“Same to you.” Eric looked quickly into his team’s eyes, then spoke into the radio again. “Mark, have you been getting all of this?”

Mark Van Dam responded instantly. “Yes, Eric. We got it all.”

“Are you all set there?”

“Roger. We’re inside the studio waiting to broadcast. You buzz the people’s wrist computers and wake them up, and we’ll talk to them.”

“Nicole will program the message the minute we get into Central Monitoring. Tell them we need them, Mark.” His voice had lowered, and Nicole could tell he was feeling the strain. “Once we knock out the computers, their implantations will be neutralized. They can help us. Tell them that.”

“We will,” Van Dam said. “We’ll send you the whole blinking city.”

“Right. Thanks, Mark.”

“Good luck.”

When Eric looked up, his face was grim. “That’ll be our last little surprise for the Major.”

Just then Dick Andreason rejoined them. To Eric’s questioning glance he shook his head. “There’s no answer. I couldn’t raise anyone.”

“Oh, no,” Nicole whispered, thinking of the children. “We’ve got to help them.”

Eric shook his head, his face unreadable. “If they’re in trouble, the best help we can give them is to wipe this building off the face of the earth.” He reached out and took her hand. “Let’s go.”

CHAPTER 35

“You’ve done a great job, Joe,” Travis said. “We’ll wait until they’re inside, and then we’ll close in. There’s no way they can get away.”

At that moment the radio crackled into life. “Command Base, Command Base. This is Charlie One. We have a group of people coming out of the trees on the north side of Central Control. There are four—no, five—no, seven—seven people in all. One appears to be a woman. They’re all carrying rifles, and three have heavy sacks.”

“That team watching the north fire door had better stay out of sight,” the Major growled. “I don’t want Eric to see them and get spooked.”

Travis had his binoculars up. “No, they’re coming right along the building. Our men are up in the trees, out of sight.” He turned to the radioman. “Winters, tell all units to stand by. I don’t want anybody moving so much as an eyelash until I give the signal.”

Joe shook his head. “There are more than seven. There were fourteen of us altogether.”

Travis and the Major both looked startled. “Some of them must be going to wait in back to cover them.”

“Or Eric may have sent them around to the south door,” the Major said. “Winters, alert the team by the fire exit to watch for them. Tell them to stay out of sight.”

Then both he and Travis lifted their binoculars again and peered out the glass front of the Shalev Library.