Дэвид Балдаччи - Long Road to Mercy

“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.

Pine peered around the edge of the opening and through the camouflage covering. “There’s a light flicking over the rock. They must know this was the last place the search team was.”

They waited for a few minutes until the chopper passed over the ridge and was gone.