t going to open it up and check the guts. And when they did get around to having ‘experts’ examine it, they would just tell them that those parts had been taken out afterward, just to make sure no accident happened. I can only imagine the media frenzy when the government announced that they’d found this in a cave in the Canyon. They would have choppered this out of the Canyon for all to see on live TV.”

“What would they have done after the device was made public?” asked Kettler.

“I think there would have been a presentation at the UN with graphs and slides, and documentation of exactly how the North Koreans had managed to put a nuke in the Canyon. All fabricated, of course, but seemingly all aboveboard and plausible.”

“But would it be plausible to argue that the North Koreans would plant a bomb on American soil?” said Pine. “They’d know we would destroy them if the truth came out.”

“Well, our side would counter that argument by simply saying if the bomb had exploded there would have been no evidence left of where it had come from. But if it came out that North Korea had tried to detonate a nuke in the heart of America’s greatest natural landmark before we found out and put a stop to it? War would have been inevitable.”

“And a lot of people would die in a war like that,” said Pine.

“It would be long and bloody with human carnage the likes of which we haven’t seen since World War II and the Korean War. Literally millions would die. Hundreds of thousands on the very first day.”

“My God,” said Kettler. “And I thought the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were bad.”

Roth said, “All wars are horrible when it comes to human casualties. I’m sure some wonks in the government have come up with ‘exact’ numbers of deaths in all categories along with the justification to sacrifice them in such a conflict.” He shook his head. “What a business to be in.”

“Why would we need the Russians to help us with this?” asked Pine.

“As I said, the Russians have assisted North Korea with their weapons programs for a long time. They had ready access to ‘legitimate’ fissile materials that our government needed to go through with this plan. The panel with the North Korean characters and the rest? We wouldn’t have to fake it since we could have the real thing. Without Russia we would have had to go out and find similar material, or else try to concoct a bogus weapon made to look like a North Korean weapon using materials we could gather here and there. But the nuclear weapons arena is an elite one. There simply aren’t that many players. And the ones in that arena are well known, as are their weapons-building signatures. So if we had gone to third-party sources other than Russia, that would have left a trail that would lead right back to us, making the plan a nonstarter from the get-go.”

“Okay, but then why would the Russians help us do this?” asked Pine. “What would they get out of it?”

“It would allow them to partner with the world’s only superpower. That elevates them to near our status. And Russia wants to be the lead actor in the Far East, but there is no way they can match Beijing’s economic machine. Thus, they’re looking for other ways to exert influence and have a voice in the region. I would imagine that Russia would be rewarded in some way. Maybe after we won the war, we would annex part or all of North Korea for Russia.”

“Like when they split up Germany after World War II?” said Pine.

“Yes. And North Korea has some natural resources — anthracite coal, for example — that Russia could use to bolster its Far East economy.” He paused and looked thoughtful. “Who knows, this might be the beginning of some grand bargain between us and the Russians to divvy up parts of the world. I mean that was what the Cold War was about, although America and Russia were adversaries back then.”

“We should still be adversaries,” said Pine.

“But that does not appear to be how things are shaping up right now.”

Pine said, “The North Koreans must know something is up. They sent Chung to find out about it. To find you, in fact.”

“They would have every incentive to stop it, since their very existence is on the line.”

“How did you become involved in this?”

“Fred Wormsley was a dear friend, both of my father and me. He was a mentor.”

“I heard that he drowned.”

“He didn’t drown, he was murdered. And he’s the reason I’m down here now.”

“What do you mean?” asked Pine.

“Before he died, Fred secretly met with me. With his high position at the NSA, he had actually been recruited for this crazy mission. The thing is, you’d think there would be a thousand leaks with something like this. Well, as far as I know, Fred was the only one who stood up to them. But he pretended to be a willing participant, so he could learn all he could about it. But then, somehow, he was betrayed.”

“And you took up the fight he couldn’t finish,” commented Pine.

