“Yes.”
“Can you find out who might have rented space on one of them in say the last few weeks or so?”
“I can try.”
“Okay,” replied Sean, picking up his coffee cup again.
Michelle said, “What are you thinking?”
“Communication, that’s what satellites are for. What I’m thinking is Grant is into communicating, running the show. He fed George Carlton all the secrets about the debacle in Afghanistan.”
Michelle nodded, a glimmer of understanding coming into her features. “You think he’s using the satellite for communicating something else?”
“Yeah, I do. I just don’t know what. And it might not simply be information.” He looked at Edgar. “Using a satellite, you can control things on the ground, right?”
“Yes. The government uses it to operate the power grid, the nuclear arsenal, command and control functions, lots of things we all depend on.”
Michelle interjected. “You think he’s trying to take over the U.S. nuclear arsenal?”
“No. Those would be on government birds and protected as well as anything can be. Plus you have manual safeguards for those suckers back on the ground.”
“Well, what then, Sean?”
“I don’t know,” he said, visibly frustrated. “But whatever it is, I know it’s going to be pretty damn significant.”
“While Edgar is working on all this, what do we do?”
“We have to talk to Wingo. Tell him what’s happened.”
“Like you said, he might go off the deep end.”
“It’s all in how we phrase it, Michelle. It’ll take some diplomacy.”
“So you want me to talk to him?”
“Uh, no.”
“Why not?” she wanted to know.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re about as diplomatic as the punk running North Korea.”
“Maybe so, but I’m also a lot tougher.”
CHAPTER
71
ALAN GRANT WAS NOT PLEASED by the day’s developments.
Sean King had been at Heron Air Service but had gotten away yet again.
The home of Trevor Jenkins had been broken into, and while nothing appeared to be missing, he couldn’t be sure of that.
He picked up the burn phone and made the call using an electronic filter to disguise his voice.
Sam Wingo answered on the first ring.
“Yes?”