"So that's all the money," Jay said.

"Not exactly. The hundred and sixty very large went into a bank in Bali, but there's a good chance the money has already left the building. The inst.i.tution in question has a history of such transactions."

"So Hughes, if he's responsible, has probably already gotten his hands on more money than you and I and everybody in our department will make for the rest of our lives," Alex said.

"That would be a fairly safe bet," Joanna said.

Alex sighed. "d.a.m.n."

"I hate to add more rain on the parade," Toni said, "but with that kind of money, there are probably a dozen poor African nations who'd be happy to grant Hughes political asylum. Maybe not the Ethiopians, but some of the third-world presidents would jump at the chance to sell out. For a tenth of that much."

Alex said, "And that might be his plan. He might already be sitting in his new villa in Sierra Leone, sipping some banana-and-rum drink and laughing his head off at us."

"And it gets worse, Boss. We've been backwalking the various penetrations as best we can, and casting about for any side trails, and we think we've uncovered a problem."

Michaels looked at him. "Why am I not surprised? What is it?"

"The way it looks to us, Platt has set it up so that he has to log in to various systems at certain times. If he doesn't, and if he doesn't send the right messages, we think he has several more surprises set to be unleashed on us."

"Dead-man switches," Alex said.

Jay nodded. "That's how it looks. We're tracking them as best we can. Given enough time, we'll get them all, but if anything happens to Platt before we do..."

Alex glanced over at Joanna, then back at Jay. "Stay on it," he said, "and let me know as soon as you've got them all."

"Right, Boss."

"First thing the rest of us have to do is find out where Hughes is. Then we'll worry about how much immunity he thinks he's got."

Alex looked thoughtful. "Toni, see if you can get hold of Colonel Howard at home, would you?"

Joanna said, "He's not at home. He's doing a survival course in Oregon."

Everybody turned and looked at Joanna. She said, "Uh, that's what I heard."

Jay grinned at Joanna, and Toni wondered why.

"Ah," Jay said. "You get that from a certain NCO we all know and love?"

Joanna blushed, her pale complexion flushed a deep pink.

"Of course, some of us apparently know him and love him more than others," Jay said. b.u.t.ter wouldn't melt in his mouth.

"Go, people, find me a bank thief," Alex said, saving Joanna more embarra.s.sment. "Oh, and good work on what we've done so far. You four are the best, don't let anybody ever tell you different."

"Yeah, but-who gets the trip to Hawaii?" Jay said.

"Go, Jay. We aren't done yet. And while you're looking, get me everything you can on Hughes. Let's find out what we're dealing with here."

Chapter Thirty-Six.

Sunday, January 16th, 6:15 a.m. Eastern Oregon John Howard was nearly a mile into the morning's trek when his virgil cheeped at him.

Uh-oh. n.o.body was supposed to call unless it was an emergency. He unclipped the device from his belt-he'd learned that that lesson, thank you very much-and looked at the ID flashing on the screen. lesson, thank you very much-and looked at the ID flashing on the screen.

a.s.sistant Commander of Net Force Toni Fiorella.

He pressed the connect b.u.t.ton. "Howard," he said.

"Colonel, I'm afraid you're going to have to cut your survival trip short. We've got a situation here, and Alex-Commander Michaels-wants you back at HQ to put your teams on standby alert."

"Copy that."

"Find a flat spot, sir, and a copter will be there to pick up as soon as possible."

"Affirmative, AC. What's up, can you say?"

"We may be doing an extraction, Colonel, though it's a little early to tell. If we can locate the quarry, it's likely you won't need to pack your cold-weather clothes."

"Copy. I'm looking for a landing site now."

"Drop by when you get back, Colonel, and we'll fill you in. Discom."

"Discom." After the link was sundered, Howard began looking for a place for the copter to land. They'd home in on his virgil, and if a bird lifted from the nearest local military base, his ride should be there within the hour. Giving up his survival trip for a real a.s.signment was not in the least bit distressing to him. War games and camping trips were only the maps, not the territory.

