Midnight Sun (72 page)

What really
caught
Warner's
attention
, in a weird sort of way,
was
Tomer's
perfectly
manicured
fingernails.
They
were
smooth
and
symmetrical,
even
shiny.
Warner
imagined
Tomer
sitting
in
a
salon
waiting
patiently
while
an
effeminate
Asian
man
buffed
and
polished
his
nails.
He
simultaneously
snickered
and
cringed
at
the
image.

Tonia
seemed
to
have
a
different
opinion
of
Agent
Tomer.
She
apparently
saw
something
in
the
man
that
no
one
else
did,
because
she
jibed
and
cajoled
with
him
as
if
they
had
been
best
buddies
for
years.
Tonia
with
her
Baltimore/DC
inner
-
city
black
female
personality
and
Tomer
with
his
white
trash
bowling
-
alley/mafia
wannabe
persona.
It
had
a
weird
kind
of
poetic
romanticism
to
it.
Very
weird
poetry
indeed.

Warner
had
never
figured
out
the
male/female
relationship
thing.
It
was
not
logical
how
some
people
came
together
, h
ow
they
became
attracted
to
one
another,
and
even
“
fell
in
love
.”
He
had
no
clue
how
it
all
worked,
and
never
expected
it
to
work
for
him
.

Regardless
of
the
comical
love
affair
of
his
cohorts,
he
tried
to
stay
focused
on
the
work.
They
were
searching
for
possible
ways
a
terrorist
could
put
a
weapon
of
mass
destruction
or
tool
of
assassination
into
the
underground
labyrinth
of
tunnels
and
pipelines
that
was
the
foundation
of
the
city
of
Anchorage.
That
task
was
turning
into
a
lot
of
work.

Warner
and
Roberts
were
both
trained
in
explosives
detection
, b
ut
neither
were
electronics
experts.
After
hours
walking
the
subterranean
maintenance
corridors
that
snaked
below
the
surface
of
Anchorage
’
s
downtown
area
,
they
were
exhausted.
Plumbing,
electrical
conduit
,
fuel
lines,
telephone
and
data
cables
consumed
every
inch
of
wall
space
in
the
narrow
tunnels
at the base of which
ran
two
large
-
diameter
pipelines.
One
carried
a
constant
stream
of
jet
fuel
from
the
Port
of
Anchorage
to
Ted
Stevens
International
Airport.
The
other
was
full
of
highly
pressurized
natural
gas
flowing
to
routing
systems
that
distributed
it
throughout
the
city.

Warner
tapped
a
short
metal
baton
against
the
pipe
as
they
walked
the
corridor.
The
thick
steel
-
encased
pipe
responded
with
a
dull
metallic
thunk
.
The
jet
fuel
pipeline
was
a
dual
-
layer
system
with
an
inner
pipe
made
of
half-inch
-
thick
steel
protected
by
a
layer
of
insulation
and
another
layer
of
half-inch
steel
surrounding
the
actual
fuel
-
carrying
pipe.
The
design,
while
seeming
like
technical
overkill,
enabled
it
to
withstand
every
conceivable
type
of
breech
from
earthquakes
to
bombs.