“Jackpot,” Eli said, illuminating the underside of a hatch in the overhead.

“Sword One, Watcher,” Corbin queried as they moved into position by the ladder.

“Go, Watcher,” Jed whispered into his boom mic.

“I have good eyes,” she said. “I count five tangos besides my host. One is standing by the weapon; the other four are all the way forward. They’re pounding on the cockpit door and yelling. I think something happened to the pilots—that’s why we can’t find their threads.”

Jed looked at Eli. “Think they’re dead?”

Eli shrugged. “How would I know?”

“Are the tangos you see armed?” he asked softly, holding the rail of the ladder well now, picturing in his mind the tactical situation they would be bursting into.

“Three of the four are armed with assault rifles. My guy—I don’t know. The guy by the weapon . . . he’s armed too.”

“Watcher,” came Ben’s voice in his ear, “tell me about the machine. Is there a hatch or doorway near it or anything?”

“No,” she said. “But it’s, like, connected to the floor of the plane right at the wall on the left side.”

“Yeah, I remember that,” Ben said.

“I see it,” came Colonel Mitchell’s gruff, low voice. “There’s what looks like a black dome on the side of the aircraft right there. I saw it before but assumed it to be some sort of navigation or tracking system based on satellite. I thought it odd it wasn’t mounted on top like usual.”

“So that’s . . .” Corbin’s voice filled with dread.

“How they fire the weapon, yes,” Ben said, his voice tense. “Corbin, if you get any sense that they’re getting ready to fire, I need to know immediately.”

“I gotcha,” the teenager replied. “Sword One, I don’t know if this helps you but inside the plane it’s just open space, like the inside of that big Air Force jet we took to Italy. There’s a bench along the wall to sit on, but the entire floor is covered with black plastic boxes. That’s what everybody is walking on.”

“Those are the lithium-ion battery cells for the weapon,” Nisha said, commenting for the first time. “Try not to shoot those, guys. They could catch on fire.”

Jed looked at Eli and the veteran shook his head.

“Now they tell us,” Eli grumbled.

“Copy all,” Jed said through gritted teeth. He flipped his mic from VOX to PTT. “We’re going to have to be quick, bro. There’s no cover. And if Nisha’s right, the plane is probably going to catch on fire because no way someone doesn’t shoot the floor . . . Just saying.”

Eli grinned and checked the security of his parachute. “If that happens, then we bail.”

“Or if they fire the weapon before we kill them all,” Jed said. “The F-16s have kill decision authorization.”