Robert Ferrigno - Sins of the Assassin

“You think that’s what Gravenholtz is?” said Leo. “One of these Soldiers of Christ?”

“I doubt it.” Rakkim bent beside Leo, helped him bang in the cross. “If there was some elite warrior program in the Belt, we would have seen it by now. A couple other Fedayeen units disappeared right after that in the same area. Redbeard was investigating clinics in Thailand and Japan that specialized in implanting striking plates in the hands of martial artists, but then the attacks stopped and there were too many other domestic problems-”

“The attacks stopped?”

“Almost overnight. So General Kidd was probably right, it was just more Belt disinformation. Or the Belt ran out of money to fund more than a few prototypes, or maybe they didn’t perform as well as anticipated. Gravenholtz is no superman. I think maybe…I think he just has some…enhancements.” He looked at Leo. “You know about that kind of thing, don’t you?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I heard you’re not off the rack either.”

“I have an IQ that’s too high to be measured, if that’s what you mean.”

“I’ve seen smart guys before. I was told you’re something different.”

“I…I process information very efficiently.” Leo licked his lips. “Really efficiently.”

“Lucky you.” Rakkim wiped his hands on his pants. “We should get going. I have to contact Sarah.”

Leo glanced at the graves. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

“I’m not calling to ask her to go steady,” said Rakkim. “The situation here’s changed. The helicopter Gravenholtz used is an advanced Chinese design. Very limited production. If the Colonel has one, it’s because the Chinese are courting him. We can use that to our advantage. I need Spider to hack into a very secure database for me.” Rakkim was backlit by the remnants of the Tigards’ farmhouse, the embers still glowing in the dawn. “If things don’t work out, Sarah has to be ready to inform the president. Fuck deniability at that point-he has to be ready to consider all options.”

“Like what?”

“That’s for him and General Kidd to decide. All I know is that with the Chinese backing him up, we can’t let the Colonel keep whatever’s hidden in that mountain. If it takes a Fedayeen strike force to neutralize the site…” Rakkim leaned the shovel against the tree. “Better a diplomatic disaster than an all-out civil war.”

“It…it doesn’t have to come to that. That’s why we’re here.”

Rakkim watched the new day, the morning light soft and golden. He looked around at the farm, noted the fields of alfalfa almost ready for harvest, the neat rows of sweet corn, the peach trees…The orchard was Bill Tigard’s gift to his wife. Conditions here weren’t optimal for growing peaches, not well enough to compete with Georgia and South Carolina freestones, but Florence loved fresh peaches warm from the sun, and Bill loved Florence. The peaches would go to worms and black canker without proper attention, and there was no one to care for them now.

“Rikki?” Leo shivered. “How do you intend to contact Sarah?”

“We had a fallback plan in case things went bad,” Rakkim said, still taking in the Tigards’ farm, wanting to remember every bit of it. A ladybug landed on his hand. He watched it amble toward his thumb. “I’ll transmit a one-second compressed-data packet to a weather station in the Canadian Rockies. The information will move to Sarah-”

“-as part of the regular streaming update of storm conditions.” Leo snorted. “Brilliant.”

Rakkim watched the ladybug flutter away. Remembered some ancient nursery rhyme about babies on fire.

“If the Chinese are involved with the Colonel, you might as well just send it directly to Beijing,” said Leo. “The Chinese have the most sophisticated data-mining operation on the planet. Anything going in or out of the Belt is going to be snagged and decoded faster than you can blink. That’s probably what happened to the other shadow warriors-the Colonel probably knew their entry point before the Fedayeen did.”

Rakkim stayed calm, evaluating the new information without taking it personally. Leo’s expertise wasn’t wide, but it was deep. If he said the plan was shit, Rakkim wasn’t about to step into it.

“You’re not the only one with a backup plan,” said Leo. “Spider has an emergency contact in Atlanta. You can call from there.”

“Watch your step,” said the Colonel.

“I’m no hothouse flower, Colonel,” said Baby, dropping to her hands and knees. Her tight jeans scraped the rock face as she squeezed through the opening.

Moseby offered her a hand from the other side. “Ma’am?”

She took his hand, giggling as he pulled her through. “I declare, the Belt has more gentlemen per square foot than anyplace on God’s green earth.”

The Colonel wriggled through the cleft in the rock, more agile than anyone would have expected for a man his age. He brushed back his hair, dust drifting down. Two of his adjutants waited for him inside the inner passage, two others worked their way through after him. One of them, Trey, a big ole boy from the Kentucky border, almost got stuck, and had to be dragged through, embarrassed and a little frightened.

The Colonel walked around the widened interior passage, his shadow huge in the floor lights. He gingerly touched one of the walls, looked at his fingertips.

Baby pounced on his shadow. Looked around, dirt streaked on her cheek. “Spooky.”

“I told you not to come,” said the Colonel.

“You know I like a little scare, Colonel,” she said, kissing him. “Keeps the blood circulating, that’s what my mama says.”

“What makes you think this tunnel goes anywhere?” the Colonel said to Moseby. “Jefferson’s already checked it out.”

“No, sir, he checked out the main tunnel,” said Moseby. “This is a little feeder line…run off the main one to see if it was worth excavating later. The old-timers used to do that a lot when they were chasing coal.” For the last few days and most of the nights, he had been walking the tunnels and mineshafts honeycombing the mountain. Examining untouched tunnels and ones that had already been explored, and crossed off from consideration. “My point is, I don’t blame Jefferson for not bothering with it, but sometimes folks miss things. They get so focused on what they’re looking for that they don’t see what’s right in front of their nose.”

The Colonel walked deeper into the narrowing tunnel, his head almost brushing the ceiling. “I like a man who doesn’t take things as they are. Speaks well of you.”

Moseby joined the Colonel. “The reason Jefferson was interested in the main shaft was because there’s a lot of calcite present, which attracts moisture, and the slope is right to collect it at the bottom somewhere. Like the lake you’re interested in. When the main shaft ended in a dead end, Jefferson went on to other tunnels, but this little feeder line has also got the same factors. No reason it might not have a lake down there.”

The Colonel shivered. “It’s cold down here.” He rubbed his hands together. “Some of the other shafts are hot enough to bake bread in.”

“Don’t get any ideas,” said Baby, taking the Colonel’s arm. “I can’t cook worth a lick. The Colonel’s always riding me about his first wife’s cooking.”

The Colonel leaned close to one of the walls, rubbed his finger over a section and examined it. “What are these sparkly mineral deposits?”

“Schist. It’s sparkles because of all the mica in it,” said Moseby. “Might be one reason the seam was never fully mined. Schist fractures easily. Causes real problems.”