“Sorry we’re late,” Erin said, walking casually into the room.
Elliott followed, scanning the room until he saw Sawyer. Their eyes locked, and Harley couldn’t help but hold her breath.
“We were dealing with some stuff,” Elliott said as he and Erin slipped into seats that allowed them to keep an eye on Sawyer as well as the briefing maps. “It took a little while to work through all of it, but we’re good now.”
Silence filled the space, and from the corner of her eye, Harley could see the confused expressions on both Weatherford’s and McKay’s faces. But no one said a word as Sawyer and his teammates continued to study each other.
“Are you sure you’re good?” Sawyer asked quietly. “This isn’t something you can do halfway. You’re either in or you’re out.”
“We’re in all the way,” Erin said firmly. “It took a while to figure it out, but in the end, it wasn’t as complicated as we thought when we remembered what was important.”
Weatherford looked even more baffled than he had before, but thankfully, Jake spoke first.
“Everyone, I’d like to introduce Dr. Tristan Jones,” he said, gesturing toward the blond man in the suit and tie. “He’s a nuclear physicist from the Office for Nuclear Regulation in London. He’s here to help us figure out how we’re going to stop Yegor.”
The man nodded awkwardly and moved a little off to the side, like he had no interest in being involved in this any more than necessary.
“And this is Brielle,” Jake added, motioning toward the Frenchwoman.
McKay and Weatherford both regarded her sharply.
“It seems we have you to thank for the information on Yegor,” Weatherford said thoughtfully, then looked at McKay. “Though I understand you had to give up a lot to procure that information.”
McKay nodded, mouth tight. Even though he hadn’t fought Jake on agreeing to a deal with Brielle, he wasn’t happy with letting her get away. Who knew? Maybe if STAT approached Brielle in the future with an offer that didn’t involve giving up her freedom, the woman might reconsider working for them.
“Indeed,” McKay said. “But I think you’ll agree it was worth the price when you hear what Brielle has to tell us.”
“Based on everything Brielle and her brother said, these are Yegor’s most likely targets,” Jake said, moving over to the map. “Gravelines Nuclear Power Station is in Nord, about twelve miles northeast of here. Penly Station is near Dieppe, about ninety miles from here.” As he spoke, he pointed out each of them. “Gravelines is the largest nuclear power plant in western Europe with six reactors. Penly is smaller, with two reactors, but is likely an easier target. Not that the number of reactors really matters. All it takes is one reactor going into meltdown to give Yegor exactly what he needs.”
Weatherford looked at Brielle again. “You claim to have been part of Yegor’s inner circle, and yet you don’t know which target he’s going to hit?”
“Yegor started planning this attack within days of me breaking him out of that Turkish prison. It’s all he ever talked about,” Brielle replied calmly, as if Weatherford hadn’t implied she was lying to them. “He originally started with a dozen possible sites, then constantly rearranged them based on perceived vulnerabilities, proximity to large cities, size of the reactors, when the fuel rods had been changed out last, wind patterns, safety systems, security forces, even local response capabilities. The list changed constantly. These two plants were at the top of his list right before the auction in Greece, which makes me think one of them is the target.”
McKay crossed his arms over his chest. “How was he able to gather so much information? Some of that has to be classified.”
Brielle shrugged. “He’s rich. Offer someone enough money and they’ll give you whatever you want. It probably didn’t hurt that Yegor is also very good at threatening people.”
“I get why he’s going after England,” Caleb said. “MI6 killed his brother. What I don’t understand is why he’s targeting France. What the hell did they ever do to him?”
Brielle met his gaze, hers assessing. “In early 2014, pro-Russia separatists took over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine with direct support from the Russian military. Yegor and his brother lost control of the family’s oil business that was based in that area. He immediately turned to the pro-Ukrainian forces and NATO, begging them for help. France and the UK played politics while Russian forces murdered every member of Yegor’s family except his brother. I’m sure France and the UK had good reasons to stand back and watch, but in the end, Yegor blamed them for everything that happened.”
“That’s kind of crazy,” Misty murmured.
“I won’t argue with that,” Brielle responded. “Losing his family twisted Yegor into something barely even human anymore. Everything he’s done since that war has been about getting revenge. The supernatural auctions were nothing more than a means of raising money so he could hire the right experts, buy the right equipment, and pay people to look the other way. He’s determined to destroy everyone he blames for his family’s death. He’s going to force a nuclear power plant into meltdown, then he’s going to blow everything to pieces, scattering catastrophic levels of radiation from Paris to London and beyond, if he can manage it.”
“Is it possible for radiation to travel that far?” Jes asked.
Dr. Jones nodded. “Radiation from Chernobyl was detected in Sweden, which is almost a thousand miles away. That’s how the rest of the world found out about it when Russia was doing everything it could to hide the incident.”
Weatherford scowled at Brielle. “How do we know you’re not making all this up so you can gain your freedom? Asking us to trust you on something like this is a big leap.”
Brielle gave him a cool look and a shrug. “Don’t believe me then. You’ll find out soon enough, one way or the other. I can live with the knowledge that I did what I could.” She lifted a brow. “Can you live with the knowledge that you did nothing with the information?”
McKay cleared his throat. “Let’s assume Brielle is telling the truth.” He regarded her thoughtfully. “You said Adriana is integral to Yegor’s plan? How?”
“From what he said, it’s actually difficult to get a modern nuclear power plant to go into meltdown,” Brielle said. “Too many automated safety features, I guess. That’s where Adriana will come in. They’re going to pull all the control rods, then make her fry the computer system running the reactor, so none of the safety systems will work. That will cause the meltdown.”
Dr. Jones seemed vexed at that.