Page 130 of The Atlas Maneuver

“And that surprises you?” Dorner asked.

Koger shook his head. “What’s the game plan here?”

“It’s real simple,” Dorner said. “This gold is going to disappear. The world will never know it exists. It cannot ever know.”

“Why not?” Cassiopeia asked.

But it was Jeanne, not Dorner, who answered. “Nothing is to be gained by any great revelations. This has to be handled in secret.”

“President Fox has spoken directly to the Swiss government,” Dorner said. “They are in agreement. The gold will be divided fifty-fifty between the two governments and absorbed into each nation’s national reserves. That way it goes unnoticed and will have no effect on the world economy.”

She could understand the logic associated with that decision but still had to say, “It’s war plunder. People died for its acquisition. It came from the horror of the Axis armies. It doesn’t belong to either one for your countries.”

Dorner nodded. “You’re absolutely correct. But it’s the only viable solution. The Bank of St. George cannot be allowed to keep it, and we definitely are not going to alert the world to its presence.”

“But that’s just it,” Cassiopeia said. “The bank knows it’s here. You can’t keep this secret.”

“But we can,” Jeanne said. “A threat of prosecution should be enough to ensure everyone’s silence. Our guess is that only a few within the bank know about this. So we should be able to contain it. My officers are sworn to secrecy on threat of jail. They are accustomed to classified missions. None will talk. And besides, once it’s gone, there’s no way to prove anything.”

A few minutes later they all emerged back out into the cool evening air.

A soft hum interrupted the silence.

Trinity Dorner removed a phone from her coat pocket and tapped the screen. Not a call. An email or text.

Which seemed to be important.

“You need to see this,” Dorner said, and she displayed her phone.

They all came close and Cassiopeia saw what appeared to be a high-altitude image.

“Cotton Malone is in Morocco,” Dorner said. “I assume you’re both aware of that. There’s a gathering there within Catherine Gledhill’s estate. Malone and a PSIA agent are on the scene. We have a drone in the air monitoring, and this just happened.”

Dorner tapped the screen and the video sprang to life.

Cassiopeia saw the roofs of buildings within a large walled compound. There were several gardens, one filled with what appeared to be a large tent.

Which exploded.

CHAPTER 75

KELLY STRUGGLED TO BREATHE.

A blinding flash had come first, then a bang and she was pitched backward by a blast of displaced air, her vision gone, ears ringing, face hit by a wave of intense heat. Then everything had gone black, a total cloaking darkness, as if she’d been struck blind. The air around her had turned hot, clammy, and close, pressing onto her skin, hard to breathe in, burning her throat. Panic clamped her lungs. A foul odor swelled in her nostrils. Flesh burning? A weight seemed heavy on her chest, pinning her down, and she was shaking bad, her body cold. In the turmoil that assaulted her stunned mind the only impulse was to flee. But none of her muscles responded.

She opened an eye.

The tent was gone.

The night sky now above her clouded by smoke.

Intense pain radiated from her midsection, through her back, and into her brain. Her left arm would not move but, with the right one, she carefully examined her abdomen. Blood coated her hand. Red, warm, fresh. She was bleeding. Bad. Slowly, she turned her head and saw more bodies, many covered in smoking vinyl. The scene around her winked in and out and she fought to stayconscious. Her strength was waning and nothing she did rallied her stamina. She stiffened and struggled to bring herself under control.

Was she dying?

Bleeding to death?

God. No.