Knuckles turned toward the glass wall and looked into the NSA control center. “There has to be a place Jarrah would choose. There’s got to be something we’re missing. Dr. Branson. We can’t position surveillance units along seven hundred miles of California. It would take thousands of people. We have to narrow it down. We’ll never be able to protect that big a strip of land.” Knuckles was in his element now. “The clues we’ve been finding during this investigation have all pointed to this region up here,” he said as he pointed to the map. “It’s a strip of farmland used for producing fig trees, a particular species of fig tree, in fact. The details are not important, but this particular terrorist keeps pointing here. As you can see, these topographic maps and satellite views indicate a large swath of acreage dedicated to fig orchards. The reason we thought to consult you in the first place was because this entire orchard abuts the San Andreas Fault, all along this edge.”
Branson removed his tweed sport coat and draped it over the back of a chair. “Consult with me? A bunch of FBI agents show up at my door at four-something in the morning and tell me to get dressed, then bring me here, and you call that consulting?”
Jana raised her hand. “That was my fault, Branson. The FBI agents, I mean. But please understand, we are under a lot of time pressure here. This isn’t a case where we have any room for error. The terrorist has pulled off four assassinations as a buildup to this attack. At each of the murder scenes, he’s left clues, and they all lead to this geography. We have further reason to believe that those are the only four murders he’s going to pull off as he builds up to the detonation. What I’m saying is, we are out of time.”
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry. Here I am getting pissed off that I’ve been dragged out of bed. That, and thinking about the fact that I’m supposed to give a lecture at Georgetown in about two hours. Oh well, those kids don’t pay attention to my lectures anyway. So, where were we? All right, looking at your map, there’s nothing unusual about this stretch of the San Andreas. A nuclear device placed anywhere along here would produce exactly the same result. And all of this land is a good distance away from the city of San Francisco itself. It’s not as if the blast radius could impact the city if he detonated in this farmland.” He looked at Knuckles. “A ten-megaton device wouldn’t have that type of range, would it?”
Knuckles shook his head. “No, the blast radius would only cover between one and 1.1 miles of flat land. That’s why we started wondering whether or not he could set off an earthquake which would damage the city that way.”
“Well I don’t think I’ll be much help,” Branson said. “He could set up the device anywhere along that region, and it would have the same impact on San Francisco. In my estimation, he could cause a substantial earthquake, but it’s hard to say if it would have that much damage on the city.”
Jana looked at him. “Well, let me ask you this. If you were a terrorist, and you had unlimited funds, and no one was watching, what would you do to make this the most effective strike on the city of San Francisco?”
“Hmmm,” Branson said. “I suppose if I had enough time, I’d want to drill the deepest hole possible, directly into the fault line itself. That way I could place the device way down deep. All of the energy from the blast would be contained underground. It would be directly transferred into the two competing tectonic plates. A large enough device could cause quite a shift, which would unleash a massive earthquake.” Branson nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I’d do. I’d drill a great big hole—”
Jana said, “Branson? You kind of stopped midsentence there.”
But he was entranced with his own thought. “A deep hole. That it!” He spun around to face the video monitor as his arms flew into the air. “I know where he’s going to strike!”
34
TARGET ACQUIRED
NSA Command Center
“It’s here!” Branson yelled, pointing to the map. “Right here, at Parkfield! Why didn’t I think of that before?”
“What’s Parkfield?” Knuckles said.
“It’s the site of the drilling effort that began in 2004. The research observatory? Anybody following me?”
“No,” Jana said.
“The San Andreas Fault is the site of a massive effort to drill into the earth’s crust to investigate the fault at depth. It’s the only place in the world anything like this has ever been attempted. And it’s here at the town of Parkfield, California. The San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth, or SAFOD, they call it. The hole is nearly two miles deep, drilled straight into the fault line.”
“But Parkfield looks like it’s over two hundred miles from San Francisco. How could he damage the city from that distance?” Knuckles said.
