David Becker stood in the middle of the deserted airportconcourse and wondered what to do next. The evening had been acomedy of errors. Strathmore's words pounded in his head:Don't call until you have the ring. A profound exhaustionsettled over him. If Megan sold the ring and made the flight, therewas no telling who had the ring now.

Becker closed his eyes and tried to focus. What's mynext move? He decided to consider it in a moment. First, heneeded to make a long-overdue trip to a rest room.

CHAPTER 64 Susan stood alone in the dimly lit silence of Node 3. The taskat hand was simple: Access Hale's terminal, locate his key,and then delete all of his communication with Tankado. There couldbe no hint of Digital Fortress anywhere.

Susan's initial fears of saving the key and unlockingDigital Fortress were nagging at her again. She felt uneasytempting fate; they'd been lucky so far. North Dakota hadmiraculously appeared right under their noses and been trapped. Theonly remaining question was David; he had to find the otherpa.s.s-key. Susan hoped he was making progress.

As she made her way deeper into Node 3, Susan tried to clear hermind. It was odd that she felt uneasy in such a familiar s.p.a.ce.Everything in Node 3 seemed foreign in the dark. But there wa.s.something else. Susan felt a momentary hesitation and glanced backat the inoperable doors. There was no escape. Twentyminutes, she thought.

As she turned toward Hale's terminal, she noticed astrange, musky odor-it was definitely not a Node 3 smell. Shewondered if maybe the deionizer was malfunctioning. The smell wasvaguely familiar, and with it came an unsettling chill.

Shepictured Hale locked below in his enormous steaming cell. Did heset something on fire? She looked up at the vents and sniffed.But the odor seemed to be coming from nearby.

Susan glanced toward the latticed doors of the kitchenette. Andin an instant she recognized the smell. It was cologne ... andsweat.

She recoiled instinctively, not prepared for what she saw. Frombehind the lattice slats of the kitchenette, two eyes stared out ather. It only took an instant for the horrifying truth to hit her.Greg Hale was not locked on the sublevels-he was in Node 3!He'd slipped upstairs before Strathmore closed the trapdoor.He'd been strong enough to open the doors all by himself.

Susan had once heard that raw terror was paralyzing-she nowknew that was a myth.

In the same instant her brain grasped whatwas happening, she was in motion- stumbling backward throughthe dark with a single thought in mind: escape.

The crash behind her was instantaneous. Hale had been sittingsilently on the stove and extended his legs like two batteringrams. The doors exploded off their hinges. Hale launched himselfinto the room and thundered after her with powerful strides.

Susan knocked over a lamp behind her, attempting to trip Hale ashe moved toward her. She sensed him vault it effortlessly. Hale wasgaining quickly.

When his right arm circled her waist from behind, it felt likeshe'd hit a steel bar. She gasped in pain as the wind went outof her. His biceps flexed against her rib cage.

Susan resisted and began twisting wildly. Somehow her elbowstruck cartilage. Hale released his grip, his hands clutching hisnose. He fell to his knees, hands cupped over his face. "Son of a-" He screamed in pain.

Susan dashed onto the door's pressure plates saying afruitless prayer that Strathmore would in that instant restorepower and the doors would spring open. Instead, she found herselfpounding against the gla.s.s.

Hale lumbered toward her, his nose covered with blood. In aninstant, his hands were around her again-one of them clampedfirmly on her left breast and the other on her midsection. Heyanked her away from the door.

She screamed, her hand outstretched in futile attempt to stophim.

He pulled her backward, his belt buckle digging into her spine.Susan couldn't believe his strength. He dragged her backacross the carpet, and her shoes came off. In one fluid motion,Hale lifted her and dumped her on the floor next to histerminal.

Susan was suddenly on her back, her skirt bunched high on herhips. The top b.u.t.ton of her blouse had released, and her chest washeaving in the bluish light. She stared up in terror as Halestraddled her, pinning her down. She couldn't decipher thelook in his eyes. It looked like fear. Or was it anger? His eyesbore into her body. She felt a new wave of panic.

Hale sat firmly on her midsection, staring down at her with anicy glare. Everything Susan had ever learned about self-defense wa.s.suddenly racing through her mind. She tried to fight, but her bodydid not respond. She was numb. She closed her eyes.

Oh, please, G.o.d. No!

CHAPTER 65

Brinkerhoff paced Midge's office. "n.o.bodybypa.s.ses Gauntlet. It's impossible!"

"Wrong," she fired back. "I just talked to Jabba.He said he installed a bypa.s.s switch last year."

The PA looked doubtful. "I never heard that."

"n.o.body did. It was hush-hush."

"Midge," Brinkerhoff argued, "Jabba'scompulsive about security! He would never put in a switch tobypa.s.s-" "Strathmore made him do it," she interrupted.

Brinkerhoff could almost hear her mind clicking.

"Remember last year," she asked, "when Strathmorewas working on that anti-Semitic terrorist ring inCalifornia?"

Brinkerhoff nodded. It had been one of Strathmore's majorcoups last year. Using TRANSLTR to decrypt an intercepted code, hehad uncovered a plot to bomb a Hebrew school in Los Angeles. Hedecrypted the terrorist's message only twelve minutes beforethe bomb went off, and using some fast phone work, he saved threehundred schoolchildren.

"Get this," Midge said, lowering her voiceunnecessarily. "Jabba said Strathmore intercepted thatterrorist code six hours before that bomb wentoff."

Brinkerhoff's jaw dropped. "But ... then why did hewait-"

"Because he couldn't get TRANSLTR to decrypt the file.He tried, but Gauntlet kept rejecting it. It was encrypted withsome new public key algorithm that the filters hadn't seenyet. It took Jabba almost six hours to adjust them."

