“Plug me in,” Patel said.
Wu connected the laptop, hoping the link would not be destroyed by malware or blocked by an elaborate firewall. While Patel hunched over his keyboard, Wu turned to the sound of Benton and his team coming back through the control room door.
“We got the door on the other end of the tube open,” he said to Wu. “But we were nearly flambéed.”
Gizmo stepped in after Benton. “That whole section is on fire,” he said. “The flames beat us back every time we tried to get through. Our fire extinguishers didn’t help either.”
Benton met his gaze. “If that fuel ignites, it will create a fireball that will blow up the whole complex.”
“Correction,” Wu said, hating himself for what he was about to say next. “It will blow up the silo—not us. We’re in the control room. There’s a pressure lock on the door, and it’s blast proof. If we seal it, the fire can’t get in here.”
The room went completely silent. Everyone understood the implication. They could be assured of their safety if they were willing to cut off Vega’s only avenue of escape. All eyes were on him. As the ranking official, the call was his to make.
He glanced back to the laptop. “Are you in, Patel?”
Patel’s head popped up. “I found a back door, but I’ll have limited capabilities. I can’t control the functions that are damaged.”
“It’ll have to do. There could be a way to isolate the fire and deprive it of oxygen, or maybe there’s another way to put it out. We won’t know until we get into the controls.”
“We have to seal this room off while we’re in here,” Benton said. “Or we go up when this place does.”
Wu directed his next words to Benton, but they were meant for everyone. “Leave the door to the control room open, and do not activate the pressure lock. All nonessential personnel are to evacuate to the surface and clear the immediate area. If Agent Vega is going to get out of here, her only chance is for someone to stay and maintain the computer link.” He paused to make sure everyone understood. “That someone will be me.”
CHAPTER 64
Dani would never have guessed there was a hidden passage between a storage closet and stairs going down two levels. Megan clearly knew a lot about the silo. Information Dani would force her to share once she caught her.
And she would catch her.
She burst through the lower door and raced down the corridor at a dead sprint. Megan was just turning the corner at the far end, and Dani slowed briefly to check rather than running recklessly around the bend. She had believed Megan’s father was Nemesis, but it could be Megan or the two of them working together. Either way, Megan had lied to her, and this entire space was her domain. Was she leading Dani into a trap?
Megan had disappeared into a room off to the side, and Dani carefully followed her inside.
As soon as she entered, Dani stopped short. Megan sat perched on a metal railing, facing an opening to the floor below. She seemed to be contemplating leaping down to escape.
“Don’t come any closer,” Megan said to her. “Or I’ll jump.”
The drop couldn’t be more than twelve feet—totally survivable and unlikely to cause injury—so why the hesitation? She leaned forward, craning her neck to see over the railing, and got her answer.
They were on the balcony level above the floor covered in electrified pressure plates. Judging by Megan’s behavior, the plates were still live.
“It doesn’t have to end like this, Megan,” she said, deliberately personalizing the remark by using her first name. “Why don’t you and I work together to find a way out of here and—”
“I’ll tell you something useful,” Megan said. “But you’ll have to go over to the other side of the balcony before I’ll talk.”
Leery, Dani took a few steps toward the far side of the room, then stopped. Before going farther, she would test Megan.
“Is this good?” she called out.
Megan shook her head. “A bit more. I’ll tell you when you get there.”
Test failed.
“You’re maneuvering me into a trap,” she said. “I’m not moving another inch. You can stay here and burn to death—or jump down and fry yourself. Up to you.”
Megan swore.
A red glow caught Dani’s eye. She peered down to the level below and spotted the variable message display that had provided the clue for the Fibonacci sequence, only now it showed an odd constellation of images. Narrowing her eyes, she made out a series of hyphens and periods arranged in different patterns separated by slashes.
.- --. . -. - ...- . --. .- - .... .. ... .. ... ..-. -... .. .-- . -.-. / ..-
Minutes ago, she had heard a group of people shooting their way into the control room. Were they sending her a message? Why not spell it out like the Fibonacci clue? Why a coded message?
Coded.
Within seconds, her mind, so accustomed to recognizing patterns, detected Morse code. She had been required to memorize it as part of her military training in code breaking, and she quickly translated the dots and dashes.
A G E N T V E G A T H I S I S F B I W E C U
She pumped her fist in the air. They had found her. Their communication was obviously limited, but perhaps she could get information to them.
“You can see me,” she said aloud. “But can you hear me?”
Megan whipped her head around so fast she nearly fell off the railing. “Who the hell are you talking to?”
Ignoring her, Dani waited in breathless anticipation until the screen went black again. A moment later, a fresh message glowed red.
-.-- . ...
YES
Unbidden, suspicion crept into her mind. Nemesis was adept at mind games. Could this be another one? Was this truly the FBI, or was the group who had been shooting sending the message from the control room? And where was Megan’s father in all this? Were they working together after all? With so many questions, it was impossible to know what to believe. There had to be a test.
Following Dani’s gaze, Megan figured out where she was looking. “What’s on the screen down there?” she said. “Wait. Is that Morse code?”
It figured that someone smart enough to know the Fibonacci sequence would recognize one of the most famous codes in the world.
“Yes.” Dani waved a dismissive hand. “Shut up and let me think.”
She needed a piece of information that no one could research or hack into a database to find. Something not easily guessed and that only the people she worked with every day would know.
“What do I eat for breakfast every morning?” she said into the stillness around her.
The response came in less than thirty seconds, replacing the previous response with a new one.
-... / .-.. .- -.-. -.- -.-. / --- ..-. ..-. . .
BLACKCOFFEE
Satisfied, she disregarded Megan’s continued questions and wasted no time bringing them up to speed, delivering a rapid-fire explanation of her current status. She stopped in midsentence, however, when the screens went blank and flickered back on again with a fresh set of dots and dashes.
..- .-. .. -. -.. .- -. --. . / .-.
URINDANGER
“I know I’m in danger,” she said, frustrated. “That’s what I’ve been—”
The screens flickered with a new message.
. -..- .. - - ... / .-.. --- -.-. / -.- . -.. -... -.-- / ..-. .. .-. / .
EXITBLOCKEDBYFIRE
“What does it say?” Megan asked, shrill with panic at Dani’s last words.
This time, Dani translated for Megan as the next message filled the screen.
-. --- .-- .- -.-- --- ..- / -
NOWAYOUT
CHAPTER 65
Megan listened to Agent Vega’s translation of the Morse code in growing horror. Her heart seized, then accelerated to a frenetic pulse when her worst fears were confirmed. Head swimming, she barely maintained her grip on the railing. Perhaps she should just let herself fall. Electrocution might be less painful than burning alive.
Everything she had worked for, all the plans, and the backup plans, were about to literally go up in smoke. Or, given the diesel fuel tank’s location on the same level where she was now, perhaps it would be more accurate to say they were about to blow up in her face.
She looked at Vega, who stood still, apparently lost in thought, searching for options that didn’t exist. Tall, stoic, and imposing, Vega was a woman she could almost admire.
If she hadn’t ruined everything.
Her plan had been to lure Vega to the other side of the room, where a trapdoor in the floor would give way, sending her plummeting onto the pressure plates. Her current seat would have given her the perfect vantage point to watch the final retribution play out.
Now she would share Vega’s fate. To say that it was unfair was so far past the appalling irony of the situation that she couldn’t process the thought.
Vega addressed her. “My fellow agents are in the control room. Is there anything they can do from in there to put out the fire?”
“If there was, I would have told you by now,” she said, not troubling to hide her disdain.
Vega spoke to the message display as if it were a video screen. “Can you find any way to stop it from spreading down to our level?”