Margrave rose unexpectedly from his chair. He brought his arm back, then snapped it forward. The computer disk flew from his hand in a soaring arc that ended in the water hundreds of feet below the cliff. He waved the guard over and turned to the Trouts.

“You'll be escorted back to your boat. Move away from this island or I'll sink your boat and you can swim back to the mainland.” He smiled. “I won't charge you for the gas.”

Moments later the Trouts were descending in the elevator. The guard marched them out to their boat, shoved them off and stood on the pier with his hand on his holster.

From the top of the cliff, Margrave watched the Trouts motor away from the island, then he undid the cell phone clipped to his belt and activated the voice dialing with a single word: “Gant.”

Jordan Gant answered immediately.

“I just got a visit from some NUMA people,” Margrave said. “They know a lot about the project.”

“What a coincidence,” Gant said. “I was paid a visit by Kurt Austin, also of NUMA. He seemed well versed in our plans as well.”

The people who came here said that what we're doing could trigger worldwide destruction."

Gant laughed. “You've been on that island for too long. When you spend some time in a snake pit like Washington, you learn that the truth is exactly what you want it to be. They're bluffing.”

“What should we do?”

“Speed up the deadline. At the same time, we'll slow them down with a diversion. The removal of Kurt Austin from the picture will derail NUMA and give us the time we need to make sure the project is completed.”

“Has anyone heard about Karla Janos? I don't like the idea that she might show up out of nowhere.”

“I've taken care of that. My friends in Moscow assured me that if I spread a little more money around Janos would never leave that island in Siberia alive.”

“Do you trust the Russians?”•

“I don't trust anyone. The Russians will be paid in full when they show me the evidence of her death. In the meantime, she is thousands of miles away from here, unable to interfere.”

“How do you plan to respond to Austin?”

“I was hoping I could borrow the Lucifer Legion for that job.”

“Lucifer? You know how undisciplined they are.”

“I'm thinking of deniability. If something goes wrong, they are simply a group of crazed killers acting on their own.”

“They'll need some supervision.”

“Fine with me.”

“I'll take my boat to Portland and catch a helicopter to Boston for the trip to Rio.”

“Good. I'll join you there as soon as I take care of some minor matters.”