“After Fred told me what he knew, I set out to get to this nuke. Fortunately, he knew the location of the cave where it had been placed, and he gave me that information. Otherwise, it really would have been impossible to locate, given the size of the Canyon.”

“And Ben Priest? What’s the connection?”

“Ben had worked for years at the CIA. Then he joined Defense Intelligence. When I was inspecting WMDs in various countries, Ben was working behind the scenes pushing for greater access for my teams. During that time we became good friends. After that he went out on his own. I’ve never been exactly sure what he was doing then, but he acquired a reputation for assisting people mired in complex situations that required a first-rate knowledge of geopolitics. When I told him about this conspiracy, he was immediately onboard. Ben instantly saw how incredibly foolhardy this plan was. And that it had to be stopped. At all costs.”

“Apparently even if it cost him and his brother their lives,” noted Pine.

Kettler said, “And what about the mule?”

Roth said, “Actually, the mule was the main reason I approached Ben with this. You see, when I learned where the nuclear device was from Fred Wormsley, I recalled that Ben had previously told me about a mule ride he was going to take to the floor of the Canyon. There was no way I could get a mule of my own. You have to reserve your spot over a year in advance. Thus, Ben and I had hatched the plan where I would take his place on the ride down. It was perfect.”

“That all makes sense now,” said Pine.

“Also, Ben and I hiked down here before I took the mule ride.”

“Why?” asked Kettler.

Roth pointed around to the stacks of equipment and what looked to be protective gear piled next to the nuke, along with food and several water bladders. “You can’t open up a nuke with a screwdriver and a pair of swim goggles for protection. And, of course, I needed food, water filters, and other supplies. I couldn’t carry it down on the mule ride — there are space and weight limits. On the hikes down, we hid all of it near Phantom Ranch. The night I ‘disappeared’ I used the mule to transport them as close as I could to my final destination. After that, I carried everything to where I needed it to go.”

“But why the hell did you kill the mule?” asked Kettler.

“The mule fell over a rock and either went lame or fractured its foreleg. But to tell the truth, I had intended to kill the animal anyway. I had brought an anesthetic with me to humanely accomplish that.”

“But why?” persisted Kettler.

Roth spread his hands. “I couldn’t bring it with me here. And we were a long way from Phantom Ranch. And the poor animal had no way to get back there. It would have been attacked and killed by predators. I did not want it to suffer.”

“And you carved the letters j and k on its hide,” said Pine. “Why do that?”

“There was no guarantee that I was going to come out of this alive, Agent Pine. Being out here solo in the Grand Canyon isn’t smart.” He looked at Kettler. “I’m sure you warn all tourists not to do what I’ve done. Come down without any backup and then go off trail.”

“That’s true,” conceded Kettler.

Roth looked back at Pine. “Ben was the only person who knew I was down here. If something happened to him, like you just said it did, then I would have no cover at all. If I died down here, either due to a snakebite or a fall or dehydration, I wanted someone to know that this had to do with something hidden in a cave.”

“So you obviously knew about the alleged expedition by Jordan and Kinkaid and the cave they supposedly found?”

“Yes. I actually heard about it from a local when I was hiking down here with the supplies.”

“My secretary is local. That’s how she knew about it, too.”

“It was the only thing I could think of, really, those two letters pointing to a hidden cave in the Canyon.”

“Not much of a clue,” said Pine. “I was just lucky my secretary knew about it before and put it together.”

Roth said defensively, “Well, I couldn’t exactly write, ‘Hey, there’s a nuke in a cave down here.’ For all I knew, it would be the people behind this who found the mule. I didn’t want to give them a direct map to me. I just did the best I could with what I had.”

“But then you rolled the mule over to hide the carving,” said Pine. “Why?”

“Because I knew scavengers would come and tear at its hide. The markings would have been destroyed if I had left them exposed.”

Pine looked confused. “But the three soldiers were right outside the cave. I thought they would have already been here to take the nuke, since the peace talks have collapsed. And then the media circus would have started.”

