WHERE IS BATES? Vance typed back. IS HE OKAY?
IN HIS OFFICE. THINK HE'S OKAY.
That's a relief, he thought. Guess Bill's still got some hostage value to them.
TELL HIM ULYSSES HAS LANDED. BE OF GOOD CHEER.
The answer came back. WHO ARE YOU? I'M SCARED. THEY KILLED CHRIS.
I SAW IT. BUT THAT'S PROBABLY ALL FOR A WHILE. STANDARD TERROR TACTICS. NOW ERASE THIS CONVERSATION.
Something was typed on the screen and their words immediately all disappeared. And just in time. . . .
2:48 p.m.
Rais had finished retrieving the box of krytrons from the cockpit of the Huey and was headed down the elevator for the area directly below and south of the launch facility, the clean room where SatCom's expensive communications satellites were going to be prepped for launch. Abdoullah was a jerk, but he had been right about that: it was the obvious location to install the detonators and set the timing mechanisms.