Nighthawk (NUMA Files 14)

He crashed into her and wrapped his legs around her waist. She squirmed and twisted loose, then spun and managed to kick him in the shin.

With his momentum used up, they were now traveling at similar speeds. Considering that neither one of them wore a safety harness, her next move was wildly dangerous. She took one hand off of the T-bar and slashed at Kurt with the knife.

The first hack made a small cut on his arm, drawing blood. A second try missed and Kurt kicked the knife out of her hand before she could try again.

She was traveling backward now, fending him off with her feet. She didn’t see the end of the line coming and crashed onto the next platform with an ugly tumble.

Kurt hit as hard. The impact sent him sprawling, but he was on top of her before she could move. Holding her to the ground, he bent her arm up behind her back. “I don’t like to hurt women,” he said, “but I’ll break your arm if you don’t stop fighting.”

“Damn you,” she said. “I’ll kill you.”

“You had your chance,” he replied, upping the pressure.

She must have been incredibly limber because, even lying facedown, she managed to kick him in the back with her heel.

At that point, Kurt had had enough. He grabbed her by the hair and slammed her head forward, banging her face on the ground. She went limp, out cold.

Not trusting her to stay that way, he tied her up. By the time he was finished, Urco and Emma were sliding down the zip line toward him.

“You got her,” Emma said, undoing her harness.

“And the computer,” Kurt replied, opening the laptop to see if it had been damaged.

As the flashlights illuminated the woman, Kurt saw that she was Asian. Most likely, from mainland China.

“Looks like all three powers are now accounted for,” Emma said.

The computer screen lit up, the soft glow illuminating Kurt’s face, as the program resumed its calculations. He stared, watching as the lines on the map slowly converged to mark the Nighthawk’s final resting spot.

“No way!”

“What is it?” Emma asked.

He turned the computer around, displaying the map to Emma and Urco. A blinking pin marked the crash site.

“Lake of the Condors,” Emma said.

Urco’s eyes grew wide in the dark.

Kurt grinned at the irony. “Looks like you’re going to see what’s at the bottom of that lake sooner than we thought.”

33

It was too dangerous to move at night. The road to the lake was every bit as treacherous as the drive up from Cajamarca. The woman they’d captured insisted that others would come for her.

“She’s probably bluffing,” Kurt said. “But we’re far more vulnerable on an open road in the dark than here.”

Both Urco and Emma agreed. Instead of driving out, they stoked the fires around the camp and borrowed a page from the Chachapoya, taking to the high ground and pulling up all the ropes. If there were Chinese agents or assassins out there, they’d have to scale the mountains by hand to stage an assault.

“We’re not supposed to use these caves,” Urco told his volunteers, “but they belonged to your forefathers, so they should be yours, not the government’s.”

Kurt went higher, heading up to the tallest peak. Alone, he made a satellite call to Rudi Gunn, who had returned to Washington. He got the good news first: Joe and the Trouts had arrived in Cajamarca. Then came the bad.

“You were right,” Rudi said. “The NSA has been hiding something. And it’s big, even though it’s actually very small.”

Kurt listened as Rudi explained what Hiram and Priya had found. The explanation was detailed, highly technical and riddled with physics, but Kurt got the basics. “That’s worse than I thought.”

“Worse than any of us thought,” Rudi said. “Want us to send you more resources?”