Chapter One Hundred

The Deck

Monday, August 30, 6:14 P.M.

Time Remaining on the Extinction Clock: 41 hours, 46 minutes E.S.T.

“The Deck is in Work Mode,” said the voice from the speakers. “All duty personnel return to assigned tasks.”

There was a pause and then, “Supervisor protocols are in place.”

The doors and hidden panels shifted again and the multicolored swarms of people emerged. I found a men’s room and ducked inside. Once I made sure I was alone I said, “What was that all about?”

Church said, “A Learjet owned by White Owl, a dummy company that MindReader traced back to Paris Jakoby, just landed and picked up three passengers. From the satellite image SAM thinks that the passengers were Otto Wirths and Cyrus Jakoby. We didn’t get a good angle on the third man.”

“Swell. Looks like I came to the wrong party.”

“Amazing and Alpha Team are in follow-craft. They’ll assess and take the next steps to find the device.”

“What about me?”

“Your call. If the Jakobys are heading to the Dragon Factory, then Amazing will infil and attempt to secure the device. Once she succeeds, the fist of God in the form of three DMS teams and National Guard units will pound the Deck.”

It was a crappy set of choices. If I left I still wouldn’t catch up to Grace before she caught up to the Jakobys. If I stayed here I might learn something, but I might also get caught.

“Keep SAM on the line and give me a quick tour. I’ll see what I can see, and then I want to collect Echo and follow Alpha to the frat party.”

“Roger that.”