AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Pitt smiled. "Anything to please a pretty lady."
Tears began forming in her eyes. Loren had a feeling of dread in her stomach. Somehow she knew he wouldn't be following her anytime soon. Suddenly she turned and hurried up the boarding stairs into the aircraft.
Pitt stood there looking after her. Then he waved as her face appeared in a window, but when Loren looked for him again as the plane taxied to the runway he was gone.
Tsuboi could not believe it. After leaving Yoshishu and rushing from Tokyo to Edo City and then to the Dragon Center to take personal command, he stood in the control room tense with growing rage.
"What do you mean you cannot detonate any of the bomb cars?" he demanded.
Takeda Kurojima, the Dragon Center's chief director, was stricken. He looked around helplessly at his small army of engineers and scientists for moral support, but they all stared at the floor as if hoping to be swallowed by it.
"Only Mr. Suma knows the codes," Kurojima answered with a patronizing hands-out shrug. "He personally programmed the code system for the prime and detonate signals."
"How long will it take you to reprogram the codes?"
Kurojima stared at his staff again. They began muttering rapidly between themselves. Then, seemingly agreeing on something, one stepped forward and murmured so softly Tsuboi didn't hear.
"What. . . what was it you said?"
Kurojima finally stared into Tsuboi's eyes. "Three days, it will take three days minimum to erase Mr.
Suma's command codes and reprogram the systems."
"That long?"
"It is not a quick and simple procedure."
"What is the status of the robotic drivers?"
"The robot program is accessible," replied Kurojima. "Mr. Suma did not insert the codes to set in motion their drive and destination systems."
"Two days, forty-eight hours. That's all you have to make the Kaiten Project fully operational." Tsuboi tightened his mouth and clenched his jaws. He began to pace the control room of the Dragon Center. He cursed the serpentine mastermind who had outfoxed them all. Suma had trusted no one, not even his oldest and closest friend, Yoshishu.
A phone buzzed and one of the technicians picked it up. He went rigid and held out the receiver to Tsuboi. "Mr. Yoshishu in Tokyo for you."
"Yes, Korori, Ichiro here."
"Our intelligence people have intercepted a report from the American ship. They claim Hideki's plane was shot down. Did our pilots actually see Hideki's aircraft go into the sea?"
"Only one returned. I was informed the surviving pilot reported that he was too busy evading return fire from the ship to witness his missile strike the target."
"It could be a bluff by the Americans."
"We won't know if that's the case until one of our observer satellites can be programmed to pass over the ship."
"And if it shows the plane is on board?"
Yoshishu hesitated. "Then we know we are too late. Hideki is lost to us."
"And under tight security by American intelligence forces," Tsuboi finished.
"We're faced with a very grave situation. In the hands of American intelligence, Hideki can become an acute embarrassment to Japan."
"Under drugged interrogation he will most certainly divulge the locations of the bomb cars."
"Then we must act quickly to preserve the Kaiten Project."
