Tucker punched the proper frequency. “Up on channel five,” he called over the rush of the engine.
Harper came on the line. “We have the make, model, and registration number of the boat. I gave it to the pilot. The last sighting put her on a heading of two-three-nine degrees. They should be passing the city of Charlevoix right about now. It’s a fast boat, Tucker. Running at about forty knots.”
“What’s in front of it?”
“Mostly cargo traffic from the St. Lawrence seaway. The bulk of the ships are heading for either Milwaukee or Chicago.”
“Carrying what?”
“I’m working on it.”
Bukolov had his headset on. “I have an idea of what’s happening here, Ms. Harper. I think Felice is targeting one of those cargo ships, one that’s likely carrying something organic—fertilizer, seeds, even herbicide.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Because it’s what I would do if I were in Kharzin’s shoes. He could not have produced more than a couple of liters of weaponized agent by now. Far too little to disperse via air. Such small amounts require him to directly contaminate a primary source in order to ensure suitable germination and propagation—but how do you get the most bang for your buck in such a scenario? Let’s say Ms. Nilsson can contaminate a cargo of agricultural products and that ship docks in Chicago or Milwaukee or another major distribution hub—”
Tucker understood. “Planting season is starting throughout the Midwest. That infected cargo could incubate in the hold and then be spread throughout the nation’s heartland.” He imagined the havoc that would be wreaked. “Harper, what about the Coast Guard? Can we get them mobilized, to set up some sort of blockade? We can’t let that ship reach shore.”
“I’ll sound the alarm, but I doubt we have enough time. Doctor Bukolov, answer me this. What happens if the LUCA is introduced into a body of water?”
Tucker stared at the snow-swept lake racing under the helicopter, appreciating her concern.
“Simply speculating, much of the organism would survive. Lakes have plenty of vegetative matter to host or feed LUCA. This organism survived and thrived for millions of years during this planet’s most inhospitable period. It’s aggressive and highly adaptable. Nature always finds a way to go on, and LUCA is Nature at its most resilient.”
“I was afraid you’d say that.”
“What’s got you worried, Harper?” Tucker asked.
“If Felice boards one of those ships and contaminates the cargo, we’ve got more ways to lose than win. If the ship is sunk or destroyed, LUCA still escapes.”
Bukolov nodded. “Additionally, if the contamination does reach open water, it would be much harder to clean up with the kill switch.”
“Then we need to stop Felice before she reaches one of those ships,” Tucker said.
After signing off, he switched channels to the pilot, a young National Guard aviator named Nick Pasternak. “Give me all the speed you can, Nick.”
“You got it. Hold tight.”
The timbre of the engines climbed, and the Bell accelerated to its maximum speed. At 150 knots, the ice-crusted coastline rushed beneath them.
“Coming to Harbor Springs now,” Nick called five minutes later. “The marina where your boat was stolen is on our nose, thirty seconds out.”
“Once there, head out on the same bearing the boat took. Two-three-nine degrees. Then keep your eyes peeled. If they’re still on this bearing, they’ve got a twenty-five-mile head start on us.”
“I can close that in six minutes.”
The helicopter passed over the frozen docks of the marina, turned its nose southwest, and headed out over the lake. As it raced away from the coast, Tucker watched the waters slowly change from green to blue. He strained for any sign of the stolen boat through the thickening snowfall.
Nick had better eyes. “Speedboat dead ahead! Make and model seem to be a match.”
Tucker had to be certain. “Give us a close flyby.”
“Will do.”
The Bell swept down until it was a hundred feet off the water, speeding low over the water.
“Boat coming up in five seconds,” Nick reported. “Four . . . three . . .”
Tucker pressed his face against the window. The speedboat appeared out of the storm mist. As the helicopter buzzed over it, he saw the deck was empty, no one behind the wheel.
What the hell . . .
7:33 P.M.
Bukolov stared out his window. “Nobody’s aboard.”
Ignoring him, Tucker radioed the pilot. “Keep on this bearing!”
The doctor turned to him. “Does that mean they already boarded one of the cargo ships?”
