The Project 05 - The Tesla Secret

detail. An automatic weapon opened up somewhere overhead. For a moment, he was back in Vietnam. Bullets juddered into the living shield piled on top of him. The rounds ripped through the carpet, shattered the podium where he would have been speaking. The shooter was somewhere above in the darkness behind the lights.
    He felt the shock as a bullet struck his arm, then pain. There was another fierce volley of shots from his detail. Suddenly the shooting stopped. Strong arms pulled bodies from him, lifted Rice and ran with him off stage.
    Kevin Hogan lay on the floor in a spreading pool of blood. Proximity to power had its price.

CHAPTER TWELVE

    Michael Healy feared no one. The closest he came to fear was nervousness. He was nervous now. He'd screwed up. The last three assignments from Foxworth had turned out badly. It didn't matter that he wasn't the one on the scene who had failed. He was responsible.
    "Rice is still alive." Foxworth looked at him. "Lucky for you, the man you picked is dead. So are the people you sent after Harker's team. What have you got to say about it?"
    "No excuses for Harker's people, sir. Bad luck with Rice. He tripped just as our man fired. It was certain, except for that."
    "Not our man, Healy. Your man."
    "Yes, sir."
    "Tell me why I should not terminate your position."
    He has no idea how fast I can kill him, Healy thought.
    "No excuses, sir," he said again.
    Foxworth swiveled, looked out the windows. He turned back.
    "Don't make any more mistakes."
    "Yes, sir." Healy relaxed, just a fraction.
    "What is your assessment of the damage from the Brighton Beach incident?"
    "It shouldn't be a problem. The men killed were low level security, former FSB provided by Ogorov. The police and papers think it's a gang war. I don't see it coming back to us. There is one possible issue."
    Foxworth waited.
    "A computer is missing. One of Harker's men must have taken it. It has messages on it that could lead back to Prague."
    "Can they be read?"
    "No. They're coded. But the point of origin can be traced."
    "If Harker figures that out, she'll send someone to Prague."
    "It's what I'd do."
    Foxworth considered for a moment. "We have to cover it. Send a team to Prague. Watch for Harker's people to show up. If they do, eliminate them."
    "Yes, sir."
    "That's all."
    After Healy left, Foxworth looked out his windows at the London cityscape and considered the problem of Harker. He hoped she sent someone to Prague. Sooner or later, he'd find a way to eliminate her and her group of troublemakers once and for all.

CHAPTER T HIRTEEN

    "The shooter had an M4A1 with an ACOG sight," Elizabeth said, "the latest version. The one our snipers like."
    "Christ," Nick said. "How does someone get hold of that?"
    "Tracked to Fort Bragg. The Army arrested a Quartermaster Sergeant who works in the armory. They're talking to him as we speak."
    "I'll bet they are, " Ronnie said.
    "What's an ACOG?" Selena asked.
    "ACOG stands for Advanced Combat Optical Group," Nick answered. "There are a lot of variants. It's a computerized telescopic sight with built in goodies to determine range, compensate for bullet drop and wind factors, things like that. You haven't worked with it yet. It's not available on the civilian market. The M4A1 is strictly military and police use."
    "Where was the shooter?" Ronnie asked.
    "In the HVAC duct work over the convention floor," Harker answered. "He fired through a vent. That center is 300,000 square feet. The system runs all around the top and it's huge. Plenty of room for someone to crawl in there."
    "They ID him yet?"
    "A former Army Staff Sergeant named Hardin. Dishonorable discharge after an incident in Afghanistan. He was accused of rape."
    "Winning hearts and minds," Nick said. "There's always a rotten apple somewhere to give the military a bad name. How come he didn't end up in Leavenworth?"
    "It was political."
    Nick shook his head.
    Harker said, "The Bureau and the Secret Service are all over the assassination attempt. It's not our concern at the moment. We have something else. Stephanie broke the encryption on the laptop from Endgame. Steph, show us what you found."
    The monitor on the wall lit. On screen was an email with directions to Nick's cabin and photos of Nick and Selena. Selena shivered. Someone had taken her picture and sent assassins to kill her.
    "Son of a bitch," Nick said.
    "The message was sent to a cyber café in Los Angeles," Stephanie said. "It's a dead end. I got prints from the