At every major fork in the road, Jack would stop and watch the traffic for a while, then he'd take out the truck, see which way it ran, and choose their path accordingly.

The Rover led them farther and farther into the hills. As the pavement gave way to a hard-packed dirt road, Alicia felt a growing sense of antic.i.p.ation seeping through her. She fought it for a while-she didn't want to look forward to anything connected to that man-but finally she gave in. Up ahead, perhaps over the next rise or around the next bend in the road, on one of these leafless wooded slopes, something momentous waited.

But as her antic.i.p.ation grew, she noticed an increased edginess in Jack.

"Is something bothering you?" she said.

He shrugged. "All this wide-open s.p.a.ce." He gestured to an expanse of hills and valleys visible through a break in the trees. "Not my kind of place. I like my roads paved, preferably with the option of traveling under under them, and I like my trees growing in evenly s.p.a.ced holes in the sidewalk." them, and I like my trees growing in evenly s.p.a.ced holes in the sidewalk."

Just then the tires began to spin and slip on the steep upgrade.

"Should have rented a Jeep," Jack said. He seemed annoyed with himself. "Should have thought of that."

But the tires finally caught and propelled the car up to where the rutted dirt road leveled out a little.

"It can't be too much farther," she said. "There's not much more of this mountain left."

"Yeah, but what if the Rover is pointing at the next next mountain?" mountain?"

Alicia hadn't thought of that.

A moment later they came to the end of the road.

"Swell," Jack said.

Alicia leaned forward, scanning the wall of tree trunks and thick underbrush ahead of them. She didn't want to believe they'd have to go all the way back down that road. And then she saw what looked like a break in the brush.

"Hang on. Is that a path?"

Rover in hand, Jack stepped out of the car. This time Alicia followed.

"Good eye, Alicia," he said, pointing to a thin footpath trailing off into the brush. "Lucky the leaves are gone. No way you'd see that if the brush was greened up. And that's a good thing."

"Why?"

"Could mean someone doesn't want it found too easily. Let's go."

Alicia pulled her coat collar more tightly around her neck. They'd traveled north, they were on a hilltop, the sun was hiding, and a wind was rising. She wished she'd dressed warmer.

The path threaded left and right around trees and boulders for a good fifty yards before it opened into a wide clearing. Alicia gasped when she saw the old log cabin that stood at its center. Those logs were the only thing old about the scene. The rest was all high-tech. The cabin's roof and much of the yard around it were decked with photoelectric solar panels. Also on the roof, jutting twenty-five or thirty-feet above the solar panels there, stood a strange-looking antenna.

"I'm going to be very surprised if this isn't the place," Jack said.

He put the Rover down and let it run. It rocked this way and that as it plowed through the weeds, but it moved inexorably toward the cabin's front door.

"One more check," Jack said.

As he carried the Rover around toward the north side, Alicia moved closer to the cabin. She noticed that the windows were sealed... bricked over. Someone did not want visitors.

"Look at this," Jack called from her right. "I moved it ninety degrees to the north, and now it's running south... right at this cabin. No doubt about it, Alicia. We've found it. This is the place."

Alicia rubbed her upper arms through her coat. Now she was really really cold. cold.

Suddenly Jack was at her side. "Here," he said, handing her the Rover. "Hold this while I get us inside."

"Going to pick the lock?" she said.

"Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my pick set." He bent and looked closer at the lock. "Too bad. It's a Yale. I'm good with Yales. Nope... looks like I'm going to have to do it the old-fashioned way."

So saying, he leaped forward and slammed his foot against the door just inches from the lock face. The sound of the impact echoed away down the hill.

But the door hadn't budged.

"I'll be d.a.m.ned," Jack said, checking out the hinges. "This door opens outward. Weird. And that's going to make it even tougher."

He took another flying leap at the heavy oak panels, with about as much success as before.

Three more times in rapid succession, with the noise echoing around them, and still the door stood firm.

Alicia froze as an accented voice behind them said, "Perhaps I might be of a.s.sistance?"

Startled, Jack whirled and reached for his Semmerling, but held his hands wide when he saw that the newcomer already had a pistol pointing at him.

Yoshio.

Jack knew he had to look stupid standing here and gaping at him, but he couldn't figure it out...

"Where the h.e.l.l did you come from?"

"From the trunk of your car."

"The trunk?" Jack couldn't believe it. "When did you-?" Then he got it. "Oh, h.e.l.l. Back in Chelsea, right?"

He wanted to kick himself. He hadn't had the car long enough to notice the extra weight in the rear, but still, he shouldn't have left anything to chance.

Yoshio nodded with a strained smile. "A most uncomfortable ride."

"I'll bet," Jack said, remembering all the b.u.mps they'd bounced over and holes their tires had dropped into on the way up here. "Jeez, you must've wanted to get here bad."

"Yes, Jack-san. Very bad. And what of your promise to share information? What had happened to that?"

"Our deal was right of first refusal," Jack said, gently as he could. Not a good idea to rile the man with the gun. "And we don't even know what we've got yet." He turned to Alicia. "By the way, this is Yoshio, the j.a.panese gentleman I told you about."

