Spy Ski School (31 page)

Jessica kept going, though. So Shang turned to his guards and pointed after her.

The guards obeyed. They all chased after Jessica. She gave them a good run for their money, scrambling like a wide receiver, forcing the guards to spread out across the tarmac.

Which meant no one was shooting at us anymore. Erica quickly leapt back to her feet and threw the helicopter door open.

“Erica!” Alexander yelled. “I thought I told you that's too dangerous!”

“Yeah, you did,” she admitted. “But I'm doing it anyhow.”

Before Alexander or Cyrus could say another word, Erica slipped the tether loop around her waist and leapt out the door.

“Teenagers,” Cyrus muttered. Then, since he knew he couldn't get Erica back into the copter, he maneuvered over the jet. Erica rappelled to the ground beside it.

I stuck the radio transmitter into my ear, then listened as Erica slipped into the jet and took care of Shang's pilot. There was some shouting in Chinese, followed by the sounds of a brief fight, followed by some more shouting in Chinese; only this time, the shouting was coming from someone in pain.

“The jet is secured,” Erica reported calmly. As though she'd just bought a quart of milk, rather than defeating someone in hand-to-hand combat.

“The jet's secure,” I relayed to our team.

Across the tarmac, Shang's guards finally caught Jessica. She didn't give up the fight, though, writhing and kicking at them.

Cyrus flipped on the helicopter's loudspeaker system and addressed Leo Shang through it. “It's over, Shang. We have commandeered your jet. You're not going anywhere until that bomb is defused—and the longer you stall us, the less time there is to do that. So tell your men to stand down.”

Shang turned back toward his jet in time to see Erica closing the door and locking him out. All his bravado immediately drained out of him as he realized the jig was up. He shouted to his men, who dropped their guns and raised their hands.

Cyrus brought the helicopter down beside them and killed the engine. The roar of the rotors dropped to a soft whine as they slowed to a stop.

“Nice work,” Mike told me. “You're pretty good at this spy thing.”

“Thanks,” I said.

Cyrus hopped out onto the tarmac and signaled for the rest of us to follow him. “Zoe and Warren, go pick up those guns,” he ordered.

“Yes, sir!” Zoe saluted and, with Warren's help, collected all the guns from the ground, scurrying around Shang's guards.

Meanwhile, Cyrus approached Leo Shang, who had now become nervous and fidgety. “I need to know exactly where the bomb is,” Cyrus demanded.

“It won't help,” Shang whined. “It's too hard to get to and there's no way to defuse it.”

“Let me be the judge of that,” Cyrus told him.

“Hold on,” Warren said worriedly. “There's no shutoff switch on it?”

“Why would I put a shutoff switch on a nuclear bomb?” Shang asked.

“So you can shut it off !” Warren yelped. “In case of emergencies! So when something like this happens, we don't all die!”

“We don't have to die,” Shang said. “We can save our
selves if we leave now. We can all take the jet and get far enough away in the time we have left.”

“How much time
is
left?” Cyrus asked.

“Er . . . I'm not quite sure,” Shang admitted.

“You're not sure?” Warren wailed. “You mean it could go off any second?”

“No,” Shang told him. “We have more time than that. I'm just not sure exactly how much. Dane Brammage set the timer, but I haven't heard from him in a while.”

“You might not hear from him at all,” Zoe said. “Ben kind of sank him in a frozen lake.”

Shang seemed surprisingly unmoved by this. “Well, I guess that leaves more room on the jet. I told Dane to give us until around three o'clock. . . .”

“That's in less than half an hour!” Mike exclaimed.

“I know!” Shang cried. “So let's all get out of here! We still have time to escape!”

“But the rest of Colorado doesn't,” Alexander pointed out. “We're not leaving thousands of innocent people to die.”

“And if we're going to risk our lives, you're sure as heck gonna risk yours,” Cyrus told Shang. “So let's stop the dilly-dallying and get down to brass tacks. Tell me where the bomb is.”

