Day of the Predator - Alex Scarrow [62]
Behind her narrowing eyes he guessed her computer was hard at work processing that notion. Looking for a percentage probability figure.
Whitmore nodded. ‘That’s how the intelligence agencies work, by putting up a poker face. Give nothing away. You know something? You keep it to yourself. You know something about the enemy, say the Russians … you don’t change a thing about the way you behave. You act normal so the enemy don’t know you’ve got something on them.’
Liam nodded. ‘Exactly! Just like in the Second World War. I read something about those Enigma codes and all. And how the Americans and British couldn’t sometimes react to the German messages they’d intercepted, otherwise the Germans would have figured out they’d cracked their secret codes.’ He looked down at the muddy ground at his feet. Subconsciously the toe of his left shoe drew spirals in the dirt. ‘So I don’t know yet what kind of a message we could write. But we’d want something we know they’d have to keep secret. But, more importantly, we want a message they’d need to take directly to our field office.’
‘That will compromise the agency’s secrecy,’ warned Becks.
Liam shrugged. ‘I know … but another problem to fix later, huh?’
She scowled silently at that. ‘It is another protocol conflict.’
‘So you can blame it on me when we get back,’ he said with a grin.
The group considered Liam’s plan in silence for a while as the fire crackled and hissed between them.
‘I reckon your idea sounds cool,’ said Lam. ‘I’m in.’
Liam noticed a couple of heads nod.
‘All right, then,’ he said finally. ‘All right, then.’ This felt good, having something at least half-figured out, something for them all to work towards. ‘Becks, we’d need for them to know when we are, you know? As close as you can get it. So you do what maths in your head you need to do.’
She nodded slowly. ‘Affirmative.’
‘And maybe we’ll need some sort of device erected exactly where we landed, right? So that if –’ he corrected himself – ‘when they get our message and have an approximate time period to start density probing, we need something that’s constantly moving to and fro in that space. Creating some sort of a movement, a disturbance?’
‘Correct.’
‘You mean like a windmill or somethin’?’ asked Ranjit.
Becks nodded. ‘Affirmative. A device of that kind would be suitable.’
‘And we’ll need to make some preparations for a long hike. Food, water, weapons, those sorts of things.’ Liam looked around at them. ‘And we’ll need to leave someone behind to man the camp and lift the bridge after we’re gone.’
‘Also to maintain the density interference device. It must function constantly. All the time,’ said Becks.
Liam looked over his shoulder out towards the darkness, towards the middle of the clearing where they’d landed over a week ago. ‘Yes, you’re right. It’d be bad news for us if a density probe passed through here once, found nothing and moved on.’
Liam’s grin was infectious and began to spread among the others.
He looked at Becks. ‘Is this acceptable?’
She nodded slowly. ‘The plan has a low probability of success.’ She smiled, quite nicely this time. ‘But it is possible, Liam O’Connor.’
CHAPTER 34
2001, New York
Sal watched the world go by. Her world, that’s how she thought about it: Times Square, New York, eight thirty in the morning, Tuesday 11 September 2001.
She knew it so well now. She knew everything that existed in this thoroughfare and everything that was meant to happen at this very moment in time. For instance … she looked around … and there they were: the old couple in matching jogging pants, huffing slowly side by side; the FedEx guy with an armful of packages, dropping one of them on the pavement and looking around to see whether anyone had noticed his hamfistedness; two blonde girls sharing headphones and giggling at something they were listening to.
Sal smiled.
All normal so far.
And there was the flustered-looking huddle of Japanese tourists standing outside TGI Friday