“Maybe it’s not San Francisco he’s after,” Jana said.
Branson interrupted. “Whether or not the city of San Francisco is his primary objective, Parkfield is too perfect of a target not to hit. In geologist terms, it’s a no-brainer. And, wait a minute. A major earthquake in this region would be catastrophic to other areas as well. The more I think about it, San Francisco could be his target after all. Here, look at the map. Parkfield sits at the southern edge of the area of the fig plantations, right? And, there hasn’t been a major earthquake in the region for close to twenty years. The tension along the fault line in this region is building.”
“Like how much tension?” Knuckles said.
“Well, the fault line is divided into giant segments. The northern segment generally produces more powerful earthquakes. That’s because those areas of the fault line are locked, meaning the rock is stuck against itself. When it finally lets loose the results are catastrophic. There hasn’t been a major earthquake in that segment since the 1980s. Tension is enormous. But here, here at Parkfield, and stretching all the way up to the city of Hollister, that’s what we call the creeping segment. As the name implies, the creeping segment moves more slowly. The earth in this region is made up of slippery clays, talc-like minerals that make for less dramatic earthquakes when the earth does shift. The two opposing sections of the fault line slip across one another without much violence. But it’s these northern sections, the locked sections, that cause the worst damage.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Jana said. “Parkfield is in the creeping segment. You said the earthquakes there aren’t as severe. So how is that going to cause an earthquake in San Fran?”
“Look, if you put a nuclear device down here in the creeping segment, the shock wave from the blast would radiate up the fault line with relative ease. When those shock waves hit the locked section of the fault line, the effect would magnify itself.” Branson’s mouth hung open. “Catastrophic might not be the word for it. I think the word might be closer to apocalyptic.”
Inside the FBI field office, Cade leaned closer to Jana and said, “Maybe that’s the misdirection you were talking about. Maybe he wants us to think he’d hit the fault line as close to San Francisco as possible, when actually he intends to strike way down here at Parkfield.”
Jana shook her head. “Misdirection.”
Kyle walked toward her. “Well if we agree he’s going to use it,” he looked at the others, “you don’t think he’s going to use it here? Jana, come on. This is the perfect opportunity for him to inflict an incredible amount of damage up and down California. The nutjob probably thinks he’s going to cause half of California to slump off into the ocean.”
“Which is crap,” Branson said.
Jana stood. “What’s there? At Parkfield? How big of a town is it? What kind of facilities are we talking about?”
“At Parkfield itself? Well there’s not much there. I’ve never been myself, but it looks like a big oil-drilling rig. I don’t think there’s much there in terms of buildings, but I’m sure there’s a few laboratories. The town isn’t actually a town at all, more like a crossroads and maybe a red light.”
“No security?” Jana said.
“Security?” Branson said. “Security in case some nutjob decides he want
s to drop a nuclear device down a mine shaft? Sorry, that’s not likely one of the things the US Geological Survey would have considered.”
“Wait a minute,” Kyle said. “I’ve been listening to this whole thing. There’s one part that doesn’t make any sense. Even if Jarrah wanted his device to detonate at the bottom of the mine shaft, how’s he going to get it down there? If this mine shaft looks like an oil-drilling rig, then the rig has a giant drillbit running all the way down the shaft. There wouldn’t be any room to drop an object of this size down it.”
“Good point,” Knuckles said. “With the massive drill auger in place, I don’t think anything over a few inches wide could slip past.”
Branson’s face washed clear of color and he slumped into a chair.
“Branson?” Jana said.
He looked at each person. “How would he be able to get the device to the bottom of the mine shaft, you ask? Drilling operations stopped sometime back. I think it was last January. The drill auger and the entire drilling rig were disassembled. We’re talking about a two-foot wide hole, two miles deep, straight to the base of the fault line itself. He would just drop it in.”
