Day of Doom

by David Baldacci

  She took her laptop from Dan and marched back to her seat.

  The guys all looked at one another.

  “Wow,” said Jake. “Not what I expected.”

  Dan said hotly, “What did you expect from her?”

  “Well, she did sort of crack up about twenty-four hours ago,” pointed out Atticus.

  “Everybody is entitled to one meltdown,” Dan said loyally. “But she’s not going to give up again!”

  “Hey, you sounded like you had given up,” Jake reminded him.

  Dan started to shout something back but stopped. “You’re right. I did. But I was wrong,” he said quietly.

  Atticus added, “And the last thing we need is to start fighting with each other. We have plenty of bad people to fight as it is.”

  Jake said, “Atticus is right. I’m sorry, Dan.” He put out his hand.

  Dan shook it. “It’s cool. Sometimes this fighting-global-evil-to-save-the-world thing starts to get a guy down.”

  Jake grinned. “I know exactly how you feel.”

  The three of them went off to join Amy in the fight.

  It was Dan who first noticed it. He’d been doodling on a napkin. Amy was surfing on her computer, no doubt trying to find some helpful lead or bit of information that would help them defeat the Vespers. Maybe she was looking at the floor plans for the Museum of American History in case they had to make an escape from it. It seemed to Dan that they could build a business out of escaping from museums, art galleries, and other secure places, seeing as how they had had to do it so often. Jake was leaning back in his chair staring at the ceiling. But he would occasionally glance over at Amy, and Dan would roll his eyes at the puppy-dog look Jake gave his sister. Atticus had his eyes closed, but Dan knew he wasn’t sleeping. He was thinking. Atticus was always thinking. That came with having a brain the size of a watermelon.

  So Dan had glanced out the window. They were, he thought, just passing over the Delaware River. But he wasn’t looking at the river. He was looking at the sky. He sat up straighter and pressed his face to the window, his eyes pointed up at such a harsh angle they hurt.

  Was the sky . . . purple?

  And were the clouds actually moving that fast? It was like one of those zoom-track weather maps that accelerated the movements of storm and cloud patterns. But this was real. A second later a gust of wind hit the train so hard that it actually rocked back and forth. For a terrifying moment Dan thought that they were going to plummet into the water.

  He looked around at the others. While they all seemed to have noticed the buffeting wind, they weren’t looking outside. Dan glanced at some of the other passengers. They all were staring at their computers, or reading books or newspapers. Not one of them had noticed the weather. Maybe that’s how the world was now, thought Dan. Everyone was so wrapped up in his or her own little world that no one ever really saw anything anymore.

  “Uh, Amy,” said Dan.

  She looked up, obviously annoyed at this interruption.

  “Yes?”

  He pointed out the window.

  She glanced past him. Her alarmed expression told Dan that she saw what he saw.

  Now Jake and Atticus were looking out the window, too.

  “The sky is . . . purple,” said Jake. “How can the sky be purple?”

  “Is there a rainbow somewhere around?” asked Atticus. “It might simply be a case of light refraction combined with other elements to create some sort of optical illusion.”

  “There’s no rainbow,” said Dan. “And since when have you seen clouds move that fast?”

  They looked upward. The clouds flashed past and were soon out of sight.

  They all looked at one another.

  Amy said slowly, “It could be totally unrelated to the Doomsday device.”

  “Yeah,” said Dan. “And I could actually be Justin Bieber, only with a better haircut.”

  “There’s nothing we can do about it now,” she said. “But we can try and narrow down the location of relevant subduction zones. That will tell us where the Vespers may have located the Doomsday device.”

  “Good idea,” said Jake. “Let me help you.” He was sitting next to Amy and simply eased up the armrest separating them and moved closer to her.

  “Thanks, Jake,” said Amy, smiling at him. “You’re really good at helping.”

  Dan watched all this with an incredulous look. He really did want to throw up. He actually stuck a finger down his throat and made a gagging noise.

  Amy ignored this and said, “Subduction zones, fortunately, aren’t all that plentiful. And in the United States they are pretty few in number. They’re mostly along the coasts.”

  Atticus said, “That’s still a lot of ground to cover. And we don’t have much time.” He looked out the window again and observed the ominous celestial happenings.

  Amy’s phone buzzed as an e-mail came in.

  Dan looked at the device like it was a rattlesnake poised to plunge its fangs into him.

  “Please don’t let that be Vesper One telling us someone else is dead,” he muttered.

  Amy picked up the phone. “It’s from Evan.” She read the e-mail and her jaw dropped nearly to the table. “Omigod.”

  “What is it?” asked Jake, who was trying to read the tiny screen.

  Amy let out a long breath and tears filled her eyes. “Phoenix managed to escape from the Vespers. That’s why he wasn’t on the screen with the others.”

  Jake exclaimed, “Way to go, Phoenix!”

  Amy looked at him. She didn’t know Phoenix all that well. He had not been a big part of the Cahill family. But he was only twelve and Amy liked him, and when she had thought he was dead, she had felt tremendous guilt. Now she just felt stupendous relief.

  “Where is he?” Dan asked quickly.

