Page 108 of Nobody's Hero
‘Because she’s done it before,’ Koenig said. He paused. Let it linger, like a bad smell. ‘Isn’t that right, Bess?’
Carlyle looked up. Her eyes were wet.
‘How long have you known?’ she said.
Chapter 115
‘I didn’t know,’ Koenig said. ‘I suspected. Thanks for confirming.’
‘I had no choice,’ Carlyle said.
‘I know.’
‘What the hell are you two talking about?’ Draper said.
‘The Acacia Avenue Protocol is an attack on our infrastructure,’ Koenig said.
‘That much I’d worked out for myself.’
‘And to amplify the effect, the protocol called for certain people in certain roles to be eliminated before it went live.’
‘The people Hobbs and Nash killed?’
‘Exactly,’ Koenig said. ‘Louise Durose had an innovative way of managing landfills, Michael Gibbs was an expert in deepwater ports. Everyone on Hobbs’s list will have held similar positions.’
‘Makes sense, I suppose. You want to hamper the recovery efforts.’
‘Except itdoesn’tmake sense. Three hundred and thirty million people live in this country. In a national emergency, we’dfindthe experts. Other countries would send us theirs. People have transferable skills. Killing nineteen people who happen to work in infrastructure would make no difference whatsoever.’
‘So why bother?’
‘Because after the protocol was put together, Bess added a safeguard. Something only she knew about. A Trojan horse. She told some of her think tank that for the protocol to work certain people in certain jobs had to die. She even dictated in what order they were to be murdered. But the real reason had nothing to do with amplifying the effect of the trigger event. It was because she needed a trip wire. She knew that if her security arrangements failed, her Trojan horse would get fed into the protocol alongside everything else. And when these people began to die, she’d know the protocol had been initiated and how far along it was. Now, I know Bess to be a good person. A moral woman. Yet she was willing to sacrifice nineteen people so she had a heads-up.’ He paused. ‘That’s why I know she’ll let me jump out of the plane.’
‘Her willingness to sacrifice innocent people aside, it changes nothing. Because you jumping out of the planeachievesnothing. You won’t get anywhere near Tas.’
‘I can’t defend what I did,’ Carlyle said. ‘And one day I will answer for my actions. I’ve lived with it for too long anyway. But trust me when I say if Jakob Tas achieves the impossible and turns Lake Mead toxic, it will be the starting pistol on a chain of catastrophic events the like of which this country has never seen. I’m not exaggerating when I say that successfully initiating the Acacia Avenue Protocol will set the US back thirty, forty, evenfiftyyears. So yes, with one small adjustment, I am willing to sacrifice him.’
‘Yay,’ Koenig said.
Chapter 116
‘You want to jump out of the plane too now?’ Draper said to Carlyle.
‘You said it yourself, Tas will see Ben jump into the lake,’ Carlyle replied. ‘And if hedoesbreak his ankles, he won’t be able to swim. Certainly not fast enough to avoid being shot.’
‘So?’
‘So we do as Ben suggests. He jumps into the water and he starts shooting at Tas. He might get lucky, he probably won’t.’
Koenig nodded. He knew where Carlyle was going. ‘But while he has eyes on me, he won’t have eyes on the Gulfstream,’ he said. ‘I’ll be shooting at him. He’ll be shooting at me. And he won’t be expecting this, so he won’t have hearing protection. The moment he returns fire is the moment his ears start ringing. If you were to drop in on his blindside, he won’t see you. He certainly won’thearyou. You can definitely get close enough to put two in the back of his head.’
‘And I’m a good shot and an excellent swimmer,’ Carlyle confirmed. ‘If I can get in close, I won’t miss.’
‘You won’t get in close, though,’ Draper said. ‘Because you’ll have broken ankles as well.’
‘Broken ankles can be fixed!’ Carlyle snapped. ‘A curated mass migration event can’t be. And I’ll wear one of the Gulfstream’s life jackets. And as Ben has just said, you can still breaststroke with damaged legs. We used to do arms-only breaststroke swimming drills in college. It helps develop a stronger catch phase.’
Draper shook her head in disgust.