The two other soldiers raised their M4s and took aim. One for her head, the other the torso.
Nonsurvivable.
“This is nuts,” barked Pine. “I’m a federal agent. Lower your weapons and stand down. Now.”
“No can do, ma’am. Last call. Three seconds.”
Pine stood there frozen. They were really going to execute her, right on the floor of the Grand Canyon.
She made to reach for her Glock. She might be able to get off one shot.
Good-bye to everybody who cares. I’m coming, Mercy.
Shit.
The round fired. And then a second.
It had happened so fast that Pine thought she had taken both impacts.
The two guys behind the point man flinched, stiffened, and then both fell forward.
Point Man whirled, his weapon aimed on his target.
“No!” screamed Pine, drawing her weapon. “Drop it, drop it or I will fire.”
The M4 barked at the same time Pine pulled the Glock’s trigger once, her laser sight dead on the back of the guy’s neck.
Point Man dropped.
Pine, her hands shaking, slowly lowered her weapon.
Twenty yards away, Sam Kettler stared wildly at her. He was carrying a backpack and there was a pistol in his hand.
Pine looked down at the three dead bodies. Two had been shot by Kettler, one by her.
“Shit,” she hissed. “They were our guys. At least I think they were.”
Kettler scrambled forward. “Funny way of showing it. They were going to kill you.”
She looked up at him. “What are you doing here?”
He pointed at the men. “I’ve watched a chopper come in the last three nights. I finally decided to do something about it. I grabbed my go pack, picked up their trail, and followed them up here. And saw what they were about to do to you.” He looked down at his gun and shook his head. “Why the hell are American soldiers down here in the first place?”
“It’s a long story.” She reached out and gripped his arm. “Thanks for saving my life.”
“Well, you saved mine. The guy had me lined up for the kill. If you hadn’t fired and spoiled his aim, I’d have had an M4 round right through me.”
She removed her hand from his arm and steadied herself against a rock outcrop.
“You okay?” he asked.
“I’m getting there,” she said, taking several deep breaths.
He shot her a glance. “And what are you doing all the way out here? You’re not just hiking, that’s for sure.”
“I’m looking for the missing guy. They were, too.”
“You think he’s around here? Why?”
“Again, long story.” She looked at the bodies. “We have to do something. We can’t just leave them here.” She looked around. “But this is, well, I guess it’s a crime scene. We can’t disrupt anything.” She rubbed her forehead. “I need to call in a team. I need to secure the area. I . . . I need. . . . ” Her mind was swirling with so many competing thoughts Pine thought she might puke.
Kettler drew closer to her and gripped Pine’s arm. “What you need to do is just take a few more deep breaths and give yourself a little time. You were almost killed, Atlee.”
“I just shot an Army guy, Sam!”
“Well, I just shot two of them.”
While Pine was regaining her composure, Kettler spotted the cammie blanket. He moved it aside and saw the cave opening. “Damn, where did that come from?”
“It might be what I was looking for.”
“Well, I can put the bodies in there for now.”
“I’ll help.”
“Then we can call in reinforcements.”
“No. We have to locate something else first.”
“What’s that?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
CHAPTER
55
They carried the bodies into the cave and set them down in a corner.
Pine checked them for any ID, but they had none. And no tags on their uniforms.
Kettler said, “Are you sure they’re regular Army?”
“I’m not sure of anything right now.”
She shone her light around. The cave was large. The ceiling she estimated was about fifteen feet high. A shade darker area near the rear might have been a passageway to another room, but she couldn’t be sure.
“Okay, you need to tell me what’s going on,” said Kettler.
In curt, information-packed sentences, she filled him in on pretty much everything. When she was done, Kettler looked like he might throw up.
He looked around. “A nuke? In here? Are you shitting me?”
“I wish I were.”
He shone his light around. “Well, it’s not in this space.”
“But it could be back there,” she said, motioning to the rear of the cave. “Hit it with your light. It’s stronger than mine.”
He did so and the opening to a passageway cut into the rock was revealed.
They entered the passage and moved along it single file, with Pine in the lead.
As they walked along, Pine stumbled over something.
Kettler aimed his light down and she heard him suck in a breath.
“Trip wire.”
Pine said in a panicked voice, “Like tied to an IED?”
“No.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because we’d already be dead.”
They moved forward and were about to step into what looked to be a larger cave when a voice called out.
“One more step and you won’t be taking another.”
“Mr. Roth?” called out Pine.
There was silence for a few moments. “Who are you?”
“Special Agent Atlee Pine with the FBI. I’m here with a park ranger named Sam Kettler. I was investigating the death of a mule and Ben Priest being missing.”
A light beam hit them in the face. “Let me see your badges.”
They slowly held up their official metal.
“Look, Mr. Roth, I can understand if you don’t trust us. Because I’m not sure I trust my own agency right now.”
“I want you to turn around and leave here. Now! Or the consequences will not be good for you.”
“Mr. Roth, we’re here to help. And I’m pretty damn sure you need help.”
