“Mission accomplished?”
“Mission accomplished. Maybe now the Chinese will stop trying to get their sticky fingers on Zero. This time around it cost them enough.”
“As soon as you are ready, there’ll be a flight laid on to bring you home.”
“Jui Kai may need to stay here on the base until she’s fit enough to travel.”
“No problem. She will be well looked after. That is one brave young woman. What about Kaplan?”
“Insists he’s fine,” McCarter said. “But I’m guessing it’s going to be a while before he is off that junk Melier was pumping into him.”
“Hope he’s fine,” Brognola said, “because he’s needed. Zero is still off-line and they’re having a difficult time bringing it back.”
“That isn’t going to make the doc very happy.”
It didn’t and he wasn’t...
* * *
SAUL KAPLAN REFUSED to stay away from Zero Command. On the flight back from Italy he was on the phone to Zero Command as attempts were being made to reboot the platform. During the protracted session, despite his condition, he was giving instructions to Paul Shelley, the tech on duty. The man seemed to be unstoppable.
“If nothing else works he’ll take a shuttle and go up there and kick-start it himself,” Manning said in an aside to his team.
“I can believe that,” McCarter returned.
“Guy is a walking wonder,” Hawkins said. “I can see how he got that platform built.”
Kaplan spoke with the duty tech.
“Are we ready, Paul?” Kaplan said.
“All set, sir.”
“Key in that sequence I just sent you.”
There was a protracted silence after the tech had applied the numeric code.
“Might take a while before you get a response,” Kaplan said. “Anything on the screen yet?”
“Nothing, sir. Still blank.”
Kaplan sighed. He glanced across at McCarter. “Nothing done in a rush is worth it,” he said.
“How are you feeling, Saul?”
“To be honest, after all the excitement it’s something of an anticlimax.”
Minutes dragged by. Kaplan stared at the laptop James had placed in a position for him to view the Zero Command Center.
Claire Valens appeared on the screen.
“You should be taking things easy,” she said. “A teenage hacker you are not.”
Kaplan smiled across at McCarter.
“She worries about me,” he said.
“If you say I’m like a mother hen... Saul, remember I carry a gun—”
“We have something,” the tech’s voice cut through and Valens moved aside.
The screen changed to show what was coming up on the monitor at Zero Command. The blank screen began to scroll with columns of coded numbers. Long streams of text came and went. More numbers. The monitor erupted with colors and an endless display of code. It went blank again and this time for a full two minutes before the monitor jarred and showed a fragmented image.
Doug Buchanan’s face appeared on the screen. The image froze and then returned, this time sharp and clear. He was speaking but there was no sound...and when it did come through it was full-on and sharp.
“...your time. You people been out partying?”
“Doug?”
“That you, Saul?”
“I’m here, Doug.”
“Jesus, Saul, you gave us a fright. Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”
“I have to admit they gave me some headaches. But I’m fine. We’re on our way back now. Few more hours in the air and we’ll be landing.”
“Thank God.”
“Nothing to do with God, just these men who came and took me out of Colonel Chan’s hands. Now, tell me, are you fully back online? Have all the systems rebooted? How are you doing?”
“It was a little hairy while we were in the dark. We got through by having some meaningful conversations about the meaning of life and the universe.”
“We are almost fully operational again,” Zero said. “I am running full diagnostics as we speak. The shutdown has succeeded in clearing the recent intrusion.”
“That’s a start,” Kaplan said.
“What about our Chinese friends?” Buchanan asked.
“Beijing got a bloody nose,” McCarter said.
“Good to hear. Saul, what did you think about Switzerland?”
“I didn’t get a chance to see a great deal. What I did was very cold and snowy.”
“Guys, do you think the Chinese will try something like this again?” Buchanan asked.
“We already discussed that. Never say never,” McCarter said. “But I have a feeling they’ll be having a bloody long think about it.”