Sunday, January 16th, 2:15 p.m. Bissau, Guinea-Bissau The web covered the world, even a backwater like this one, and it was but the work of a few minutes with a portable flatscreen to uplink via shielded modem pipe to a pa.s.sing telecom sat. Another minute, a coded pa.s.sword, and 160 million electronic dollars flew from Bali to Bissau, into the government-owned Banco Primero de Bissau, where it was now as safe from the U.S. authorities' grasp as was the surface of Saturn.

In his room, seated cross-legged on his bed, Hughes took a deep breath and let it slowly escape. He smiled. It hadn't even been that difficult to do, to steal more money than most people could ever hope to see in their lifetimes. To most people, 160 million dollars was a fantasy-the only chance they'd ever have at such a sum was winning the lottery. For him, the money was but an intermediate step. A tool, nothing more. He was home free. He had the money, and they didn't have any idea who had taken it. He could go back to the States with White, wrap up a few loose ends, make a few calls, and he was on his way. Even if all of this somehow blew up in his face, he still would have forty million, after he paid El Presidente. Not a bad little nest egg. That was including, of course, the twenty million Platt was supposed to get-but wouldn't need where he was going.

So easy. Amazing.

The room's phone rang.

"Yes?"

It was the President's secretary. "Good afternoon, Mr.Hughes. President Domingos sends his regards and wonders if it might be convenient for you to join him for a drink in the Blue Room in perhaps half an hour?"

"That would be fine," Hughes said. "Half an hour."

Hughes smiled again. His Excellency wasn't wasting any time.

Time for a shower and fresh clothes before he went.

Sunday, January 16th, 10 a.m. Quantico. Virginia "Guinea-Bissau?" Alex said. "I hope you don't think any less of me for not knowing, but where the h.e.l.l is that?"

"West Africa," Toni said, "between Senegal and Guinea."

"Oh, that that helps." helps."

They were in his office, alone, and she had just presented him with the intelligence on Thomas Hughes's whereabouts.

Toni said, "On the North Atlantic coast. Trust me, it's there."

"Okay, so how do we know Hughes is there?"

"I have a contact at the CIA who checked it out for me. They actually have an operative in the country, and she filed a report."

"Why would the CIA have an op there? I don't even see any of the Company's maps in here. How important a place can it be if they didn't bother to map it?"

Toni shrugged. "Who knows why the spooks do anything?"

He glanced at the material. "Doesn't look like a real hot vacation spot either. Why is he there?"

"The spooks aren't being real forthcoming. My source says there is some kind of deal cooking between the country's President and Hughes, but that's all they know. Or more likely, all they are willing to say."

Alex leaned back in his chair and fiddled with a light pen.

There came a knock at the door. Joanna stood there.

"Good news, I hope?" Alex said.

"Well, good that we found out the bad news," she said.

"Swell. Go ahead."

"The federal hounds paid the entry fee-that's a bribe to you and me-to bank officials in Bali and got into the account where the money was."

Alex blew out a sigh. "Was. I take it that word is key here?"

"Correct. The account was emptied less than an hour ago. Went to something called the Banco Primero de Bissau. That's in-"

"Guinea-Bissau," Alex finished.

"I'm impressed, sir. I'd never heard of the place before."

"Commanders see all and know all, Jo," he said. He gave her a rueful smile. "So, our white-collar thief and his stolen millions are in a country with whom we probably don't have an extradition treaty, no crooks from here ever having figured out how to flee there before now, right? Or if we do have a treaty, whatever deal Hughes and the local head honcho are cooking up will no doubt stall any such proceedings we might attempt? Anybody want to jump in here and rea.s.sure me how wrong I am?"

Both Joanna and Toni shook their heads.

Alex stood, put the light pen down, and paced back and forth behind his desk. After a few seconds he said, "All right. Is there any point in me calling State and telling them we want this guy back here?"

Toni shook her head again. "If Hughes thinks he is going to be arrested as soon as he steps off a plane, probably not. State can't make him come home if he's got the country's President in his pocket."

