Page 99 of Silver Fire
“Beth,” Derek said in resignation.
“That’s the only reason they would take Ms. Turner. Use her as leverage. We already have Parker on lockdown.”
“So what do we have?”
Viktor nodded to one of the briefing rooms. Closing the door behind him, Derek leaned against it.
“Damian Stoltz is looking to acquire a section of mines in Lesotho—that landlocked country in the middle of South Africa.”
“Lesotho? This whole mess is about diamonds?”
Viktor nodded. “The CIA has reason to believe that Stoltz has turned ruthless in dealing with the locals. With the Abu-Haxa Brotherhood growing in numbers by the day, he has to keep up by hiring more personnel and it’s costing him money. Companies are also using him to scout locations suitable for business and his choices are dwindling because of the growing resistance.”
“So he’s decided if he can’t reason with them—”
“He’s fucking blowing them to the next kingdom.”
“Jesus Christ,” Derek muttered.
“Clean slate,” Viktor said. “NSA has caught some chatter about it. I’m having Tim feed that to our permanent data searches in that region: Project Clean Slate.”
“So he’s just going to wipe out an entire village? Town? How can he get away with this?”
“Nobody cares,” Viktor said. “Diamonds are not oil. The world is not watching. Look at Darfur and Rwanda. People don’t care unless it affects them directly. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a politician in Washington who gives a damn about Africa.”
“And the CIA cares because?”
“They see Stoltz as a bigger threat. He cares only about his bottom line. He doesn’t care that he’s creating a breeding ground for terrorism. The Abu-Haxa Brotherhood is not fully classified as a terrorist organization yet, but they’ve demonstrated their commitment to fight foreign tyranny by attacking an American citizen on US soil because of a perceived threat to their way of life. If Stoltz becomes indiscriminate in wiping out towns all over the continent, that will justify Abu-Haxa in bringing the war to us—the people who line Stoltz’s pockets.”
“Whatever the plan is, I want in,” Derek said firmly.
“It’s the CIA’s call.”
“I want in, Viktor.”
“Why?”
“I don’t trust anyone to get the job done. I’m presuming we’re going to find and stop the bomb from going off.”
“That’s the rough plan, yes.”
“If that bomb goes off, there’s no hope for Sophie ever coming back from this,” Derek said, his voice getting hoarse.
“Derek, it’s the third day. You have to be prepared that Sophie might not come back the same person. Bishop is fucked up.”
Derek stared grimly into space for a beat; a lump had formed in his throat. He had gone over that possibility a million times. She might come back a shell of herself, requiring years of intense therapy. But he always came back to the same conclusion: he would be there for her. He would sit with her in her darkest insane hell and drag her back to a life with him. He squared his shoulders, looked at his friend steadily and said, “I don’t care. I’ll have her any way I can, as long as she’s alive. I could help her heal, I’ll soothe her when those fucking nightmares come, but I know I can pull her through this. But the bomb going off? That’s gonna kill her. I’ll be damned before I let that happen.”
Viktor exhaled deeply. “You love her.”
“No, Viktor. I’m fucking in love with her,” Derek qualified resolutely.
* * *
Sophie flippedthe magnifying goggles over her eyes and worked on the intricate wirings on the PCB board. She had to re-cast the design because Yuri had it all messed up. She studied the mesh of wires under a lamp and sighed. Well this trigger should work. Suddenly, an idea struck her. She straightened up and pretended to work, extending her neck from side to side in a semblance of a stretch, all the while keeping tabs on where everyone was, especially Yuri and his lab assistants.
Satisfied that they seemed to be engrossed in fitting the zefinium cores into the bomb casing, she quickly soldered the wires crisscrossed on the copper conduit patterns that were not in the original plan. She was working on the third circuit board when she heard a voice behind her that made her jump.
“Everything fine?” Justin asked.