"Yes"-it took a moment for the voice to register. "Don't say your name!" he said hurriedly. "The line is probably being monitored."

"And this cell phone is going down a storm drain as soon as I end the call." She sounded nervous.

"Is it about the talk we had? Because if so, there've been some changes-"

"No, it's not about that. Listen, Olga told me what you told her."

"Olga told"-he paused, his tenuous train of thought perilously close to derailment-"what's your situation?"

"I'm okay, my mom's okay, and we know about the surprise in the cell phone your boss left for us." Cold sweat drenched Mike's back as she continued relentlessly: "It's about the nukes. Your boss didn't stay on the line long enough to let us pass on the news that all this send them a message shit has just blown up in a big way. The conservative faction are attempting to stage a coup and as part of their preparations they've stolen"-a pause-"no, they've deployed at least three, possibly four, of the bombs in their possession. Hang on"-the line went silent for a few seconds-"word is that they have decided to send you a message, and you've probably got less than twenty-four hours to find it."

"If this is some kind of joke-"

"No, hang on, I'm relaying stuff. The target is probably Washington D.C., and the bombs only dial up to about one kiloton each. The bad guys are inside our chain of command; they activated a contingency plan and changed the targets. We're currently trying to reestablish control and find out where the new target locations are, and as soon as we figure that out I will phone this land line number and pass the information on. I want you to know that we're treating this as treason and it is not our intention to blow up any cities. Have you got that?"

"Wait, listen! Did you try telling-did you talk to Dr. James? Did you talk to him-"

"Yes, that's the name. Can you pass this-"

Mike tried to swallow, his mouth was dry and sticky, and his heart was hammering. "Dr. James works directly for the vice president. WARBUCKS has been in collusion with someone in your inner families for a very long time-more than ten years-and he wants you all dead. There are tapes… I'm not trusted, I'm a disposable asset. Just saying. If what you're telling me is true, Dr. James doesn't care about losing a city block or two-it would make it easier to justify what's coming down the line.

Think of Pearl Harbor, think of 9/11. If I pass this up the line, they'll bury it and I'll show up in the morgue one morning."

"Shit." Her voice cracked. "Mike, I'm going to have to put the phone down in a minute, I've been on the line too long. What can we do?"

"Find the bombs. Drag them back to the Gruinmarkt and dump them in a swamp or something." He stared bleakly at the kitchen sink. "I'm going to put the answering machine on now and go out. Got to go outside the chain of command and talk to some folks who might be able to do something useful."

"If there's anything we can do-"

"Just find the fucking bombs!" he snarled, and slammed the handset down on its charge point so hard that the battery cover pinged off.

"Shit." He breathed deeply, staring at the phone. Coming from anyone else, he'd have questioned the sanity of the bearer of such news-but he knew Miriam. And he'd let his mouth run away with him, blabbing the truth about the tapes Dr. James had him listening in on. Never mind the pinhole camera: The phone line was bugged and even if nobody was monitoring it in real-time, the word would be out soon.

Mike went through into the living room, and then his bedroom, as fast as his cast would let him. (It was still itching, but nearly ready to come off; give it two weeks, said the doctor he'd seen the week before.) He collected his jacket and a small go-bag from under the bed, which held (among other things) a gun, a couple of fully charged and never-used cell phones, and a handwritten paper address book. "Who first?" he asked the air as he headed for the front door. I could try the colonel again, he thought dismally. Or… Agent Herz. She might go for it. But whether she'd listen to him was another matter: They'll put the word out on me within an hour. That left the usual channels-he could go talk to the FBI or his former boss at the DEA field office in town, but again: They'll think I'm crazier than a fruit-bat once Dr. James gets through with my rep. He opened the front door.

I'm going to have to go to the press, he thought, and raised the remote on his car key chain, and had already begun to press the button just as a second thought crystallized in his mind: James is an old hand. What if he's playing by the pre-Church Commission rules-

In the aftermath of the explosion, every car alarm within three blocks began to sound, accompanied by a chorus of panicking dogs and, soon enough, the rising and falling of sirens; but they were too late.

And two hours and fourteen minutes later, in a locked storeroom on the top floor of a department store on Pennsylvania Avenue, a timer counted down to zero…