"Well, hey, cowpoke, I know that much right now!" "I guess if I can make fun of Jordan, he can make fun of Texas. Really burned me there, didn't he? Anyway, the question is this: Do we want to play this out to the end, assumin' you're gonna have an inside track on exactly when employees have to take the mark? Or do we want some wiggle room?"

David thought about it. "It's more than wiggle room, Mac. It's part of the impression. If we wait till the last second and still try to make it look like we were killed, the timing alone is going to make it suspicious."

"That's what I said!" Abdullah said. "Isn't that what I said, Mac? I said that."

"That's what he said. Good point. OK, if we're going to do this sooner than the actual deadline, we have lots of options. Peacekeeping just started shipping its first loads of-what are they calling those contraptions now? Loyalty somethin's or other."

"Call 'em what they are," David said.;

"OK, they shipped guillotines into Greece last night."

"Not from here," David said. "I would have known that."

"No, these were actually manufactured in Istanbul and driven down. Pretty soon they'll be flyin' 'em here and there, and you know we'll be pressed into service. You ought to pick a particularly strategic place you want to see or a shipment you want to monitor, find a reason to bring Hannah and Chang what's-his-name, and I'll have to requisition a Quasi Two."

"A Two? How will you justify that? We want to avoid suspicion. You can fit two pilots and three passengers in something cheaper than a 15-million-Nick aircraft."

"Yeah, but let's say we want to take a huge load of guillotines and skids of biochips and injectors."

"I'm listening. Still need more ammo to justify a Two."

"Well, let's say it's somewhere that St. Nick hisself is gonna be."

"Tell him who thought of that," Abdullah said.

"I think you just did, big mouth."

"Big mouth?"

"Teasin', Smitty. Slow your camel down now."

David cocked his head. "Are you thinking what I think you're thinking?"

"Is this a game?" Abdullah said.

"We are," Mac said. "Jerusalem."

David sat considering the possibilities. "I pass the word up the line that we want to be there, bring the injection expert and my best new computer prospect. We want to carry the maximum cargo load in an impressive craft that will look good for the potentate, play to his ego."

"You think he's egotistical?" Mac said, as seriously as if he meant it.

David smiled.

"Is he joking again?" Abdullah said. "Not enough cloth in Jordan to make a turban for Nicolae's head."

Mac threw his head back and laughed.

David was still deep in thought. "And the Quasi Two can be flown remotely."

"Just about any plane can nowadays, but I've got lots of experience with these."

"So we land somewhere out of sight on our way there. Then, from the safety of the ground, you fly that very expensive jet, with all that precious cargo-except us-in it, nose down right into the middle of one of the deepest bodies of water we can find."

"With people watching."

"Come again?"

"Let 'em see it! You wanted us to think about a logical explanation for the accident. Well, forgive the painful subject, but we recently lost our cargo chief. She would have prohibited that much weight on that particular plane, but me bein' a veteran, I thought it would handle it. Flyin' it remote and also broadcasting from it remote, I start hollerin' about a weight shift, cargo rolling, hard to control, Mayday, good-bye cruel world."

"You guys are brilliant."

"Thank you."

"Both of us," Abdullah said. "Right?"

"Of course," David said.

"Just thought of one more good one," Abdullah said.

"Hold on now, Smitty," Mac said. "Is this new to me?"

"Slow down your pony. You'll like it. You want to do this in front of people, do it in Tel Aviv. Carpathia is flying through there. Do air show for him and crowds. Crash into Mediterranean, so deep they know we're dead and plane is too deep to bother with search."

"And where are we supposed to be during all this?" Mac said. "It's going to be awfully hard to hide in Tel Aviv with Carpathia and all his crowds."

"We don't take off from Tel Aviv. We come straight from here to show, only they don't know we stopped in Jordan. I know that place. We can land where no one sees. Send plane to Tel Aviv, do show, crash."

"From how far away do you think I can remotely fly that plane, Smitty?"

"Sort of not remote. Take off remote, but flight plan, tricks, everything programmed into computer."

Mac looked from Abdullah to David. "He may just have something there."

"Really?" David said. "You can program the thing that specifically?"

"It would take some time."

"Get on it."

"Surprise, surprise," Abdullah said. "Camel jockey come up with one."

David's cell phone rang. "Readout says urgent from Hannah."

"Take it," Mac said.

"Hey, what's up?" David said.

"You're 100 percent certain this connection is secure?"

"Absolutely. You all right?"

"I'm in a utility closet. Did you know Carpathia had a Peacekeeper executed today?"

"Actually, I did. Santiago?"

"Thanks for telling me. I just had to go get the body from Security lockup."

"There wasn't time to tell you, Hannah. Anyway, who knew you'd get assigned?"

"It was awful. I deal with death all the time, but he was shot between the eyes at point-blank range. And they aren't even pretending it's anything but what it was. He was executed by Carpathia himself! You know what for? Well, of course you do. You know everything."

"I heard he talked too much."

"Doesn't sound very technical to me, David, but that's what I heard too. Apparently he told someone something that Carpathia said in a private meeting."

"I'm sorry you got in the middle of it, Hannah."

"Yeah, well, I think I know who ratted him out."

"You do?"

"Do you?" she said.

"Actually, I do."

"David, how can you live with this stuff?"

"Don't think it's easy."

"So, who told? Who got Santiago executed?"

"You said you knew, Hannah."

"You'll confirm it if I'm right?"

"Sure."

"Hickman."

"How'd you know?"

"I'm right, David?"

"You're right."

"He was just delivered to the morgue. Someone found him in his office with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the temple."

SIXTEEN

Buck and Albie joined and separated from and joined again a caravan of GC vehicles picking its way through what was left of Ptolemai's. "Would you look at that," Albie said, nodding toward open trucks carrying guillotines. "They're ugly, but there's really not much to 'em, is there?"

Buck shook his head. "That's one of my sidebar stories, how easily they can be assembled. They're simple machines with basic, pattern-cut parts. Each is basically wood, screws, blade, spring, and rope. That's why it was so easy for the GC to send out the specs and let anybody who wanted work and had the materials to have at it. You've got huge manufacturing plants reopening to mass-produce these, competing with amateur craftsmen in their backyards."

"All for something the GC says will serve as a-what did they call it, officially?"

"Visual deterrent. They put just one at each mark application site, and everyone is supposed to fall in line."

Albie stopped where a GC Peacekeeper was directing traffic. He signaled the young woman over. "I'm working here," she said testily until she recognized the uniform. She saluted. "At your service, Commander."

"We've been assigned the main detention facility, but I left the manifest in my bag. Are we close?"

"The main facility, sir?"

"I think that's what it said."