Page 68 of Circle of Death
“Or worse,” says Tapper.
I know what he means. I imagine the Destroyer would be very creative in her payback methods. I’m betting she could make a manbegto die.
“I don’t suppose you can teach us how to turn invisible,” says Hawkeye. He wiggles his fingers in front of his face, like performing a magic trick.
“Sorry. There’s no crash course for that.”
On the other side of the room, Jericho raises his hand. “I’ll go. This Destroyer bitch doesn’t know me from the hole in her ass. Never saw me.”
I shake my head. “Sorry. I’m counting on you to guard the home front. I’m leaving Burbank and Jessica in your hands.”
“And Bando,” adds Jessica.
“Right,” I say. “And Bando.”
Maddy perks up at this. “Does that mean I won’t have somebody following my every move?”
I give her a stern look. “Guess what?I’myour bodyguard now. You stick with me like glue. No more personal adventures, got it?”
“What about school?” Maddy asks. “I haven’t been to class all week.”
“School can wait.”
Suddenly, I hear footsteps pounding down the back staircase, fast. Burbank rounds the corner into the parlor, breathing hard. He looks straight at me. “I’ve got a connection coming in upstairs on the secure video line.”
“Who the hell is it?” It’s not like our contact info is public. Somebody must’ve broken through Burbank’s firewall.
“It’s Lucian Diaz.”
Terrific. We’ve been hacked by the president of the Americas.
CHAPTER 81
WE ALL RUSH up the back stairs and crowd into the comms closet. Sure enough, the handsome face of President Diaz fills the larges screen above the console. The image is grainy, but the audio is clear. Burbank sits down at the controls, trying to improve the video reception.
“Cranston? That you?” asks Diaz. The video must be muddy on his end, too.
“Present, Sir. The whole team is here.”
“That’s some setup you’ve got,” he says. “It took my techies an hour to figure out how to connect.”
“Home-grown equipment, Sir. It’s a little patchy.” Burbank looks up. I think I just offended him.
“Listen,” says Diaz. “My spooks think they’ve located the Destroyer’s build site.”
“Okay. That’s a start,” I reply. “So what the hell is she building?”
A long pause, then, “What do you mean—she?”
Margo leans in toward the console. “The Destroyer is a female, sir.” She looks over at me and adds, “A beautiful, clever, devious, spiteful, evil female.”
“I’ll be damned,” says Diaz.
“Where’s the target?” I ask.
“Mongolia,” says Diaz. “The Kharkhorin region. Do you know it?”
Do I know it? Hell. Ilivedthere. “Yes, sir. Very well.” I neglect to mention that I haven’t been back for ten thousand years.
