Fallout. Part 23

Consisting of 90 percent air, aerogel could hold four thousand times its own weight and had a mind-bending amount of surface area: Spread flat, each cubic inch of aerogel-roughly the size of four nickels stacked atop one another-would cover a football field from end zone to end zone. The ASE's palm-size, self-deploying aerogel chute could, depending on weather conditions, keep it aloft for as long as ninety seconds, giving Fisher a high-resolution bird's-eye view of nearly a square mile.

This newest generation of ASE had been fitted with a self-destruct mechanism, a la Mission Impossible Mission Impossible. The camera's interior, coated with a magnesium-lithium mixture, would ignite at a touch of a b.u.t.ton on Fisher's OPSAT screen, turning the camera and its aerogel chute into a charred, unrecognizable lump of plastic.

He took a moment to gauge the wind, then raised the SC-20 and pulled the trigger. With a soft thwump thwump, the ASE arched into the sky over the berm. Fisher tapped the OPSAT, bringing up the ASE's screen. The view he had was a quarter mile above the berm, looking straight down. The wind was negligible, drifting southeast to northwest at a slow walking pace.

The ground on the north side of the berm was also mostly featureless, with scattered trees and scrub brush and the empty artillery revetments set in a semicircle, each one a crescent of stacked sandbags. Fifty yards to the east of these, a curving S-shaped road ran northward to the goat farm, where it turned sharply right and ended in what looked like a gravel parking lot.

Fisher switched to night vision. In the washed-out gray green he could immediately pick out his two berm guards, both of whom were walking along the base of the berm toward each other. North of them, a hundred feet away, two more soldiers sat smoking atop the revetment's sandbags. He saw no one else. On the OPSAT screen he scrolled through the options until he came to SEQUENTIAL STILLS>ONE SECOND INTERVAL>OVERLAY TO MAP. He hit EXECUTE. High above him the ASE would be taking a sequence of ten photos, which it would transmit to the OPSAT, which in turn would match the ASE's landmarks with its own map of the area, producing a layered NV/standard satellite image.

He switched to infrared and repeated the same process, but as he was about to self-destruct the ASE, a gust of wind caught it. In the few seconds it took the camera's internal gyroscopes to steady the image, Fisher caught a glimpse of color. He panned the ASE around until he spotted it again.

h.e.l.lo, friend . . . . . .

A man-shaped figure outlined in the reds, blues, and greens of the IR lay p.r.o.ne in the scrub brush north of the artillery positions and beside the S-shaped road. This would be an observation post, he knew, probably a sniper equipped with a night-vision scope and a radio link to a command station somewhere. Anything that came up that road or over the berm would immediately fall into his crosshairs.

d.a.m.n. This complicated things. Then he thought about it. Maybe not Maybe not.

He tapped the ASE's self-destruct b.u.t.ton.

Having already picked his spot, he waited for each of the guards to disappear down his respective north slope, then got up and sprinted across the dead ground to the edge of the berm, where he dropped flat behind the juniper bushes. He parted the branches, wriggled through, and crawled up the slope until his head was three feet below the top. He waited. Two minutes pa.s.sed. Four. At the five-minute mark, the guards reappeared on the path. From his vantage point, Fisher could see only their heads as they pa.s.sed by one another, exchanged a few words, and kept going.

He waited for them to get fifty yards away, then checked his OPSAT one last time. Using his stylus and the IR overlay the ASE had taken for him, Fisher tapped his position on the map, then the sniper's. An annotated yellow diagonal line connected the two spots: DISTANCE TO TARGET: 180 METERS.

RISE/DROP: -9 METERS.

Fisher gauged the wind. Two knots, moving diagonally left to right. He adjusted the SC-20's scope, crawled up the slope until he was even with the top, then scooted forward an inch at a time, stopping every few feet and focusing the scope on the sniper's position. He was halfway across the berm when the sniper appeared in the scope's NV. He was lying on his belly in the undergrowth, perpendicular to Fisher, his cheek resting on the rifle's b.u.t.t. His attention seemed focused on the S-road.

Fisher zoomed in until only the man' head, shoulders, and upper torso filled the scope. He laid the crosshairs on a spot just behind the man's armpit-a heart shot-then took a breath, paused, let it out. He squeezed the trigger. The SC-20 gave a muted cough. Two hundred yards away, the sniper lay still, his head slumped forward on his rifle.

Fisher wriggled back across the path and down the slope and waited another seven minutes for the berm guards to pa.s.s by. He crawled back onto the path, again moving inches at a time, until through his scope he had a clear view of the two soldiers sitting atop the sandbag revetments. He checked the wind again, found it unchanged, so he zoomed in on the pair. They were sitting side by side, within two feet of one another. The sandbags, stacked to chest height, left their legs dangling in midair. Fisher saw one of them laugh, his head tilted back, teeth flashing white in the night-vision.

Sorry about this, boys.

