SEVENTEEN

At Hawk’s Nest, before the Roundtable met, Joshua took his son, Cal, aside. “I know you wanted to talk …”

“Nothing urgent. But yeah, I’d like to talk, Dad.”

“How about after the Roundtable conference?”

Cal was nonchalant. “No problem.”

Joshua nodded. He was tempted to pursue it. He loved Cal. The terror episode of the year before had made him appreciate his son even more. Even though, strangely, it hadn’t seemed to have brought them any closer together.

He clapped Cal on the shoulder before striding into the conference room in the working wing of his lodge. Every chair around the huge table was filled. The wall of windows offered a breathtaking view of the mountains, but no one was taking in the view. They were staring at something else.

All eyes were on the wall-sized InstantSat video screen at the end of the room. The supersecure flashmail satellite feed was about to start. The Roundtable included some of America’s most successful entrepreneurs, media executives, former politicians, judges, and retired military leaders. Most were multimillionaires; some were worth more. All were powerful influences in their fields.

Abigail was at the table. Retired judge Fortis “Fort” Rice had insisted that she head up the group’s legal unit, although with Joshua acting as the chair, she kept a low profile.

One new member was in attendance, a recently retired special agent from the FBI, a paunchy fellow named John Gallagher, who looked slightly out of place. He wore a crumpled suit and a golf shirt that didn’t match his jacket. While at the Bureau he had a reputation for two things: an eccentric approach that put him at odds with FBI protocol and an effective knack for cracking terrorist cells.

Joshua stood up and addressed the group. “In a minute, you will hear the voice of one of our most trusted allies. I am one of the few people here who knows his identity.”

Joshua gave John Gallagher a quick glance. The former special agent was the only person in the room, besides Abigail, who knew who Pack McHenry was. Gallagher had dealt with McHenry’s Patriot group, a private cadre of security and intelligence gurus, during the nerve-rattling incident at New York’s Grand Central Station. That was where Gallagher had first come into contact with Joshua, Cal, and the rest of the Jordan family. At that time, Gallagher, as the chief of the Bureau’s New York terrorism unit, had long been tracking Atta Zimler, still number two on the FBI’s most wanted list. The episode at the train station was as close as he’d ever come to Zimler.

But not close enough.

Joshua continued. “Our contact’s voice will be altered and his image scrambled, but his information will be unimpeachable. You will know him only as the Patriot. He leads a group of volunteers, all of whom formerly worked in the national security system or law enforcement. His group decided, as we have, that the fate of our nation hangs perilously in the balance. Our leaders are either incapable or, worse, unwilling to take the steps necessary to save us. So the Patriots decided to take responsible action, as we have. You are about to hear about the grave threat that our country is facing.”

The video screen lit up. In the live feed, a man was sitting at a desk, his face digitally blurred.

“Good day,” said the image. “As I proceed, if anyone has questions, don’t hesitate to interrupt me. We have credible information that a nuclear strike inside the United States is imminent. I’m talking within American shores. I know Joshua has mentioned this to you before, but only in general terms. Today I can be more specific. Our agents have traced this threat to the Russian Federation. Reliable sources indicate that meetings orchestrated by Moscow have been held at a special location in Kyrgyzstan. We believe the two other nation states involved are North Korea and Iran. It appears that Kyrgyzstan is the strategic planning site for these attacks.”

Former senator Alvin Leander, a short, feisty man with a bald head, shot out the first question. “Why Kyrgyzstan, for crying out loud?”

The man on the screen was precise as he explained. “We have to start with Russia’s overthrow of Kyrgyzstan in April of 2010. In subsequent years, America retreated from its military air base there. The U.S. gave up our military base near Bishkek, which we had been using for our war in Afghanistan before we withdrew militarily from that country. As a result, it left Russia in unchallenged control of Kyrgyzstan. Russia managed to take control over the entire Collective Security Treaty Organization, the regional security coalition of all the former Soviet republics. With Kyrgyzstan firmly in Moscow’s lap, and a slow, steady process of putting all of its neighboring republics back under the Russian thumb, we see something amazing and very dangerous: the former Soviet empire has been entirely reconstructed — without any international condemnation or sanctions from the U.N. And this time without the need for a bloody revolution. Of course the current administration in Washington is aware of this but has opted to treat the rise of Russian power diplomatically. They don’t see the risks.

