The Last Second (A Brit in the FBI #6)(94)

“Sorry, mate, you’ll slow us down. Only a few more minutes and we’ll be at the gatehouse.”

Mike counted, they were down to three capable souls. Counting them, that made five in all—against Patel’s army. Granted, the teams were armed to the hilt, chest rigs full of gear and ammo, but this wasn’t good.

With luck, Bernard’s nephew would join them, making an even six. Two teams. The element of surprise was their best hope, but the IED exploding had to have drawn attention. Maybe they’d mistaken it for a blown transformer?

They set off again, moving quickly now, trotting up the road, gear as silent as they could make it. Her mantra—We have to succeed, we have to succeed. She felt her heart leap when they turned the last curve and saw the gatehouse. It looked deserted.

She called out, “Bernard?”

When he trotted up beside her, she said, “Do you have a signal to give your nephew?”

“I’m supposed to call him, but the phones are no longer working, the cellular signals cut off by the wind. I will have to approach myself. No, do not worry, I will do so under the pretext of checking on him.”

“I’ll cover you. Be careful. Oh, yes, show me what he looks like.”

Bernard pointed at his strangely colored hair. “He looks like me, Agent Caine. You won’t have any trouble recognizing him.” And he set off toward the gatehouse at a trot.

Nicholas gently set Tomkins on the ground and joined her, weapon out. They edged closer, took tactical stances, and waited.

Mike said, “If there’s a gunshot—”

“Stop worrying. Bernard seems confident.”

A moment later, Bernard crept back to their position. “He is there, and ready to let us in. But he will need his two compatriots paid, he’s promised them money to help.”

Nicholas said, “Fine, whatever they want. I have money in my belt.”

“A thousand American dollars each.”

Nicholas rolled his eyes but took off his belt, where he’d stashed several one-hundred-dollar bills. “I only have fifteen hundred dollars American. It will have to do.”

Bernard nodded, took the cash, and trotted back to the gatehouse. Within moments, they heard a grinding noise and stepped out of the bushes to see the great gates to the facility breaking apart like a wax seal cracking in two.

Mike saw that in the center of each gate was half the astrological symbol for Aquarius. When the gates were closed, the insignia would complete the sign—two highly stylized lines that looked like mountains, or waves of water, carved into a round gold seal ten feet across. When she looked closer, she could see all twelve astrological signs carved into the edges of the central disk.

Nicholas said, “Well, we know we’re in the right place at least.”

Mike said, “The cameras just started to swivel. Look there.”

Nicholas looked up. CCTV cameras were pointing in their direction.

“Let’s hope it’s from the guardhouse and not the main facility. We don’t want Patel and Byrne to know we’re here. If we don’t have surprise on our side, we’re sunk.”

Bernard was waving to them, and they moved forward. He said quietly, “The cameras to the main facility have been temporarily blocked out. If you can get in quickly, they will close the gate, then perhaps no one will know we’re here.”

They slipped through the crack in the gates.

Nicholas said, “Looks like they have it set to seem like the gates may have blown open with the winds, but it can’t work for long. No way they aren’t going to notice a group of people coming in.”

Mills moaned with each step his guys took, a good sign, Mike thought. They’d leave him behind in the shelter of the gatehouse. She wasn’t sure what she thought of Mills—Vinny—but he was as ready to leap into pits of hell as they were, and she had to admire that. In the gatehouse stood two men, both of whom looked scared. She watched Bernard hand over the cash. That sure lightened their mood. A younger version of Bernard came forward to hug his uncle.

They heard the gates clang back shut, and the hum of electricity sounded like bees in her ears.

Nicholas said, “We’re in.”





CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE


T-MINUS 60 MINUTES

Aquarius Observatory

Sri Lanka

It was nearly time to prepare herself.

Nevaeh left the command center and walked the long concrete halls to her private quarters. She brushed her hair and changed into a long, flowing white gown that looked like a Roman toga, fitting, she thought, to meet the gods. She looked at herself in the mirror. She looked older, not as she had when she’d first met the Numen years before. And they hadn’t aged, of course. They were immortal. Was she not now immortal? Would she begin to look younger with the Heaven Stone in her possession? It was hers, only hers. And surely this magic stone would realize she was worthy, that she’d done only what had to be done. Surely it would applaud her goal and the Numen’s goals and judge them magnificent.

But why then was the Heaven Stone so heavy, so very cold when she touched it, even when she squeezed it in her hand? It never warmed. It remained completely inert, like a simple rock. A very heavy rock, and that wasn’t natural. What did it mean? No, she had to believe once she was with the Numen, the Heaven Stone would recognize them as blessed, recognize the worthiness of their goal, and would grant her immortality and that which she wanted most, if it hadn’t already, simply with her possession of it.