"That I have no idea, but if you'll open the upper desk drawer you'll see a copy of the file I just presented to the Prime Minister."
Remo reached into the drawer. He found a folder containing several typewritten pages. Remo skimmed them. "This says you have no idea what the weapon is or what's going on."
"Exactly."
"But that if it was bad for the U.S. it might be good for the UK. What's the UK?"
"We are. The United Kingdom."
"Oh," said Remo. "I thought we were allies."
"Up to a point."
"I see," Remo said, still holding the man's hand. "And you really, really aren't involved in this?"
"I should say not," Lord Guy Philliston said indignantly.
"I was told you were. Now, who would spread such a story about you?"
"Certainly you are joking." Remo looked at him seriously.
"Well, speaking as the head of the Source, the list of suspects is endless."
"Humor a confused tourist with a few examples."
"We could start with the Irish. Then there are the Soviets, the Chinese, the Lobynians."
"You just lost me there. Why would the Lobynians have a beef with you?"
"Perhaps you recall that incident with their embassy a few years ago. We caught some of the buggers from their staff carrying out assassinations against their nationals living in our country. Put a stop to it. But the embassy refused to give up their people. We barricaded the place and finally forced them to leave the country. Exposed the whole beastly show."
"Seems I heard about it."
"Their leader, Colonel Intifadah, has hated us ever since."
"That's the Middle East," Remo mused. "Hasn't anything to do with this."
"I'm glad you feel that way. Now, could you let go of my hand?"
"Oh, right. Sorry. Look, I think there's been a mistake made. I apologize."
"Could you leave now?"
"Sure. "
At the door, Remo paused and looked back. "One last thing."
"Yes?"
"Sorry about the pipe."
"Quite," said Lord Guy Philliston. He said it through his teeth. He wondered how he was going to explain this to the Prime Minister. On reflection, he decided not to. He would go to South America. If nothing turned up, he would at the very least come back with a tan.
Chapter 28
Hamid Al-Mudir was frantic. He ran around the control room like a man with the runs.
"We must get them undone," he cried. "Every man to the task. Colonel Intifadah will be here any moment." Everyone ran to the locomotives. They had arrived coupled end to end. No one knew how to uncouple them. One team of green-smocked workers got on one end and the other team took the ropes at the other. They pulled in opposite directions while Al-Mudir took a sledgehammer to the coupling.
"It is not working!" he screamed.
Behind the Plexiglas of the control booth, Pyotr Koldunov shrugged. He did not care. The longer it took, the more the project would be delayed. Maybe Colonel Intifadah would become so irate when he learned of this latest delay that he would have Al-Mudir executed. Koldunov smiled at the idea. He hated Al-Mudir almost as much as he had hated Al-Qaid.
Seeing the smile, Al-Mudir shook his fist at Koldunov and called him a lazy pig. Then he went to work again with the sledgehammer.
It was the first good news Pyotr Koldunov had had since he replaced the damaged rails after the third launch, which had pulverized part of New York City. When the replacement rails had come in, they were of a higher grade of metal than the others. Koldunov had insisted upon replacements of the same cheap grade of railroad steel. But somehow Colonel Intifadah had figured out that better steel would resist the electrical forces more easily. He said nothing, but wondered where Intifadah had located this excellent metal. Probably the same source from which he had acquired the carbon-carbon.
Colonel Intifadah arrived in his jeep. It careened down the underground tunnel to the launch area.
Al-Mudir dropped his sledgehammer on his foot in his haste to salute. He did not even wince.
"A problem, Al-Mudir?" Colonel Intifadah asked amiably.
"No, Brother Colonel!" Al-Mudir replied.
"Yes," corrected Pyotr Koldunov from the console mike. Colonel Intifadah lifted his brutish face.
"What is it?"
"They cannot uncouple the two locomotives. And the others are lined up on the tracks and cannot be moved." Colonel Intifadah looked over the joined locomotives.
"Launch them both," he instructed, lifting a triumphant fist.
The green-smocked workers burst into applause. They applauded the Leader of the Revolution as a brilliant man. "I doubt if it would work," Koldunov said hastily, disappointed that Al-Mudir was about to escape with his life.
"And why not?"
"The couplers may not stand the stress of launch."
"I see strong men unable to break it with heavy tools."
"But the Accelerator has been programmed for the exact tonnage of the first locomotive. I will have to redo all my calculations."
"Then redo."
"As you know, Colonel, these are difficult calculations. I must compute the proper coordinates in order to drop a projectile where you wish it to go."