  “At a motel near the Cascade Mountains in Washington State. Evan and Ian are on a plane right now to get him. Phoenix says he can lead them to the hostages. Evan sent me the address of the motel where they’ll be. I’m going to e-mail him back now and tell him that he needs to get the police involved. I know that sort of goes against the Cahill way of doing things. But I’m afraid if they go after the hostages alone, they’ll end up captured, too.”

  Dan said, “So we need to get on a plane and fly to Washington. Let’s get off the train at the airport near Baltimore.”

  “No,” said Amy. “We can’t do that.”

  Dan looked stunned. “What are you talking about? Two minutes ago we had no clue where the Doomsday device was. Or where the hostages were. Now we know. The Cascades, I’m sure, has subduction zones.”

  Jake was hitting computer keys with dizzying speed. He read the screen and looked up. “There is an enormous subduction zone located right off the coast of Washington State,” he said.

  “Okay,” said Dan triumphantly. “So we kill two birds with one stone. Doomsday device and the hostages. We’re finally a step ahead of the Vespers. We have to go for it.”

  “What we have to do,” countered Amy, “is find out why Isabel Kabra is going to DC.”

  “What does it matter?” exclaimed Dan. “And it might be a trap. Or this could just be a wild-goose chase.”

  “She had no reason to believe that we could hack into her files,” pointed out Amy. “And why lead us on a wild-goose chase when, as far as she knows, we have no idea where the hostages or the Doomsday device are? If she’s going to DC at such a critical time, it must be for a very good reason.”

  “I agree with Amy,” said Jake.

  “Of course you do!” snapped an exasperated Dan. “Because you’re, like, so in loooove with her.”

  “Dan!” said Amy sharply, but she was also blushing.

  Dan barked, “So we’re just going to let Ian and Evan go in alone?”

  “With the police,” amended Amy.

  “Come on! They can’t go to the police,” said Dan. “What will Ian and Evan tell them? That some maniac named Vesper One is planning on blowing up the world
and all they have to do is search an entire mountain range to find the hostages and a device that Archimedes made centuries ago? And, by the way, that’s why the sky is purple? They’ll lock them up.”

  Atticus said, “I think Dan has a point. It would be hard to believe. And by the time the police got up to speed and actually did anything, it might be too late.”

  Amy considered this and said, “Okay, I’ll call in reinforcements.” She picked up her phone and punched in the number.

  “Hamilton? It’s Amy.” She quickly explained what had happened. “I need you and Jonah to fly to Washington State right now. You can fly into Seattle and then get to the motel and meet Ian and Evan.” She paused, her mouth breaking into a grin. After all the bad news it felt terrific to be able to convey something positive.

  “And I’ve got great news,” she said. “Phoenix is alive. And free. He got away from the Vespers. He’ll be with Ian and Evan.”

  “That’s awesome, Amy,” Hamilton said.

  She heard Hamilton say something to Jonah and the international superstar grabbed the phone from Hamilton.

  “Amy, is it true? Is Phoenix really safe?”

  Amy heard Jonah’s fab voice crack and she could almost feel the waves of emotion across the ether.

  “He really is, Jonah. You’ll be able to see for yourself soon.”

  She heard a little sob escape from Jonah and he said, “Thanks.”

  Hamilton came back on the line. “Okay, Amy. We’ll be ready to go right away.”

  “When we’re done in DC, we’ll fly out there. Phoenix will lead you to the location of the hostages. Do whatever you can to rescue them and stop the Vespers. We’ll meet you there as soon as possible.”

  She clicked off and looked at the others. Dan was watching her with a dark expression.

  “It’ll be too late, Amy,” he said accusingly.

  “I don’t think so. If Vesper One believes he’s won, he’ll have a false sense of security. And if we can capture Isabel in DC, we’ll have a hostage that we can bargain with. I’m tired of Vesper One holding all the cards.”

  Dan shook his head stubbornly. “But why would Vesper One give up anything for Isabel? According to you they’re probably competing for the top spot of global megalomaniac.”

  “Because she might have valuable information about Vesper One that he won’t want us to learn. And Isabel has resources we don’t. If we can force her to work with us, we can employ some of those assets to help us.”

  “I still think you’re wrong,” said Dan hotly.

  “Fine. Do you want to lead this operation?” Amy said, staring at him.

  Under her gaze Dan finally looked down. “I just hope you’re right.”

  “Me, too,” Amy said under her breath. “Me, too.”

  The plane ride was incredibly turbulent and Ian, Evan, and the rest of the passengers on the flight, and maybe even the pilots, probably thought they were actually going to crash. When they approached the airport, the turbulence became so severe that several passengers fainted while others grabbed barf bags and filled them up with their stomach contents. When the plane finally bounced down on the runway and stayed there, everyone cheered.

  Ian and Evan looked at each other, their faces pale and their bellies wriggly.

  Ian said, “If we survive the Vespers, perhaps we can drive back East. I don’t think my stomach can manage another jaunt like that one.”

  “Yeah,” said Evan, holding his stomach. “It must be really windy today. Only reason why it would be so bumpy.”