“We have a lot of work ahead of us, Doug. Safeguards to initiate so no one can repeat what just took place,” Kaplan said.
“The missile silos have been retracted and locked,” Zero said. “We have already put fresh coding in place.”
“Doug,” Kaplan said, “if you don’t mind, I do need to rest for a while. All this action has left me a little weary.”
“Saul, there’s nothing else you can do for the moment,” Valens said over the link. “Take a break. This time it is mother hen talking.”
* * *
LATER, BROGNOLA SPOKE to McCarter over his sat phone.
“We’re waiting for the you-know-what to hit the fan,” the big Fed said.
“You think it’s going to come?”
“A Swiss chalet full of dead Chinese? What do you think, David? The Swiss are going to be well and truly pissed about that. They are going to want answers.”
“Going to be a pile of diplomatic shuffling taking place,” McCarter agreed. “The Swiss are going to find those bodies when the snow backs off. Which could be some time away. I’m sure they’ll do some identifying and get some answers Beijing is going to have to answer for. Chinese nationals found dead in a Swiss house? Weapons spread around? Let the buggers get on with it. Going to be hard for them to own up to kidnapping an American citizen and transporting him to Swiss territory. The Chinese aren’t about to make too much fuss unless they want to broadcast what they’ve been up to. If there’s any backlash in our direction I’m sure the President will field some pretty sharp answers. He sent us into Switzerland with his backing and we followed orders to the letter.”
“I already spoke to the man. He’s ready for any comeback. His thinking is on a par with yours. On the plus side he’s sending his thanks to Stony Man for our input.”
“Hope he remembers when it’s time for a pay raise,” McCarter said. “And he shouldn’t forget Josh Riba. Agent Valens. Or Jui Kai—that girl should get a bloody big Presidential commendation.”
“How is she doing?”
“Cal did what he could with his limited medical supplies. Right now she is sedated and sleeping in the Aviano medical center.”
“They’ve been told to look after her,” Brognola confirmed. “She’ll be given whatever treatment she requires.”
“What’s the news on Gadgets?” McCarter asked, having heard about the Able Team commando’s injuries.
“It looked worse than it was. Some bruising and superficial wounds. A little R and R and he’ll be fine.”
“It’s always a close one,” McCarter said. “We’ll get in to see him as soon as we can.”
“This was a rough ride all round,” Brognola said. “But we came through.”
“That’s for now,” McCarter said. “I hate to be a damper on things, but the bad guys don’t quit.” The Briton paused. “Then again, neither do we.”
Brognola couldn’t argue that point.
He knew there would be a next time...and Phoenix Force would stand up to be count
ed.
EPILOGUE
The Zero Platform was back on full stream. Outwardly nothing had changed. For Doug Buchanan the routine picked up its pace again. Zero had been scanned and scanned again. Every facet of the platform had been checked so that there was no doubt that the problem created by Colonel Xia Chan had gone away.
Buchanan scanned the readouts, analyzed the constant stream of data flowing in from the probes and the external listening devices. The events of the past day or so were already fading. He had his future to look to. With Saul Kaplan back, there was going to be plenty to occupy both him and Zero. By the time Kaplan finished, Zero would be on an even higher level of protection.
The voice of his unseen partner broke the silence.
“Douglas, I have been thinking. I believe you were saying some time ago that I should develop a sense of humor.”
“I did?” Buchanan recalled his rash comment and realized it was going to come back and bite him.
“You cannot have forgotten. I can give you the exact time from my files.”
“No, that’s okay. So what was it you wanted?”
“To understand more fully what it means to humans—this sense of humor.”
“That could take a long time, pal. A very long time.”
“That presents us with no problem, Douglas. Let’s face it—neither of us is going anywhere—and we do have all the time in the world.”
* * * * *
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First edition October 2015
ISBN-13: 9781460385456
Death Minus Zero
Special thanks and acknowledgment to Mike Linaker for his contribution to this work.
Copyright © 2015 by Worldwide Library
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