Alicia looked about ready to shed her skin. She stood stiff and still, her eyes never wavering from the muzzle pointed their way.

"Say, 'Pleased to meet you,' " Jack whispered out of the corner of his mouth.

"Pleased to-does he have to point that at us?"

"Very sorry," Yoshio said. "If Jack-san will please to give me his weapon, I will put this away. It is only to protect myself, I a.s.sure you."

So d.a.m.n polite, Jack thought as he pulled out the Semmerling and handed it over.

But true to his word, Yoshio pocketed the little .45 and then holstered his own 9mm. It occurred to Jack that this was a guy who had to be pretty sure of his physical abilities.

"Now," Yoshio said, "shall we see what is inside?"

Jack nodded. "All right. On my count..."

The door cracked around the latch plate on their first simultaneous kick; the plate buckled on their second, and they were able to pull the door open.

The first thing Jack noticed was that the lights were on inside.

But then, considering what this place supposedly housed, why not?

"Please," Yoshio said. "After you."

Polite, Jack thought. And not letting me get behind him.

The single room inside was like Ted Kaczynski meets Radio Shack. A table, a chair, a cot, a couple of throw rugs, and a pair of filing cabinets completed the list of furnishings. The rest, taking up a good three quarters of the s.p.a.ce, was an electronic nightmare of wires and metal boxes and blinking lights. And in the center of it all was this gla.s.s tube with a beam of brilliant white light shooting through it. The beam looked almost... solid.

Now Yoshio moved ahead of them, inspecting the humming equipment, staring at the beam.

"I don't understand," he said. "Is this the Ronald Clayton technology? What does it do?"

He wasn't putting me on, Jack thought. He really doesn't know.

He glanced at Alicia. "Should I tell him? He's a buyer."

She nodded. "Go ahead."

Jack went to the lamp sitting on the table and checked to see if it had a cord. It did... but it wasn't plugged in. A small aerial jutted up from the base.

"Here," he said, motioning Yoshio over. "This says it all."

He handed him the lamp. Yoshio took it and stared at it.

"I have seen a lamp like this before."

"Then you should know."

The j.a.panese looked at him questioningly. "Know what?"

"Figure it out," Jack said, then moved toward the filing cabinets.

He wasn't in an explaining mood. Better to let Yoshio figure it out on his own. An epiphany beat out a lecture any day.

Alicia had one of the file drawers open and was staring at something that looked like a blueprint.

"Circuit diagrams," she said. "Do these... mean anything to you?"

"I can program my VCR and turn on my computer," Jack told her. "Beyond that... I don't do wires. I am the Sergeant Schultz of electronics: 'I know nussing.'"

Suddenly Yoshio let out an "Ayiiiieeee!" followed by a Sten gun barrage of j.a.panese.

Jack said, "The light, so to speak, has dawned."

He watched Yoshio carry the lamp over to the electronic jumble, where he stood wide-eyed and red-cheeked, his head jerking back and forth between the lamp and the Clayton gizmo as he mumbled in j.a.panese.

"This is real?" he said, returning to English as he approached Jack and Alicia. "This is true?"

"Near as we can tell," Jack said.

"No wonder Iswid Nahr killed a plane full of people," he said, his voice filled with awe. "They would kill thousands, millions millions to stop this." He stared at the lamp in his hands. "And to think I was this close to an identical lamp and did not realize. I thought they were staring at something by the light of the lamp... not at the lamp itself." to stop this." He stared at the lamp in his hands. "And to think I was this close to an identical lamp and did not realize. I thought they were staring at something by the light of the lamp... not at the lamp itself."

"Yeah, whatever," Jack said. He hadn't the faintest idea what Yoshio was talking about. He pointed to the file cabinets. "Looks like all the specs are right here. Think your people would be interested?"

"Interested? Oh, yes, I am-"

"Hands up! Everyone! NOW!"

Jack jumped at the shouted commands, delivered with a military bark, but his hands acted on their own, the left rising as ordered, but the right snaking toward the Semmerling-and then he remembered... Yoshio had it.

And Yoshio's hands were loaded down with that d.a.m.n lamp. He was no help.

So Jack raised both hands and slowly turned, knowing who he'd see.

Yeah... he'd figured it would have to be Kemel and Baker and the remainder of his crew. Thomas Clayton-with his swollen nose and blackened eyes-was a surprise, but not a big one.

Jack felt his gut tighten. This was bad. Worse than bad.

Of the five newcomers pushing through the doorway, Kemel was the only one without a personal grudge against Jack. And he wasn't all that sure about Kemel.

But how the h.e.l.l had they got here? He d.a.m.n well knew they hadn't shared the trunk with Yoshio.

What'd I do-leave a trail of fluorescent paint along the way?

It is here! Kemel thought, holding back tears of joy. Allah be praised, I have succeeded. I have found it.

He stiffened his knees as he stepped farther into the cabin. He was weak with relief but wanted no one to know.

He looked at the three occupants. He knew Alicia Clayton, and recognized her investigator, but the other man... the Oriental holding the lamp...

"Who are you?" he asked, pointing to him.

The man shook his head. His quick dark eyes showed no fear.

"I can find out for you real quick," Baker said, aiming his pistol at one of the man's knees.