“I’m certain they would have, too. Except this is not the cave where they originally placed the device.”

“What?” exclaimed Pine.

“I couldn’t leave it there, Agent Pine. So I moved it here.”

“You moved that thing? How?”

In answer, Roth hauled out something from a corner that looked like a high-tech backpack combined with an overlay of exoskeleton technology.

“The weapon is not as heavy as you might think. They did a great job of miniaturizing the nuke, which is both impressive and terrifying. Now this is a lifting pack of my own design. I disassembled it, and Ben carried it down on one of his hikes into the Canyon and hid it in one of the caches. I reassembled the lift pack and used that on multiple treks to carry all my supplies onward from where I left the mule. I also used this to lift the weapon and carry it here.”

“How did you even know about this cave?”

“Quite simple. Years ago, when I was in my twenties, I used to hike the Grand Canyon on a fairly regular basis. Once I went off the normal trails and stumbled upon this cave. It wasn’t that big a deal; there are caves down here, of course. But when I realized that it was close to where they had placed the nuke originally, I hit upon the plan to move it here. I brought a collapsible pole with me to lever a nearby boulder into place to hide the entrance whenever I left the cave.”

“But why would you leave the cave while you were down here?” asked Pine.

This time Kettler answered. “You’ve been down here for many days. You needed water.”

“Yes,” said Roth. “There was a source nearby and I had my filters. And some of the battery packs for my power tools were solar. I had to place them outside to let them recharge.” He paused. “Unfortunately, I had to leave it open when I was inside. But I used the camouflage blanket that I brought with me to hide the entrance. I used the boulder when I was out of the cave to prevent anyone from sneaking past the blanket and surprising me when I came back.”

“So you’ve been working on this thing all this time?” said Pine.

“Tearing down and then putting back together a nuclear weapon, especially by yourself, is a slow, laborious process.”

“I’m surprised they didn’t have armed guards around that cave twenty-four/seven,” said Pine. “That way neither you nor anyone else could have gotten close to it.”

“They couldn’t,” said Roth. “Suspicions would grow if soldiers were seen guarding a cave in the Canyon. Their plan would have been disrupted. Timing was everything.”

“It was probably timed with the collapse of the peace talks,” said Pine. “Once those fell apart, they could execute their plan.”

“And if anyone had spotted armed guards around the cave before then, they would be hard-pressed to argue that they had suddenly stumbled on the location of the nuke,” said Roth. He smiled broadly. “I would have liked to have seen their faces when they went to their cave and found their nuke gone.”

“So you moved the nuke from the place they planted it to here. And those soldiers were searching all around here trying to locate it, and you.”

“That is no doubt accurate,” said Roth.

“They said they were following me, hoping I would lead them to you. Which I did.”

“Fortunately, you were able to stop them before they got to me.” Roth paused and shuddered. “Still, we came very close to the precipice.”

Pine said, “We’re still very close to the edge.” She looked at the nuclear weapon. “What was your plan?”

“I was going to document everything. Then I was going to leave the nuke here after walling the cave back up and then hike out and make known what I had discovered, without disclosing the location of the nuke. I had just finished all that when you showed up.”

“But they could just come here and search for the nuke, and they might eventually find it. And then go on with their plan. And if you protested, or tried to blame them, they’d just say you were crazy, or a traitor. Or you might even disappear.”

“But it’s not like I could hike out of here by myself with a nuke.”

“Maybe we could use a Park Service chopper?” suggested Kettler.

Pine shook her head. “No, I’m sure they’re watching all channels like that. And the Park Service has already been called off. Remember what happened to Lambert and Rice.”

Kettler said, “Well, we can’t just leave it. It might not detonate, but aren’t there radioactive elements in there?”

Roth nodded. “In the core, yes. And that is problematic, if the device is damaged.”

Pine walked over to the nuke and looked it over. “You said the Russians supplied this?”

