The Last Second (A Brit in the FBI #6)(103)
Nevaeh sneered, but her voice calmed, and she sounded like a professor he’d once had. “You poor stupid boy. I’m bringing peace to this corrupt world. As for the EMP, the Numen require silence, our presence in space, all our technology and satellites, they cannot communicate with us. Only with me. You know as well as I do that the world now worships itself, the age of Me, everyone staring at their cell phone screens, no one really present. It must end, or civilization as we know it will cease to exist. The Numen—through me—will bring back peace, prosperity, and the communications structure will revert back. We don’t need all this science, all this technology. Look what it’s done, look at the harm it’s caused. The world is on fire. The Numen and I—we have a chance to stop it.
“And with that end will come peace. Do you know I was the first one to fulfill NASA’s grand mission? The one thing they claim to want more than anything is to make contact with an exoplanetary species, and that’s what I did. And I am the one who is going to bring them back to Earth. I alone will be responsible for first contact.”
The pain thudded in his chest, but he couldn’t let it grind him under.
She smiled. “There’s nothing you can do. It’s all over. The launch computer takes over in five seconds, and we are no longer in control. So sit back and enjoy the silence. It will last forever.”
He had to get up, he had to stop this, but before he could get to his feet, she was out of sight. He collapsed back onto the floor, trying to catch his breath.
Clinically, he knew what was happening. His lung was filling with blood. He needed a chest tube.
He needed Mike.
But he had no idea where she was.
He dragged himself to the command module, pulled himself to his knees. He was bleeding on the keyboard, not good. He fumbled his hands into place and started to type. He had to stop the bomb.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE
T-MINUS 3 MINUTES
Nevaeh shot him again, in the chest, even though she knew there was nothing he could do. She walked quickly out of the command center and back to her bedroom, shutting doors behind her as she went, the Heaven Stone in her hands, dragging her down. Why did it seem so much heavier than it had even ten minutes ago?
On the wall in her bathroom, she pressed her hand into a slight groove and a biometric panel rose from the gap, rotated into place. The surface was coded to her handprint alone, so even if they made it through all of her doors in the next minute—impossible, but Nevaeh was an astronaut, redundancies were her calling—no one could follow her.
The door opened with a click. The small, lit passageway would lead her back to the observatory. She shut the door behind her, used her handprint to close and lock the biometric mechanism so it would slide away and no one else could find it, and followed the small hallway, repeating the same steps to open the door to the observatory.
When she was safe inside the circular room again, she activated the shield she’d designed to drop steel cages across both doors. They clanged into place. She was alone. No one could get in, and, most importantly, no one could stop her now.
She glanced at her watch, moved to the wall and set the timer to open the roof in eight seconds. She took her seat again, setting the Heaven Stone in her lap. It hurt it was so heavy. No, it had to be her imagination. She just had to be patient. Soon now. The telescope’s command module swung into place in front of her.
The countdown continued to move ever forward, winding down to the moment she’d be back with her friends. Would it happen immediately? Would they appear at her side immediately after the bomb went off? Or would it take them a few minutes to let the reverberations of the EMP make their way through the orbit before they came?
Interesting that she hadn’t thought of this before, or thought to ask.
She waited patiently, lightly rubbing the Heaven Stone, so heavy on her legs. She ignored the shouts and calls and gunshots she heard outside the room. Soon, none of this would matter.
When the roof opened, she smiled up at the shadowed bloodred moon in the sky above her. The eclipse was at 100 percent. Totality had begun. Soon now, very soon, the bomb would go off, only two more minutes to complete totality.
With a beatific smile, she turned her face to the heavens. “It is time. I am ready.”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR
T-MINUS 2 MINUTES
Mike had to get the door open to the command center, but how? She’d put her hand on the biometric panel, but nothing had happened. Now, nearly frantic, she slapped it, pressed every button she saw, but still nothing. She called out Nicholas’s name again, but no answer. Was the room soundproofed?
There had to be a different way in. Her comms crackled to life.
“Mike? It’s Adam. Can you hear me?”
“I hear you. What’s going on? I can’t get inside the command center but I know Nicholas did. I called out, but I don’t think he can hear me.”
She heard Adam start shouting, then Gray came on the comms, calm and cool.
“Mike, we’ve lost comms with Nicholas. We believe Patel shot him. She spoke to us, then she must have smashed his comms. We need to get you in there. You’re going to have to stop this, and her.
She heard her voice as if from a long way away. “Gray, do you know if he’s alive?”
“We don’t know. Mike, we have to get you inside, now.”