Robert Doherty - The Citadel

"Do not kill him," Araki hissed, weapon at the ready just behind Fatima 's left shoulder.

Fatima had a feeling one of them was going to get their man as Shibimi fired a couple of rounds at Nishin, who then fired back. The crack of Shibimi's pistol going off reverberated through the small village, and people began to spill out of doorways, some of them armed with automatic weapons.

Fatima realized this was going to turn into a disaster, and she needed it to be over quickly. She snapped a shot at Nishin, hitting him in the side. As Shibimi turned in confusion to see who had fired, she sent a three-round burst into the old man's legs.

"Abu Sayif!" Fatima cried out, stepping out of the shadow into the glow of one of the arc lights. "Bind those two men," she ordered as the closest armed villagers recognized her.

Araki turned to her in surprise as a half-dozen men ran to the two wounded men, securing them. "Who are you?"

Fatima turned the smoking muzzle of her weapon toward Araki. "I am the leader of the Abu Sayif. And perhaps now you can tell me who you really are before I kill you. And then I will extract the truth from our two wounded friends over there."

Oahu , Hawaii

"It appears I wasn't the only one to get a packet from David," Royce said.

Vaughn and Tai had been discussing what they had learned from MacIntosh, combining it with the information that Royce had given them earlier, when Royce walked in the door of the bungalow.

"What do you mean?" Tai asked.

"I just received a message from the Organization. The new head of the Abu Sayif, a woman named Fatima Al-Sheef, apparently got either the same or a similar packet from David that we received."

"Why?" Vaughn asked. "Why would he do that?"

"I don't know," Royce said.

"How about venturing a guess," Vaughn prompted.

Tai jumped in. "To put the pressure on. If Lansale had just sent the information here, then we could sit on it. But by sending it to the Abu Sayif, he's rung the starter's bell from his grave. And it's actually a three-way race because the Organization now knows about the Abu Sayif package."

"Race to where?" Vaughn asked, although he already knew.

"To find the Citadel," Royce said, "and uncover what's in there. And its link to the Organization."

"If it still exists," Vaughn said. "It's been down there a long time."

"I guess you're going to find out," Royce said.

"And what are you going to be doing?" Tai asked.

"I'm going to do what the Organization has ordered me to: try to stop the Abu Sayif before they get too close. So in a way, I'm taking out your competitors."

Vaughn considered that. "But won't the Organization simply send some people down to the Citadel and take care of things?"

Royce smiled. "From the way the message was worded and the way David sent us this information, I have a feeling that the Organization doesn't quite know the location or contents of the Citadel either."

"How can that be?" Tai demanded. "The Organization ordered it built."

"I think part of the Organization ordered it built, and David organized it and oversaw it," Royce said, "but I have the feeling the information was never sent all the way up to the top."

"Left hand not knowing what the right is doing," Vaughn said as he considered that. "So there might have been people like Tai and me before, inside of but not part of the Organization who did their own thing."

"I have no doubt David played a very dangerous game," Royce said. "Just as I am."

Tai ran a hand through her short hair. "My big question is: what did they build down there and why? We're talking 1949. Truman is President. The Cold War has just begun. We know about the nukes, but it doesn't make much sense that the only purpose of this base was to store some nuclear weapons in Antarctica with no delivery system."

"Whatever the Citadel is," Vaughn said, "it was important enough to kill a lot of people to cover it up."

"So how do we find it?" Tai asked.

"We need an expert," Vaughn said. "Someone who knows Antarctica." He looked at Royce. "I don't suppose you have one handy?"

"Actually" -Royce drew the word out-"I do. And I already made an initial contact. A man named James Logan. He works for the environmental group Earth First."

"Great," Vaughn said. "A tree hugger."

"There aren't any trees in Antarctica," Tai said.

" Logan has done work for me before," Royce said. "He might love trees but he enjoys money more. Plus we have leverage on him."

"What kind of leverage?" Vaughn asked.

"You don't need to know that," Royce said. "Suffice it to say I have a strong enough carrot and a powerful enough stick that Logan will do whatever you need."

"Where's he now?" Tai asked.

" Australia," Royce said. "Saving kangaroos or something." He reached into his briefcase and pulled out a sleek satellite phone. "You can call him on this." He slid a piece of paper across. "Here's his number."

Royce dialed in the number, then punched the speaker-phone option and put the phone on the wood table.

"Hello?" a voice with a rich Australian accent answered.

"Is this James Logan?"

"Who are you?"

Royce spoke up. "It's Royce, Mr. Logan. Calling with two friends of mine from Hawaii."

"Fuck. Hawaii. Must be early in the morning there, isn't it?"

Tai rolled her eyes. "It's a little after eleven."

"It's a little after midnight here." The voice waited for an apology, and getting none, moved on with a sigh. "All right. What do you want?"

Tai spoke. "Royce tells us you've been to Antarctica several times."

"Yes. I've been there four times. I also wintered over at the Earth First base there three years ago. Why? What's up?"

"We've received information about something," Tai said, "and we were wondering if you could give us some help."

"'Wondering'? Do I have a choice, Royce?"

"No."

The voice was resigned. "What's the information?"

Tai continued. "We've discovered that the United States military built a secret installation, called the Citadel, in Antarctica in 1949."

"What kind of secret base?"

"We don't know," Tai said.

"Where exactly was the place built in Antarctica?"

"We don't know," Tai repeated. "That's why they call it a secret, Logan."

"Well, I've been down there and I've also talked to a lot of people stationed down there, especially at McMurdo, and I've never heard anything about a place called the Citadel. It would be pretty difficult to cover something like that up, although 1949 was a very long time ago."

Tai waited in silence, prompting Logan to speak again. "Even though it was built in 1949, it would still have broken the 1959 treaty, as the treaty was retroactive. Any base that is built down there, even if it's temporary, has to be open for inspection by any of the other signees of the treaty. If a base is hidden, well, then it certainly isn't open for inspection.

"Second, if the U.S. military built it, then it's probably some sort of military base, and if it still exists, that would be a gross violation of not only the letter of the current 1991 accord governing things in Antarctica, but also the spirit. Tell me what you have on it so far."

Tai gave a quick summary of the engineers, the photos, the planes, but left out the information about the atomic weapons. When she was done, Logan asked her to describe the photos carefully. He was silent for a little while before speaking again.

"Well, High Jump Station evolved into McMurdo Station, which is the largest base in Antarctica. So we have a start point. You got this Citadel being a four-hour flight by MARS Boxcar from there, so we have a radius. But we don't even know if it's south, east, or west. Most likely south or east, though."