“Most likely.”
Nick called out, “Cargo ship dead ahead!”
“I need her name,” Tucker replied. “Can you get us close to—?”
“Yep, hold on. Descending.”
“But don’t crowd her!” Tucker warned.
If Felice was aboard that ship, he didn’t want her spooked—at least not yet.
“I understand. I’ll keep us a half mile out.”
Tucker picked up a set of binoculars and focused on the boat.
Off in the distance, the gray bulk cut slowly through the storm, led by a tall well-lit wheelhouse, flanked by flying bridges. He imagined the pilot and crew inside there navigating the ship through the growing weather. At the stern rose a three-level superstructure, less bright. Between the two castles spread a flat deck interrupted by cranes and a line of five giant square cargo hatches. He adjusted his view down and read the name painted on the cargo ship’s hull.
He radioed it to Harper. “I think we’ve got her. Motor Vessel Macoma. I need whatever you can get on her. Especially her cargo.”
“Stand by.” She was back in two minutes: “Motor Vessel Macoma. Capacity is 420 deadweight tons. It’s bound for Chicago carrying fertilizer-enhanced topsoil and compost for agricultural use.”
Tucker turned. “Doctor, would that fit the bill?”
“Yes . . .” Bukolov confirmed. “Such material would make the perfect incubation bed for LUCA.”
Harper remained more cautious. “Tucker, are you sure this is the ship?”
“We spotted an abandoned speedboat, adrift a few miles astern of the Macoma. Listen, Harper, we’re not going to find a neon sign guiding us. We have to roll the dice.”
“I hear you. You’re on scene. It’s your call.”
“How soon can we expect any help?” Tucker asked.
“The closest team to you is still forty minutes out. I’m working on the Coast Guard.”
“Then I guess we’re going in. If Felice is smart, and I know she is, she’ll be rigging that ship with explosives. So the sooner we can intercede, the better.”
“Then good luck to the both of you.”
Tucker switched channels. “Nick, we need to get aboard that ship. Can you do it?”
“Watch me,” he said, with the confidence of the very young and very foolish.
Nick descended again, a stomach-lurching drop to thirty feet. He banked until the chopper was dead astern to the Macoma. The dark ship filled the world ahead of them. He moved slower, closing the gap, buffeted by the storm’s crosswind. The Bell’s nose now lingered mere feet from the ship’s rear railing.
Nick radioed his plan from here. “I’m gonna pop us higher, bring us to hover over the roof of that aft superstructure. You’ll have to jump from there.”
Tucker studied the towering castle rising from the ship’s stern. The superstructure climbed three levels, its lights glowing through the snow.
“Go for it,” he said.
“Hang on.”
Nick worked the cyclic and throttle, and the Bell shot straight up. Fighting the winds, the helicopter glided forward, bobbling, struggling.
Oh, God . . .
Bukolov agreed. “Oh, God . . .”
The landing skids bumped over a top railing—then came the sound of steel grinding
on steel as the skids scraped across the roof. Crosswinds skittered the craft.
Crack . . . crack . . .
From the shattering blasts, Tucker thought something had broken on the helicopter.
Nick corrected him. “Pulling out! Somebody out there with a gun, taking potshots at us.”
The helicopter lifted, rising fast.
Tucker unbuckled and leaned forward, searching through the cockpit’s Plexiglas bubble. A man, cloaked in storm gear, stood on the roof deck below. He slung his rifle, picked up another weapon, and rested it atop his shoulder, something larger and longer.
A grenade launcher.
Tucker yelled, “Hard left, nose down!”
Nick worked the controls, pitching the nose and leaning into a bank.
Too late.
Below, a flash of fire, a trailing blast of smoke—
—and the rocket-propelled grenade slammed into the Bell’s tail rotor, sending the bird into a hellish spin.
Tucker got pitched left and landed in a heap in the cockpit’s passenger seat.
Nick screamed next to him, fighting for control, “Tail strike, tail strike . . . Ah, Jesus!”
