The Emperor's Revenge (Oregon Files 11)

It wasn’t like Max to blow him off. “What’s happening?”

“We’re in the middle of a fight with the Achilles.”

It’s just what Juan had feared. “Put Max on right now.”

“Aye, sir.” Another pause.

Max came on the line.

“You picked a doozy of a time to call, my friend.” Even though Max sounded calm, Juan could detect the strain of battle in his voice. “The Achilles has a railgun.”

“I know,” Juan said. “We found the engineering specs. Any damage to the Oregon?”

“Not yet. But they did a number on the Narwhal.”

“You have to get out of there if you can.”

“Too late for that. I’ve already fired two Exocets, and Golov swatted them out of the sky like they were gnats. We can’t tell how he’s doing it. He didn’t use missiles of his own, and there are no tracers from a Gatling gun.”

“He has a solid-state laser weapon system.”

Max whistled. “That explains it.”

“And don’t bother with torpedoes, either. The Achilles is equipped with mini-torpedoes that can intercept our heavy torpedoes.”

“Also too late. Sonar shows the two I launched exploding two thousand yards from the target. We’re pretty much screwed, aren’t we?”

Juan burst into Zakharin’s office.

“Maybe not,” he said, and grabbed the admiral by the lapel, dragging him to the desk. He threw the folder down and tossed his phone to Eddie. “Show me where the disarming code is.”

Gretchen closed the entrance to the passageway, and Linc stood by the office door.

“What? I don’t know what you’re—”

“Yes, you do. For every weapon you mount on these clients’ ships, you install hidden disarming codes into the software that can be received by a radio signal so these specially outfitted ships won’t be used against the Russian Navy. I know because we found the code you planted on the Oregon. Now, I’m sure you hid one in the Achilles software, too. Tell me where it is in this pile of papers.”

“I can’t . . .”

“I don’t have time to mess around with this.” Juan yanked the Colt Defender from Linc’s hand and pushed the barrel against Zakharin’s temple. “After you’re dead, they can come take me away. But either you tell me what the code is in the next ten seconds or I put a bullet in your brain.”

Zakharin sneered. “You’re bluffing.”

Juan cocked the hammer. “My ship is about to be sunk. If that happens, you’re a dead man . . . One!”

Zakharin began to nervously flip through the file.

“Two!”

“I can’t remember where—”

“Three!”

“Chairman,” Eddie said.

“Four! What?”

“Hali says they’re being fired upon.”