Kiara regarded them sadly. “My father and the Harrington Group have more money and influence than a lot of countries in the world. He’s currently sitting on the precise locations of more than 3,700 active nuclear warheads scattered around the world, and another few thousand partially dismantled and decommissioned weapons held in long-term storage. And as for that event in Siberia, that was a small-scale test to prove that the system works. When my father fires the real one at full power, it will level mountains and penetrate to the depths of the ocean to reach its targets. But you’re right. He won’t be able to destroy all of them, but I guess he thinks taking out five thousand of them is a good start.”
“That small-scale test, as you call it, killed hundreds and scattered nuclear waste for miles,” Jake said, shaking his head. “Destroying thousands of nukes on the level you’re talking about—along with ships, submarines, and probably aircrafts, as well—will kill hundreds of thousands of people. And the deaths from the contamination will be even worse. Would your father honestly do something like that?”
Her mouth tightened. “I asked my father that same question after I finally figured out what he was planning. When I told him that he needed to stop all of this before it was too late, he had the nerve to tell me he was doing all of this for me and for our people. When I kept trying to talk him out of it, he locked me up, saying he wouldn’t let me interfere with his plans. I barely got away.” She glanced at Brielle’s brother, her eyes softening as she gazed at him. “That’s when I ran into Julian. Without his help, I never would have escaped.”
Julian pressed a kiss to her forehead before looking around at them. “Harrington was ready to murder his own daughter, so if you want to know whether he’ll go through with his plan, the answer is yes.”
Kiara reached up to cover the hand Julian still had resting on her shoulder with her own. “Julian is right. My father won’t hesitate to kill hundreds of thousands of people if he thinks it’s the only way to stop World War III.”
Silence filled the safe house once again.
Caleb had dealt with more than a few homicidal psychos before working for STAT and a lot more after coming on board. But in all that time, he’d never dealt with a maniac so willing to destroy the world under the assumption that he was saving it. It seemed like Xavier Harrington was his very own flavor of fruitcake.
“Do you know where your father is planning to fire the laser from?” Brielle asked softly. “Julian said the ship carrying the nukes came into the New York Harbor, so I assume it’s somewhere close.”
Kiara nodded. “I was able to sneak in and get a look at the plans for the underground facility my father built for his crazy scheme. It’s directly below the Harrington Group Headquarters in Lower Manhattan and spreads outward in an enormous collection of tunnels that cover all five boroughs and even goes as far as Newark to the west and Hempstead to the east.”
Caleb’s jaw dropped. Brielle and his teammates looked just as floored as he was.
“If the ground heave effects are the same as we saw in Siberia, we’ll likely see the total destruction of the entire city and much of the surrounding area,” McKay said. “Unless we figure out how to stop Harrington, we’re talking about the deaths of over eight million people.”
Shit.
“When is all this supposed to go down?” Caleb asked.
He only prayed they had enough time to come up with some kind of plan, because running into those tunnels like they had in Siberia wasn’t going to work any better than it had there.
“I don’t know for sure,” Kiara said. “Based on the way my father was talking, it sounds like it’ll be soon.”
“Shit,” Jake muttered.
“Exactly.” Kiara frowned. “While I’m worried about that, I’m even more concerned that my father is almost certainly aware of where I am and everything I’m telling you right now. When we go after him, he’s going to see us coming and will already have a plan to stop us. We need to come up with a way to distract him and muddy the waters if we have any hope of making it more difficult for him to see what we’re going to do.”
Well, crap. Caleb hadn’t thought of that. How the hell were they supposed to sneak up on a guy who could see them coming before they even got there?
“I know what you’re all thinking,” McKay said, stepping away from the fireplace to look at each of them in turn. “That we don’t have a chance of stopping this guy. And while you might be right, for the next few hours at least, I want you to stop thinking about that. Grab something to eat, get some sleep, and give me some time to make some calls. Because no matter what we do, we can’t do it alone. Not with a crew this small, anyway. There are nineteen nuclear weapons buried underneath New York City, hidden in what might be twenty or thirty miles’ worth of tunnels. We’re going to need help—and one hell of a plan.”
Caleb hated the idea of letting outsiders in on this operation. He might be a big, strong werewolf, but the thought of more people knowing that he and his teammates were supernaturals still scared him sometimes. And while he liked to believe he and his team could handle anything the bad guys threw at them, he knew McKay was right. This one was too big for them to take on alone. And the stakes were too high to risk failing.
Chapter 18
“I apologize for keeping everyone in the dark about this operation and how you’re involved in it,” McKay announced from where he stood in front of the group of people he’d assembled in the small New Jersey warehouse. “But as you’ll understand in a minute, it was necessary.”
Brielle glanced at the thirty or so people seated in rows of folding chairs set up around either side of her and Caleb. Other than Julian, Kiara, and the STAT team, she didn’t recognize anyone. From the dark suits and tactical gear the newcomers wore, it was obvious the men and women came from some type of law enforcement or military organization.
To say that Caleb and his teammates hadn’t been thrilled at the idea of bringing in outsiders to help take down Harrington was putting it mildly. But in the end, they’d realized there simply wasn’t any way around it. Based on what Kiara had told them about the drawings she’d seen, there could be as many as ten or fifteen miles of interconnected tunnels under the city—a rat’s maze beyond comparison. There were entrances scattered from east Jersey to Long Island. There was no way STAT could do this on their own even if they pulled in every field agent they had around the world.
Hence, the backup McKay had brought in.
“Before we start, I ask that you take a moment to look around the room at the people here with you,” McKay added quietly. “Seated in this warehouse are members of the CIA, NSA, FBI, and NYPD, as well as the organization that I represent. Few of you have ever met before, but I can promise you that if you’re still alive come morning, it will be because of the person sitting next to you.”