“Done what?”
“All of it,” Kyle said. “Well, except for here. That’s why Adriana called us in. She realized it needed more than a three-person team. We’ve cleared out all the strongholds but this one. Weapons are in Dulce’s armory or destroyed. Data is with the hackers or in Dulce as well. Like John said, bank accounts are drained and various humanitarian organizations around the world have gotten donations from American Centaurion.”
“We destroyed all the bioweapons,” Len said. “He had every kind, too, each in a different stronghold.”
“Yeah, he had some in the Burj Khalifa, too.”
“Yeah, Christopher and Richard told us,” Kyle said, “while we were waiting for you and Mossy to finish up and come find us.”
“Mossy and I will laugh about this later. Potentially much later.”
“We had no idea he was moving poisoned gas into the tower,” Len said apologetically, “until we were already at a stronghold, and by then we knew you guys were rolling and it didn’t seem like we could help. At least not as effectively as we were already doing.”
“Can’t argue, we’re all alive.” At least, I hoped Chuckie was still alive. I was antsy to get to him, but if the rest of the team felt we needed to recap—and Algar turning the music off indicated he agreed with the recap, too—then recapping it would be. “Where were the strongholds?”
“The UAE, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, and Qatar,” Adriana said. “And here, which is part of Iran, but Cliff thinks of it as his.”
“Wait, how in the world did you all get all over the place in such a short time?”
They all stared at me. “Ah, floater gates,” Kyle said. “We use them all the time.”
“But we were lockdown worldwide and no one told me, Jeff, or Alpha Team about this.”
“Ah,” Adriana said. “Forgive me, but Missy is also part of the group. Grandmother and Chernobog spoke with her and she agreed that my mission was vital. She also agreed that not alerting you or the President was the right course of action, and since Alpha Team was with you and the President is the strongest empath known, they couldn’t know, either. Since the idea was that you two would not be involved in this.”
“Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans and all that. So, what about the doomsday plans?”
“The gasses can’t release now, since we destroyed them,” Len said. “So that’s plan number one.”
“You said you found the gasses in strongholds. But a doomsday plan means that the gasses are elsewhere, too.”
Len nodded. “They were. We found them in various major cities and neutralized them as well.” He grinned. “Kyle and I aren’t as fast as A-Cs, but with a floater gate, it doesn’t matter. And Francine has all the skills and then some.”
She blushed. “You’re a flatterer, Leonard Parker.”
He laughed. “Only when it’s warranted.”
“So, how many doomsday plans did our least favorite crazed madman have set up or in the planning stages?”
“He had four,” Kyle said. “The first was the bioweapons being released all over the world, presumably at midnight on New Year’s Eve. At least, that’s what the intelligence looked like to all of us.”
“Nice to see he’s really channeling the Joker. And Brain.”
Len snorted. “I don’t want to know who he thinks Pinky is.”
“Len remains my favorite.”
Kyle chuckled. “The second plan was a computer virus set to take down financial institutions worldwide. That one was ready to go, big time. Chernobog and her team got that one neutralized, though.”
“The third one you just foiled,” Wruck said. “He really felt he had a winner with the whole idea of killing all the world leaders.”
“How is that a doomsday plan? The summits literally just happened last-minute.”
Wruck sighed. “He had a plan in place for this kind of world event. And options for whatever country would end up hosting, too. He adapted the doomsday plan to fit the current situation.”
“Wow. He really is the Leader of the Lunatic Pack, isn’t he? So, what’s plan number four?” This question earned silence. “Gang?”
“We don’t know,” Adriana admitted. “He just calls it The Close Encounter.”
“Fantastic. So, you just gated all the stuff back and forth to Dulce?”
Len nodded. “We treated everything like we’ve heard you all describe handling superbeings. We treated intelligence and weapons as you would people—took them to safety—and we treated the strongholds themselves and any bioweapons or similar as you would a superbeing—we destroyed them.”
“Kitty, the copy of a copy Francine found, we found it everywhere,” Kyle said. “In every stronghold and in his residence in Bahrain, too.”
“We sent them back to the Embassy,” Adriana said. “Grandmother says they are all the same, no differences, and Chernobog and her team agree.”
“So, other than this last stronghold and The Spielberg Doomsday Plan, Cliff’s got nothing?”
“Correct.” Adriana smiled at me. “And we hear that you’ve taken care of half of his loyal team, as well.”
“Yeah, as to that, didn’t the dead clone bodies seem odd to you?”
“We didn’t go around the perimeter like you did,” Len said.
“I did,” Rahmi said. “But at hyperspeed so as not to be spotted. They weren’t down when I got here, so I had to avoid them spotting me. I saw all of them fall at the same time a little while ago. But I didn’t want to risk being exposed as still being here. I haven’t shifted out of this form in case we’re spotted. I can then ‘capture’ all of you for Cliff.”
“Rahmi found us when we exited our gate,” Francine said.
“How did you know they were coming?”
Rahmi shrugged. “Being where they would exit was calculated luck—I was on the highest ground here, which is not that high, so I could see everything, and that’s where Adriana’s team landed. But I was waiting for you. Cliff took Charles. I knew you’d be coming for him. So I was keeping a lookout. I tried to contact Serene using the device she gave me, but it didn’t work.”
“Oh, yeah, we thought Cliff had control of our airwaves, so we destroyed from both ends.”
She nodded. “Wise. And it gave me time to search for another entrance. I found what appears to be a secret path.”
“Where does it lead?” White asked. Clearly this was where Mossy and I had come in.
“Directly to Cliff.”
CHAPTER 85
“KITTY, I think we can do this without risking Jeff and the others,” Christopher said. “If we can get in without them knowing, then we can get Chuck and destroy this last stronghold.”
“Which leaves that last Doomsday plan flapping in the breeze.” There was something about the name—I knew I could make the connection for what Cliff’s plan was, I just had to focus. But I didn’t feel up to focusing. I felt up to saving Chuckie and killing Cliff and the others, but not focusing.