Tucker shouted and pointed to the cargo ship’s main deck. “Cut the engines! Crash us! We’re going down anyway. Do it!”
“Okay . . . !”
“Doctor, grab Kane!”
“I have him.”
Nick worked the cyclic, bringing the nose level, then took his hand off the throttle and flipped switches. “Engines off! Hold on!”
As the roaring died around them, the Bell dropped, falling crookedly out of the sky. Suddenly a tall davit crane loomed before the windscreen. Nick jerked the cyclic sideways, and the Bell pivoted. The tail section swung and slammed against the davit tower, whipping the helicopter around as it plummeted to the deck.
With a bone-numbing thud, the helicopter hit, bounced once on its skids, then slammed its side into the aft superstructure. The still-spinning rotor blades chopped against the steel, shearing off and zipping across the deck like shrapnel, severing cables and slicing off rails.
Then all went silent, save the spooling down of the Bell’s engine.
44
March 28, 7:49 P.M.
Lake Michigan
“Who’s hurt?” Tucker called out as he regained his senses after the wild plummet and crash.
“Bleeding,” Nick mumbled, dazed. “My head. Not bad.”
“Doc?”
“We’re okay, Kane and I . . . I think.”
Tucker untangled himself from his spot on the floor and crawled back to the passenger compartment. He checked on Kane, who jumped up and greeted him.
Bukolov gasped, aghast. “Dear God, man, the blood . . . your ear . . .”
Tucker carefully probed the injury. The upper part of his left ear hung down like a flap.
“Grab that first-aid kit behind—”
Nick shouted from the cockpit, “Another guy with a gun!”
“Where?”
“Left side! On the port side! Coming up the deck by the railing!”
Means I have to be on the starboard side . . .
Tucker crawled across Bukolov’s legs and shoved at the side door. It was jammed. Tucker slammed into it with his shoulder a few times until the door popped open. He hurled himself out and landed hard on the roof of the cargo hold. Staying flat, he rolled away from the man climbing to the deck. As he reached the starboard edge of the raised cargo hold, he fell the yard down to the main deck.
He landed on his back, unzipped his jacket, and drew out his MP-5 submachine gun.
Bullets ricocheted across the cargo hold as the man on the far side took potshots at him from across its roof.
Tucker shouted to Kane. “CHARGE SHOOTER!”
He heard the shepherd land on the roof and begin sprinting toward the gunman. Tucker waited two beats—then popped up out of hiding. As planned, the shooter had turned toward the charging dog. Tucker fired twice, striking the guy in the chest and face.
One down . . .
“COME!” he called to Kane.
The shepherd skidded on the snow-slick surface, turned, and ran to him, jumping down beside Tucker.
Now to deal with the man who had shot their bird out of the air. The assailant with the RPG launcher had been atop the aft superstructure. But where was—?
Boots pounded to the deck from the ladder behind Tucker. He swung around. The assailant had his weapon up—but pointed at the helicopter. During the man’s frantic climb down, he must have failed to witness the brief firefight, and now he missed Tucker lying in the shelter of the raised cargo only yards away in the dark.
Small miracle, but he’d take it.
He fired a three-round burst into the man’s chest, sprawling him flat.
Two down . . .
That left Felice and how many others? The police report mentioned three men accompanying her on the boat, but were there more? Did she have other accomplices already on board, mixed with the crew, to expedite this takeover? Regardless, his most pressing question at the moment remained: Where was she?
He poked his head up and took five seconds to get the lay of the land. Their helicopter had crash-landed against the aft superstructure and on top of the rearmost cargo hold. He turned and stared down the length of open deck between him and the main bridge, studying the ship’s wheelhouse and its two flying bridges.
The first order of business was to reach there, try to take control of the ship.
There was only one problem.
Between him and the bridge stretched two hundred yards of open deck. Aside from the other four raised cargo holds and a handful of davit cranes down the ship’s midline, there was no cover.
Which meant they had two problems.
Somewhere aboard this ship was an expert sniper.
Tucker called toward the helicopter, “Nick . . . Doc!”
“Here!” the men called in near unison from inside the craft.
