CHAPTER
88
TOGETHER THEY GAZED DOWN at the prone man. Puller didn’t think he was dead, because he was trussed up. One did not tie up the dead. Just to be sure Puller knelt next to him, stripped off his glove, and felt for a pulse. He gazed up at Cole. “Slow but steady. He’s been drugged.”
Cole said, “And I found these.”
Puller looked where she was pointing. This was the last thing he would have expected to find in here.
They were banker boxes. He opened one. They were full of financial records. Puller sifted through a few files. There was also a baggie filled with labeled flash drives.
“What are they?” asked Cole.
“Looks like financial records. Like I told you, your sister said Roger was having problems. Maybe these records tell a story someone never wants anyone to discover. Along with Roger.”
“But who would do that?”
“I have my suspicions.”
“Who? I mean—” She broke off because Puller was looking over her shoulder.
He said, “Did you check your entire side over there?”
“No. I was doing my sweep when I found Roger lying on the floor. Why?”
He pointed. “That’s why.”
Cole turned around and saw what had captured his attention.
There was a light coming from the opposite side of the building. A soft green light. It had just come on. In the pitch dark he would’ve seen it before.
She hustled after him, her Cobra out.
Puller stopped and so did she.
She looked where he was looking.
The box was about four feet long and the same width and looked to be built of stainless steel. It was a nice job, no obvious seams. The metal looked like it had been cast in one piece; a nifty piece of craftsmanship. Puller knelt down next to it, put his gloved hand on the box. Then he took it away.
He looked up at Cole. “Warm.”
“What’s powering this thing?” she asked. “There’s no electrical source in here.”
“There’s lot of energy in here, Cole. There’s probably enough in those barrels over there to power New York City for a thousand years once you ran it through a nuclear reactor.”
She stared down at the box. “Is… is this it? Is this a bomb? It doesn’t look like a bomb.”
“Since when have you seen a nuclear bomb up close and personal?”
“I’ve seen them on the wings of planes. I watched a History Channel program of the ones they dropped on Japan. They didn’t look like a box.”
“Well, looks can be deceiving.”
“Did it just turn on? I didn’t see that light before.”
“Neither did I, which means that this sucker just woke up.”
She drew a sharp breath. “Does it have a timer? Is it ticking down?”
“You’ve been watching too many movies.” Puller was looking over every inch of the box, trying to find a seam, an indication of a hinge, a break in the metal. He ran his fingers over the top, feeling for anything his electronic-aided eyes had missed.
“So it doesn’t have a timer?”
Puller snapped, “Cole, I don’t know, okay? I’ve never been around a nuclear weapon before.”
“But you’re in the Army.”
“Not that part. And the Navy and Air Force control most of the nukes. The infantry are just the working-class guys shooting and getting shot at in all types of weather just like they did two hundred years ago. Biggest weapon I was around was a fifty cal. You can kill hundreds of people with a fifty. This thing can kill tens of thousands, maybe more.”
“Puller, if you open that thing won’t whatever is in there kill us?”
“It might. But if I don’t open it, whatever is in there will probably kill us anyway. Plus a whole bunch of other people.”
His fingers stopped probing and held on one spot, six inches from the right side of the stainless steel.
“Did you find something?” she asked.
In answer he picked up his dumbbell-sized phone and punched in a number. “It’s time to bring in the heavyweights.”
“What if the call won’t go through?”
“Then we are screwed, that’s what.”
She started to say something but he held up a finger. “The phone works.” He spoke into it.
“Hey, Bobby. Got time to give your little brother some tips on defusing a nuke?”