Storm of Lightning (20 page)

“You need me?” Taylor asked.

“Especially you. What we have to show you concerns you most of all.”

We followed them down a short hallway into a room with a large television mounted to the wall in front of an oval conference table. The television was on, frozen to a newscast. I recognized the woman on the screen. She was Gretchen Holly, a popular news anchor on the Boise evening news.

“Have a seat, please,” the chairman said.

“It's okay, I'll stand,” Taylor said.

“It's best if you sit,” he said.

After we were seated, I said, “Before we start, I need to say something.”

“Go ahead.”

“It's about Timepiece Ranch. I'm really sorry that I told Hatch where you were. He tricked me.”

The chairman nodded. “Yes, Ben told me about that. If it makes you feel any better, that's not how the Elgen knew where we were.”

“It's not?” I said.

“No, we made a critical error in judgment.” He looked at Taylor. “Taylor's mother, Julie, was being followed by the Elgen, hoping that we would reach out to her. We fell for their trap. That's how they learned of our whereabouts.”

“My mother led them there?” Taylor said.

“No, we did, when we brought your mother. We underestimated the Elgen, and we paid for it.” He took a deep breath. “The Elgen have been following her for a while, which, unfortunately, is what we need to talk to you about.” He nodded to his assistant, who pushed a button on a remote, and the video started to run.

“Tonight's breaking story, an Idaho woman has been arrested in connection with the disappearance of her daughter. Meridian resident Julie Ridley was taken into police custody after authorities provided evidence linking her to her daughter's disappearance. Mrs. Ridley has refused to cooperate with authorities and is currently being held pending bail. Ridley's husband, Charles Ridley, is an officer for the Boise police department and has been suspended following an internal investigation to assess his involvement.”

I looked over at Taylor. She was staring at the screen in shock. When she could speak, she said, “When did this happen?”

“Two days ago. Your mother went back to Idaho to tell your father and prepare to come back with us permanently, but then the Elgen attacked the ranch and threw off our timetable. We had to delay our plans and they beat us to her.”

“I need to go to Idaho,” Taylor said. “I need to show myself to them.”

“Absolutely not,” the chairman said. “That's what the Elgen are hoping you'll do. It's a trap. You can be sure that the information the police are working off was provided by Elgen.”

“I don't care; they have my mother,” Taylor said.

Gervaso said, “Taylor, right now your appearance will raise far more questions than it will answer. And we're certain that you'll disappear again as soon as the Elgen find you.”

“They can't charge your mother with murder or kidnapping without a body,” Joel said. “How can they prove a murder's taken place without a body?”

“There's more,” the chairman said, motioning to his assistant.

The woman advanced the DVD to another news clip.

“In an ongoing investigation, Boise police discovered more than two kilograms of heroin in a car belonging to Meridian resident Julie Ridley.”

There was footage of a police officer standing before a row of microphones holding aloft a plastic bag filled with white powder. “This is one of the biggest drug busts in the history of the Boise DEA. This much heroin has a street value in excess of a half million dollars. We're happy to keep this off the street.”

The clip returned to the anchor. “In addition to the drugs, Idaho forensic investigators have found traces of blood matching the DNA of Mrs. Ridley's daughter, Taylor Ridley, who was reported missing nearly four months ago. Mrs. Ridley is currently being held in the Boise jail. Bail has been set for a quarter million dollars.”

There was video footage of people screaming at Mrs. Ridley as she was led in handcuffs into the jail by police.

Taylor was crying. “How could it be my blood?”

“They took our blood in the academy,” I said.

“This is bad. Really bad.” She looked at me. “Michael, we've got to do something.”

Joel interjected. “We will. But in the meantime, you don't need to worry. She'll be safe in jail.”

“They can't protect her in jail,” Taylor said. “If the Elgen have someone in there, she's as good as dead.”

“They won't hurt her,” the chairman said.

“How do you know that?”

“Dead bait doesn't draw fish.”

Taylor's lips pursed with anger. “My mother's not
bait
.”

“In this case, she is,” Joel said. “They're using her to lure you to them. If they wanted to kill her, they would have done it already.”

“He's right,” I said. “They could have easily done it.” I looked at the chairman. “But we can't leave her in jail.”

“No, we can't,” the chairman said. “And we won't. We need to extract her and Taylor's father. We've asked Gervaso to come up with a plan.”

We both turned toward Gervaso. I wondered how long he had known about this and not told us.

Gervaso looked at Taylor. “First, we're going to get your mother out. I promise. But it's going to be tricky.” He looked back at me. “You've both broken in and out of much more secure facilities. The challenge here is, we need to rescue Julie without the Elgen or the police knowing we've rescued her.”

“How do we do that?” Taylor asked.

“We need to get your father to post your mother's bail; then, after she's out, we disappear with both of them. This won't be easy since it's not likely the Elgen will let your mother out of their sight. And, of course, we have the Boise police to worry about. Which brings up another problem. Your father is a police officer, and we're pretty sure that he still doesn't know anything about you or the Elgen. From what I understand, he's a stubborn man.”

“As stubborn as a brick,” Taylor said.