“Yes.”

“The thing is, if I’m them, I’d want something more than a vague promise from us about getting North Korean coal.”

Roth came to stand next to her. “What do you mean?”

“Did you find anything on here that you couldn’t account for?”

“Account for?”

“You know WMDs, Mr. Roth. Was there something on here you didn’t recognize?”

Roth glanced at the weapon. “Well, there were these.”

He pointed to rows of small rivets that were punched into the metal panels. “These are on all four sides. I thought maybe they were for structural support. But it really wouldn’t be needed.”

Pine felt along the inside of the wall and rapped on it with her knuckles. “It’s hollow.”

Roth glanced at the wall and frowned. “I really hadn’t focused on that.”

Pine hit each rivet with her Maglite, slowly examining each one as she circled the device. When she was done, she said, “There’s one ‘rivet’ on each side that’s a little bit off in appearance.” She pointed to one spot. “Can you cut out a section of the metal right here?”

Roth made the cut. Revealed behind the wall was a small electronic device.

Roth said, “What the hell is that?”

“What kind of car do you drive?”

“I have a Mercedes S-class. But what does that have to do with it?”

“You know the round little discs set into the frame all around your car?”

Roth looked at the revealed device in the wall of the bomb. “Those are cameras. Are you saying this is some sort of camera?”

“Yes.” She held up the metal piece he had cut out. “And this is the lens disguised as a rivet. It probably has a listening device built in, too.”

“But why would that be here?” asked Kettler.

“I worked a case when I was at the WFO. It dealt with a Russian spy ring. I even traveled to Ukraine during the course of the investigation. We were told that our hotel room would be under surveillance and to act accordingly. I slept in my clothes and never used my phone in the room. I never even spoke out loud. The Russians love surveillance stuff. When we were building an embassy over there once, we made the mistake of using Russian subcontractors. The entire embassy turned out to be one big camera and recorder. Luckily, we found out in time.”

“But why would the Russians have surveillance devices on this weapon?” asked Roth.

“They used them to record our people placing the bomb here, not the North Koreans. The surveillance footage I’m sure has already been uploaded to a Russian database.”

“Holy shit,” said Kettler. “So you’re saying—”

“I’m saying that if we started a war on bogus evidence and killed millions of people—”

Kettler finished for her. “—the Russians would have rock-solid proof that we were guilty of the whole thing and had lied to the world.”

Pine added, “It’s what they call kompromat. How much do you think the Russians could blackmail us for in return for keeping that secret?”

Roth slumped back against the rock wall. “Anything they wanted.”

“Right.”

Roth suddenly stared in horror at the device. In a whisper he said, “Do you think they’re still watching and listening right now?”

“Highly unlikely. You can’t get Wi-Fi or even cell service down here. And no satellite signal would reach through this much rock.”

“But then how would they have gotten compromising information?” asked Roth.

“They got it long before the nuke ever got to this cave. It had to be delivered to the Americans and then shipped here. They might have audio and video of American officials receiving it, and then our guys, maybe ones in uniform, loading it onto a plane, bringing it to Arizona, and then maybe transporting it by chopper here. Lots of video and audio of our country up to its neck in this thing.” She glanced at the nuke. “But to be sure, let’s disable the other devices.”

Roth took up his saw once more, and with Pine and Kettler’s help, he cut the other devices out of the walls of the nuke.

Pine placed them all in her backpack.

“So what do we do now?” asked Roth.

“Contrary to what you said earlier, we’re going to hike this nuke out of here,” said Pine firmly.

“Why?” said Roth.

“Because now that we know about the surveillance devices, we can use that as leverage.”

“How?” asked Roth.

Before she could answer, they all heard the sound.

“What’s that?” said Kettler suddenly.

They ran back out into the first cavern. The sounds were much more prominent now.

“That’s a chopper,” said Roth tensely.

“And I don’t think it’s coming to rescue us,” said Pine.