Next he pointed to her cell phone. “I’ve turned on the GPS navigation on your cell phone and plugged in the coordinates for Bimini. You shouldn’t have any problem finding it. Basically it’s about 70 miles due east. I also disabled your cellular signal so they can’t track you. You also have,” he looked at the gauge, “about half of tank of fuel which should be more than enough to get you there and back. Any questions?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
“Okay-” Lee suddenly stopped and looked around. Where’s Chris?”
“I don’t know.”
Outside they heard someone hop onboard, and a few seconds later the door opened with Chris panting. His arms were filled with junk food from the vending machine inside. “Here take this,” he said dropping everything into a seat next to them. “Wait!” he shouted and quickly pulled an orange life vest from under the same seat. He wrapped it around Alison and clipped it in front.
She smiled at him reassuringly and gave him a tight hug. She then turned and hugged Lee.
“I’ll be fine,” she said wondering if that sounded more like a question than a statement. She looked at Chris. “Chris, take Lee and find your mom’s police friend. It won’t be long before the cleaning crew comes in and then all hell is going to break loose. We need to make sure we’re in front of this and already explaining things to somebody.”
“And what if they ask where you are?” he said.
She shrugged. “Tell them you don’t know. Tell them we got separated after the shooting. By the time they start to suspect anything, I should already be back with Dirk and Sally.”
They both nodded sullenly. They opened the door and backed out.
“Find them Alison.” were Lee’s last words before they shut the door and stepped off back onto the dock. Together they untied the dock lines and threw them aboard, waiting for her to pull away. She peered through the side window and waved. She then pushed forward on the throttle and the engines revved louder, pushing the boat forward through the small waves.
When Alison was close to a mile out, she opened the engines up and sped forward. The sea was relatively calm as the boat’s bow cut smoothly through the waves. She reached down and typed a simple message as a test; Sally Dirk Stop Danger. She hit the return key and the screen read “Translating…”
Satisfied, she looked back up and gripped the wheel with both hands. She stared intently through the glass as she could see very little in the dark ocean in front of her.
Alison thought about the one potential problem with her plan, something she was hoping neither Chris nor Lee would bring up. If by some miracle she did find and stop them, what on earth was she going to do with a nuclear bomb?
39
“What?!” Stevas screamed into his phone. He was in disbelief. “All of them?! Every single one?” He listened in anger and his face turned dark red.
“God Dammit!” He turned and looked across the table to Mason who was watching apprehensively. Stevas closed his eyes and ran his hand through his hair in frustration. “They did it!’ he said. “By god they did it! They hit us first! I knew we should have moved faster.”
He ended the call and looked at Mason. “The bastards destroyed every one of our subs. Every one.” He looked at the wall still shaking his head. “This is Miller’s fault. He kept dragging his damn feet.”
Mason sighed from across the table. “It didn’t help having to bring the Trident’s in slowly. They could see that coming from a mile away.”
Stevas turned and pointed at him. “That’s right!” He started pacing. “If they had done things like I wanted to do, like we wanted to do, that ring would be a giant pile of junk right now. Goddam bureaucracy! And those damn panty waists Miller and Langford. We had the President thinking straight before they turned everything around.” He put his hands on his hips. “Dammit!”
“They’re not going to listen you know.” Mason said. “Miller and Langford are just going to see this attack as them being provoked.”
“I know.” Stevas said continuing to pace. “And if we think this is bad just wait until all of these U.N. idiots get involved.”
“Game over.”
“Not if I can help it.” Stevas held up his phone and began dialing.
The tank was smaller than their old tank and the building was dark, making it hard to see. Dirk and Sally hovered near the glass wall watching all the men walk back and forth quickly piecing the last of the giant servers together. One man, tall and lanky with dark hair, was sitting in front of the tank typing on a computer. His face reflected an eerie glow from the monitor in front of him. They both wondered where Alison and the others were.