It was Archer’s suggested alternate plan that was troubling Sanam most. It would solve the problem, but Sanam wished he could come up with something better. Unfortunately by the time he arrived, nothing had come to him.

Umer and two of his other men were waiting for him inside.

“So?” Umer asked.

“He is trying to get us replacements.”

“Trying?” Umer said. “If he doesn’t get the replacements, all our work will mean nothing.”

The other two men voiced their agreement.

“What do you expect to happen?” Sanam said, more anger in his voice than he meant. “That they appear out of the air?”

No one said anything for several moments. Then Umer asked, “Did he at least say when he would know if he could get them?”

“He told me he would contact us by the morning.”

Umer nodded. “Then we will at least know if we will be able to carry out the plan. If he can’t get them in time, we can use the explosives elsewhere. There are plenty of other worthy targets.”

“But none as big as this,” Sanam said.

The room fell silent, everyone knowing he was right.

With a deep breath, he looked at his men. “The plan will go forward with or without the remotes.”

“What are you talking about?” Umer said. “How will we set the explosives off without the remotes?”

“There is a way,” Sanam said.

“What way?” Umer asked.

Sanam paused, still hoping an alternative answer would come to him, but none did. “We will set them off manually. They can be rigged so only one man can do it.”

Umer stared at him.

“It is the only way,” Sanam said.

“It can not be just anyone,” Umer said. “It would have to be someone we trust will not back out. We don’t have anyone I trust that much.”

“We have one,” Sanam said.

Sanam locked eyes with his friend, and in that moment he knew Umer realized the only possibility.

“Me,” Umer said. Not a question.

Sanam said nothing.

14 - LEE CHILD

14

LEE CHILD

The trouble with laptop computers was battery life. The trouble with stolen laptop computers was that they rarely came with chargers. Unless you were lucky enough to target the kind of dork who carried an ugly nylon case everywhere, full of wires and accessories. But the Sorbonne student hadn’t been that kind of dork. All Nora and Charley had was the guy’s MacBook Air, thin, sleek, naked and eating power like it was starving. An icon shaped like a black empty battery suddenly changed to a red empty battery. Then it started flashing. It was winking away to itself, upper right margin of the screen. Directly above Wiki Chang’s face.

Tesla told him, “This thing is going to shut down any minute. We’ll have to find an Internet café.”