Jessica had stopped fighting the guards by now. The gravity of the situation had sunk in.

Leo Shang gave her an angry glare. “This is all your fault,” he said.

“My fault?” Jessica replied tartly. “I'm not the one who put a nuclear bomb in the mountains without an off switch.”

Zoe and Warren returned to Cyrus's side, their arms full of guns. Cyrus selected one he liked and casually pointed it at Leo Shang.

Shang gave in. “Dane dropped the bomb on a mountain near the Climax Mine.”

“What's the exact location?” Cyrus demanded. “Latitude and longitude would be nice.”

Shang grew a little embarrassed. “Uh . . . I don't know that. Dane might, but you killed him.” He looked at me accusingly as he said this, like I'd screwed up somehow.

“It was self-defense!” I pointed out. “And for all we know, he still might not be dead.”

“So all you know is that the bomb is on a mountain?” Warren asked Shang, wild-eyed with panic. “That's not helpful at all! There's like a million mountains around here!”

Cyrus glared at Warren. “You're not helping things.”

“I think I might know how to narrow the search down,” I said. “The heli-skiing company's copters have GPS tracking systems in them. They're accurate down to the foot. What time did Dane drop the bomb?”

“Around nine thirty this morning,” Leo replied. “He com
mandeered the helicopter from the company, dropped the bomb, and then went off to take care of some other things.”

“Like trying to kill us?” Zoe asked pointedly.

“Er . . . yes,” Shang admitted.

Jessica turned to Zoe and said, “I just want you to know I had nothing to do with all this. I didn't even know my father ever had people killed. I am so embarrassed.”

“That's the helicopter Erica blew up,” I continued. “Epic Heli-Skiing ought to have detailed information about where it was at exactly nine thirty this morning. We can use that to get a better bead on the bomb.”

“Good thinking,” Cyrus said to me. He pointed to Alexander and told him, “Call them right now.”

“Yes, sir!” Alexander replied, thrilled his father had trusted him with something. He stepped aside to make the call.

Cyrus returned his attention to Shang. “What's the make and model of this bomb?”

“It's a Soviet Stalin-class X-43 fusion model.”

Cyrus whistled through his teeth.

“Is that bad?” Mike asked.

“The X-43 is an old-fashioned model,” Cyrus replied. “A leftover from the Cold War. Probably pilfered from a stolen nuclear missile. It's not very easy to defuse.”

“Then let's forget about it and just get out of here!” Shang cried.

“That's
not such a bad idea,” Warren pointed out.

Zoe fixed him with a harsh stare. “Tell me you're not actually siding with the bad guy.”

“I'm not siding with him,” Warren mewled. “I'm just saying he has a valid point.”

Cyrus turned his attention to Mike. “I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that, since Ben says we can trust you, that means we can trust you.”

“You can trust me,” Mike agreed.

“Good,” Cyrus replied. “I want you to stay here with Zoe and Warren to hold these men prisoner and keep an eye on Jessica until the police get here. I'll leave Woodchuck to help. He should be much more useful once he warms up a bit more.”

“Sure thing,” Mike said. “Although if you need me to help defuse the bomb, I'm happy to do it.”

Cyrus gave him a slight smile, like he was impressed. “That won't be necessary. You've done enough service as it is. Ben, Erica, Alexander, and I can handle it, though.”

I turned to Cyrus, startled he'd named me. Alexander seemed equally caught by surprise. He nearly dropped his phone in shock. “Really, Dad? You think I can help?”

“Maybe,” Cyrus said, and started back toward the helicopter.

That single word lifted Alexander's spirits like nothing I'd ever seen. He was beaming like a kid who'd just received
a bicycle for Christmas. “All right! Let's do this!” He raced back to the helicopter and hopped into it.

“This is crazy!” Shang yelled. “It won't work! We're going to die because of your foolishness!” He started after Cyrus, but Zoe stepped into his path, aiming one of his own guns at him.