  They hustled toward the exit with their bags. When they got outside of the airport they found, to their astonishment, that it was calm and sunny with not even a slight breeze. As they looked around they noticed pilots in their uniforms huddled together talking. Other airline personnel were looking nervous. When Ian looked up into the sky he saw one plane coming in for a landing. It was jerking and whipping all over the place.

  He looked at Evan, who had obviously seen this as well.

  “What’s going on?” Ian asked.

  Evan shrugged and quickly walked over to one of the pilots.

  “Sir,” Evan began. “It’s not windy today, but it seems like the planes are having a lot of trouble flying.”

  The man looked at Evan and said abruptly, “I can’t talk about it. Sorry.”

  He hurriedly moved off.

  Evan came back over to Ian. “Nothing we can do about it now. We’ve got to get to the motel as fast as possible. I don’t want to give the Vespers any chance at all to kidnap Phoenix again.”

  Ian nodded and they both ran toward the cabstand. They quickly found out that it was too far for a cab to take them. But they found a bus that would. They bought tickets and boarded a few minutes before the bus was scheduled to depart.

  Both of them were so engrossed in their journey that they failed to see a vehicle that was following them. There were three people inside, but they had hats and glasses on and their coat collars were pulled up, making it impossible to see who they were.

  As the bus pulled off, the other vehicle followed closely.

  Amy, Dan, and the others climbed into a cab outside of Union Station in DC and headed over to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. It was located on the National Mall. The cab dropped them off on Constitution Avenue and they hurried in. Like almost all museums in DC, the admission was free because all of these facilities were paid for largely with tax dollars and thus open to the country’s citizens without charge. The space inside was divided up into themes. The first floor focused on transportation and technology. There was a large early-style locomotive anchoring this floor. The second floor housed exhibitions on American lives and ideals, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture Gallery. The third floor focused on wars and politics, and located here was a large exhibition on the men who have been president of the United States.

  Amy and the others paused in the large lobby and gazed around.

  “Where do we start looking?” asked Dan.

  Atticus said, “It makes the most sense to ask someone who works here. Perhaps there’s a permanent Lewis and Clark exhibit.”

  “Good thinking,” said Amy. But she added in a warning tone, “Be on the lookout for Isabel Kabra. And I doubt she’ll be traveling alone, so keep watch for her bodyguards, too.”

  They headed over to the information desk and were told that there was a Lewis and Clark display on the third floor. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, both veteran soldiers, had been commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson to explore the Northwest Territory that the United States had acquired from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Their journey led them all the way to the Pacific coast. Early on in the trip, Lewis and Clark were joined by a Shoshone Indian named Sacagawea. She helped guide the expedition westward over the Rocky Mountains. It had been the longest, most arduous expedition ever undertaken in America, and both Lewis and Clark became revered as two of the country’s greatest heroes.

  They took the stairs up to the third floor and quickly found the display area. Items from the legendary expedition were under glass, and there were information cards under every item, explaining what they were and how each had been used by the two famous explorers. However, after twenty minutes of examining all of the items, Amy and the others were no further along in their quest.

  Dan said, “If there’s something helpful here, I don’t see it. I hope this wasn’t a huge waste of time. We could have been halfway to the West Coast by now.”

  Atticus said firmly, “My mother was dying at the time. I doubt she would have told me useless information.”

  Dan paled and said, “Hey, Att, I didn’t mean it like that. But she could have been delirious.”

  “No, she wasn’t,” said Atticus emphatically. “She knew exactly what she was doing. I’m sure of it.”

  Jake added, “And Isabel Kabra is in town, too.”

  Amy said, “But we don’t know that she act
ually came here. As you said, DC is a big city. We just speculated it was to look at something pertaining to Lewis and Clark.” She added in a hollow voice, “Well, I speculated.”

  While they had been talking, a woman had walked over to them.

  “Lot of interest in Lewis and Clark today,” said the woman.

  They all stared at her. She was tall, around fifty, with brown hair and large brown eyes. She wore a striking red dress and had kindly features.

  “You mean other people have been here to see the display?” asked Amy.

  “Just a few minutes ago there was someone,” said the woman. “I’m Dr. Nancy Gwinn, by the way. I’m one of the curators here. My specialty is Lewis and Clark, actually.”

  “Then you’re just the person we want to see,” said Amy.

  “Really, why is that?” asked Dr. Gwinn curiously.

  Amy said, “We’re students traveling here from out of town. We’re doing a team research paper for a regional competition on Lewis and Clark. There are many things that are known about them, of course. But we were hoping to find out some things that aren’t so well-known.” She pointed to the display cabinet. “We’ve covered all of these items in our paper, but do you have any other artifacts from the expedition?”

  Dr. Gwinn nodded. “Yes, we have many that aren’t on display. It’s a question of space and interest.”

  “And there seems to be interest,” said Amy. “Like you said, someone else was in here asking about them. Was that person my age by any chance? A girl about my height? Blond hair, shoulder length? You see, it’s a true competition, and there are college scholarships at stake.”

  Dr. Gwinn shook her head. “No, she was much older. In her forties. Dark hair, attractive. Very intense. In fact, she seemed familiar to me for some reason.”