Fisher laid the crosshairs on the center of the laughing man's chest and squeezed the trigger. Even as he was falling backward into the revetment and his friend, wearing a surprised expression, was extending a hand toward him, Fisher fired again. The second man toppled behind the sandbags.

Fisher began scooting backward.

43.

FISHER lay on his belly, perfectly still, his eyes fixed on the boot twelve inches before his face. Of all the places the soldier could have chosen for a bathroom break, the man chose this spot. Fisher closed his eyes for a moment, centering himself. Slowly, his heart rate returned to normal. The soldier unzipped his pants. Fisher heard liquid pattering the leaves beside his leg. After an agonizingly long thirty seconds, the guard rezipped, picked up his rifle from where it was leaning against the tree, turned around, and walked away. lay on his belly, perfectly still, his eyes fixed on the boot twelve inches before his face. Of all the places the soldier could have chosen for a bathroom break, the man chose this spot. Fisher closed his eyes for a moment, centering himself. Slowly, his heart rate returned to normal. The soldier unzipped his pants. Fisher heard liquid pattering the leaves beside his leg. After an agonizingly long thirty seconds, the guard rezipped, picked up his rifle from where it was leaning against the tree, turned around, and walked away.

After finishing off the two soldiers atop the revetment, it had been relatively simple to slip between the berm guard, crawl down the opposite embankment, then sprint to the revetment. From there he'd picked his way through the trees lining the S-road to the edge of the goat farm's gravel parking lot, where he settled in to wait and watch.

His two options to gain entrance into whatever kind of facility lay beneath the farm both had their pros and cons. The bush-camouflaged air vents, numerous and easier to reach, appealed to Fisher, but there was no telling where a vent would drop him, so he'd chosen the farm itself. If the farm was what they thought it was, there had to be access for staff. Clearly, there was an entrance somewhere in the highway tunnel, but Fisher knew he'd never make it past the checkpoints. That left the farm. Somewhere amid the collection of covered pens and miscellaneous rooms he would find what he was looking for.

The guard who had just nearly urinated on him had emerged from one of the farm's outbuildings, which was more of a raised construction trailer than a building. To the right of the trailer was a covered goat pen enclosed by a split-rail fence.

The guard climbed the wooden steps to the trailer and went inside. Through the window Fisher could see light and could make out voices speaking in Korean. Two, maybe three men, he estimated.

A quick check with the flexicam at the trailer's window revealed two men, both sitting at a folding table playing cards. Each one wore a sidearm, and leaning against the wall beside them were a pair of rifles. Sitting on the floor in the corner was a bronze tabletop reading lamp. Against the near wall, just below the window, was a countertop and sink.

Fisher drew the SC-20 from its holster and thumbed the selector to COTTONBALL.

Another favorite of his, the SC-20's Cottonball feature was made up of two parts: a slotted plastic cylinder-the sabot-which measured about two inches long and half an inch in diameter, and a spiked soft rubber ball roughly the size of a marble. Once fired, the sabot breaks away, leaving only the Cottonball, which, upon striking a hard object, shatters an inner pod of aerosol tranquilizer. Cottonball's effective radius was three feet; any living thing inside the cloud lost consciousness within four seconds and stayed that way for twenty to thirty minutes.

Fisher crept up the steps, turned the k.n.o.b with his left hand, and stepped through the door, the SC-20 already to his shoulder. He swung the door shut with his boot. In unison, both men spun in their chairs. The one farthest from Fisher started to rise.

"Sit," Fisher barked in Korean.

The man hesitated.

Fisher shook his head and gestured with the SC-20.

The man sat down.

"Raise your hand if you speak English," Fisher asked in English.

Both men raised his hand. One man-a senior sergeant, judging by the patch on his sleeve-was in his forties; the other man was no older than twenty. Fisher studied them for a few moments and decided he didn't like the glint of anger in the younger one's eyes.

He fired a Cottonball in his chest. There was a pfft pfft sound. The man staggered, then his eyes rolled back into his head, and he collapsed. sound. The man staggered, then his eyes rolled back into his head, and he collapsed.

Fisher pointed the SC-20 at the sergeant, who already had his hands raised. "Please . . . no shoot," he said in stilted English.

"You've got a family, don't you?" Fisher asked.

"Yes. A family."

"And you're close to retirement."

"Yes. Uh . . . six . . . uh . . ."

"Months."

"Yes."

"You cooperate, and you'll live to see your family and your retirement. You don't cooperate, you're going to die in this trailer. Do you understand?"

The sergeant's bulging eyes told Fisher he understood perfectly.

"Yes, yes, please . . ."

Fisher stalked forward and knelt down before the sink. He opened the cabinet door, looked inside, then stood up and tossed the sergeant a pair of flexicuffs. "See that pipe bracket in there?"

The sergeant bent over and looked. "Yes."

"Tie him to that. Not the pipe, the bracket."

As the sergeant dragged his partner to the sink, Fisher walked to the floor lamp and unplugged it. He clicked on the SC-20's barrel light, then checked the sergeant's work and found it satisfactory.

"Empty your pockets on the table."

