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“I’m counting on that,” she said softly. “You guys will have full body suits of very thin graphene which will make you impermeable to infrared, and has some stealth-cloaking ability. You won’t be invisible but close to it. We will have drones and you’ll see all his men and you guys will take them off the board, one by one. You’ll be listening to everything we say and you’ll have time to react.
“No one can react faster than a goddamn bullet,” Pierce said heatedly.
“But—” she began.
“Jordan.” Jacob Black had put on his Voice of God again. “No one wants to see Riley go in harm’s way. No one, especially you, I understand that, and not me, either. But … I don’t see that we have any choice. Sommers is not going to stop. He has eighty-five operators, and he can keep them going nonstop to find Riley and eliminate her for as long as it takes. We’d have to protect her 24/7/365, nonstop, and all we have to do is make one mistake and it’s over. Riley is right in wanting to take proactive steps to get this over with, and to possibly stop a shooting war. There’s that.”
“That’s easy enough for you to say!” Pierce shouted the words. “She means fuckall to you and she means everything to me!”
There was a shocked silence, but Pierce didn’t apologize. The only sound was his heavy breathing.
“Pierce.” Riley ran her hand along his arm, touched. She was putting herself in harm’s way and she was scared, too. But alongside the fear was her desire tolive. To live freely and not in hiding. To live and see where this … thisthingshe had going with Pierce would lead them. “It’s okay,” she said softly.
“It’s not okay.” Pierce leaned forward on two fists, his face close to the monitor’s camera. “Send me,” he urged Black. “Let me go and make whatever arrangements Riley was going to make. She doesn’t have to do this. She’s not trained if it all goes to shit. I am. Sendme.”
Oh Pierce,she thought. Touched beyond words. She blinked back tears.
“It’s precisely because you are trained that he wouldn’t let you get within a thousand feet of him,” she said softly. “He’d never see you as defenseless. Someone he can brag to because he’s won. He’d be rightly scared of you and he’d come at you with everything he’s got. And we’d never get a confession out of him. A confession at this point is the only thing that can stop this relentless march. A confession is the only thing that can save my life. A life worth living, that is.”
He whirled, grabbed both her hands with his. “I can’t let you do it,” he said, his voice stark. “I can’t lose you just when I’ve found you. I love you.”
Tears shimmered in her eyes. It was the very first time in her life someone said that to her, and it had to be in the middle of danger and possible warfare.
“Hey!” Hope’s voice sounded panicked. “Check in with Online News. Right now!”
Riley switched to ON and listened in horror.
An Asian woman was on screen.Chinese attack imminentread the chyron along the bottom of the screen.
“This is Jessica Chan, live from Singapore. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army has sent 80 warplanes, including fighter jets, reconnaissance craft and refuellers, into Taiwan’s Air Defence Identification Zone, according to the Pentagon’s spokeswoman. The spokeswoman also said that 42 planes had crossed the median line—the de facto border in the Taiwan strait between Taiwan and China. The USS George H.W. Bush has sent up twelve F-16 fighter jets, each equipped with six AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles. A spokesman for the Pentagon issued this declaration. “The US is dedicated to the defense of Taiwan and will vigorously respond to any aggression from the People’s Republic of China.”The reporter put down a sheet of paper andstared directly into the camera. “Our sources say that plans for a war with China are being discussed at the highest levels in the Pentagon. That’s all for now.”
Riley’s heart hammered in horror. Everything was slipping out of control, sliding down into the hell of a war, a war that could escalate and plunge the world into flames.
Whatever she could do to stop it, she had to. And fast.
She picked up the phone.
15
Pierce could only listen and watch as Riley did her thing.
“Yes, yes, tell him I’ll wait.”
Riley had had the Queens route the call to the Sommers Group through an anonymizer and had put the call on speaker phone. Her voice was dull, low. Defeated even. But she was standing straight as an arrow and her eyes were flashing with anger and determination.
She’d been bounced from secretary to admin to vice president, always saying the same thing. That she wanted to speak to Adrian Sommers. And that she was Riley Robinson and he’d want to speak to her.
Finally, a deep voice. “This is Sommers. Who is this?” Impatient.I’m a busy man. Don’t waste my time.
Riley made her own voice soft, barely audible. “Mr. Sommers, this is Riley Robinson.”
“Who?”
Riley rolled her eyes, but you couldn’t hear anything but defeat and desperation in her voice.
“Riley Robinson. Sir.”
“Don’t know anyone by that name.” His voice was dismissive, abrupt.