Brinkerhoff looked stunned.

"Strathmore was furious. He made Jabba install a bypa.s.sswitch in Gauntlet in case it ever happened again."

"Jesus." Brinkerhoff whistled. "I had noidea." Then his eyes narrowed. "So what's yourpoint?"

"I think Strathmore used the switch today ... to processa file that Gauntlet rejected."

"So? That's what the switch is for, right?"

Midge shook her head. "Not if the file in question is avirus."

Brinkerhoff jumped. "A virus? Who said anything about avirus!"

"It's the only explanation," she said."Jabba said a virus is the only thing that could keep TRANSLTRrunning this long, so-"

"Wait a minute!" Brinkerhoff flashed her the time-outsign. "Strathmore said everything's fine!"

"He's lying."

Brinkerhoff was lost. "You're saying Strathmore intentionally let a virus into TRANSLTR?"

"No," she snapped. "I don't think he knew it was a virus. I think he was tricked." Brinkerhoff was speechless. Midge Milken was definitely losingit.

"It explains a lot," she insisted. "It explainswhat he's been doing in there all night."

"Planting viruses in his own computer?"

"No," she said, annoyed. "Trying to cover up hismistake! And now he can't abort TRANSLTR and get aux powerback because the virus has the processors locked down!"

Brinkerhoff rolled his eyes. Midge had gone nuts in the past,but never like this. He tried to calm her. "Jabba doesn'tseem to be too worried."

"Jabba's a fool," she hissed.

Brinkerhoff looked surprised. n.o.body had ever called Jabba afool-a pig maybe, but never a fool. "You're trustingfeminine intuition over Jabba's advanced degrees inanti- invasive programming?"

She eyed him harshly.

Brinkerhoff held up his hands in surrender. "Never mind. Itake it back." He didn't need to be reminded ofMidge's uncanny ability to sense disaster. "Midge,"he begged.

"I know you hate Strathmore, but-"

"This has nothing to do with Strathmore!" Midge was inoverdrive. "The first thing we need to do is confirmStrathmore bypa.s.sed Gauntlet. Then we call the director."

"Great." Brinkerhoff moaned. "I'll callStrathmore and ask him to send us a signed statement."

"No," she replied, ignoring his sarcasm."Strathmore's lied to us once already today."

Sheglanced up, her eyes probing his. "Do you have keys toFontaine's office?

"Of course. I'm his PA."

"I need them."

Brinkerhoff stared in disbelief. "Midge, there's noway in h.e.l.l I'm letting you into Fontaine'soffice."

"You have to!" she demanded. Midge turned and startedtyping on Big Brother's keyboard. "I'm requesting aTRANSLTR queue list. If Strathmore manually bypa.s.sed Gauntlet,it'll show up on the printout."

"What does that have to do with Fontaine'soffice?"

She spun and glared at him. "The queue list only prints toFontaine's printer. You know that!" "That's because it's cla.s.sified,Midge!"

"This is an emergency. I need to see that list."

Brinkerhoff put his hands on her shoulders. "Midge, pleasesettle down. You know I can't-"

She huffed loudly and spun back to her keyboard. "I'mprinting a queue list. I'm going to walk in, pick it up, andwalk out. Now give me the key."

"Midge ..."

She finished typing and spun back to him. "Chad, the reportprints in thirty seconds.

Here's the deal. You give me thekey. If Strathmore bypa.s.sed, we call security. If I'm wrong, Ileave, and you can go smear marmalade all over Carmen Huerta."She gave him a malicious glare and held out her hands for the keys."I'm waiting."

Brinkerhoff groaned, regretting that he had called her back tocheck the Crypto report.

He eyed her outstretched hand."You're talking about cla.s.sified information inside thedirector's private quarters. Do you have any idea what wouldhappen if we got caught?"

"The director is in South America."

"I'm sorry. I just can't." Brinkerhoffcrossed his arms and walked out.

Midge stared after him, her gray eyes smoldering. "Oh, yesyou can," she whispered.

Then she turned back to Big Brotherand called up the video archives.

Midge'll get over it, Brinkerhoff told himself as hesettled in at his desk and started going over the rest of hisreports. He couldn't be expected to hand out thedirector's keys whenever Midge got paranoid.

He had just begun checking the COMSEC breakdowns when histhoughts were interrupted by the sound of voices coming from theother room. He set down his work and walked to his doorway.

The main suite was dark-all except a dim shaft of grayishlight from Midge's half- open door. He listened. The voicescontinued. They sounded excited. "Midge?"

No response.

He strode through the darkness to her works.p.a.ce. The voices werevaguely familiar.

He pushed the door open. The room was empty.Midge's chair was empty. The sound was coming from overhead.Brinkerhoff looked up at the video monitors and instantly felt ill.The same image was playing on each one of the twelve screens-akind of perversely ch.o.r.eographed ballet. Brinkerhoff steadiedhimself on the back of Midge's chair and watched inhorror. "Chad?" The voice was behind him.

He spun and squinted into the darkness. Midge was standingkitty-corner across the main suite's reception area in frontof the director's double doors. Her palm was outstretched."The key, Chad."

Brinkerhoff flushed. He turned back to the monitors. He tried toblock out the images overhead, but it was no use. He waseverywhere, groaning with pleasure and eagerly fondling CarmenHuerta's small, honey-covered b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

CHAPTER 66

Becker crossed the concourse toward the rest room doors only tofind the door marked CABALLEROS blocked by an orange pylon and acleaning cart filled with detergent and mops. He eyed the otherdoor. DAMAS. He strode over and rapped loudly.