The sergeant did so. Fisher sorted through the contents. He found no keys, but on the back of the man's ID card he spotted a magnetic dot about half the diameter of a penny. Fisher pocketed the card. He gestured for the sergeant to sit down.

"What's your name?"

"Kim. I am Kim."

"Kim, there's a facility beneath this goat farm. How do I get into it?"

Kim hesitated. His eyes darted left, then right.

Fisher thumbed the SC-20's selector to SINGLE and fired a bullet into the wall beside his head. Kim started, nearly toppling sideways out of his chair.

"Next bullet goes between your eyes," Fisher said, tapping his index finger on his own forehead, then pointing at Kim's. "Understand?"

"Yes."

"Where's the entrance?"

Kim pointed vaguely. "There."

"Take me."

ONCE outside the trailer, Kim didn't turn right toward the outbuildings but walked straight into the goat pen, turned left, and stopped before a storage closet built into the wall. The doors were covered in peeling white paint, one latch hanging precariously by a rusted screw. outside the trailer, Kim didn't turn right toward the outbuildings but walked straight into the goat pen, turned left, and stopped before a storage closet built into the wall. The doors were covered in peeling white paint, one latch hanging precariously by a rusted screw.

At Fisher's prompting, Kim opened the cabinet doors. He reached down and brushed away some hay from the floor, revealing a hinged O-ring. He pulled on it. The closet's entire floor lifted up on hinges and locked into the open position. A set of wood stairs dropped away into darkness.

Kim nodded and pointed. "There. Yes?"

Fisher nodded, then gestured with the SC-20. "Back to the trailer. It's nap time."

AFTER giving Kim a dose of Cottonball and securing him next to his partner, he locked the trailer door from the inside and returned to the hidden stairway. giving Kim a dose of Cottonball and securing him next to his partner, he locked the trailer door from the inside and returned to the hidden stairway.

At the bottom he found a long, dark corridor with white linoleum floor tiles and white cinder-block walls. With the SC-20 held at ready low he started down the corridor. He pa.s.sed eight rooms, five to one side, three to the other. All were empty and dark. Not a piece of furniture, not a sc.r.a.p of paper, not even the barest trace of dust on the floor.

He came to a T-intersection. To the left and right, more white walls, more white doors, more empty rooms. At the end of the right-hand corridor he found a freight elevator, gate wide open. To his right, the last door stood open. Inside, Fisher found an industrial-sized paper shredder plugged into the wall outlet and, lying on the floor beside it, an empty trash bag. He returned to the corridor. The door on the opposite side bore a white placard with Korean Hangul Hangul characters in red. Fisher opened the door. On the other side was a stairwell. He followed it down two flights to a landing and another door. Through it was a short corridor ending at yet another door. While this one was unlocked like all the rest, it had been secured by a hasp and a padlock, both of which hung open. characters in red. Fisher opened the door. On the other side was a stairwell. He followed it down two flights to a landing and another door. Through it was a short corridor ending at yet another door. While this one was unlocked like all the rest, it had been secured by a hasp and a padlock, both of which hung open.

He opened the door.

The room was eight feet by eight feet and contained a narrow trundle bed with an inch-thick mattress, a tattered green wool blanket, a sink and a toilet, both bolted to the wall, and a hard-backed steel chair sitting in the corner.

A prison cell, Fisher thought.

With nothing else to search, Fisher used his Sykes to split the mattress and dump the foam batting onto the floor. Amid the fluff he found a thin rubber shoe insert. On its back, pressed into the foam with what Fisher guessed was a fingernail, was a block letter message:

IF YOU FIND THIS AND CARE MY NAME IS CARMEN HAYES.

AMERICAN.

MY PARENTS PRICE AND LORETTA.

HOUSTON TEXAS.

TELL THEM I LOVE THEM.

TELL THEM WHAT HAPPENED TO ME.

-CH

44.

MISAWA AIR BASE, MISAWA, j.a.pAN.

ON the screen, Lambert sat alone at the conference room table. Grimsdottir and Redding sat behind him at the periphery of the room, partially in the shadows. Fisher's own screen, a nineteen-inch computer monitor, sat on the desk before him. The room he'd been given was one of the base's tanks, an isolated, soundproof s.p.a.ce in the commander's anteroom. Tanks were constantly monitored and scrubbed for listening devices. the screen, Lambert sat alone at the conference room table. Grimsdottir and Redding sat behind him at the periphery of the room, partially in the shadows. Fisher's own screen, a nineteen-inch computer monitor, sat on the desk before him. The room he'd been given was one of the base's tanks, an isolated, soundproof s.p.a.ce in the commander's anteroom. Tanks were constantly monitored and scrubbed for listening devices.

Lambert took a moment to digest the brief Fisher had just given him, then nodded. "That poor girl," he said. "So there was nothing? Cleaned out completely?"

"A few trash bags," Fisher said. "And her message. Nothing more."

How long ago had that been? Fisher thought. It felt much longer than it was. Fisher thought. It felt much longer than it was.