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“Helpful guy,” Maslick said.
Rapp stood. “Lock this plane down. No one gets on or off until we’re ready to transfer that nuke. I’ll be back in twenty.”
• • •
Rapp hated the smell of hospitals. It was a stale antiseptic stench that he’d come to associate with failure and loss. He walked up to a large reception desk and looked over it at a woman in a crisp air force uniform. “Excuse me, ma’am. One of my men just came in here.”
Her eyebrows rose a bit. “Are you the guy running our CO ragged?”
News had a way of moving quickly on military bases. “Yeah.”
“Congratulations. No one knew he could move that fast,” she said, sliding a clipboard toward him. “Your man didn’t have any tags or a name. Could you give us his information?”
“Sure,” Rapp said. “How is he?”
“They’ve taken him into surgery.”
“With respect, ma’am, that’s not what I asked.”
“I know.”
Rapp nodded his understanding and picked up the clipboard. “Is there somewhere I can fill this out? Somewhere private?”
“We’ve got a little chapel down the hall on the right. Nothing fancy but I don’t think anyone’s in there.”
He followed her directions, pushing through a set of double doors before dropping the clipboard in a trash can and dialing Irene Kennedy.
He thought about the deaths of his wife and unborn child. About his brother, whom he hadn’t seen in more than a year. About his old friend Stan Hurley bleeding out in his arms only a few weeks ago.
And now Scott.
The line began to ring and Kennedy picked up almost immediately. “How is he?”
“Not good. He’s in surgery.”
“And the warhead?”
“Joe’s watching it. I’ve ordered up a transport.”
“You’re still planning on bringing it here?”
“We’ve been wanting to get a look at Pakistani nuclear technology for a long time. This might be our only chance.”
She didn’t respond.
“You disagree?”
“No, but I’m getting a lot of pushback from the Pakistanis. They know we have it and they want it back.”
“Call Chutani.”
“He’s one of the ones pushing back.”
“Bullshit. He’d be dead if it weren’t for me and that nuke would be in the back of a van with a bunch of terrorists.”
“Still, he’s the president of Pakistan and he’s trying to hold on to power. Shirani can use this against him.”
“Then stall. It’s not like we need it for a month. I’ll deliver it to Craig and tell him his tech guys have twenty-four hours to learn everything he can.”