His eyes were wide open and he had a crazed look on his face. Gimbel didn’t say a word. He knew the general was around the bend at this point. Bullets struck the side of the building; Devin looked up for a second and then lowered the gun.
“Dr. Gimbel, would you please enter the coordinates.”
Gimbel looked at the paper and then decided he would enter them but he damn sure wasn’t going to give the code to activate the photon beam. He punched in the numbers on the key pad.
“They are in.”
“Thank you doctor,” Devin said.
He seemed calmer now. He didn’t even look at the guard lying on the floor holding his knee.
“Would you please get the BlackStar ready to fire? It will be coming up within range in less than five minutes.”
Gimbel started the sequence but it would still need his code to actually activate. Nothing Devin could do would make it emit the deadly stream of photons unless he entered the password. Devin was sitting down in the chair again, almost as if he were sedated. Gimbel shuddered at the thought of his crazy bastard in control of such a deadly weapon.
Miller said a quick prayer and closed the eyes of his team member.
“Are you ready, Ray? I don’t know how many we are going to find in there, but when we go in, you stay low and I’ll be high. Shoot anything that looks like a threat no matter how small. We can always say we’re sorry later.”
They both reloaded their weapons. Miller had switched back the H & K machine gun; the Desert Eagle wouldn’t do them any good in close quarters.
“I’m ready,” Raymond said.
“Now,” Miller shouted and yanked the door open.
Raymond squatted down and leaned forward on his knees with Miller directly above him. It was dark and the first thing either of them saw was the flash from Devin’s .45. It caught Miller in the right shoulder, ripping the machinegun from his hand and sending him spinning out the door on his back.
Raymond fired off three quick rounds and Devin returned the fire. Raymond realized that he was a perfect target silhouetted in the doorway with the light behind him. He lurched forward on his stomach. He started to crawl out of the doorway when a bullet tore into his bicep. The gun went sailing out of his hand and skittered across the floor.
Damn it, he thought. They had come so close. He couldn’t let that bastard win. He crawled forward and tried to reach for the gun but Devin was standing over him and shoved the gun out of his reach with the toe of his boot.
“Is that you Mr. Eller? You look like shit,” he said, stooping down, the gun pointed directly at the middle of Raymond’s face.
“You could stand a shave and you really should get your hair cut. You look very unprofessional,” he said, raking the barrel of the 1911 Colt .45 across Eller’s forehead.
Raymond didn’t say anything. He didn’t want to provoke him at this point.
“What’s the matter did they cut your tongue out too?”
“No general. The fingers were enough,” he said in a calm voice.
“I’m sorry about all of that, but it was necessary. I needed you out of the way and I didn’t want Washington to send a bunch yahoos out here looking around. Instead of just killing you, I made you disappear. Rather nice of me don’t you think?”
“Absolutely. You’re a considerate kind of guy.”
“Have you met Dr. Gimbel yet? Doctor Gimbel, meet the ghost of Raymond Eller.”
“We’ve met once before,” Gimbel replied.
“Ah, well. Now,” Devin said standing up, “I see we are only one minute from firing. If you don’t mind, start the final sequence Dr. Gimbel.”
“No general. I will not wipe out the entire Pentagon just so you can prove a point. You are crazy. Crazy. You have lost touch with reality.”
“You shouldn’t say things like that after all we have been through. Now I’ll have to do it myself.”
“You can’t. Only I know the code to fire the BlackStar. Anything else entered will cause it to self-destruct,” Gimbel said.
“Poor misguided Dr. Gimbel. Do you really think I would let you be the only person who could fire the BlackStar? I have known your password for months. Yes, I know about the embedded worm you put in to destroy the programming. You scientists think you're so much smarter than everyone else. I had camera surveillance on you constantly. Day and night.
I saw you enter the code, so you are of no real value any longer doctor. The .45 roared and flame shot out the end. Gimbel flew back and landed with a thud on the hard floor, starring into death’s face. The general glanced at the wall clock and walked to the control panel. He pushed in the digits of Gimbel’s code and placed his hand over the fire button. In ten seconds everyone inside the Pentagon would be dead and he would be the only one in the world who knew how. Then he would notify the President that he was in charge and would make the military decisions from this point on.
