The Last Second (A Brit in the FBI #6)(69)

Mike heard a woman’s voice, hyper with joy. She was speaking jerkily, quickly. “Not long now. Everything’s in place. I have the Heaven Stone so I am now immortal, so I can be one with you and live forever. I’ve placed the bomb aboard the satellite, the countdown is under way. Two more days, and there will be no more noise in the heavens, no more noise on Earth. And you will come to me.”

A long pause.

Then, “Yes, oh yes. I will be high on my mountaintop awaiting you. In two days, at the apex of the lunar eclipse, the skies will glow with an explosion of such magnitude that, like I said, all the satellites will go dead, and then the world around us will be dark and silent. That will be your moment, that is when you will be able to enter the Earth’s atmosphere unharmed.”

Another pause. This one even longer.

“Yes, we will bring peace to Earth together. I will rule, you at my side, my confidantes, my advisers. No one will ever betray me again, all will revere me—and you.”

He hit stop.

Mike said, “What in the world?”

“Out of this world, actually.” Nicholas started running through the files. “There are hundreds of these recordings, all different. I sampled several from each year beginning in 2014 and there’s a gradual change in Patel’s attitude, in her plans. She begins speaking with optimism, nothing can stop her, can stop them, then gradually, she becomes bitter, people betray her, her anger runs deep and deeper. She’s frustrated.”

“She sounded crazy.”

“Yes. It seems Byrne’s been recording her boss’s conversations with—someone. What’s strange is it’s an open channel, but there’s no one on the other end, no one I can hear, at least. Patel is having a conversation, but no one’s talking back to her.”

“Or maybe we’re just missing whoever is responding? Can the tapes be enhanced?”

“I’ll send it to Gray and see if he can work his magic on it, but I don’t know. What we have to do now, though, is figure out where this mountaintop she mentions might be. That’s where she is, and she has the means to set off the nuke and cause the EMP.”

“Well,” Mike said, taking off her glasses and polishing them with the hem of her shirt, “this isn’t a biggie. All we have to do is find a monster observatory with an unregistered telescope, and we find Patel. Only one problem. If this was recorded yesterday—I don’t think we can have more than a day before she sets it off. When is the apex of the lunar eclipse?”

Nicholas opened a search engine. “Slightly different times from different regions, but—” He cursed under his breath. “We don’t have long, Mike. It’s going to happen early tomorrow morning.”

Mike heard footsteps running toward them, jumped to her feet, M4 at the ready. It was Broussard, shouting, “They’re here, they’re here. Al-Asaad’s found us.”





CHAPTER FORTY-NINE


Nicholas said, “Bloody hell, I’d hoped we’d have more time. Mike, give me your comms.”

She handed her comms to Nicholas, who started shouting orders to Grant. Jean-Pierre came into the room. “Jean-Pierre, we’re going to be fine. We’ll will have backup here shortly. Listen to me now. Did Dr. Patel ever talk to you about building her own observatory? Or purchasing an industrial-grade telescope?”

He looked taken aback. “An observatory? A telescope? Wait, I remember she did mention wanting to do something down the road, for educational purposes—she wanted to teach students about space from her perspective as a former astronaut. But it would take more money than she possibly has, grants, land somewhere. There would be records.”

“Did she say where she wanted to build it?”

He shook his head.

The rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire started up. Mike gently shoved Broussard toward a chair. “Please stay here.”

“No, absolutely not. I’m going with you. I’m not about to sit here and wait for them to come kill me. Give me a weapon, this is my fight, too.”

Mike’s phone started to ring. She gave him a long look, handed him a pistol. She grabbed her phone. Adam was still on the open line. She said, “Tell me what’s happening.”

“Satellite shows five bogeys at the back gate and—wait—five more at the front. And the Lyon police have been dispatched, someone tipped them off to your possible address. It’s going to take them ten, fifteen minutes to get to you, though, you’re well outside of the city limits.”

“We’re running low on ammo. Our attackers, they don’t have air support, do they?”

“Not that I can see. They drove, they’re not on foot.”

“So if we can get to the helicopter, we can get away.”

Mike heard Nicholas yelling, “Mike! Get down here!”

“Gotta go, Adam. Keep an eye out. And start looking for a high-end private observatory, on a mountaintop, probably funded by Dr. Patel herself. Maybe the answers will be in her computer files. Talk soon.”

She grabbed Broussard’s arm. “Let’s go. We’re all in this together now.”

Nicholas and Grant had set up a barrier at the garden door, and were trying to figure out the best way to get back to the helicopter when Mike and Broussard ran out of the kitchen.