“Hey, come on. If they can code it I can crack it. Hey, wait a sec. I’ve got it! Just the thing, it’s perfect, a little gem of a program I once wrote for a puzzle contest.”

“A puzzle contest?”

“Yeah, it’s kind of embarrassing, right? For the American Cryptogram Association. Bunch of retired crossword addicts and a few computer geeks too. I never thought this thing would come in handy but lemme see now . . . Yeah, this won’t take longer than a minute or two. It’ll run way faster on this baby than on the computer I used when I wrote it.”

Chang’s fingers flew across the laptop’s keys.

“How’re you doing, Connie? Pills working?”

“Yeah. I think so.” The fire was subsiding; Carson welcomed the throbbing in its stead.

“Hey, hey, we nailed it. Whoa, look at this sucker, fourth letter in every word.”

“What’s it say?”

“Oh shit,” Chang murmured under his breath. “Dammit to hell.”

“It didn’t work . . . ” Carson felt utterly deflated by the letdown. She heard the chair wheels cross the floor.

Chang’s dark eyes peered down at her from behind his spectacles. “No. It worked, all right,” he said, “but here’s the thing: they’re not planning to go online with the heavy-water plant. There is no heavy-water reactor, never was a heavy-water reactor. Sindhu didn’t send any ‘copper bracelet’. The ‘copper bracelet’ is the organization, not some shortcut to a nuclear reactor.”

“But what about those shipping manifests? Sindhu sent something.”

“You know where the plant is, right?”

“On the Chenab River.”

“It’s an Indian-funded project, but the location is in disputed territory, between Pakistan and India.”

“I know,” Connie said impatiently. “Traditional enemies.”

“With nukes,” Chang added.

“Yeah. So?”

“So they didn’t send copper piping and coils. They sent thermobaric explosives. They’re going to blow the Baglihar dam sky high.”

Just as the BlackBerry had been pre-planted in the drawer, the Browning Buck Mark .22 was taped inside the toilet tank. Jana appreciated the compliment. The .22 was a marksman’s gun. A larger weapon would have been overkill.

The bathroom was easily as large as the room she had shared with her brothers growing up. White veined marble surrounded the tub and steam shower, aqua tile gleamed on the walls and floor.

She used the facilities quickly, flushed the toilet and turned on the hot water in the Jacuzzi, using the noise to cover the sound as she screwed the Gemtech Suppressor to the threaded end of the Trail-Lite barrel.

She jutted her head into the bedroom. Crane was naked on the bed, scanning the room service menu.

“Pierre,” she said. “Come here.”

Crane looked over the menu. “I was going to order us—”

“This is better,” she said over the rushing water.

“In a moment,” he replied as he reached for the telephone.

He ordered something.