35
OVEREXPOSED
“Knuckles,” Jana said, “pull up satellite imagery on Parkfield. Let’s take a look at what’s there. This is a small town, right? My question is, how is he going to hide in a small town like that? And what is his plan, to walk right up to the mine shaft and dump a nuclear device down it? I don’t buy it. It’s too obvious.”
“Bring it up, son,” Uncle Bill said.
“Yes, sir. Here it is on satellite. Let me zoom this closer.”
“Just like I thought,” Jana said. “Look at the surrounding area. It’s not even a town. There’s only a couple of buildings. How old is this satellite imagery? A few months? And look, it’s like Branson said, they disassembled the drilling rig. There’s almost nothing there but a chain-link fence to keep someone from falling into the mine shaft.”
“Maybe it is that simple,” Cade said.
“Sure, it would be easy to walk right up and get past that fence,” Jana continued. “But he’d be out in the open, exposed. I can’t see him tipping his hand this far to point us right to the spot. He would know we would be waiting for him. I still say something is wrong.”
Bill stood and his shoulders pulled back. “Jana, I hear what you’re saying, but we can’t take any chances. I want the three of you down there. I’ll get on the phone with Washington. We’re sending at least one hostage-rescue team to the scene. Jana, Kyle, Cade? You hear me? I want you at the airport right now. Get to Parkfield. We don’t have any time to waste.”
Kyle said, “Bill, I think we need to talk.”
Uncle Bill knew Kyle believed Jana’s PTSD made her a liability in the field. It was the proverbial “elephant in the room.”
“That’s a negative, Agent MacKerron.”
“Sir, I’ve got to reiterate—”
“Enough. Your comment is duly noted.”
Kyle exhaled. “Yes, sir. But, Bill? When you talk to Washington, remember, we’ve got to keep a low profile. If Jarrah sees a bunch of badass operators with automatic weaponry and body armor, it might kind of tip our hand. Know what I mean? Hostage Rescue Team needs to know this is a plain-clothes scenario. We all need to blend in.”
“Wait,” Jana said. “Kyle, what was that all about?”
Uncle Bill quickly diverted. “Yeah, you’ll need civilian clothes and vehicles.”
Knuckles looked up at him. “Hey, maybe they should use your new minivan.”
“New minivan?” Cade said.
Uncle Bill cocked his head at Knuckles. “They won’t be taking that minivan. The NSA has never replaced the first one of my wife’s vans that was destroyed. I still can’t find a spot on the expense report form with enough zeros to write off a Honda Odyssey.”
After the others left the room, Cade turned to Jana. “I know you are not buying this, Jana. But this is the most likely scenario.”
“What was Kyle talking about?”
“Come on, we need to get to the flight line.”
Jana shook her head at him, knowing he had purposely not answered her question. “He’s not going to be there, Cade. Jarrah is sending us on another goose chase, just like he did last time when we followed the trail of nuclear material that led to nowhere. I’m inside his head. I know this is misdirection.”
“We’ll talk about it on the plane. We need to find the nearest airport to Parkfield. There’s sure as hell no landing strip in that little place. And one more thing.”
“Yeah?”
“Did Uncle Bill just send me to the field again? Dammit, he’s going to have to stop doing that.”
36
HANDSHAKE OF REGRET
San Francisco International Airport, en route to Parkfield, California
The Gulfstream rocketed down San Francisco International Airport’s runway 19L, an 8,600-foot-long strip of pale concrete. Jana, Cade, and Kyle pulled their seat belts tight.
Kyle looked at Jana and shook his head. “I can see it in your face, Jana. I know what you’re thinking. And sure, I understand you don’t believe Parkfield is his target. But I’ll ask again. If we don’t go to Parkfield to follow up on this, where else are we going to go?”
“Yeah, Jana,” Cade said. “We’ve got a hundred and sixty agents scouring the downtown San Francisco area, looking for anything that might be trouble.”
