Page 93 of Edge of Danger

Granville gestured her and Ian to climb in the back of newly painted bird. When her father had said to dump them in the desert, did these guys actually interpret that to mean shoving them out of a helicopter from hundreds or thousands of feet in the air?

Jimmy, Granville’s cohort in crime, poked her in the back with his rifle. “Get in,” the younger man bit out.

“Jeez, Jim. Your mom would have your head if she knew you were pushing me around. I babysat you, for goodness’sake. Relax. We’re all friends, here.” She scrambled awkwardly around the metal stair assembly welded to the skid and climbed into the helicopter’s cargo bay. She flopped down on the floor and Ian flopped down with a grunt beside her.

“You okay, babe?” she asked him.

His gaze swiveled to hers. “Did I mention your family’s a little out there?”

They traded grins that she hoped their captors interpreted as either ignorance or outright dimwitted unawareness of the trouble the two of them were in.

The pilot yelled into the back. “Everybody strapped in?”

Granville flashed a thumbs up.

“Hang on, then,” the pilot shouted. “Let’s go make some history!”

Ian didn’t like the sound of that. He and Piper were going to be history soon if they didn’t do something radical to change the odds against them. Thing was, these guys were all military or para-military trained. And cautious. They weren’t making the kinds of amateur mistakes he could exploit. With a gun pointed at Piper, his hands were tied. Both literally and figuratively. He wasn’t willing to do anything that might get her shot.

She was doing a fantastic job of building rapport with their captors, of reminding them that she was one of them, that they were all on the same side. Friends. Family. But if he overpowered Jimmy and shot Granville, all bets were off as to what would happen to her.

Frankly, he was curious to see what, exactly, these guys were planning to do. Assuming the bastards didn’t push them out of the helicopter before they showed their hands.

It was a calculated risk to sit here in the thwocking helicopter. He could only hope that Piper would understandhow vital it was to figure out what these guys were up to. The first shoe—the virus outbreak—would go active in Las Vegas any time, now. And these guys were the other shoe. What in the hell did El Noor have up his sleeve?

He glanced out the window in the helo’s sliding cargo door and oriented himself based on the sun. They were headed south. Maybe a little to the east. Not toward Las Vegas? What the hell?

Granville shouted over the engine and rotor noise, “This won’t take long. A few minutes to get there and ten or fifteen minutes to set the charges.”

Set the charges?That didn’t sound good.

Piper yelled, “What are you going to blow? The Hoover Dam?”

Christ. She was right. They were headed straight for the gigantic structure.

“Nah. It would take all the dynamite in the West to blow up that puppy. We’re after something better. The power lines running from the dam to Vegas.”

Mother of God.

He slammed backward against the bulkhead behind him. Of course. Blowing up high power lines, if done correctly, would create a massive power surge down the lines sure to fry everything connected to the electric grid. From toasters to light bulbs, generators to air conditioners, everything on the grid would be destroyed. An electro-magnetic pulse would not only knock everything off line, but would melt the internal workings of all things electrical that happened to be plugged in.

He was probably not successful at fully masking his horror. These guys were going to make an unholy mess of Las Vegas.

The virus. Oh. Shit. These guys were timing their attack for just when the virus finished incubating and people started to get sick. It would be 120 degrees in the shade, and a whole bunch of people were about to come down with a deadly infection. Ina town completely without power. It was a brilliant—dastardly—plan.

At least cars and airplanes would continue to work. People could drive out of town. That was a small blessing.

Piper moaned under her breath beside him. She’d put it all together, too, apparently.

“Gentlemen,” he asked calmly, “are you aware that about a week ago another terrorist attack was launched on Las Vegas?”

Jimmy leaned forward aggressively. “We ain’t terrorists!”

“My mistake,” he corrected. “Nonetheless, last week, a Palestinian terrorist released a deadly virus in Las Vegas. Any minute now, thousands of people are going to become violently sick and commence dying.”

“So?” Jimmy retorted belligerently.

“You’re about to cut off power to the whole damned town,” Ian explained. “Whoever paid you to launch this attack is using you. You’re only one part of a much largerterroristattack on Las Vegas.”

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