“Think you can make it over to me?”
“Do we have a choice?” Bukolov yelled back.
It seemed to be a rhetorical question. Both men immediately vacated the broken bird at the same time. Nick helped Bukolov, as the doctor was weighted down by the backpack over his shoulders. They ran low and fast together. Nick pushed Bukolov over the roof’s edge to the deck, then jumped down after him.
They both collapsed next to him.
Nick had brought the first-aid kit with him and passed it over. “Looks like you could use this.”
Tucker quickly fished out a winged pressure bandage. Using the pad, he pressed his ear back in place, then wound the strips around his forehead and knotted it off.
“What’s this I overheard about the ship may be blowing up?” Nick asked as he worked.
“Just a possibility. The good news is that it hasn’t happened yet. The bad news is that there’s a highly trained sniper on board, and unless I miss my guess, she’s probably looking for a decent perch to—”
A bullet zinged off the cargo hold beside Tucker’s head.
They all dropped lower.
And there she is . . .
He rolled to face the others, while keeping his head down. “Nick, you stay put with the doctor.”
“Wait! Do you feel that?” Bukolov asked.
Tucker suddenly did: a deep shuddering in the deck. He knew what that meant.
“The engines are picking up speed,” he said. “And we’re turning.”
Tucker had spent the last two days studying a map of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. In his mind’s eye, he overlapped the Macoma’s approximate position, picturing the ship slowly swinging to port. He suddenly knew why the ship was turning.
He yanked out his satellite phone and dialed Harper, who picked up immediately. “She’s here!” he said. “On the Macoma. And she knows she’s been exposed and knows the ship will never make Chicago now that the alarm has been raised. So she’s gone to Plan B and is heading straight for land, to try to ru
n this ship into the ground.”
It also explained why her forces hadn’t overwhelmed Tucker and the others by now. She and her remaining teammates must have turned their attention to the bridge and likely entrenched themselves there to keep anyone from thwarting them.
“If Felice is truly attempting to crash the ship,” Harper said, “that might be good news.”
“Good? How?”
“It means she hasn’t had time to set up any explosives . . . or maybe she doesn’t have any. Either way, I’m vectoring all teams to you now. The State Police and Coast Guard won’t be far behind us. Still no one will reach you for another twenty minutes.”
“We don’t have that much time, Harper.”
“Do what you can to delay her. Cavalry’s coming.”
Tucker disconnected.
“How long until we hit the coastline?” Bukolov asked after eavesdropping on the conversation. He crouched, hugging his body against the cold and snow.
“Twenty, maybe twenty-five minutes at most.”
Tucker needed to get the others somewhere safer. A bit farther up the deck was a thick enclosed hinge for the cargo hold. It was only two feet high, but it offered additional shelter both from the wind and from direct view of the main bridge’s wheelhouse, where Felice was surely perched.
“Follow me, but stay low,” he said and got everyone into that scant bit of cover.
Nick clutched Tucker’s elbow. “I was born and raised in Michigan. If this ship is heading to shore around here, that’ll put them in Grand Traverse Bay, headed straight for Old Mission Point. The rocks there’ll rip the hull to shreds.”
“Must be why she chose that course,” Bukolov said.
Tucker nodded grimly. “Doc, stay here with Kane, prep your dispersal rig, and do your best not to get shot. Felice is holed up there in the forward wheelhouse, with who knows how many others. She intends to make sure this ship stays on course for those rocks. I have to try to get to her before that happens.”
Tucker also had to assume one or more of the holds was already contaminated by Felice and her team. Back at Fort Detrick, he had trained Kane to lock on to the unusual sulfurous smell of LUCA. But before that search could commence, Tucker first had to clear the way.
He poked his head an inch above the cargo hold’s lid, aimed the MP-5’s scope at the wheelhouse, then dropped down again. The wheelhouse had three aft-facing windows. They all appeared untouched, which meant Felice had probably fired upon them from one of its two open flying bridges—one stuck out from the port side of the wheelhouse, the other from the starboard, the pair protruding like the eyes of a hammerhead shark.
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