The Last Second (A Brit in the FBI #6)(28)

Alys sobbed her thanks and was gone.

Nevaeh turned off the phone. “How can they have been reported missing so quickly?”

Kiera shrugged, used her calm voice, the one she only used with Nevaeh. “It won’t matter, Nevaeh. If and when they do locate him, they’ll find a dead man along with everyone on the ship. That was a Hellfire missile we shot them with.”

Nevaeh stared out the window. “I hope you’re right.” Still, something felt off, felt wrong.





CHAPTER TWENTY


T-MINUS 66 HOURS

The British Embassy

Rome

Fentriss barreled over to the workstations like a bull rushing a matador’s cape. “What are you talking about, Drummond? Grant sent a message in Morse code about a nuclear EMP? Who has a nuke? Where is it?”

Everything stopped in the room, all eyes on Nicholas.

Nicholas said, “There’s a microburst here with the message intact. That’s all there is, and the location isn’t registering any different than their last known. We better start looking for a nuclear signature in the area.”

He shrugged. “It isn’t like this scenario hadn’t been a distinct possibility for years. We all know eventually someone is going to be stupid enough or greedy enough to try and set off a nuke, be it a suitcase bomb, a dirty bomb, or a nuclear EMP. God save us all if someone tries to launch a warhead toward another country.”

Mike asked, “Did it go off? Is that why they’re offline? It would have sunk them, right?”

Nicholas said, “I haven’t the foggiest. But if there’s a nuclear signature, we’ll at least be able to measure how strong the EMP might be. It all depends on the load of the plutonium. Though had it already gone off, the satellites would be affected and they aren’t. So, I don’t think it’s happened yet. We would know.”

Fentriss started barking orders and everyone scrambled. New views appeared on monitors, headsets were adjusted, the level of chatter increased.

Nicholas said to Mike as they watched the choreographed chaos, “Do you know, I don’t think he was all that surprised to hear about the nuke. What do you think that means?”

She raised a brow, said slowly, “It means they know there’s a nuke missing, doesn’t it?”

“Sir,” Nicholas said, standing so quickly his chair nearly fell backward. “May I have a moment?”

“Not now, Drummond.”

“Yes, now. Sir.”

Fentriss jerked a thumb to indicate toward the door and Mike and Nicholas followed him to the hallway and into a small dark-wood-paneled antechamber. Fentriss closed the door and rounded on them. “What is so bloody important you need me right now?”

“When were you going to tell us about the missing nuke?”

Fentriss looked ready to explode. Instead, he stared heavenward, and said between gritted teeth, “I know enough about you, Drummond, to know you aren’t going to let this lie. So I’m going to read you in, because surely at this point your people would know as well. There is no missing nuke, per se. A small amount of plutonium has gone missing from the Idaho Research Facility. Its whereabouts are currently unknown, and we’ve been warned to be on the lookout. It’s possible the amount stolen was enough to equip a nuclear bomb.”

Mike couldn’t believe this. “You were told. Blue Mountain? Not the FBI, not the CIA, but the staff of a high-end security firm?”

“Don’t punch out a wall, Agent Caine. Look, it’s being kept quiet—the last thing anyone wants is panic on our hands or the thieves who stole the plutonium to know we’re onto them. We were told because Blue Mountain has teams all over the world unfettered by government oversight. We’re uniquely equipped to look for the missing plutonium. But of course the proper authorities have been alerted. I talked to the head of the DOD myself yesterday. General Temple is well aware of the significance of the problem. He’s given me full authority to search anywhere we need and stop this mess.”

“Yesterday? You only talked to General Temple yesterday? How long have you known about this?”

Mike was vibrating. Nicholas put a hand on her arm. “When did the plutonium go missing?”

Fentriss said, “The last time it was registered in-house at the facility was in 2015, when it was moved from one research area to another, in a standard protocol. But they only discovered it was actually missing a couple of weeks ago.”

Now Nicholas was getting mad. “You’re telling us there’s been nuclear material unaccounted for out in the world for more than two years, and no one knew? That’s preposterous.”

Fentriss’s face was turning red, but his voice was low and even. “I know you’re both angry, but dial it back, agents. We aren’t responsible for someone misplacing plutonium, not our purview. The research facility didn’t release the information until a few days ago. Whether they were aware two weeks or two years ago, it’s out there now, and we need to find it.

“There’s more. One of my men on the Kosovo mission said he’d heard there was a nuke EMP in play. Unfortunately, he died right after his transmission, and we haven’t exactly been conversant with the rest of the team, so good luck finding out where he heard it. Their mission fell apart, then Grant’s team went off the radar.”