The War Cloud

39

Four minutes later they all stood in the cargo hold, looking at an open box of toner cartridges wired together with enough explosive to bring down Air Force One in seconds. The red blinking light on the small BlackBerry phone showed it was armed.

Koz swore. “God in heaven.”

Sachs and Li stood behind Koz as he studied it. The red light bathed his face.

“Look like Marshall tore a page from the Yemen terrorist playbook,” Koz said. “Pack high explosives into printer cartridges to avoid detection by scanners. Poetic, too, since toners are used for all our EAM printouts.”

Sachs said, “Still think I made up the attack on my chopper?”

Koz shook his head and studied the bomb. “This is bad,” he said. “The phone still has its battery. That means it’s not a timer. It’s a remote detonator. Probably synced to the VLF receiver. That’s what our submarines use to receive launch orders.”

Sachs said, “Meaning?”

Koz said, “Meaning Marshall can basically blow us up from any point on the planet as soon as we try anything. Hell, he might have been listening to all our internal communications all along too.”

Sachs paused. “Just how easy is it for Marshall to launch our missiles?”

“Once the eight-digit enabling code is dialed into the launch system, the procedure is simple. It’s not like a sub where you need several other officers involved in the launch. The Looking Glass plane is essentially a remote-control unit.”

Sachs said, “But don’t you still need two officers turning their keys at once to launch?”

“Trust me,” Koz said grimly. “Marshall’s already taken care of that.”

“Then we have to somehow override the Looking Glass controls so he can’t launch,” she said.

“Same problem,” Koz said. “Assuming we can pull it off, as soon as he figures it out he’ll vaporize us.”

Sachs looked him straight in the eye. “I have an idea.”