Chris Mooney - World Without End

"The only bright spot in this mess is the Hazard Team I brought in."

"Wait. You brought in a separate Hazard Team?"

"Yes. One not connected with the IWAC group. I didn't tell you I didn't tell anyone except Pasha. Tomorrow morning the news is going to break about John McFadden. He's CIA. He's been a Russian spy for almost twenty years. And we think McFadden knows about us."

Jesus Christ.

"When did you find this out?"

"Last night. But his connection to us, I just found out about it an hour ago. The hole… it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. It's a disaster.

"Steve, I'm on a satellite phone in my car, on my way back to Delburn.

I had to get files on McFadden. The Hazard Team at the airport, they're alive, but I can't get in touch with them."

"Angel Eyes must be jamming our signal. I couldn't call you from the school." Conway's voice was dry, separated from himself.

"What about Randy Scott?"

"Last time I heard, no life signs." A pause, and then Bouchard added,

"It doesn't look good."

"He might be in the lab. If he is, the lab's security would prevent us from monitoring him. Or calling." Or he might be dead.

A distinctive chirping noise came from his Palm Pilot. It was the sound of an e-mail that had just come through.

"Hold on," Conway said. The color screen read: Would you like to read it now? Yes or no. Conway pressed Yes and the e-mail message opened.

It was from one of the servers inside the Praxis lab.

Conway felt the muscles in his back and shoulders tense.

"Dixon's inside the lab," he said. Then, as expected, the security program he had coded in case of such a possibility launched a new window, this one showing an empty white bar that read 3 percent, the bar slowly filling as the files for the latest version of the optical camouflage software were downloaded into the suit.

"He just accessed the server. He's downloading the new software into the suit."

"How long until he?"

"Twenty, twenty-five minutes tops and he's done."

"Can you shut him down?"

"Not without my laptop."

"How far away are you from Praxis?"

"I won't make it in time."

"We've got to shut him down." Fear had eaten through Bouchard's confident tone.

"If Angel Eyes gets that suit "

"Randy has the same security clearance as I do. He can bounce Dixon off the system and then activate the lab's alarm, and they'll be trapped." Conway glanced back down at the Palm's screen. Ten percent of the files had already been copied.

"You need to find a way to move the Hazard Team to Praxis."

"I will. Keeping trying Randy. And get to Praxis. Do whatever it takes to contain the situation until I can get the Hazard Team there.

We can't let Angel Eyes leave with that suit."

"Understood."

Conway hung up and dialed Randy's direct number. No answer. Not surprising, since Randy was always traveling around the company fixing various computer problems. Conway called Praxis's main number. The voice mail system immediately picked up.

The secretary should have answered the phone, not the company's voice-mail system.

Something's wrong.

Fifteen percent of the files had been download.

Conway tried Randy's cell phone next. Two rings, three, come on Randy "Hello?" Randy whispered.

Relief, as the opportunity Conway had hoped for suddenly presented itself.

"What's going on? I just called the main number and the voice mail is picking up."

"We've got a bomb inside the building."

The receiver felt loose and wet in Conway's hand. Behind him came the ring of the phone from inside the mini-mart.

"I was in the lab working on Lankler's hard drive when the main fire alarm went off," Randy Scott said, his voice low, almost a whisper.

"I'm thinking it's a routine drill, and I'm about to go down the stairs when Peter McCabe calls up and tells me to stick around because someone called in a bomb threat, that the firemen and bomb squad guys are downstairs evacuating everyone out of the building and they want to come up and take a look around the lab."

"The caller said the bomb was inside the lab?"

"No, but the caller did say it was on the fourth floor." Right. Saying it was inside the lab would be too suspicious. Conway looked across the field, beads of sweat sliding down his face and running into his eyes. A bomb threat, how perfect. The call gets everyone out of the building and Angel Eyes's people move in disguised as bomb-squad technicians and firemen. No one suspects a thing.

"You let them inside the lab?" Conway asked.

"No. I got the hell out of there. They're looking for me." That meant Dixon was physically inside the lab alone. To get inside the lab, you placed your palm on the handprint scanner and then spoke your name into the voice-recognition system. If accepted, you entered your code and the lab doors slid open, allowing you access. To travel deeper inside to the staging area where Dixon worked, you needed to wear a special badge encoded with a microchip; otherwise, the lab's sensors would pick it up, trigger the alarm system and lock you inside the lab until the police arrived.

You got Dix and the suit inside the lab alone, all you need to do is have Randy trigger the alarm and you'll trap him away from Angel Eyes and his men. Get back to the Pathfinder and get moving.

Conway turned around and saw that the attendant had moved behind the counter, the phone pressed against his ear.

"I'm hiding out on the third floor in Neil Joseph's office that's why I'm whispering. They don't know I'm in here," Randy said.

"I can't get through to Pasha. I just tried using the office phone here and the line is dead. I can't call out."

"Randy, I'm running out of time, so listen to me carefully." Con-way picked up his Palm and jogged back to the Pathfinder.

"Dixon's inside the lab right now, and he's downloading the latest version of the software into the suit. It's encrypted, and Dixon knows the decryption code. If the download happens, the suit will be operational and Angel Eyes will be able to use the cloaking technology."

"Where's Hazard? They should have moved in by now," Randy said.

"Dead. You and I are the only ones left."

Silence on the other end. Conway removed the gas pump, placed it back into the cradle and then walked around to the other side of the Pathfinder. The attendant was still inside. The phone was pressed against his ear, and he was looking in Conway's direction. Shit.

Conway opened the door and got behind the wheel.

"Bouchard's trying to reroute a Hazard Team from the airport to Praxis but he's been unable to contact them. They may not make it there in time. They may not make it there at all," he said.

"You'll have to shut them down."

"How can I " "Listen. Use the PC in the office and log on as the network administrator. Then you can shut the server down. Win Nuke the whole thing, I don't care, just make sure you delay them for as long as you can. The suit is useless without the new software."

"They might have already blocked off my access."

"Then log on as me and use my passwords. They think I'm dead, I doubt they would have changed them."

"And if they did?"

"Trigger the lab's alarm."

"That's in the security office. They might have someone guarding it."

Conway looked at the Palm Pilot. Forty-five percent of the files had been downloaded.

"Another twenty minutes and he's done," Conway said.

"You armed?"

"The Qlock's in my office lock box." A sharp intake of air, Randy drawing confidence. Conway could picture the twenty-eight-year-old agent, a rookie and the youngest member of the IWAC group, his pale Scottish skin flushed the way it always did when he got nervous.

In the distance, Conway heard the wail of approaching fire engines, He looked up and through the bands of heat rising off the long stretch of highway he Could see the tiny, red-blurred, flashing fire-engine lights growing larger and heading his way.