“—in pool halls when I was a kid,” Nimec said. “My old man used to play with some Philly Inquirer beat reporters. Everybody’s dealt five face-down cards. Then the dealer starts around the table, deals each player a card face-up. If the player owns a higher card in the same suit, he shows it and wins double his bet for that round. If he doesn’t, he tosses his hand and his stake gets added to the pot. If they want to make the game more interesting, the dealer burns a card from the top of the deck . . . shows it to everybody, then tosses it to give the bank an edge.”

Megan nodded.

“So Granger displayed a burn card when he let us know Scar and Shevaun Bradley are alive,” she said.

“Right.”

“What’s he shown you now?”

“The notch.” Nimec stabbed a finger at the blue pin identifying the area of Scout IV’s disappearance. “They’re being held prisoner in the notch. At some kind of underground base.”

Her eyes widened.

“Pete, that’s incredible. . . .”

“Don’t unbuckle your seat belt yet,” he said. “He gave us the exact location. There’s some kind of tunnel or mine shaft. He wouldn’t tell us what’s being dug up. Or stored. I figure he knows, or has a damned good idea—”

“But that’s another burn card he can show when it’s advantageous to him.”

“Yeah. Granger’s got a full deck. And he intends to use it to win himself the sweetest deal possible with INR at State, CIA, Interpol . . . whoever winds up with custody of the slug once they can sort that out.”

“Meanwhile he’s playing UpLink . . .”

“Dealing us what he figures we want most . . .”

“The whereabouts of our people, in other words . . .”

“In exchange for our agreeing to testify that he was cooperative when the time comes to face the music,” Waylon said.

Megan looked from one man to the other.

“This explains a lot,” she said. “Explains almost everything, in fact. Our rover coincidentally rolls too close to the notch . . . we’d programmed it to explore the area . . . and then whoever is out there in Bull Pass takes preemptive action. Disables or destroys it before we can receive telemetry that exposes their presence.”

Nimec was nodding.

“Next our S&R team arrives,” Megan said. “They pick up Scout’s trail, follow it to where it ends—”

“Come too close to the notch themselves with Granger sounding the alert . . .”

“And stumble into the same concealed pitfall as the rover,” Megan said.

Nimec and Waylon gave her near-synchronous nods. Then they were all silent for some moments.

“Why would they want to kill David Payton if they were going to let the others live?” Megan said.

“Granger swears he doesn’t have any idea,” Nimec said.

“And you believe him?”

Nimec shrugged.

“Hard to be sure, but my gut sense is he’s on the level,” he said.

Waylon looked at Megan.