The Zero Hour

“I want to burn out its solid-state mind, and I don’t even know if that’s going to do it.”

The electromagnetic-pulse generator was powered by a huge capacitor, really a bank of capacitors that required an immense power source. As the capacitor was wheeled into place beside the steel door to the basement, Lieutenant Colonel Suarez said, “Sir, with everyone out of the building, the situation is no longer life-threatening. Textbook says we’re not supposed to risk our lives if the situation’s not life-threatening. And the building’s empty.”

“Except for the terrorist.”

“Except for the terrorist, yes, sir.”

“The terrorist, and a child. And if this building goes up, those aren’t going to be the only ones killed.”

“Sir, the textbook-”

“Fuck the textbook,” Dr. Payne said. “Get the door open.”

“Sir, we can’t,” Suarez said.

“Well, we can’t shoot through the goddam thing! We can’t aim the EMP unless the door’s open. Get the goddam door open! Now!”

“It’s locked, sir.” Suarez was doing his best to keep his cool. “We can’t use explosive breaching techniques, sir. You don’t breach the door of a magazine.”

“Dammit,” Dr. Payne said, “get out the halligan tool.” This was a standard piece of equipment used to force open doors.

“Bad idea, sir. Respectfully. Looks like the door lock has been jammed with epoxy or Krazy Glue or something. It opens outward, toward us. It has to be opened from inside. Gently. But it looks as if it can be opened from the inside.”

“If we force it…” Payne mused aloud.

“If we force it, we’re introducing a violent motion, and you don’t want to introduce energy into a bomb situation, right? If we use a halligan, we could set the thing off.”

“Shit. You’re right, Suarez. Good thinking. All right, do we have anyone already inside the building?”

“I don’t know-”

Dr. Payne picked up his walkie-talkie and, calculating that it was safe to broadcast on this frequency, called Lieutenant George Roth. “Do we have anyone already in the building?” he repeated.

***

Sarah turned in the empty corridor.

Suddenly there was a static squawk.

It was her walkie-talkie, coming to life.

“Cahill, Cahill, ERCP,” came a flat, mechanical voice. ERCP referred to “Emergency Response Command Post,” the label NEST was using to avoid alerting any reporters who might be listening in.

“ERCP, Cahill, go ahead.”

“There’s a back way into the basement. We need you to enter the basement and open a door for us.”

CHAPTER NINETY-SIX

Fueled by anger and determination and fear, Sarah ran down to the lobby and, in a dim corner, just as the floor plans had indicated, located the little-used basement door.

It was jammed shut from the outside, the lock plugged with the broken end of a key and some Krazy Glue. Baumann clearly didn’t want anyone to enter the basement.

The door couldn’t be forced. That might set off the bomb.

There had to be another way to get into the basement.

Desperate, she ran across the lobby. How could she get into the basement without using the doors?

She passed a maintenance closet that had been propped open by a galvanized steel bucket and wet mop. She stopped, opened the closet door all the way, and saw the pipes at the back, running vertically up and down through the building.

The answer.

They ran through a shaft, roughly two feet square, into the basement. There was space in front of the pipes, not a hell of a lot but perhaps enough.

She leaned over and peered down the shaft.

The drop to the basement floor was probably eight or nine feet. Several of the pipes made sharp right angles into a wide, dull gray, steel ventilation duct. The duct was some four feet wide. Wide enough to shield her movements from the microwave detector.

She pulled off her shoes and her jacket and squeezed into the narrow space, grabbing on to the pipes as she moved. It was a tight squeeze, but she realized quickly she could make it through.

It was like crawling through the narrow neck of a cave.

She shimmied down, holding on to the pipes, lowering herself as much as she could toward the floor of the basement. Then the pipes veered off at sharp angles in different directions. A drop of some six feet remained.

She eased herself down slowly, carefully. Shielded by the duct she dropped noiselessly to the ground.

She gasped when she almost stumbled over the body of a uniformed man, crumpled on the floor in front of her. It looked like a security guard, probably someone who had tried to stop Baumann.

She spotted a long stack of boxes roped together, on top of which sat a small black box, which flashed in the sputtering fluorescent light.

If you can see it, it can see you, Dr. Payne had said.

But from how far?

Estimating distances didn’t come naturally to her, but she had learned to do it, and she now calculated she was ninety to one hundred feet from the device.

She stopped, pressed the transmit button on her walkie-talkie. “ERCP, ERCP, Cahill,” she said. “I’m here. I see it. How much time is remaining?”