“I told you to leave. Now.”
Pine glanced at Kettler and then called out, “What about the three bodies we just dragged in?”
Roth said nothing for a long moment. “Three bodies?”
“We just shot three soldiers who were looking for you. They were going to kill us, even though I showed them my FBI badge. And I’m pretty damn certain that they were going to kill you next. So we just saved your life.”
“This . . . this is . . .”
“This is a situation, Mr. Roth. And we have to confront it. Ben Priest told me a little about it.”
“You know Ben?”
“Yes. And I think it was our military who abducted him.”
Another moment of silence passed before Roth blurted out, “They took Ben? How?”
“It’s a long story. The point is, everything is screwed up.”
Roth kept the light in their faces. “How did you find this cave?”
“Coordinates were on a flash drive I found at Ben’s home.”
“How did you know about me in the first place?”
“Ben didn’t give you up, if that’s what you were thinking. Oscar Fabrikant told me. I got on to him because Ben was a member of SFG. Are you familiar with that organization?”
“Yes. What else did Oscar tell you?”
“That he was concerned the Russians were involved.”
“They are involved. But now you have to leave. I can’t trust anyone at this point.”
“I can’t do that, Mr. Roth. I’m here to do my job. And to track down whoever killed Fabrikant.”
There was another long pause. “He’s—Oscar’s dead?”
“His body was found in Moscow. It was ruled a suicide, but I know it wasn’t.”
“Oscar, dead? I . . . I can’t believe it.”
“Can you point the light out of our faces, please?”
The light vanished.
“Will you trust us, Mr. Roth? Because I think we need each other to finish this.”
Roth didn’t answer.
“Please, Mr. Roth. What can I do to make you trust me?”
Roth said, “What do you think is going on?”
“I think there’s a nuke in here. And since my job is to protect the Grand Canyon at all costs, that’s not a good thing.”
There was another long moment of silence.
“If you turn out not to be who you say you are, it will be the last thing you ever do,” he said threateningly.
“Works for me,” said Pine.
“Come fully out of the passageway.”
They entered the cave, and suddenly the space was illuminated by a light source that they saw was a battery-powered lantern. Roth must have just turned it on.
And behind the illumination was Roth himself. His face was streaked with grime, and the man looked thoroughly exhausted.
Pine tossed him her badge and creds.
He looked them over and then threw them back.
“Everything I’ve told you is the truth,” she said.
Roth slowly nodded. “I believe you. I’m not sure why, but I’ve gone with my gut before, and I guess I have to now.”
“Was that your trip wire back there?” asked Kettler.
“Yes, just a warning for me in case someone stumbled in here.”
“So you’re armed, then?” said Kettler, looking around.
Roth replied, “You could say that I’m armed all right.”
He shone his light on something beside him.
It was rectangular in shape, had a metallic hide, and was about four feet long and three feet tall.
Both Pine and Kettler instinctively shrank back from the thing.
“That’s . . . that’s a nuke?” said Pine.
Roth nodded. “And you’ve just confirmed for me that you’re not involved in this plot.”
“How?”
“Because you both just looked ready to run for your lives.”
“Who wouldn’t in the face of a nuclear bomb?” said Pine.
“This is a very special nuclear device,” said Roth.
“It doesn’t look big enough to be a nuclear bomb,” said Kettler. “Is that what they call a suitcase nuke?”
Roth shook his head. “This is a tactical nuclear device. But, it’s plenty big enough. I calculate its yield at about the equivalent of nearly three kilotons of TNT. For comparison’s sake, the hydrogen bomb dropped over Nagasaki had a yield of over twenty kilotons. The largest detonation of all was the Tsar Bomba device that the Soviets set off a long time ago. That had a yield of fifty megatons. If the Soviets could have put a depleted uranium tamper on the sucker instead of a lead one, it would have doubled the yield.” He patted the device. “But for its size, this is the most powerful tactical nuke I’ve ever seen. It could have taken a huge chunk out of the Canyon and also left the place radioactive for a few thousand years.”
“Is it going to detonate?” asked Pine fearfully, taking another step back.
“I shouldn’t think so.”
“So you defused it?”
Roth shook his head. “You don’t really defuse a nuke. It’s not like a Hollywood movie with the timer counting down and the hero deciding which color wire to cut. If a nuke is going to detonate, the best you can do is take steps to make sure the nuclear chain reaction does not take place. Then it just becomes a big explosion, but not a nuclear one.”
“How did it get here?” asked Pine.
Roth waved them forward and pointed at the front metal panel. “Do you see that engraved writing?”
Both Pine and Kettler peered closer. Pine said, “That’s Korean?”
“Yes, it is.”
“That makes sense. There were plans for a North Korean nuke on the flash drive Priest had.”
“I was the one who gave them to him, along with the coordinates of this cave.”
Pine stiffened. “So, the North Koreans are trying to nuke the Canyon? The peace talks were just a sham on their part?”
“No, of course they’re not trying to nuke the Grand Canyon,” was Roth’s surprising reply.
