Page 106 of Casualties of War
Chapter Twenty-Two
Odesky’s voice in Parris’ ear was soft. “Think we’ve found something, Captain.”
“Location?”
“South end of the bay.”
“Three minutes.” She glanced at Gomez, who was her partner tonight. “Jog trot,” she ordered.
They jogged at a slow pace through the kapok trees they had been searching among, out to where the trees changed to palms, then through the palms to the beach. Inthe moonless night, the beach was a thin strip of pale ground between the black water and the tree line. Seaweed covered most of the beach and the iodine stench was sharp. The bay was small and unremarkable, except for the height of the cliffs at the north end.
Parris kept up the pace along the tiny crescent to where the darker shape of Odesky was waiting at the far end of the beach where morerocks thrust out into the sea. There weren’t even any decent waves. The wavelets lapped monotonously below the seaweed.
They squelched across the wet sand, jogging until they reached Odesky.
“Tell me,” Parris said.
Donaldson was Odesky’s partner. He stood in the drier sand and weed. “Here.” He bent and picked up a handful of the seaweed laying on the rocks that began there.
Five meters squareof seaweed lifted at his tug. “It’s a net, with weed over it,” Donaldson said.
“Throw it aside,” she said.
Donaldson and Gomez each gripped the edge of the net and hauled. The smell of dried seaweed and dehydrated and rotting sea creatures wafted over them. Parris blew out her breath.
They dropped the netting on the seaweed behind them.
Parris studied the little metal dinghy for a moment.It was small, scratched aluminum, with ropes coiled in the brine at the bottom and a pair of short oars.
Odesky waved the hand-held scanner over the metal, then showed her the display. “It’s barely a twitch, but it’s there. That’s how we found it.”
Her heart thudded. She thumbed the all-channel button on her communications badge. “Everyone, heads-up.” She gave them a second to pull their attentionaway from whatever they were doing. “On me, asap. Far south end of the bay, at the water line. Now.”
Through her ear bud, she heard the whispers of acknowledgement. She turned to Odesky. “How much do you know about radiation?”
“Enough to know I don’t want a dirty bomb going off anywhere in the world, sir.”
“This bay is the exact coordinates of where the last radiation signature was spotted.What can shield a core of cobalt 60 from our scanners?”
“A dozen feet of concrete,” he said.
“What about water?”
Odesky shook his head. “You’d need a hundred feet of water to dissipate…” He spun to look out into the bay.
The rest of the unit assembled around them, silent silhouettes standing in a ragged circle.
“Phew,” someone breathed, bending over the boat and peering.
Parris spotted Adán’sunhelmeted head among her men. “Caballero,” she said. “Tell me about this bay. How deep is the water here?”
“I don’t know the bay personally. We’re near the top of the island now, yes?”
“Less than a mile from the Seal Cliffs,” said Yardley, the navigator.
Adán nodded. “It’s a good bet the water here is deep. That’s why there are no big waves. There’s no shallow slope for them to build upon.Everything around the top end of the island is steep cliffs, dropping straight into the sea.”
Parris considered. The dinghy was giving off a trace of radioactivity, which meant it had been in contact with the core at some point. They had used the boat to either bring the core ashore, or dump it in the water, where it would be undetectable to the satellites and drones scanning for radiation.
