Part 35 (1/2)
Winthrop recognized him now that she heard the corn pone in his voice.
”Platt!”
”You look much better in person than you do in VR, honey. How about you put those guns down?”
”How about I just shoot you instead?” Winthrop said.
”Bad idea. Ask your jig friend there why.”
She glanced at the colonel.
”He's holding some kind of a grenade,” Howard said.
”Yep, a gen-u-wine World War Two po-tato masher. Shoot me and I drop it, and even if your armor stops most of it, you still probably get stung pretty good. Maybe a piece gets through and punches a hole in an artery and you bleed out. And old Tommy boy here, well, he surely gets turned into hamburger.”
”I don't think so,” Howard said. ”I think if I shoot you, both you and that grenade will fall off that balcony behind you.”
”Ah,” Platt said. ”But then I would die, and you don't want that, now, do you?”
”Why not?”
d.a.m.n, Winthrop thought. She knew Platt was right. And so did Colonel Howard. She'd heard Commander Michaels telling him all about the dead-man switches. But she also knew that the colonel didn't necessarily want Platt to know they knew... or that, even now, Jay Gridley was working furiously to defuse the things.
G.o.d dammit, Gridley, she thought. Hurry up Hurry up.
”I'm surprised you haven't found my little surprises yet, boy,” Platt said, ”but then maybe you Net Force folks aren't as good as ole Tommy-boy here thought. Let's just say that if I don't make it back to my ride out of here-and the little ole computer with its satellite uplink-by a certain time, well, things will happen that will make those last a.s.saults on the net look like kid's stuff.”
”What do you want?” Howard said.
”Well, we need to come to some kind of... arrangement,” Platt said.
He smiled.
Chapter Forty.
Wednesday, January 19th, 2:05 a.m. Bissau, Guinea-Bissau At the helicopters, the pilots were relaxed, laughing and joking. Michaels and Toni weren't so animated. They stood a short ways off, swatting at the bugs that swirled around them. The bug dope was enough to keep the insects from landing, most of them, but not enough to keep them from buzzing close enough to be annoying.
Michaels was beginning to get worried. The others were supposed to be back by now.
Even as he thought this, the sound of a truck motor reached them.
Two of the pilots moved away from the copters, a.s.sault weapons held at the ready.
The truck rounded a curve a couple hundred yards out, and as soon as it did, it blinked its lights off and then on again.
”It's them,” Toni said.
Michaels felt himself relax a little.
The truck pulled to a stop ten feet away from where Michaels stood, and Sergeant Fernandez stepped out. He frowned. ”Beta Team is not back.” It was not a question.
”We thought they were supposed to meet you, and you'd all come back together,” Toni said.
”That's how it was supposed to go. We waited until 0150 hours as planned. The deal was, if for some reason they ran long, they'd meet us back at the Hueys by 0200. I don't like this. The colonel is never late. I think we have to give him a call.”
”We're not supposed to break radio silence except in an emergency,” Michaels said.
”Sir, we're supposed to lift in twenty-five minutes,” Fernandez said. ”It's an emergency.”
Michaels nodded. ”Yeah.”
2:06 a.m.
Howard felt the com vibrate soundlessly against his left hip. That would be Julio calling. But he couldn't answer him right now. Their suits' long-range broadcast radio had been put on standby, to make sure n.o.body who might be listening for such things picked up stray signals. LOSIR was up, and GPS transponders were on, but that wouldn't be much help-they knew where where he was, just not why he was still he was, just not why he was still there there.
Howard had his pistol trained on Platt, as did Winthrop. Platt, meanwhile, waved the grenade back and forth as if it was a spinning reel and he was fly-fis.h.i.+ng for ba.s.s in a pond.
”Thing is, Colonel, we can't hang around here all night in this Mexican standoff,” Platt said. ”We don't leave pretty soon, El Presidente's boys are gonna come up here pokin' around, and we don't want to be here when they do.”
”Put that thing away,” Hughes said. ”Are you crazy?”
”No, sir, what I am is p.i.s.sed off. You owe me thirty million dollars and I want it.”
”Thirty million?” million?”
”Yeah, I figure I'm due a little extra, for all my trouble. Trouble you caused me.”
”I don't know what you are talking about.”
” 'Course not,” Platt said.
From the hall, Martin called: ”Colonel, is everything okay in there?” He couldn't see them, because the kicked-in door had shut behind him when Howard had come into the room.
”Affirmative!” Howard called back. ”But listen up! I want you and Hull to go downstairs, collect the rest of Beta Team, and take the truck back to the rendezvous point ASAP!”
”Sir? What about you and the package?”
”We are involved in some... delicate negotiations in here, Martin. Get back to the rendezvous, you copy?”