Shadow Tyrants (Oregon Files 13)

“No,” Carlton said. “But I do have a mole inside his satellite launch operation. That’s how I was able to destroy the rocket.”

“A mole?” Gupta asked. “Why would you go to that trouble?”

“For months now, I’ve been annoyed by the minor setbacks in the Colossus program. Faulty programming, production hiccups, delayed schedules. Nothing that would be noticeable as outright sabotage, but when added together, all of these small problems pointed to a delaying tactic. Someone has been slowing down our progress.”

“Why haven’t you brought this before the entire Nine?”

“Because I didn’t know who to trust. Any one of you could have been behind it.”

“How do you know these aren’t just the normal types of problems you find with any large engineering project?”

“Because I asked Colossus. According to its calculations, there is a ninety-six percent probability that all of these small problems are being caused deliberately.”

Gupta’s eyes went wide. “That’s incredible!”

“You can ask them yourself. You’ll get the same answer.”

“I will when we’re done here. It said that Mallik is the culprit?”

“No, it couldn’t know that. I couldn’t be sure until the attack on the Colossus 5. When that happened, I knew I was right and that I had to take action to deliver Mallik his own setback.”

“But that still doesn’t prove he’s responsible,” Gupta protested.

“This does,” Carlton said.

He took a remote control from his pocket and cued the video.

The soundless image showed the Colossus 5 in the background, lit up at night, docked in the Moretti Navi shipyard, which was owned by Daniel Saidon, a member of the Nine. A still-standing crane was in the foreground, and a man was coming down the stairs. His face wasn’t clear from this distance. When he reached the bottom, he was confronted by two dockworkers, who were animatedly talking to him. Suddenly, one of them ran up the crane’s stairs while the other two men continued to talk.

Moments later, there was a flash, and the crane toppled over onto the Colossus 5. Then the dockworker who’d confronted the stranger collapsed to the ground. The man turned and put a gun back under his uniform. He looked around and walked out of view.

The image then cut to a different camera. This was another static view of the ship. Men were running in the background and waving their arms. Then the view was obscured for just a second as someone walked past the camera.

“Remarkably, this was the only clear view we got of the saboteur,” Carlton said.

He reversed the video and hit pause when the man was in front of the camera. His face was blurry but recognizable.

Gupta leaned forward and stared at the screen in astonishment. “That’s Asad Torkan.” He turned to Carlton. “How did you get this? Were you expecting the attack on the ship?”

“It seemed to be a logical step if we were about to launch the Colossus 5 and Mallik wanted to prevent that from happening before he completed his satellite network. Without telling Saidon, I arranged to download all of the camera feeds from his shipyard in Naples.”

“You spied on Daniel Saidon’s own facility?”

“As I said, I didn’t know who to trust. But it turned out to be Romir Mallik’s man. I think the proof I did collect is clear enough.”

“You’ve got me convinced,” Gupta said, rubbing his temples. “What a mess! Torkan was the one who saved Wakefield yesterday.”

“A clever setup, I’m sure,” Carlton said with a smile, pleased that Gupta agreed the evidence was incriminating. “No doubt to cast suspicion away from him and onto one of us.”

“We’ve got to tell the others.”

“We will. At the meeting. But that’s n

ot enough. We have to shut down Mallik’s satellite ambitions.”

“What is the satellite network for?” Gupta asked. “Why is it so important?”

“I believe it’s something that could destroy the Colossus Project, but my mole couldn’t confirm its capabilities. In fact, I’ve lost contact with him. The last message he sent me was that another satellite will soon be ready to launch in place of the one I had destroyed.”