Bennett advanced the throttle and pulled onto the runway. Already cleared for takeoff, he took the Cessna up to safe rotation speed. It would be a close race.

Cabrillo followed the Cessna onto the runway and gave chase. The plane was accelerating hard, and it was obvious the pilot was not considering stopping. As soon as Cabrillo had the Smart Car cruising at fifty miles an hour, he set the cruise control and slid himself through the window until he was sitting on the windowsill.

Lining up his shots carefully, he began firing at the plane.

BENNETT HEARD AND felt a bullet impact on his left wing strut. That was followed by the report from more bullets being fired. Reaching proper takeoff speed, he rotated by pulling back on the yoke. Lifting into the air, Bennett waited until he was at three hundred feet of elevation before glancing back.

The Smart Car had stopped at the end of the runway.

And the man that had been driving the car was racing toward a helicopter that had just touched down. Bennett advanced the throttle to the stops as Cabrillo climbed into the passenger seat in the Robinson.

“Think you can catch him?” he shouted to Adams as he lifted off.

“It’ll be close,” Adams said.

26

JUST TO THEsouth of the Faeroe Islands a layer of clouds lay almost to the sea. The leading edge of a storm heading from south to north, the clouds had pelted the British Isles with rain and snow for the last two days. As soon as the Robinson R-44 entered the maelstrom, it was as if Adams and Cabrillo had stepped inside a maze.

One minute they would have a stretch of clear skies, the next they would enter another cloud bank and lose all sight of the Cessna and the water beneath them. Winds buffeted the helicopter, changing directions and velocity like a puck on an air hockey table. The coastline of Scotland was just over two hundred and eighty miles to the south. Inverness, the first city where they might refuel, another seventy.

With both of the fuel tanks filled, Adams and Cabrillo could make land—but only if the headwinds cooperated. The Robinson had a range without reserves of four hundred miles, tops. The Cessna 206 could do just over eight hundred miles. Bennett had not refueled the 206 in the Faeroe Islands—as soon as he saw that Cabrillo was pursuing him, he had taken off as quickly as possible—so here both aircraft were evenly matched.

As for cruising speed, the ratings were equal at 130 miles per hour.

“There,” Cabrillo said, pointing through an opening in the cloud bank, “he’s a couple miles ahead.”

Adams nodded; he’d been watching the Cessna appear and disappear for the last ten minutes. “I doubt he sees us,” Adams said. “We’re below him, and far enough back that we’re out of his rear field of view.”

“He can still pick us up on his avoidance radar,” Cabrillo noted.

“I don’t think he has one,” Adams said. “That’s an old-model Cessna.”

“Can you speed up?”

“We’re running dead out, boss,” Adams said, pointing to the air speed indicator, “and so is he, I’d judge. I can’t climb to dive down and gain speed that way. I’d lose too much forward air speed in the climb—he’d pull ahead out of sight.”

Cabrillo considered this for a moment. “Then all we can do is follow along,” he said, “and call for help.”

“That’s it,” Adams said.

JAMES BENNETT FLEW along thinking he was alone in the sky. He was not familiar with the Robinson R-44’s cruising speed but he knew most of the smaller helicopters topped out at around a hundred miles an hour. By his estimates, by the time he reached Scotland, the helicopter—if it was still following—would be at least a half hour behind him. Bennett reached for his satellite telephone and placed a call.

“I picked up the package,” he said, “but I think I have a tail.”

“Are you sure?” the voice asked.

“Not positive,” Bennett answered, “but if I do, I think I can outrun him. The problem is, once I land, I’ll only have a half hour or so to make the transfer. Is that a problem?”

The man on the other end of the line thought for a moment before answering. “I’ll work something out,” he said, “and call you back.”

“I’ll be here,” Bennett said, disconnecting.

Adjusting the trim to keep the Cessna flying straight, Bennett scanned the instruments, paying particular attention to the fuel gauge. It was going to be close. Holding the yoke as the Cessna was lifted up by a thermal current, he waited until the plane settled back down to his cruising altitude. Then he reached over and poured himself a cup of coffee from a battered Stanley thermos he’d owned for close to twenty years.

“I’LL CALL OVERHOLT,” Hanley said, “and have him get the British to scramble some fighter jets and force the plane down. That should wrap this up.”

“Just make sure he has the British wait until the Cessna is over land,” Cabrillo said. “I don’t want to lose the meteorite now.”

“I’ll make sure he understands that,” Hanley said.

“How far are you from port in the Faeroes?”

“About twenty minutes.”

“Did the Danes impound the yacht yet?” Cabrillo asked.

“According to the last message from Washington, they don’t have the manpower,” Hanley said. “But they have a policeman on the hill near the airport watching the ship—that’s the best they can do for right now.”

Cabrillo thought for a second. “Has anyone recovered the nuclear bomb?”

“Not according to my last intelligence.”

“It might be on the yacht,” Cabrillo noted.

“The source Overholt had claims it was loaded on an old cargo ship.”

“Whoever these guys are,” Cabrillo said, “they seem to like to switch at sea. There’s a good chance that they met up with the cargo ship somewhere and then took the weapon on board.”

“What do you think we should do?”

“Let’s recommend to Overholt that the yacht be allowed to leave port,” Cabrillo said. “Keep the Oregonaway from it—let’s let the British or American navy deal with the problem. They can board the yacht at sea—there’s a lot less risk that way.”

“I’ll call Overholt now,” Hanley said, “and report our recommendations.”

The telephone went dead, and Cabrillo sat back in his seat. He had no way of knowing that the meteorite and the nuclear bomb were possessed by two separate factions.

One group was planning a strike for Islam.

The second was planning a strike against Islam.

Hatred fueled them both.

27

AS SOON ASthe Gulfstream landed in Las Vegas, Truitt left Gunderson and Pilston with the plane and hailed a cab. The weather was clear and sunny with a light breeze blowing down from the mountains outside Las Vegas. The dry air seemed to magnify the surroundings, and the mountains, though miles distant, seemed close enough to touch.

Tossing his bag on the rear seat, Truitt climbed in the front with the driver.

“Where to?” the driver asked in a voice that sounded like Sean Connery with a smoker’s hack.

“Dreamworld,” Truitt answered.

The driver put the cab in gear and sped off away from the airport.

“Have you stayed at Dreamworld before?” the cabbie asked as they were nearing the famed Strip.

“Nope,” Truitt said.

“It’s a high-tech paradise,” the driver said, “a man-created environment.”

The driver slowed and entered the rear of a line of cabs and personal automobiles waiting to pull into the entrance. “Be sure to catch the lightning storm out on the rear grounds this evening,” he said, turning sideways to look at Truitt. “The display is every hour on the hour.”

The line moved forward and the driver steered the cab onto a driveway leading toward the hotel. A few feet off the street, he drove through a portal with plastic strips hanging to the ground that reminded Truitt of the entrances to food cold-storage warehouses.