Page 48 of Nikolai
Good girl.She understood the basics.
“We can’t leave these arms unattended.Not with tactical nuclear weapons in the mix.We need to get out or at least get to a place where my satphone is in line of sight with a satellite and call the authorities.And we stay here until a NEST team arrives or at least a team that can defend this arms cache.”
“First we call Aunt Caroline, right?”
Nick put his good hand on her arm.“Not first, no.She wouldn’t have jurisdiction over nuclear weapons.But we will call her eventually.I don’t have the numbers of anyone at the naval base who would be authorized to deal with this.So I’m going to call my partner Jacob Black, who knows everyone and whose name is enough to get attention.”
Nick looked up at the ceiling.There were points where he might be able to get through.It would be easy to lift himself through if he didn’t have an injured shoulder.But he could definitely push Parker up.
“Listen honey—I don’t know what resources there are here in Italy.Don’t know if personnel will have to be airlifted from the States.I have to stay here but you sure don’t.If I can get you through and if the vehicle wasn’t destroyed, you could drive back to Naples.Or call someone to pick you up.I just can’t leave until I know this material is in safe hands.”
She stiffened and scowled at him.She punched him lightly in the chest, in anger.Ordinarily, he wouldn’t even have felt it, but it jolted his shoulder and hurt, a little.He’d have died rather than show it, however.
“Nikolai Garin!There you go again!How dare you assume I’d just up and leave you.And you’rewoundedfor God’s sake!”
Nick shrugged.It hurt.Fuck.“Just a scratch,” he mumbled.
Her eyes bugged and she made a suppressed screaming sound, then stopped and took a deep breath, in and out.Like people did during yoga.He’d seen it in movies.
“Okay.We’re going to pretend you didn’t say what you just said, and if you did, I didn’t hear you.So, the way I see it, we have to somehow get out of here so you can contact the appropriate authorities, and the instant someone comes, we get you to a hospital.”
Nick recoiled.He hated hospitals.“No!”He softened his voice because he’d yelled.“I don’t need a hospital.”
“You most certainly do.That gash is ugly, God knows how many microbes are in it, maybe Roman microbes, and it needs stitches.If you have a phobia for hospitals, I can call my doctor, who is good and has worked with psychiatric patients and understands phobias.He can stitch you up.”
She turned before he could answer her.
Gah.
She’d turned the tables on him very neatly.It was the downside to being with a smart woman.
Nick wisely chose not to answer.
She’d walked to the back of the huge chamber.Nick estimated that there were at least a thousand rifles, including sniper rifles.Each cache was expected to support at least one resistance cell.There was a line of unbroken wooden boxes on brackets, no doubt also containing communications equipment, plastic explosives, ammo for the rifles and small arms.
Wait—he’d lost sight of Parker.He opened his mouth to call out to her when he heard her voice.“Nick!”
He hurried to the back of the chamber.There was another hatch, but the earth had moved more back here, and it was wrenched completely open.The hatch had detached from the hinges and lay on the dusty concrete floor.Beyond the hatch was a short passageway and the tunnel veered to the left and…yes!It was almost completely open to the sky.
Parker turned to him, blue eyes glowing.“Is this a direct enough connection?”
Nick already had his satphone up.Yes indeed, there was a connection.
He’d thought about this.He would eventually find the people at DOD, but Jacob Black had a direct line to the top brass.So Jacob was first call.Then Dylan, who would be transiting through Rome right about now.
Then the Consulate.As a courtesy, because this was not a consular affair, it was a military affair.
Jesus.Eight nukes.And thousands of arms.
The nukes alone would be a terrorist’s wet dream.There were plenty of people in the Mediterranean who would kill to get their hands on eight nukes.Even old ones.
Because they were still workable.The military built nukes to last, though maybe not seventy years.The Davy Crocketts outside this cache had all been decommissioned.But the ones in this arms cache might still be viable in the hands of people who knew what they were doing.And modern terrorists all had enough money to hire the best people.And even if the nuclear weapons had degraded, there was quite enough uranium in them to create dirty bombs.New York, London, Paris—they could be rendered no man’s land for generations.
These weapons had to be guarded with his life.
But not Parker’s.
He had to find a way to get her out of here.
