The Devil's Triangle (A Brit in the FBI 4)

“She’ll be fine, her dad will be here in the morning. Another couple of days in the hospital and he’ll take her home.”

“I’ve had several calls from Zachery. Both he and I have seen how you shot up Saint Mark’s Square and made a big-time enemy of a higher-up in the Carabinieri.”

Nicholas laughed. “His name is Major Russo. We’re looking at his files, checking to see if he was really detained, or purposefully called off. Or called himself off. We’ll see.”

“Nicholas? Sherlock here. Your shoot-out at Saint Mark’s Square is all over the news. Unfortunately, yours and Mike’s names were given out, the Italian government raised a ruckus, and yes, I believe the vice president got involved. Dillon, tell them what she said to you.”

Savich said, “The vice president was still fired up when she called me. She spoke to the Italian president, currently, Giorgio Grasso, but she mentioned he probably wasn’t long for the office, which was sad because she rather liked him, said Grasso voiced all the proper apologies. She also said she trusted you and Mike implicitly and hoped you would save the world from destruction one more time. Do you have Kitsune?”

“Yes, she’s here, working with us.”

“Hmm,” said Sherlock. “We see she’s now wanted for murder in Venice.”

“She was set up,” Nicholas said. “If what’s going on is as serious as we believe, then Kitsune’s a heroine for alerting us.”

Savich said, “I hope you’re only fifty percent serious about possible world destruction.”

“It’s all very complicated, Savich, and to be honest, I’m still not sure, but we have an excellent lead now. I need a favor.”

“Tell me.”

“Can you program MAX to explore possible past ventures into controlling weather?”

“Yes. MAX will enjoy that.”

Adam came into the room, and Nicholas put the phone on speaker. “Hi, Agent Savich. Don’t have MAX go much earlier than the turn of the twentieth century.”

“Adam, glad to hear your voice. You’re still operating under the assumption the massive sandstorm in the Gobi was somehow engineered, and not a natural disaster?”

Adam said, “Yes, sir. We’ve already verified several storms hit nearly the same spot in the Gobi over the past decade.”

Nicholas picked it up. “None of us think nature could be so precise, and this feels very precise. So I got to thinking, has there been any work done along this line in the past that might have been used as a building block, that might give us some clues? Some understanding into how controlling the weather could actually be accomplished.

“And one other thing, Savich. If MAX could also have a hard look at those who made great profits from Hurricane Katrina. The oil companies, for example—the price of oil went through the roof. If someone knew about the severity of Katrina beforehand, shorted the stock, bought oil futures, they made millions.”

Savich whistled. “For argument’s sake, let’s say an

outside force can control the weather, that this outside force has built upon earlier work, and has managed to create disasters and reap the profits. Do you know who’re the most likely candidates?”

“The Genesis Group is at the top of our list, privately owned by the Kohath family. Both Adam and Gray are deep into their files as we speak.”

“There’s a lot more to this, isn’t there, Nicholas?”

“Yes. If you have two minutes, I’ll boil it down for you as best I can.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“It all goes back to the Ark of the Covenant and why Kitsune called me.” And Nicholas filled him in quickly on what had happened since they arrived in Venice.

When he finally came up for air, Savich said, “This is the stuff of nightmares.”

“Yes. The world would be scared if it knew.”

“All right, I’ll have MAX look into past efforts in weather control, the results, the protocols, as well as the big winners with Katrina, which I suppose you want me to try to connect up to huge profits for the Genesis Group.”

“Exactly. As fast as you can find something useful the better. Thank you, Savich.”

When Nicholas hung up, Adam said, “I’d sure like to get my hands on MAX. Yeah, yeah, like that would ever happen. I’ll keep searching.”