“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.”