Ken Follett - Code to Zero (2000)

Everyone was bad-tempered at Cape Canaveral The Pentagon had ordered a security alert Arriving this morning, eager to get to work on the final checks for the all-important rocket launch, staff had been made to wait in line at the gate. Some had been there for three hours in the Florida sun. Gas tanks had run dry, radiators had boiled over, air-conditioners had failed, and engines had stalled, then refused to restart. Every car had been searched - hoods lifted, golf bags taken out of trunks, spare wheels removed from covers. Tempers frayed as all briefcases were opened each lunch pail unpacked, and every woman's purse dumped out on to a trestle table so that Colonel Hide's military police could paw through her lipsticks, love letters, tampons and Rolaids.

But that was not the end of it When workers reached their laboratories and offices and engineering shops, they were disrupted all over again by teams of men who went through their drawers and filing cabinets, looked inside their oscillators and vacuum cabinets, and took the inspection plates off their machine tools. 'We're trying to launch a goddamn rocket here,' people said again and again, but the security men just gritted their teeth and carried on. Despite the disruption, the launch was still scheduled for 10.30 p.m.

Elspeth was glad of the upset. It meant nobody noticed she was too distraught to do her job. She made mistakes in her timetable and produced her updates late, but: Willy Fredrickson was too distracted to reprimand her. She did not know where Luke was and she no longer felt sure she could trust Anthony.

When the phone at her desk rang a few minutes before four o'clock, her heart seemed to stop.

She-snatched up the handset Yes?

This is Billie.'

'Billie Elspeth: was taken by surprise. 'Where are you?'

'I'm in Huntsville, trying to contact Luke.'

'What's he doing there?'

'Looking for a file he left here on Monday.'

Elspeth's jaw dropped. 'He went to Huntsville on Monday? I didn't know that'

'Nobody knew, except Marigold. Elspeth, do you understand what's going on?'

She laughed humourlessly. 'I thought I did ... but not any more.'

'I believe Luke's life is in danger.'

'What makes you say so?'

'Anthony shot at him in Washington last night'

Elspeth went cold. 'Oh, my God.'

'It's too complicated to explain right now. If Luke calls you, will you tell him that Anthony is in Huntsville?'

Elspeth was trying to recover from the shock. 'Uh ... sure, of course I will.'

'It could save his life.'

'I understand. Billie ... one more thing.'

'Yeah.'

'Look after Luke, won't you?'

There was a pause. 'What do you mean?' Billie asked. You sound like you're going to die.'

Elspeth did not answer. After a moment, she broke the connection.

A sob came to her throat She fought fiercely to control herself. Tears would not help anyone, she told herself severely. She made herself calm.

Then she dialed her home in Huntsville.

.

4 P. M.

Explorer's elliptical Orbit will take it as far as 1,800 miles into space and swing it back within 187 miles of the Earth's surface. Orbiting speed of the satellite is 18,000 miles per hour.

Anthony heard a car. He looked out of the front window of Luke's house and saw a Huntsville taxicab pull up at the curb. He thumbed the safety catch on his gun. His mouth went dry.

The phone rang.

It was on one of the triangular side tables at the ends of the curved couch. Anthony stared at it in horror. It rang a second time. He was paralyzed by indecision. He looked out of the window and saw Luke getting out of the cab. The call could be trivial, nothing, a wrong number. Or it could be vital information.

Terror bubbled up inside him. He could not answer the phone arid shoot someone at the same time.

The phone rang a third time. Panicking, he snatched it up. Yes?'

This is Elspeth.'

'What? What?'

Her voice was low and strained. 'He's looking for a file he stashed in Huntsville on Monday.'

Anthony understood in a flash. Luke had made not one but two copies of the blueprints he had found on Sunday. One set he had brought to Washington, intending to take them to the Pentagon - but Anthony had intercepted him, and Anthony now had those copies. Unfortunately, he had not imagined there might be a second set, hidden somewhere as a precaution. He had forgotten that Luke was a Resistance veteran, security-conscious to the point of paranoia. 'Who else knows about this?'

'His secretary, Marigold. And Billie Josephson - she told me. There may be others.'

Luke was paying the driver. Anthony was running out of time. 'I have to have that file,' he said to Elspeth.

'That's what I thought'

'It's not here - I just searched the house from top to bottom.'

'Then it must be at the base.'

I'll have to follow him while he looks for it.'

Luke was approaching the front door.

'I'm out of time,' Anthony said, and he slammed down the phone.

He heard Luke's key scrape in the lock as he ran through the hall and into the kitchen. He went out | the back door and dosed it softly. The key was still in the outside of the lock. He turned it silently, bent down, and slipped it under the flowerpot He dropped to the ground and crawled along the verandah, keeping close to the house and below window level. In that position he turned the corner and reached the front of the house. From here to the street there was no cover. He just had to take a chance.

It seemed best to make a break for it while Luke was putting down his bag and hanging up his coat He was less likely to look out of the window now.

Gritting his teeth, Anthony stepped forward.

He walked quickly to the gate, resisting the temptation to look behind him, expecting at every second to hear Luke shout: 'Hey! Stop! Stop, or I shoot!'

Nothing happened.

He reached the street and walked away.

.

4.30 P. M.

The satellite contains two tiny radio transmitters powered by mercury batteries no bigger than flashlight batteries. Each transmitter carries four simultaneous channels of telemetry.

On top of the console TV in the living room, next to a bamboo lamp, was a matching bamboo picture frame containing a colour photograph. It showed a strikingly beautiful redhead in an ivory silk wedding dress. Beside her, wearing a grey cutaway and a yellow vest, was Luke.

He studied Elspeth in the picture. She could have been a movie star. She was tall and elegant, with a ' voluptuous figure. Lucky man, he thought, to be marrying her.

He did not like the house so much. When he had first seen the outside, and the wisteria climbing the pillars of the shady verandah, it had gladdened his heart. But the inside was all hard edges and shiny surfaces and bright paint Everything was too neat He knew, suddenly, that he liked to live in a house where the books spilled off the shelves, and the dog was asleep right across the hallway, and there were coffee rings on the piano, and a tricycle stood upside down in the driveway and had to be moved before you could put your car in the garage.

No kids lived in this house. There were no pets, either. Nothing ever got messed up. It was like an advertisement in a women's magazine, or the set of a television comedy. It made him feel that the people who appeared in these rooms were actors.

He began to search. A buff-coloured army file folder should be easy enough to find - unless he had removed the contents and thrown away the folder. He sat at the desk in the study - his study - and looked through the drawers. He found nothing of significance.

He went upstairs.

He spent a few seconds looking at the big double bed with the yellow-and-blue covers. It was hard to believe that he shared that bed every night with the ravishing creature in the wedding photo.