The Last Second (A Brit in the FBI #6)(48)

“Any idea what drug she used?”

Grant said, “I’d say ketamine. I remember the feeling waking up from it a little too well. Nicholas, would you mind loaning me your phone? I need to give my boss Fentriss an update on our status, make sure we’re set for what happens next.”

Nicholas handed it over. “I wish you could call Kitsune. She’s going to be furious with us when she hears about our adventures.”

Grant grinned and his face relaxed. “I can’t wait for her to yell at me. At least I’ll be there to hear her.” He looked at Mike. “My fitness tracker, best purchase I ever made. Thank you, Mike.”

While Grant contacted Fentriss, Nicholas said, “Mr. Broussard, would you please tell us about Dr. Nevaeh Patel?”





CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE


Broussard looked exhausted. He’d had much worse to deal with than they had—well, she had to take that back. The upside-down helicopter in the ocean topped everything in her mind. He was grieving for his lover, Devi, and his lost yacht. No, that wasn’t exactly right, Mike realized. He was grieving his loss of the Holy Grail, if indeed it was that legendary artifact, which she very much doubted. Still—

Broussard shook himself, focused on Nicholas.

“I’m happy to tell you about Dr. Patel, and you will see it’s impossible she could have anything to do with all this.” He paused, drew a deep breath, and said, “I hired her in 2013 to run my operations out of Galactus’s headquarters in Lyon. She was previously an astronaut aboard the International Space Station, spent nearly six months in space. She’s brilliant, capable, loyal. I tell you, there’s simply no way she’d ever—”

Mike interrupted smoothly, “Why did she leave NASA, sir?” Would he tell them the truth?

“Please, call me Jean-Pierre, no more formality after all we’ve been through.” He paused a moment, carefully selecting his words. He thought of all she had been through and said, “Nevaeh had accomplished all she could there. It was time for her to help others travel into space. She readily joined me in my goal to make space travel inexpensive. As you might know, we are also always looking for ways to allow people to get back into space—real people, those who’ve done a minimum amount of training and are looking at it as a great experience.”

What, Nicholas wondered, would he have said under other circumstances?

Grant nudged Mike in the ribs. “Sounds like something else for your bucket list.”

“Maybe, who knows what could happen up there?”

“Which is why I hired Nevaeh. She knows what it’s like in space. She knows how to function in zero gravity, what it does to the body, the mind, how and what a civilian should be trained to do, what they need to survive a trip into space. Sorry, I got off-track. What we’ve accomplished so far is to drive down costs and make it more accessible for even smaller companies to have their own satellite systems.”

Grant said, “So your ultimate goal is for Galactus to be the first private space flight provider in the world. Within a few years, I’ll wager.”

“Yes, that’s it exactly. An EMP would certainly set us back, set the world back, which is why I believe you’re wrong about Nevaeh being a part of anything like that. She is dedicated to the program. She would never want it to fail.”

Nicholas asked, “How would someone get a nuclear bomb aboard a satellite?”

“Hide it inside the body of the satellite, I assume. It could easily be built with a special compartment which wouldn’t draw any attention in the final assembly. I don’t know for sure, I’ve never given it much thought.”

Mike said, “Seems awfully easy. Would Dr. Patel—Nevaeh—have had access to the satellite before it was put on your rocket?”

Broussard scratched the beard stubble on his chin. “It’s possible, yes, but realize, during assembly, when we’re loading the rocket, any number of people would have access to the satellite being put aboard.”

“The nuclear signature was definitely found at the same site as your Galactus 5 launch,” Nicholas said. “Help us understand why the launch wasn’t a success.”

“It’s something we’ve had issues with in the past, but it’s been years since something like this happened. Simply put, the satellite was damaged when it clipped the fairing. The fairing is at the top of the rocket, the nose, where the cargo is located. When the fairing opens—it’s on an explosive charge, timed to the millisecond—the satellite is essentially jettisoned into space, and then its own controls take over to move it into its predetermined orbit. It has engines like any other space object.

“The process of launch is usually under thirty minutes, but the satellite moving to its own orbit can take a couple of days. The satellite in question left the rocket without issue, but then never inserted into the proper orbit.”

“So where is it?”

“No one seems to know. The likelihood is that since it didn’t secure the proper orbit, it will probably fall back to Earth and be burned up in the atmosphere upon reentry, if it hasn’t already. Of course, it could be caught up in space junk, floating in orbit, unseen and untracked. There’s so much crap floating around up there, it would be impossible to find.”

Mike felt her heart rate spike. “And if it has a nuclear EMP on board?”