“Take one more step or say one more word and I'll shoot you,” she warned.

“Get out of my way, you little brat!” Shang ordered, then tried to storm past her.

Zoe shot him. But only in the foot.

Shang howled in pain. He hopped around, clutching his foot in his hands and whimpering.

To my surprise, Jessica didn't seem too upset by this. In fact, she seemed kind of pleased by it.

“I only took off the last knuckle of your little toe,” Zoe informed him. “You won't miss it. But try anything else and I'll aim higher next time.” She then leveled all the guards with a gaze that made her look just as scary as Erica could be. “That goes for all of you. Anybody else want to call my bluff?”

The guards all shook their heads and backed away from her respectfully.

“Good,” Zoe told them. “Now sit down.”

The guards and Shang all sat like a bunch of well-trained golden retrievers.

Only Jessica remained standing. She raised her hand politely, like a kid in school.

“Do you have a question?” Zoe asked.

“Yes. Can I say something to Ben?”

I stopped on my way to the helicopter and turned back to her.

“I suppose,” Zoe replied. “Sorry I shot your father.”

“He obviously deserved it,” Jessica said, glaring at Leo. Then she turned to me and yelled across the tarmac. “I'm sorry about all of this! I had no idea what Daddy was plotting, I swear.”

“It's not your fault,” I yelled back to her. “Sorry I had to lie to you.”

“I understand why you did it. I hope defusing that bomb is simple as cake.”

“You mean ‘easy as pie'?” I asked.

“Yes! That's it! Good luck.” Jessica blew me a kiss.

Despite the fact that I was pretty much scared out of my wits, this made me feel slightly better. “Thanks,” I said. Then I turned back to the helicopter.

Erica was now standing beside it. Since we'd captured Shang's men, she didn't need to hold the jet anymore. She was glaring at Jessica angrily.

Mike dropped in beside me. “Whoa,” he whispered. “Looks like someone's jealous.”

“No, she's not,” I said, still not ready to believe this.

“Trust me,” Mike said. “I know that look. She wants Jessica to back off. 'Cause she's into you.”

We arrived at the helicopter. Cyrus had already climbed in and taken the controls. Alexander was still on the phone with Epic Heli-Skiing.

“We've got coordinates!” he announced. “This morning, starting at nine twenty-eight, their helicopter hovered at the same point for two minutes and thirty-five seconds, 39.4102 degrees latitude, 106.2256 degrees longitude.”

“Sounds like our spot,” Cyrus agreed, then fired up the rotors.

Erica looked at me expectantly.

I turned back to Mike. I had the disturbing feeling this might be the last time I saw him—or any of my friends—ever again. “Thanks for everything,” I said. “You've been the best friend I could ever ask for.”

“Why are you talking all sappy like that?” Mike asked. “This isn't the end of the world.”

“It could be,” I pointed out.

“Nah. You can handle it.” Mike gave me a big, confident grin. I could tell that, beneath it, he was actually really worried—but I appreciated the vote of confidence anyhow. “Now go take care of business.”

“Okay,” I said, and hopped into the helicopter.

Erica followed me in and shut the door behind us. Cyrus lifted off before we were even strapped into our jump seats.

I looked out the window, watching my friends and enemies drop away beneath us. All of them were looking toward us with a mixture of hope and fear, wondering if we'd be able to save the day.

I wondered that myself.

Cyrus pulled on the stick and we banked toward the mountains, heading straight for a live nuclear bomb.

White River National Forest, Colorado

39.4102 degrees latitude

106.2256 degrees longitude

December 30

1450 hours

It was easy to spot
the Climax Mine from the air. It was a great big scar on the landscape. A massive chunk of wilderness more than a mile wide was simply gone. Where there had once been snow-capped mountains and green trees, there was now only brown dirt, industrial machinery, and tailings ponds, huge pools of water stained disturbing colors by unnatural chemicals. It looked as though a tiny piece of New Jersey had been transplanted to the middle of Colorado.