“Yup.”

He signed off. Breanna rose. Reid remained sitting, staring at the map, his thoughts obviously far off.

“Coffee?” Breanna asked him.

“The SEAL element that was coming down from the Caspian,” Reid said. “They’ve run into resistance. They are going to have to withdraw.”

Reid continued to stare at the map. One of the suspected sites was five miles northeast of Fordow, the other a few miles west. The area was near a Guard base established at a former Iranian air force installation. It would be heavily patrolled, especially now.

“It makes no sense to get them out,” said Reid finally. “Even to try will be suicidal, and possibly expose the operation.”

“Of course it makes sense.” Breanna felt her face flushing. “Gorud is there, too—what are you saying?”

Reid didn’t answer.

“I’m not ordering Sergeant Ransom to kill him after the attack,” said Breanna.

“He’s already under orders, Breanna.”

“We need a backup if the SEAL team has to withdraw. We need Kronos.”

“It’s too late to revive Kronos,” said Reid. “And it was vetoed for a reason.”

“I understand that. But—”

“Kronos calls for assassination.”

“Escape or assassination. And I think he can get them out. I’ve always thought that.”

“We may end up losing him as well.”

Now it was Breanna’s turn to be silent.

“Very well,” conceded Reid. “We had best attempt to move it forward. Do you want to talk to Colonel Freah, or should I?”

3

Iran

THE SMELL OF DEATH STUNG COLONEL KHORASANI’S nose as he got out of the Kaviran. It was metallic, with the slightest hint of salt.

He disliked it. He disliked death completely. How ironic, then, that it had become so intimately entwined with his profession.

“We count six bodies, Colonel.” Sergeant Karim made a sweeping gesture toward the truck. “An entire team of Mossad.”

Khorasani said nothing, continuing across the soft ground to the burned out farm truck. The charred remains of automatic weapons had been discovered in the back, but that hardly meant that the occupants were Mossad, or even foreign agents. Khorasani in fact worried that they were Pasdaran—some of the local units had not yet reported to their commanders, and this could easily be a group of men who’d been on the way to their barracks.

He could deal with that, if it turned out to be the case. It would be far easier to explain than letting saboteurs get away.

The colonel continued his circuit around the vehicle. He’d been on his way to the destroyed lab when the report of the stolen school bus was relayed to him. Khorasani had decided to follow a hunch, joining the investigation personally. It was risky on many counts. But it did allow him to say he was pursuing his leads with vigor.

And vigor was the word he would have to use for the pilot: he had followed his orders well. The vehicle had been utterly demolished.

Good, perhaps, if there were questions.

“A phone,” said Private Navid, pulling at a brick of melted plastic and metal that had melted to one of the bodies. “Or a radio.”

It was tangled with other material—cloth and hair, skin and a bone that snapped as easily as if it had been a brittle twig. Navid handed it to him.

The phone would have fit easily in Khorasani’s hand, but the debris that had melted to it was two or three times as large. Khorasani turned it over, unable to discern anything from it.

A satellite phone, maybe? An Israeli would have one.

Or a cell phone, which a member of the Guard would have. The remains were too mangled to tell.

“Colonel, the ayatollah wishes to speak.” Khorasani’s communications aide had walked up unobtrusively. He handed him the secure sat phone.

It was twice the size of the one in the wreck. Khorasani handed the melted mess back to Navid and told him to put it in his staff car.

“Reverence,” he said, putting the phone to his ear.

“What progress have you made?” asked the ayatollah.

“We have found the men who stole the bus. They are dead.”

“All of them?”

“Yes, your excellency.”

“They were responsible for the explosion?”

Khorasani hesitated. Saying yes would simplify things for him, but it could also come back to haunt him as well.

“I have no evidence yet. The Israelis are very clever and would do much to disguise themselves.”

“But you are sure they were responsible.”

Khorasani considered what to say.

“Be honest,” the ayatollah reminded him before he made up his mind.

“I have no indication that any outsides were near the facility,” confessed Khorasani. “I am only starting my investigation. This seemed like a good lead, but to be frank, I see nothing at the moment that connects it. And my aides—the preliminary inquiries would suggest an accident. Everything we have seen suggests no one was aboveground when the explosion occurred.”

“You are saying it could have been a quake.”

“I’ve been told that is . . . unlikely.”

The ayatollah, who was a member of the ruling council, had undoubtedly been told the same. He let the matter drop. “Have you spoken to the pilot who shot down the plane?” he asked instead. “Find out what he saw. Perhaps it was a B-2.”

“That is on my agenda, your excellency.” The wreckage had been recovered; it was a light plane, flown by a man tentatively identified as an Iranian. Perhaps he was a spy, but more likely an unfortunate smuggler bound for Iraq. Considerable money could be earned ferrying certain people and items from the country. But pointing that out would not be useful at the moment.

“Report to me. Speak to no one else.”

The line went dead. Khorasani handed the phone back to his aide. “Tell Major Milanian that I wish to speak to him as quickly as possible. He will need to investigate this site. It would be best if he could get here before it is much darker.”

“Yes, Colonel.”

“The pilot—the one who shot the plane down last night. Find out where he is stationed. I wish to speak to him.”

“I believe it is the same squadron that responded to the vehicle,” said the aide.

“Really?”

“They were given responsibility for this area.”

“Excellent. Find his name,” said Khorasani, walking to his vehicle.

4

Washington, D.C.

“SENATOR, HE INSISTS IT’S PERSONAL. HE’S NOT HERE for funding, or legislation. He really emphasized that.”

Zen frowned at the intercom. It was his own fault, though; wanting to get Rodriguez off the phone when he’d been at the baseball game, he invited him to come in person whenever he wanted.

Even that would have been acceptable had the Nationals not proceeded to give up six runs in the top of the first.

“All right. Send him in.” Zen wheeled out from behind the desk. By the time Cheryl knocked and opened the door, he was sitting a few feet from the door.

“Senator.” Rodriguez, visibly nervous, extended his hand.

“Gerry. How are you?” Zen shook his hand. The night before, he thought he vaguely remembered Rodriguez. Now he couldn’t place him at all. “It’s been too long.”

He nearly bit his tongue. He hated being a BS artist—it was the normal political crap: beentoolong, howareya, goodtaseeya, wereallymustgettogethermoreoften.

Trivial phrases, meaningless, expected, but using them made him feel like a phony.

“I wasn’t sure you’d remember me,” said Rodriguez.

“I don’t,” admitted Zen. “Not well, anyway. Dreamland seems like a million years ago.”

“I know. It was, um, well, the experiments didn’t go that well. So, um . . . I guess I’ve changed quite a lot.”

Rodriguez—the friendly junior doctor who’d worked out with him pre-experiment?