“I’ll hold you to it. But I don’t figure we’re talking full range, okay? I’m working on narrowing it. Working on a program to narrow it down, given the angles, speed, and so on.”
“I’ve narrowed it down. I’ve got a program.”
“The one we’ve used isn’t—”
“I’ve got a new program.”
He stopped waving her away, scowled at her instead. “What program?”
“Peabody.”
“I’ve got it here on my PPC. And now,” she said, after a few commands, “it’s on your unit.”
He ran it through once, hunched forward. Ran it through a second time. “Where’d you get this? NSA?”
“Roarke.”
“Huh. How long’s he had people working on this?”
“Just Roarke, last night.”
He swung around on his stool. “You bullshitting me?”
“What for? I got three dead people, for God’s sake.”
“This is fricking genius.” Running it yet again, Berenski rubbed the back of his neck. “I can see it could use a little fine-tuning.”
“Don’t mess with it.”
“I ain’t going to mess with it, I’m saying if he or his people fine-tuned it, he could sell it for . . . Guess he doesn’t need to.”
“It’s not about need,” she muttered.
“You show this to Lowenbaum?”
“I sent it to him, but it was late last night. He may not have seen it yet.”
“When he does, he’s going to say same as me. You got as close to accurate as you’re going to. See here, he calculated the wind variance at the time of the strikes, temperature, humidity, the angle of the strikes, the time between, the elevation, the sight line. It’s all here. You’re going to be humping for weeks clearing these buildings, but you’ve got a solid direction.”
“Take out mid- to high-level security buildings.” Eve glanced at Peabody again.
“Can I?” Without waiting, Peabody leaned over the counter, took the program to the next phase.
“Sweet. Yeah, yeah, hard to get that kind of weapon through security.”
“For now, eliminate multi-person offices, residences with families.”
He nodded as more buildings faded. “Okay. If he didn’t use a suppressor, you’re going to find somebody who heard three high-pitched discharges. Have you ever heard a laser rifle?”
“I’ve fired one.”
“Then you know. If he did use one, that would cut the range a bit, but nobody heard anything. It’s going to depend how he wanted to go, that’s all. You’re sure as hell after somebody who knew what they were doing. That’s skill, Dallas. Serious skill. That last strike? That wasn’t only skill. That was fucking cocky.”
Though it pained her a little to agree with Dickhead, Eve had thought the same. “Cocky gets sloppy.”
“Maybe.”
“Work with the program, and if you can eliminate any more areas, I need to know.”