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Granville had the decency to look worried. But ole’ Jimmy just leaned back and smiled a little. “Guess all them folks in Vegas shouldn’ta got so dependent on technology, now, should they?”

Piper cried, “They’re tourists, Jim. And families. Lots and lots of regular people live in Las Vegas. Families. Children. And they’re all going to die!”

Easy, Piper. Undersell the threat. Let them arrive at the understanding on their own of how devastating their power outage was going to be. He sent her a warning glance and hoped she caught his underlying message to take it slow and gentle.

She subsided, leaning against his shoulder. Granville had not tied her wrists together, and one of her hands crept behind his back as she cuddled up to him. Her fingers started groping at the knots. After a few seconds, she started to pluck at the ropes.

Even if she did get his hands free, he probably couldn’t overpower both guys back here and point a gun at the pilot before the bastard turned around and shot him and Piper with his sidearm. Not to mention, the helo could crash in the maneuver to overpower the pilot. If they were a few thousand feet up in the air, he’d be more inclined to try it. But the ‘copter was barely skimming over the weeds and rocks of the southern Nevada desert. There was no margin whatsoever for error.

Not to mention, Piper could get shot. It was a damned inconvenient moment to reach the realization that he did not want to see her get killed, even if it was in the line of duty. He must have felt this way for a long time…since before he went into that burning building to save her and let the Scientist slip away. Well, crap. That made this whole mess just that much messier.

The helicopter slowed, its tail lifting up as it decelerated. “We’re here,” Granville announced. “The lines are below us.”

The third guy, who’d been silent until now, stood up. “You’re on the winch, Jimmy. Granville, you’re on the stairs. Just like we practiced.”

Ian swore silently. The bastard sounded like a trained para-rescue jumper. Which meant he couldn’t expect any mistakes out of the guy. Ian had to give Piper’s father credit. The bastard ran a tight terrorist attack.

Piper continued to pick at his knots while the helicopter established a hover, the cargo door was opened, and a winch arm swung out the door into position. The quiet guy in the harness guy hooked onto a safety line of some kind.

Ian noticed it was not the usual steel cable, however. It looked like some sort of nylon climbing line, instead. Frowning, he watched Granville lie down on the floor of the helo and lean out, releasing hooks and flipping down the extra steps. What in the hell were they planning to do with four steps down to thin air?

“Ready back here!” Granville shouted to the pilot as he heaved himself back into the copter and upright. “Bring her down easy, ten feet.”

The helicopter commenced descending slowly. All Ian saw was desert, but from her vantage point, Piper had a better view.

She leaned close to his ear to breathe, “High tension power lines.”

Harness guy hefted a heavy backpack over one shoulder, checked the safety line one last time, and stepped out onto the aluminum stairs.

In about ten seconds, the plan became clear. Harness guy stood on the lowest step and was able to lean out and reach the actual power line. A faint smell of ozone permeated the air, and Ian fancied that he felt the electro-magnetic field of the high-power line crackling across his skin.

Harness guy knelt on the bottom step and carefully attached what looked like an explosive cutting charge with a sophisticated trigger device to the power line itself. Theoretically, without being grounded, neither the helicopter nor its occupants could be electrocuted. But it was still as scary as hell to watch Harness Guy work on the high-power lines. The chopper hovered over each of the half-dozen lines in turn.

“Next spot. About 250 feet down the line!” Harness Guy yelled.

Yup. If a big chunk of the line were blown out all at once, that would make for a massive EMP—electromagnetic pulse. Timers would undoubtedly cause the charges to blow with the exact synchronicity required.

One by one, the second set of charges was set on each of the huge power lines that were the energetic lifeblood of Las Vegas. It took nearly a full, nerve-wracking hour to set them all. But finally, Harness guy stepped back into the helicopter.

The steps were secured, the winch pulled in, and the door shut in under a minute. The helicopter lifted away from the power lines, and when it had another fifty feet or so of clearance, banked hard off to the north and accelerated fast.

Granville commented helpfully, “We gotta get away from the line when it blows so it won’t knock us out of the sky.”

Gee. That was generous of them not to stick around and suffer the fate of their victims.

“When we get a good ways out into the desert, we’ll put you two out. If you’re smart and remember what your daddy taught you, Piper, you two should be able to make it to the nearest town.”

“What will you guys do?” she asked.

“After the second charge blows, the rest of us will go home.”

“What ‘rest’ of us?” she asked sharply.

“Aww, honey. I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you. Your daddy insisted on flying the second plane.”

She frowned, not understanding. But in Ian’s gut, a foreboding took root. Granville didn’t answer and she repeated more urgently, “What’s my dad going to do with the second plane?”

Ian answered gently. “The fixed wing plane has a bomb in it. He’s planning to blow it up.”