Clay managed to angle his head and stare at it. “Did you open it?”
The agent lowered it. “Nope. Not authorized.”
Clay’s memories were coming back. “Check the case.”
“Sorry. I can’t do it. Our instructions are to get you, and this thing, out.”
“Listen to me,” Clay said louder. “We have to go back.”
The driver shook his head and put the truck back into gear. “I think you got hit one too many times in the head.”
Clay gritted his teeth in pain and took a deep breath. “If you won’t go back, then at least check the goddamn case!”
The agents both looked at each other. The second agent reached down and brought the case back up. After contemplating, he turned it sideways and opened the clasps, pulling the cool metal case open. He stared inside before turning it for the driver to see.
It was empty.
89
By the time the agents turned the truck around, Qin had already landed in Beijing. After being found and freed with the other soldiers, all he had to do was find a phone.
Less than a minute after his helicopter bounced lightly onto the tarmac, the side door was flung open by two airmen outside. Once on the ground, Qin was quickly escorted to a vehicle which sped across the base to a nearby lab.
He ordered the airmen to remain outside while he pushed through the double doors and ran up a flight of stairs. When he reached the room, a single technician was waiting for him with a very confused look on his face.
Unsure, the technician saluted and returned a nervous hand to his side. “You asked to see me, sir?”
Instead of replying, Qin closed the wide door behind him and locked it.
“Listen very carefully. You are not to repeat a single word of this conversation to anyone. Is that clear?”
“Y-yes, sir.”
Qin’s cold eyes bore into the man. “And any results you find will be erased.”
The technician nodded nervously.
With that, a wry grin spread across Qin’s face as he reached inside his jacket. He removed a red rag and began unwrapping it. When he uncovered the final layer, he held his hand below and rolled three clear glass tubes into his palm.
Qin waited impatiently. He watched as the young technician removed samples from each tube and used a swab to carefully place them on the ATP meters. Once in the luminometer, they watched the computer screen as the results were captured and displayed.
Qin squinted, trying to understand what he was seeing on the screen. Multiple lines rose and fell across a horizontal list of molecular compounds. It was clear that two of the compounds were in much higher concentrations than the rest. He pointed at them.
“What are those?”
The technician’s confusion was growing. “Those are Selenium and Iron.” He pointed to the others. “These, however, are all bacterium.”
Qin stepped closer, excitedly. “What sort of bacterium?”
“They’re called coliform.”
Qin paused and turned toward the technician. “You’ve seen them before?”
“Yes, sir. Many times.”
“What do you mean?”
The technician shrugged. “They’re common.”
Qin froze. Impossible. Deep down a sudden panic began to grow. “How common?”
“Very common. We find it in almost all forms of ground water.”
The panic was now overtaking Qin. “It’s water?”
“Yes. Judging from the Selenium and Iron, I’d guess a water source in close proximity to a mining operation.”
90
The CIA agent stumbled down the rocky path, keeping the flashlight pointed straight ahead. With one hand on the wall, he moved as quickly as he could without tripping over the larger stones.
The damp tunnel continued to descend for several hundred feet before he spotted the glimmering water. The agent hurried to the edge, and without the slightest pause, waded into the icy pool. He forced himself to remain still and scanned each side, until spotting a large boulder nearby. He crept forward and used the light to study a crevice between the boulder and the wall. Wedged into the middle of the crevice was a small drinking canister.
Exactly where Clay said it would be.
91
The blast was almost beyond comprehension.
As if in slow motion, the orange mushroom cloud had curled under itself, gradually turning red, then violet, then black, before finally dissolving into the night sky.
The impact of the world’s largest conventional bomb was devastating. A full thirty meters of the top of the Acarai summit was simply gone. Rocks, trees, everything…vaporized into nothingness, along with every creature within the radius of a quarter mile.
Salazar and his army, along with Otero and Russo. Every living thing was gone. Including Corso and Juan.