The Ajax Protocol

CHAPTER 26

The next morning they were gathered in Elizabeth's office. Lamont had the cat in his lap. Burps was drooling onto his leg and purring, a low rumble beneath the conversation. Ronnie sat next to Lamont on the couch. He wore one of his Hawaiian shirts, this one with a gaudy picture of a volcano erupting in a bed of exotic flowers.

"It feels like we're running out of time," Elizabeth said. "It's nothing I can put my finger on, just a feeling."

Stephanie said. "I was able to recover some files from that hard drive, but most of it was corrupted."

Elizabeth sipped from a cup of coffee. "Before you get into that, Vysotsky called me. The Russians found something at Ground Zero in Novosibirsk. It's a receiver and amplifier. The weapon sends a beam from a satellite, the device picks it up, amplifies it and broadcasts it out over a wide area."

"Any way to trace where it came from?" Nick asked.

Harker shook her head. "Not much was left."

"What about the explosion before everybody went nuts? What did Vysotsky say about that? Does he think it's related?"

"Yes, he does. The explosion was caused by a bomb. Vysotsky thinks it was a diversion to add to the confusion and pull rescue services away from the center of the riot. He has his forensic people working on what's left of the device but he's not hopeful. At least he's keeping me informed of what he discovers."

There was a sudden silence in the room, broken only by the erratic purring of the cat, one of those spontaneous moments when no one knew what to say. Stephanie broke it.

"What Vysotsky told you fits with what I picked up on the hard drive," she said. "I found a program that tells the computer to broadcast a specific frequency to a satellite and have it relay back to the surface. There's nothing particularly unique about it. It's common practice."

"So there isn't anything to indicate who sent it?" Elizabeth asked.

"No. Anyone with a reasonable amount of computer knowledge and satellite communications could have done it."

"Then it's another dead end," Nick said.

"Not quite. The disc was in bad shape, but I salvaged part of it. The drive contained instructions that triggered the attack on Novosibirsk. The attack you stopped when you hit the facility was against Riyadh. There are more targets."

"How many more?" Selena said.

"I don't know, most of the data was corrupted. But I know one of them," Steph said. "It's in London. The GPS coordinates tell us where the receiver will be. Do you know the O2 in London?"

"The big arena that looks like a flying saucer with sticks coming out of it? The one that sits in the middle of the Thames?"

"That's the one," Steph said. "It's an indoor arena where they put on shows and sporting events, one of the biggest in Europe."

Everyone sat up a little bit straighter. Knowing where the next attack was scheduled meant they had a chance to stop it.

"When?" Selena asked. "When do they plan to target it?"

Stephanie said, "I don't know. All I have is the location, not the timing."

"Why would they target an arena?" Selena wondered. "It's not a strategic target."

"Neither was the center of Novosibirsk," Nick said.

"People," Lamont said. "If there was a big event, the place would be packed with people. This weapon makes people crazy. There would be a massive riot."

"Like in Novosibirsk," Ronnie said. "Only it would be worse. All those people crammed in together. They would tear each other apart."

"It would be worse than Novosibirsk," Selena said. "London is much more crowded. The government would have to come down hard to stop it."

"They would declare a state of emergency and suspend civil liberties," Elizabeth said.

"But when the riots were over, the restrictions would be lifted. Wouldn't they?" Selena brushed a strand of hair away from her forehead.

"That depends on who is in control," Elizabeth said. "It's a lot easier to keep the lid on once the troops have been called out. You just keep the rhetoric going. You know, terrorist attack, threat to the nation, more attacks planned."

"That's cynical, Elizabeth."

"I prefer to think of it as being realistic," she said.

"What are we going to do about it?" Nick asked.

"We need to know what's happening at that arena. Stephanie, can you call up a schedule for the O2 on the monitor?"

Stephanie entered a few commands and a webpage came up with a list of events that were scheduled.

"Busy," Steph said.

"How many does the arena seat for one of the events?" Selena said.

"According to this, around 20,000," Steph said.

"I don't even want to think about 20,000 people going mad all at once," Nick said. "How do we know which event they're going to target?"

"We don't," Harker said. "We have to assume it could be any of them."

"They'd want to affect as many people as possible," Nick said. "Is anything coming up that's sold out?"

Steph scrolled through the list. "Yes, one. There's a concert this Saturday night featuring a British rock singer. I've seen him on television. He's got that same kind of electric energy Springsteen had when he did Born to Run."

"We have to let the Brits know there's a terrorist attack coming," Elizabeth said. "I know the Director of MI5. I'll talk with him. He'll get you inside the arena."

"We need to plan out the mission," Nick said. "I want Lamont in on this one."

Elizabeth looked at Lamont. Burps was still on his lap, with his paws in the air. Lamont was busy scratching his stomach.

"How are you feeling, Lamont?" she said.

"I'm fine, Director."

"You're up for a mission?"

"I'm going nuts sitting around here, Director. I'm okay, really."

"All right. Nick, you'd better get to it. You only have a few days before the concert. I'll book you on a commercial flight to London."

"The people behind this don't like us much," Nick said. "They could be waiting for us to show up."

"They could. I suggest you stay alert."

"That's it? Stay alert?"

"What do you expect me to say? This isn't a deep cover mission. MI5 will meet you in England."

"What about weapons?"

"Leave them here. The Brits have been sticky about Americans carrying guns lately. You'll have to get something from them." Harker paused. "Try not to step on any toes while you're there."

As they were walking out to the parking lot, Nick took Lamont aside.

"You really feeling okay, Shadow?"

"Yeah, I'm good Nick. I threw away those pills and I feel a lot better."

"Pretty soon to come back after a hit like that."

"Really Nick, I'm fine."

Nick looked at his friend and hoped it was true.