“Not to mention the radiation sensors being flown in as we speak. They’ll have them positioned in the next two hours.”
“I know, I get it. But I still say San Francisco is not his target. And that means Parkfield is not his target either.”
Cade said, “Why not Parkfield?”
“Parkfield is just a means to an end. In theory, if he detonates at Parkfield the shock wave will cause utter destruction in San Francisco. But like I said, San Fran is not his target.”
“Dammit, Jana,” Kyle said. “We have nothing else to go on. This is not only the best lead we have, it makes absolute sense. We’re going to find him, and find him at Parkfield.”
Jana’s eyes drifted out the window. “Well, if you’re right, and we do find him, I’m going to kill him on sight.”
“Jana,” Cade lashed, “I told you before, I don’t want to hear talk like that. You’re not a murderer.”
“Well maybe I should be. I appreciate your desire to do things by the book, but tell that to the eight hundred thousand Americans who were vaporized in Virginia last year.”
“That’s not fair, and you know it.”
“Let’s change the subject,” Kyle said. “The flight to Parkfield’s nearest airport is only about forty-five minutes. The pilot said he’s going to get us as close to the town as possible. Obviously, there’s no airport in Parkfield.”
Cade said, “Not even an airstrip?”
“Apparently not. In fact, the airports in the surrounding area are tiny. It took the pilot a minute to find one with an adequate runway for landing. He said no worries though. He found one about twenty-five miles southwest of the town. It’s a place called McMillan Field. Small, but it will do.”
“I assume we have FBI to meet us there?” Cade said. “You know, it might kind of help if we had a car on the ground when we get there.”
“Yeah, no kidding. Way ahead of you, pal,” Kyle replied. “I put Knuckles on the job. Hey, Jana, listen, we’re going to get him this time. Are you with me?”
But Jana’s fingers found their way to her sternum where they rubbed a bullet-hole scar. Her gaze seemed locked as if she was awake, but seeing nothing.
“Jana?” Cade said. “Stay with us, okay?”
Jana’s eyes did not shift. “Oh, I’m still with you. Just a little preoccupied at the moment.”
Cade said, “Try not to focus on that right now.” As a means of distracting her from the memory of the shooting incident that left her near dead, he added, “What will be the first thing we do
when we get to the ground?”
“Well, we all get in a bureau car and drive to the middle of nowhere. There we’ll sit on stakeout and find nothing.” She closed her eyes. “Unless we figure something else out, we’re going to be looking at another spot in the United States that has been vaporized.”
The secure-video-conference line blinked to life and the three found Knuckles staring into the camera.
“Hey guys,” Knuckles said as he tapped his fingers on the video camera. “Mind turning on your camera? I can’t see anything.”
“So impatient.” Cade flipped on the power switch and said, “That better?”
“Hey, listen. I tried, but I can’t find an asset anywhere in the area to meet you guys on the ground.”
Jana spoke up in sudden escalation, “What? We can’t just be sitting at an airport doing nothing.”
“I know, I know. So I got the US Geological Survey office to lend you a car. You might be sitting for a little while until it arrives. Best I could do.”
Kyle laughed. “You procured a vehicle from the US Geological Survey? How appropriate.”
“I thought so,” Knuckles said. “They were a little startled when I called, but since they’re US government as well, I convinced them to cut through the red tape and just loan you a vehicle for a while. Probably some beat-up pickup truck though.”
“Whatever,” Jana said. “We’re wasting our time anyway.”
It was fifteen minutes later when the plane touched down at McMillan Field.
“Wow, not much here,” Jana said.
But as the plane taxied to a halt, she looked out at an approaching vehicle. “That doesn’t look like a rusty pickup truck. That’s bureau.”
Kyle said, “I guess Knuckles did better at finding us an available asset than he thought. Good, we could use the help. And yes, Jana, we’re going to need help, because this is the location. It may take a while, but we’ll find Jarrah in Parkfield.”
Breach of Protocol Page 14
