David Golemon - Legacy

“Yes, ETA Nellis in forty-five minutes,” Pete said. He slid his glasses back on and continued with the report. “Also, the government of Ecuador has closed off the region that includes the old German excavation and has reinforced that closing with federal troops. That’s something that particular government has never done before.”

“Has Europa come up with anything about the true ownership of the excavation?”

“No, that information has been buried pretty deep, but we’ll find them. We do have a lead on this Brinkman fellow in Berlin. It seems there is a connection between him and Operation Columbus, a pretty strong one.”

“What’s that?” Niles asked, always irritated at the way Pete had to have information dragged from him.

“It seems his father was a prisoner at Spandau Prison at the same time, for a few hours or so, as Albert Speer. Speer was Hitler’s architect and one of the managers of Columbus. There’s a smoking gun here.”

“Tell Jack to contact me as soon as he settles in at the complex. We may need for him and the captain to take another trip.”

“Germany?” Pete asked.

“It seems everything begins and ends right where it all started, and I’m afraid we need feet on the ground there to find out what everyone else knew that we didn’t. Also, have Europa get into the Ice Blue computer system at CIA, the Pentagon, and the FBI. We need to pin down a connection between this Brinkman character and Columbus. Cross-reference all of the pertinent names Senator Lee mentioned. Get any information you receive into Jack’s hands. I’ll leave it up to him and his team to decide what to do with it.”

Pete was writing furiously as he took down the instructions.

“Anything else?”

“Yes, it seems NASA and DARPA have been keeping secrets from the rest of the federal government-to our benefit it seems-but I need a complete workup of everything those two agencies have on inventory with the National Accounting Office. Also, get Europa into the House Ways and Means Committee and find out what secret funding NASA and DARPA have received over, say, the past thirty years. Anything that relates to a manned incursion into space. I don’t want to have to pry information out of these people, especially about projects they want to keep hidden. We may need everything they have.”

“Wow, is that all?” Pete finally looked up at the camera.

“No, get your coffee cups and lunch tray off of my desk,” Niles said, disconnecting the view of a stunned Pete on his laptop.

Niles took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. Then he looked at Sarah and Virginia.

“Okay, as for you two, you’re dropping me off at Andrews Air Force Base. I have to pay the president a visit, and then you’ll fly on to Nevada. Virginia, you take charge, assist Jack and determine if we need feet on the ground in Germany.” He held up his hand to stop Virginia before she could say anything. “No, you are not to go on any field missions. Stay put at the complex.” He put his glasses back on and looked at Sarah. “Lieutenant, I want you, Ryan, and Mendenhall to put together a team and start trying to figure out what this mineral is and how we can get a handle on controlling it just in case some other nation brings back a load of it. There has to be something in our own natural makeup that resembles it in some way. I suspect that earthbound samples of it exist. The Germans may have it lying around or maybe they’ve distributed it in some form.”

“I don’t think we-”

“Humor me, Sarah. Find anything, we’ll need someone with an understanding of what we’re dealing with where this mineral is concerned”-he leaned closer toward Sarah-“and to put it frankly, I want at least one of our people on any attempt to get a mission up there. Guess at what that mineral is and what it’s made of. Your best guess will get you on one of those missions. I don’t trust anyone I don’t know to give me the straight dope on what it is we’re dealing with. The president would feel better too. Virginia and I will explain further when the time comes.”

Sarah leaned back in her seat, stunned as she’d never been stunned before at the suggestion that she could possibly be included on something like a Moon shot. Niles saw her dilemma and patted her on the knee.

“I suggest you don’t mention what I just said to Jack.”

“For your sake,” Virginia said to Niles.

“Director Compton,” said the voice of the Air Force pilot in the cockpit. “We’ve been cleared for runway three north. We’ll be rolling in one minute.”

Niles winked at the still shocked Sarah and then finally fastened his seat belt.

Laurel Rawlins watched the Learjet from the dry shelter of a private hangar three buildings down, where the small jet was spooling up her engines for taxiing onto the runway. She smiled as she turned to look at the man McCabe had recruited, someone from his antiterrorist days with the army. The bearded man watched Laurel closely. He never spoke much and when he did she could always hear the disdain he held for women of any religion or country. A man losing his faith was a nasty thing to watch.

“At what speed did you set the charge to go off?” she asked, watching the blue and white Learjet start moving.

She had nervously waited as the Mechanic-the name he was known by in every police agency in the world-placed a one-ounce charge of C-4 explosive near the aluminum rim of the nose wheel of the jet.

“The charge will detonate at one hundred knots, a split second before the jet reaches takeoff speed. That should be enough to send the plane off course and cause it to crash before liftoff. I have done this before. You may not wish to watch.”

Laurel smiled and pulled her silk windbreaker closer around her upper body.

“Are you kidding? This is what I live for,” she said. She was disgusted that the bearded Mechanic would even suggest such a weakness. She turned away and watched the Learjet taxi toward the runway. “You need to have faith in women, my friend. Your old ways of looking at things have never made you any true friends among your own kind. James and Daddy will be proud. They won’t be using this Mr. Compton to coordinate anything having to do with the Moon. I’m afraid they’ll have to get someone else.”

She was so excited that she could barely keep her legs still.

As the Learjet taxied further into the misting gray fog of Hobby Airport, the cell phone inside Laurel’s windbreaker rang. She shook her head, not wanting her glee at what was about to happen disturbed. Her blue eyes were glowing in anticipation. Her father’s eyes had glowed that morning too, though what she was feeling was anticipatory wonder and excitement and what her father had been feeling was pure anger at not being able to control everything around him. Finally, she realized that the only people who had this particular cell phone number were her father and James McCabe, her Mr. Smith. She angrily tore into the coat pocket and ripped the phone free. She opened it hard enough that the Mechanic standing next to her heard the cover crack.

“What?” she hissed into the phone.

“Laurel, what are you doing?” a voice asked.

“I’m doing what you would do if you were here,” she said into the phone. “And you know what, James? I’m a little busy at the moment.”

“Listen, tell me what you’ve done, quickly.” McCabe’s voice was calm and precise.

“I’m helping you and Daddy, just like you taught me to do.”

“Slow down and listen to me. If you are planning on hurting Compton and his team, you’ll not be doing us any favors. Do you understand?”

“But-”

“Laurel, right now we have the advantage. We know about him, but he has no idea who we are. Stop whatever it is you are doing, right now.”