Toni continued. "Of course, he is the COS for a United States senator. He can likely throw some heavy artillery at us. Political types will owe him favors. Maybe he comes back and White steps up to bat for him."

"Maybe," Alex said. "But national-cla.s.s politicos don't get to the top of the heap without knowing which bugs to step on and which ones to step around. This isn't a political gaffe, it's grand theft. Not an ant, but a stink beetle. Hughes will play h.e.l.l trying to blame this on the opposition party trying to make him look bad. I'd bet White will drop Hughes like he's a lit bomb."

"All of which means what, Commander?" Joanna asked.

"I think it means if we want him, we are going to have to go and get him," Alex said.

"Hold up a second," Toni said. "He doesn't know we know he's the thief. White is due to return to the country next week. Wouldn't Hughes just come back with the senator? I mean, maybe not, but he's got a seat on White's charter. Why wouldn't he return? As far as he is concerned, he's gotten away with it. That would make things a lot easier. We wait until he lands right at Dulles and collect him, no fuss."

Alex looked at her and smiled. "You're right. Of course. He doesn't doesn't know we are looking at him. And now that the theft is a done deal, I would suspect there won't be any more attacks on the net by his pet thug. No emergency. We can wait a few days. That would keep me from having to explain to the Director why I invaded a third-world country and kidnapped somebody. Brilliant, Toni." know we are looking at him. And now that the theft is a done deal, I would suspect there won't be any more attacks on the net by his pet thug. No emergency. We can wait a few days. That would keep me from having to explain to the Director why I invaded a third-world country and kidnapped somebody. Brilliant, Toni."

Toni smiled. Any time she could get that kind of response from him, she was happy.

"Of course, it might be a good idea if the CIA gave us a little help keeping an eye on this character, just in case he decides to go elsewhere."

"They'd be happy to," Toni said. "They lost people when that spy list hit the web. They want this guy. I'd guess if we don't get him pretty soon, he might have a fatal accident."

"That would be bad," Alex said. "We need him alive at least until Jay and Joanna have tracked down and defused his little time bombs."

"I know," she said. "I mentioned that we want him alive."

Sunday, January 16th, 10 a.m. Chicago, Illinois Platt had booked a commercial flight from O'Hare to Heathrow, where he'd switch airlines for the hop to North Africa, before transferring to a local crop-duster flight to Oogaboogah. Starting out on a nice big Mil, then going to a DC-9, and finally a DeHavilland prop plane. Since he was flying tourist cla.s.s all the way, the seats weren't gonna be that comfortable, but pretty soon he wouldn't have to be fooling with this c.r.a.p anymore, and he could fly first cla.s.s if he felt like it.

The plane didn't leave until the afternoon, though, and he had more than six hours to kill. He thought about checking into a room and getting a few hours sleep, but he could sleep on planes, if he could get them to give him two or three pillows, and he didn't want to take any chance he'd miss his flight, so he decided to wait at the airport. He could d.i.c.k around, pick up copies of this month's Flex, Muscular Development Flex, Muscular Development, and MuscleMag MuscleMag, eat a good lunch, all like that. He only had the one carry-on bag, and he could rent a locker for that. What the h.e.l.l.

Since he was so early, he wasn't in any hurry to check in. He got some breakfast, hit the magazine racks, went to the John, then found a place to sit and read near where his gate was.

He spotted the two feds when they came in. They were looking for somebody, and he didn't think that much about it, other than the usual wolf-aware-of-the-hunter kind of thing. But then he saw them see him, saw them recognize him, then pretend it wasn't him they were interested in.

Oh, s.h.i.t s.h.i.t!

The two feds walked off, moving quick, ignoring him, but it was too late. He was sure. They had come here looking for him, specifically for him. They were early, checking the place out for spots to set up, and they hadn't expected him to be here yet.

How had they tracked him? If they came to this international gate, then they must know he was booked on a flight with this carrier. If they knew that that, they knew what name he was traveling under, his main pa.s.sport, and all. And there was only one way they could possibly know that, because he had told only one person.

Hughes. And Hughes had given him up.