“There is one more thing …,” the man on the screen added.

There was a pause. Leander said, “We’re waiting.”

“That Kyrgyzstan site is being monitored. A North Korean nuclear expert attended a meeting there. But we have intelligence that Iran is also involved.”

“So you think Iran is in on this nuclear plot?”

“Exactly.”

“Against the U.S.?”

“Iran may have a role, but their main interest is Israel. As we know, Iranian leaders have long harbored the desire to obliterate Israel. The other player, North Korea, has long despised our nation and wants to retaliate against the United States for destroying one of their navy vessels with the successful use of Mr. Jordan’s RTS system. So, that’s the playbook and the players.”

Retired general “Rocky” Bridger, a stocky man with short salt-and-pepper hair, jumped in. He took off his reading glasses and tapped them on the table. “What’s the operational plan for the attack?”

“We don’t have anything definitive yet, but some data indicate that portable nuclear devices are involved.”

Bridger followed up. “Have you shared this with our government?”

“Of course. Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, and the FBI. I’ve sent this to all of my contacts.”

“And?” Bridger wondered out loud.

“At first, some interest. But as time goes on, we have no assurances that our leads will be followed up on — and some evidence that they never will.”

“How would you know if they had or hadn’t? You don’t have the same resources as the government.”

“I can’t reveal sources, General, but we have friends in critical positions along the chain of command. They report that the data we shared with key federal agencies was … well … treated like a patient declared DOA in an emergency room.”

Now Gallagher piped up. “Are you saying there’s a cancer in the government?”

“Mr. Gallagher, I’m not at liberty to speculate. That’s one thing we don’t do. I’m tempted … but just can’t go any further. The new consolidation of national security agencies, while that has had some advantages, has one big disadvantage: there are now fewer people at the top who have the power to decide when to pursue and when not to pursue a threat.”

Gallagher wouldn’t let up. “Well, let’s assume that there’s something rotten. How high? Attorney General? Higher than that?”

Now Joshua turned to the former FBI special agent and had to draw the line. “John, our contact said he won’t speculate. We have to leave it at that.”

Gallagher shrugged with obvious displeasure.

“I have a question,” Joshua said. “You said portable nuclear devices. How do you know?”

“The device that triggers a nuclear bomb is called a neutron initiator. Now Russia’s always known how to make them. They were in the nuke race with us for years. Supposedly, since the New START Treaty with the U.S. under President Obama, they were going to stop further testing and development of offensive nuclear weapons, but we know differently. And at the same time, we were hampered in developing antimissile defenses. Even your own RTS is arguably forbidden under the START treaty, at least according to the Russians. But Russia started partnering with North Korea and Iran to get them to do Russia’s bidding in the nuclear race. That way they could look clean but act dirty. Years ago, all the way back in 2009, everybody — U.S. intelligence, the Brits, the International Atomic Energy Agency — all had evidence that Iran was experimenting with uranium deuteride, used as a neutron source for the trigger system for nukes. But now, one of our contacts in Kyrgyzstan tells us he’s seen documents passed between the Russian nuclear scientists and the North Koreans, and between the Russians and the Iranians. These papers show plans for the manufacture of very small neutron initiator systems, so small that the entire nuclear weapon could fit into the size of, say, a funeral coffin or the bed of a small pickup truck. We’ve also been told something else — and this is critical — that there was some kind of transportation timetable.”

Joshua zeroed in on that. “You’re talking transportation of a weapon?”

“No. Weapons. Plural. Two of them.”

The next question was the most important one, and everyone in the room knew it. Gallagher leaned forward, his hands flat on the conference table as if he was going to vault off a gymnastic side horse at the Olympics.

Joshua asked, “What’s the timetable?”

The man on the screen leaned back in his chair and delivered the bad news.

“The clock’s already ticking.”