The Emperor's Revenge (Oregon Files 11)

Golov slammed his hand on the chair. He wasn’t going to give up when he was so close to completing the operation. Not when Ivana was about to fulfill her part.

But he couldn’t fire on the transformer station until she had deactivated the circuit breakers. If he destroyed it early, the cascade effect on the electrical grid wouldn’t work. It had to happen after she had uploaded her software.

While Golov was contemplating his options, the helicopter took off. As he watched it swoop away toward the island, he locked his gaze on the cruise ship behind it in the distance.

“Since you launched an attack chopper,” Cabrillo said, “I’m going to interpret your stunned silence as a big fat no to surrendering. Linda, fire two. Bye, Golov.”

“Wait,” Golov said into the phone.

“Too late. Missile’s away.”

“Don’t you want to hear my counterproposal?” As he was talking, he pointed at the immense white cruise ship ten miles off their port bow and motioned for the helmsman to bring the Achilles around. Maybe the railgun couldn’t turn, but the yacht could.

Cabrillo laughed. “Counterproposal? You’re joking, right?”

“Missile incoming!” the panicked radar operator shouted. “Twenty seconds to impact!”

“In ten seconds, I’m going to start firing on that cruise ship,” Golov said to Cabrillo with no bluff in his caustic delivery of the line. “And if you don’t kill me with this next missile, I’m going to keep firing until all five thousand people on that ship are dead.”

—

Juan and the rest of the crew inside the op center watched as the Achilles slewed around until the barrel of the railgun was pointed at the cruise ship. He knew Golov would fire. He could only imagine the dev

astation that the railgun’s round would cause if it struck a crowded part of the passenger decks.

He didn’t have time to think about it further. The missile was too close to the Achilles.

“Abort the missile,” he told Linda.

“Aborting, aye,” she replied, and the Exocet detonated halfway to the target.

“All right, Golov. Looks like we’ve got ourselves a Mexican standoff.”

“That’s just the way it seems,” Golov said. “Don’t bother trying to warn the cruise ship. We’re monitoring the same radio frequencies they are.”

“We’ll pull back,” Juan said.

“Not good enough. As soon as that ship is out of range, I’ll be at your mercy again.”

“Then what’s your counterproposal?”

“Bring your ship out of hiding. I want it right next to the Achilles.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re the one who’s going to surrender. I estimate the cruise ship will be in range for another fifteen minutes. You have ten minutes to bring the Oregon to me.”

Juan signaled Hali with the finger-across-the-throat gesture so that he’d mute the call. Hali nodded that they were clear.

Max erupted. “We can’t surrender to that madman!”

“Golov won’t hesitate to blow that ship apart,” Gretchen said. “Since he thinks he can still win, prison isn’t an option for him, or anyone else on the Achilles. He has nothing to lose.”

“I’m not inclined to give up any more easily than he is,” Juan said. “Is there any other way to take his railgun out?”

Max shook his head. “Not before he could get off three or four shots. Even a ship as big as that one might not be able to survive that kind of barrage.”

“Anyone else have an idea of how to take the gun out?”