Page 76 of Circle of Death
“One hundred percent pure Chinasian equine sweat,” I tell him.
“What did you find over there?” asks Burbank.
“Nothing. Either the weapon has been moved, or it was a sham all along. Any trouble here while we were gone?”
“Quiet as a church,” says Jericho. “I finally had time to plant some mines in the front yard.”
“Speaking of Chinasia,” says Burbank. He flips a switch. A speaker starts blasting static. He adjusts a dial and the sound clears, enough to hear a man’s voice, talking in an Asian dialect. I can’t understand a word.
“Tapper and Hawkeye managed to find Bayani’s vehicle,” says Burbank. “They bugged it.” He points to the speaker. “That’s him. That’s Bayani talking right now.” The voice sounds thin and reedy, not like a guy with his foot on the necks of billions of people.
I lean in. “Dammit!What’s he saying?”
“Sorry,” says Burbank. “I should’ve built in a translator.”
“He’s talking about the super-weapon.” It’s Maddy, from the doorway.
“You understand him?” I ask. She looks surprised, too.
“He’s speaking Mandarin,” she says. “I guess I absorbed it from Dache the night the commandos attacked us.” Maddy steps up and leans over the console. “He’s saying, no visible physical effects… no residue… clean kill.”
“It’s a biological agent,” Jericho mutters.
Maddy nods.“Bó wù.”She searches for the right word in English. “Mist.”
I think back to Batuhan’s brothers on the mountain. Not a single bruise on any of them. Clean kill.
“Where’s he going?” I ask. “Where’s the car headed?”
Burbank checks one of his screens. “Moving north along the Hudson River, out of the city.”
“Wait!Shhhh!” Maddy holds her hands up and puts her ear closer to the speaker.
The transmission is breaking up. I can see her concentrating, trying to pick up whatever scraps she can get.
“It’s for sale,” she says.
This is driving me crazy. “Whatis?”
“The weapon. The formula. It’s being sold to the highest bidder.” She turns and looks straight at me. “Bayani’s headed for an auction.”
“When?” I ask.
“Jin wan,”she says. “Tonight.”
CHAPTER 93
IT’S ALREADY GETTING dark outside. I meet Burbank and Jericho in the basement supply room. I’m tense, but energized. Determined. Tapper and Hawkeye’s sensors show them just outside Beacon, ninety minutes north of the city. Bayani’s vehicle passed their location just before the bug stopped transmitting. With any luck, they’ve pinpointed his destination by now. The auction site. We need to get there fast. Before the deal goes down. Before the weapon gets sold. There are a lot of bad actors in the world who would be willing to pay top price for that kind of leverage.
Burbank is stuffing a case with electronic gear. Taps. Scramblers. Receivers. Jammers.
“Building yourself a robot?” asks Jericho.
“You never know what’ll come in handy,” says Burbank. Always diligent. Always overprepared. Just like his ancestor.
“As for me,” says Jericho. “I like to travel light.” He stuffs a sawed-off shotgun into a shoulder sling and jams a few extra cartridges into his pocket. Then he grabs a couple of small aerosol cannisters and hooks them on his belt. “Knockout gas,” he says.
“Your house blend?” I ask.
