"I confer upon you all the power vested in me from above and below the earth! I give you power to do great and mighty and wonderful and terrifying things, acts so splendiferous and phantasmagorical that no man can see them and not be persuaded that I am his G.o.d."
Leon sobbed. "Thank you, lord. Thank you, Excellency. "
"Go, Leon," Carpathia said. "Go quickly and do it now. "
Chapter.
GEORGE FELT pretty good, considering. How long had it been since they had put him in the backseat of the jeep? He was opposite the driver"s side with Elena in front of him, Plato beside him. The leader slid in behind the wheel and told Plato to blindfold George again. George liked the fact that he was again sitting on his hands, giving him an excuse to bounce and tumble into Plato.
If he timed it right, maybe he could even bang heads with him.
The leader backed up the Jeep and stopped, idling.
"Where is he?" he asked, testy.
"There, by the road."
"What is he doing there?" A loud sigh. "Socrates! Come here!"
George heard the hobbling footsteps. "Are you finished with the car?"
"Hidden Aristotle" "Give me the keys."
"Why? What if I need it?"
"That will ruin everything! Give them to me."
George heard the jangling as Aristotle took the car keys. "Think, man!" he said. "This way, no matter what happens, you have no keys to surrender. And stay away from the road! You have no reason to be outside. Just wait in there." Aristotle lowered his voice, as if thinking a blind Sebastian couldn"t hear either.
"Remember, the closer you come to the edge, the more believable you are."
"You know I can do it."
"You know I do! You can still produce tears at will? Take it right to the brink. It has to look like you tried everything before you crumbled. Now, I am sorry you are hurt, but this is just as important as what we are doing." "Right. This one"s real name is Elena, last initial A. Hmm, the only one whose actual name is given. Guess they don"t feel any need to protect her. Then a couple of no-account locals, both of which it looks like tried to get out of Peacekeeping duty but wound up on this vigilante squad. Oh, get a load of these monikers."
"One of them"s the leader, Mac," Hannah said, pointing.
Mac shook his head. "Aristotle. Other one"s Socrates. Real creative. Given this, shouldn"t Elena be Helen? Of Troy, get it?
And the big guy, the one that"s supposed to pa.s.s for George.
Plato? Oh, for the love of all things sacred! Well, whatever you gotta do to keep track of each other. He"s French. Brought in just for this. Sebastian would be insulted. This guy"s heavy, but he"s under sixtwo. He"s no George."
Mac kept glancing at his watch, and as night fell, they kept reading, memorizing. They finally had to resort to the dome light and three tiny flashlights. "The original plan wasn"t half bad,"
Chloe said. "Only somebody didn"t cooperate."
"I don"t know the boy or the other old guy, the driver," Mac said. "But from what I know of Miklos, my money"s on him. Anyway, somebody smelled a rat. They were supposed to pick up the girl eight kilometers north of the airport, then have Plato, pretending to be Sebastian, show up just down the road."
"But Sebastian was expecting to hook up with them closer to the airport," Hannah said.
"They must"ve wanted to be sure the deal was done before he came looking," Mac said. "They"re pretty proud of this change of plans. Looks like they originally wanted to take "em all in, including George, and then threaten to kill the others if George wouldn"t talk. Then, even if he did, they were gonna execute "em together if they wouldn"t take the mark."
Chloe had turned the page slightly. "Did we know this?" she said.
"What"s that?" Mac said.
"The shootings, all three of them, were done by the girl. "
Chloe had that tingling sensation inside as the zero hour drew near. Mac had studied the coordinates and determined they were about forty minutes from where George was being held. At hours he called Stefanich on his private cell phone with the number provided by Chang. Early in the afternoon in Chicago, Buck and Enoch called their people together. "Quick update," Buck said. "Chang has a trace on Ming, and it appears she"s probably on her way to San Diego. Then on to China. Problem is, he doesn"t know where their parents are, so she couldn"t either far as we know."
"How"d she get to San Diego?" Alble said.
"The long way. Guess she got a ride with some private pilot out of Long Grove to South Carolina, then was able to-" "Whoa!" Leah said. "Hold on! Long Grove?"
"Yeah. Then she-"
"Buck! Was the pilot this whalum guy?"
"I don"t know. The point is, she-"
"The point is, if it is him, he"s the guy who wants to ship housing modules to Petra."
That stopped Buck. "I don"t get it."
"She might be going to Petra."
"She"ll never make it. Security"s too tight."
"Tell me about it."
"Maybe she just caught a ride with a guy who"s going on to Petra, but she isn"t."
"That"s worth praying about," Leah said.
"That"s why we"re here."
"So Ming used a Co-op contact. . ."
"Can we move on here, Leah?"
"Sure, but we haven"t even checked him out yet. Don"t know if he"s legit. And here I thought when Ming was reading through all these records that she was just helping out. "
Buck c.o.c.ked his head at Leah. "Weren"t you the one who said Ming was an adult and free to do what she wants? "
Mac was surprised when the phone rang four times. GC policy was that command officers always be available to the bra.s.s.
"This is Nelson Stefanich," he heard finally, "and the only reason I"m answering a call from a hidden number is because of a current operation, so state your business."
"well, Nelly diggin"-a-ditch Stefanich, how in the world are ya ?
"Who-? "
"Sorry I missed ya today. Howie Johnson, here."