The Last Second (A Brit in the FBI #6)(30)

Adam’s mouth fell open. “You’re kidding. Oh, damn. I heard they’re afraid the yacht went down. I had no idea Grant was anywhere near there. I thought he was with Kitsune, at their place—” He shut up. Operational security concerning Grant and Kitsune was paramount for the entire Covert Eyes team. Adam was too smart to openly discuss their whereabouts, even on a secure connection. “Is Kitsune okay?”

“She’s on a job and we have no way to reach her. Malaysia’s search and rescue teams are working the area, but the yacht’s transponder seems to be offline. It’s possible a small EMP went off in the area, we’re trying to confirm now. But Mike thought of something rather ingenious. Grant was wearing a Ziost fitness tracker. It has—”

Adam’s face lit up. “GPS, to track outdoor exercise. Pretty standard when it comes to these kinds of devices, though Ziost does everything automatically. You’re thinking I could use his tracker’s GPS signal to locate him. Assuming an EMP didn’t knock it offline. You remember the micro-EMP you set off in Italy last month? That didn’t mess with your watch, did it?”

“No. But my watch was shielded, and it’s much too old to be affected by an EMP. Not GPS-enabled, not digital at all.”

“Let me know when you want to come out of the Dark Ages, dude. Okay, now, I’m not sure how an EMP might affect smaller, personal device electronics of this nature. I don’t know if anyone’s been doing any testing to find out, either, since fitness trackers aren’t exactly vital to national security. Still, it’s a super idea, Mike. I’m on it. Though since this is a public company, we’ll have to get a warrant, and it’s going to take some time.”

Mike said, “Mm-hmm—”

“Of course, there are faster ways—”

Nicholas grinned. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Mike said, “Nor do I, but we’ll deal with the repercussions—if any—later.”

“Got it. I’ll get back to you.”

Mike said, “Hold on, Adam. Before you go, a favor. After you run Grant’s tracker, please pull everything you can find on the Idaho Research Facility. They are—were—stewards of some missing plutonium, and I’d like to find out if a small bit of plutonium from Idaho could be used to build a nuclear EMP.”

“A nuclear EMP? Now you have my attention.”

“This is on the down-low, okay? There was a Morse code burst transmission from The Griffon before it went offline about a possible nuclear EMP in play. We’re hoping it’s a false alarm. Get into the dark web and see what you can find, okay?”

Adam took a swig of Red Bull and nodded. “I will, but I haven’t heard anything about this. Not cool. I’ll get back to you as soon as I find anything.”

“Thanks.”

“Be careful, guys. I have a bad feeling.”

Nicholas said, “We will. We’re going after Grant, and we’re going to bring him home. With any luck, Kitsune will only find out over the dinner table one night soon.”

“Wait, you’re going to Malaysia?”

“Yes. We’re with Blue Mountain. Wheels up in sixty from Fiumicino, so we have to get moving. We’ll be in touch, and you ring me straightaway when you’ve tracked Grant.”

“Copy that. And don’t worry. I’ve got this. I can find out about everything we discussed faster than you can.”

Poppy Bennet appeared at Nicholas’s elbow just as Adam’s face disappeared from the monitor. “That boy is going to track Grant through his fitness tracker GPS? Amazing. When will we have the coordinates?”

Mike said, “Adam will let us know. He’s very good. If it’s possible, he’ll do it. With luck, we will have them soon.”

Poppy heaved a sigh of relief. “At last, some hope. Now, we have to go. I’m giving you a ride to Fiumicino. ETA to Malaysia is ten hours.”

Nicholas said, “Plenty of time to hear from Adam and to figure out where this nuke came from and is now. Oh yes, we need to stop by the hotel and grab our bags.”

“I already have them waiting in the car, and have checked you out. Blue Mountain covered the bill.” She smiled. “I’m terribly efficient.”





CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO


T-MINUS 60 HOURS

Fiumicino Airport

Rome

Fentriss’s personal Blue Mountain jet was a beautiful Gulfstream G650—a much upgraded version of the same plane the Covert Eyes team used. Fentriss was already aboard, on a call, and waved them to their seats.

He told whoever he was talking to he’d call them back and hung up. “Problems on the K&R mission. I’m afraid I won’t be able to join you in Malaysia.” He handed Nicholas a card. “Here’s my personal information. You call me immediately with any updates. Poppy told me about your idea, Agent Caine, tracking Grant using the GPS on his fitness tracker. Good thinking. Flight computer says you’ll be in Kuala Lumpur in ten hours. Hopefully, they’ll be found before you land.”

And to Mike, “If this works, I’ll be forbidding my people from wearing the fitness trackers in the future.”

Mike said, “But if Grant wasn’t wearing it, we’d wouldn’t be able to find him—or your client, Mr. Broussard.”