Gervaso nodded. “This is going to be a small, clean operation. In and out. My plan involves you two and Ian. Also, I have a friend we can trust in Idaho who will be helping us out with logistics. No one else. The more moving parts there are, the more that can break down.”

I nodded. “Okay. When do we start?”

“Timing is critical. I'd like to be in contact with Officer Ridley by tomorrow evening. Boise is a nine-hour drive from here, so we'll leave early tomorrow morning.”

“We'll be ready,” I said.

“Good. We'll meet in front of the main house at oh-six-hundred hours.” Then he added, “That's
six a.m.
”

The chairman looked at us. “Good luck.”

As we walked out, Taylor said to me, “Thank you for helping me rescue my mother.”

“I owe you. You helped me rescue mine.”

Taylor frowned. “My mom must be terrified.”

“We'll get her,” I said. “And your father.”

“My father,” she said. “It's been so long since I've seen him.”

“He's going to be happy to see you.”

“Yes,” Taylor said. “And he's going to be totally freaked.”

Funafuti Island, Tuvalu

T
he Polynesian island nation of Tuvalu consists of four reef islands and five atolls, a total of about ten square miles in area. The islands are isolated in the Pacific Ocean, a coral oasis more than five thousand miles northeast of Australia and forty-one hundred miles southwest of Hawaii. The nation's population is less than ten thousand, making it the third-smallest populated country in the world. It also attracts few tourists, due to its remoteness and inaccessibility. The nation has one of the best of the Pacific island economies, with a peculiar source of income—their .tv Internet domain suffix, which generates millions of dollars a year.

The Elgen had built their Starxource plant on the largest and chief island, Funafuti, then dragged power cables north and south to five of the other islands. Even though the plant had already been operating for more than four months, the natives had delayed the ceremonial ribbon cutting to honor Admiral-General Hatch's wishes.
Hatch had also insisted that for “security reasons,” all non-natives leave the island before the Elgen's visit.

Of course, Hatch had delayed the ceremony to suit his own plans. The Starxource plant was the Elgen's fifth largest in the world, yet ranked near the bottom of their plants in actual energy output. But the plant wasn't built for power—at least not the electrical kind. Unbeknownst to the Tuvaluans, the plant was built to serve as the home base of the new Elgen operations—the Elgen Kremlin.

The vast majority of the plant was a bunkered fortress, with advanced weaponry and surface-to-air missile capability that the Elgen had clandestinely been stockpiling for more than a year, enough explosive power to demolish the entire nation seventeen times over and repel an attack from Australia or New Zealand. The plant also had an extensive prison, with more than two hundred cells and an advanced reeducation center patterned after the center in Peru.

While the people of Tuvalu slept, the Elgen fleet sailed through the cover of darkness, securing the waters surrounding the islands. At three in the morning the
Faraday
docked off the coast of Funafuti and, using the
Tesla
as tender, began shuttling soldiers onto their base. The
Edison
, the Elgen's new battleship, had taken up a defensive position off the southwest coast of Funafuti, and Elgen helicopters kept surveillance over the waters.

Tuvalu spent no money on military, and the small police force, dressed in British uniforms, typically didn't carry guns. In fact, the total number of firearms registered to civilians was twelve, and the entire police force owned just twenty-one guns, which meant a single Elgen patrol carried more weaponry than the entire nation. The peaceful Tuvaluan people were vulnerable to the extreme.

The Starxource plant's ribbon-cutting ceremony was attended by the entire Tuvalu administration—the governor-general and staff; prime minister and staff; deputy prime minister; chairman of the Public Service Commission; assistant secretary-general; secretary of foreign affairs; chief immigration officer; the police commissioner; the ministers of education, finance and economic planning, health, natural resources, energy and environment, trade, tourism and
commerce, and foreign affairs; and the ambassador to the United Nations.

The UN ambassador was the one Tuvaluan official who had already been brought into the Elgen ranks and had, for some time, been receiving payment for his service.

The ceremony began a little after noon at the nation's capital, with a Tuvaluan proclamation of friendship followed by a traditional ceremonial dance. Then the party moved, at Hatch's insistence, behind the walls of the Starxource plant.

While Hatch, his personal bodyguards, and nine of his twelve EGGs led the delegation on a tour of the facility, the plant's electricity was shut down across the rest of the islands and throughout most of Funafuti. A small commando squad of Elgen frogmen commandeered the sole Tuvaluan naval ship—a Pacific-class patrol boat—taking the captain and crew as prisoners.

All radio frequencies were jammed, and the Elgen's new amphibious vehicle, the
Franklin
, began the landing assault on Funafuti and two other islands, Nanumea and Nukufetau.

As Hatch had planned, inside the Elgen facility the leaders of Tuvalu were completely isolated from the outside, oblivious that their country was under attack.

After an hour-long tour of the facility, the delegation was seated for dinner in the large, crescent-shaped observation room above the rat bowl. The metal blinds were drawn so that the dignitaries could not see the actual bowl, and as Hatch had planned, they still had no idea how the electricity was generated, outside of the Elgen's standard explanation of a hybrid form of cold fusion and organic composting.