Pine looked gobsmacked by his reply. Then she said stubbornly, “But there was a man named Sung Nam Chung looking for you. He worked for the North Koreans.”
“That may well be, but the North Koreans didn’t put this here.” Roth paused. “We did.”
The blood slowly drained from Pine’s face. “‘We’?”
“Well, certain very powerful elements within the U.S. government did so.”
“How the hell do you know that!” snapped Kettler. “Our people putting a nuke here? That’s nuts!”
“I agree, it is madness. But nevertheless, that’s what happened.”
“How can you be so sure?” asked Pine.
“Because I recognize the materials from which it was created. It’s Russian made.”
“But that’s Korean writing on the side there.”
“Russia supplied North Korea for years with material for making nuclear devices. Some of those materials were used to make this bomb.”
“Again, how can you be sure?” persisted Pine.
In answer Roth took a battery-powered screwdriver from a bag set next to the device and unscrewed the top panel of the device. He lifted it off, and held it up.
“The engraved writing on the inside of this panel, what language does that look like to you?”
“It’s the Cyrillic alphabet,” said Pine, examining it closely. “Russian.”
Roth put the panel aside. “That’s right. It states the place of origin and the serial number of the part. It’s just recycled.”
Pine said, “But if Russia supplied North Korea with nuclear material, it would make sense that it would have a Russian imprint. So how can you be sure that North Korea didn’t place it here?”
“Because this weapon was going to be the excuse to destroy North Korea. And I doubt very much that they would want to be a party to their own annihilation.”
CHAPTER
56
Pine and Kettler looked at each other and then stared at the nuke.
Pine finally settled her gaze back on Roth. “You’re going to have to explain that.”
“It’s fairly simple. The Russians supplied us with this tactical nuclear weapon, and our country placed it here.”
“Why in the hell would our country want to blow up the Grand Canyon?” said Pine.
“This bomb can’t detonate. Which is the definitive reason I know that the North Koreans did not place it here.”
“But how do you know it can’t go off?” asked Pine.
“Because it’s lacking vital components.”
“What components?” asked Kettler.
“I can give you the layman’s thumbnail.” He pointed to the device. “This is what is termed a fusion bomb, or a thermonuclear weapon. It actually creates its destructive force in much the same way the sun creates energy. A conventional detonation is called the primary stage. That sends the fissionable uranium into a chain reaction, which results in an explosion producing heat at several million degrees. This heat and power is reflected back into the uranium core, which commences the second stage. This phase initiates fusion, and the explosion resulting from this secondary stage destroys the uranium container. The released neutrons then result in the fusion that makes for the thermonuclear event. Do you follow?”
Kettler scratched his cheek. “Damn, if that’s the dumbed-down version, I don’t want to hear the complicated one.”
Roth added, “The parts that were left out include the lithium-six deuteride, a functional reflector, and an appropriate tamper. Without that, you’ve basically got a pile of uranium and h
ydrogen atoms with nowhere to go.”
“Then what the hell was the purpose of placing it here?” asked Kettler.
Pine answered. “So we could use it as the reason to attack North Korea. That’s what Sung Nam Chung meant when he said he agreed with me that if the nuke went off, North Korea would be destroyed. He was trying to find the bomb and stop the plan.”
“Only he couldn’t know the real plan,” said Roth. “The bomb was never going to go off, but it nonetheless would be used against North Korea as though it had.”
“But if it lacked the vital components, wouldn’t that raise suspicions of it being bogus?”
“Who would know that?” countered Roth. “Journalists weren’t going to open it up and check the guts. And when they did get around to having ‘experts’ examine it, they would just tell them that those parts had been taken out afterward, just to make sure no accident happened. I can only imagine the media frenzy when the government announced that they’d found this in a cave in the Canyon. They would have choppered this out of the Canyon for all to see on live TV.”
“What would they have done after the device was made public?” asked Kettler.
“I think there would have been a presentation at the UN with graphs and slides, and documentation of exactly how the North Koreans had managed to put a nuke in the Canyon. All fabricated, of course, but seemingly all aboveboard and plausible.”
“But would it be plausible to argue that the North Koreans would plant a bomb on American soil?” said Pine. “They’d know we would destroy them if the truth came out.”
“Well, our side would counter that argument by simply saying if the bomb had exploded there would have been no evidence left of where it had come from. But if it came out that North Korea had tried to detonate a nuke in the heart of America’s greatest natural landmark before we found out and put a stop to it? War would have been inevitable.”
“And a lot of people would die in a war like that,” said Pine.
“It would be long and bloody with human carnage the likes of which we haven’t seen since World War II and the Korean War. Literally millions would die. Hundreds of thousands on the very first day.”
“My God,” said Kettler. “And I thought the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were bad.”
Roth said, “All wars are horrible when it comes to human casualties. I’m sure some wonks in the government have come up with ‘exact’ numbers of deaths in all categories along with the justification to sacrifice them in such a conflict.” He shook his head. “What a business to be in.”
Long Road to Mercy Page 30