James Katt's Arc

Chapter 7 of 7

James carried the case back to the helicopter. Telari kept her Beretta trained on the tree line until they were inside. He set the dossier on his knees and reached for the radio. He keyed it and heard nothing. No static. No hum. He tried a second channel. Dead. "The crash killed it," James said. He tapped the panel twice. The tracker screen still glowed, but the radio stayed silent. "Waverly can't hear us. We have no extraction orders." Telari leaned over the seat. "Then we're guessing. Which base? Which route? Thuldark's men could be closing in right now." She glanced back at the dark field. "We can't just sit here holding it." James looked at the case. The dossier was safe, but only for as long as they knew where to take it. Guess wrong, and they'd carry it straight into a THRUSH ambush. "We need Waverly's voice. What now?" Telari pulled a slim silver device from her jacket. It fit in her palm, no bigger than a music player. She thumbed the wheel on its face. "Ilya built me a link. It runs off its own signal, not the helicopter's." "Will it reach him?" "If Ilya's relay is up." She angled the little screen and typed with her thumb. "The radio's a shout. This is a whisper. Harder for THRUSH to catch too." James watched the screen. A line of text crawled across it, then stopped. Telari frowned and moved the device toward the windshield, hunting for a stronger signal. James held his breath. Outside, the fire in the wreck sank lower. The woods stayed still. The device buzzed once in her hand. A reply appeared. Telari read it aloud. "Waverly. He has us. He wants the dossier flown to a safe field. Ilya's sending coordinates now." She turned the screen so James could see the glowing numbers. James let out his breath. "He heard us." "He heard us." Telari's thumb moved again. Then her face changed. "There's more. Waverly says the dossier can't be cracked at the safe field. He needs Ilya's full lab to decrypt it." She looked up. "And Ilya's lab isn't there. It's back at UNCLE Hall." James sat with that. The radio was solved. They had a destination and orders again. But the field Waverly named was only a handoff, not the finish. The dossier still couldn't be read without carrying it further, deeper, past whatever Thuldark sent after them. He started the helicopter. The rotor bit the air. "Then the safe field is just the first stop." Telari buckled in and set the coordinates against the tracker display. "Thuldark knows we can't crack it alone. He'll bet on the second leg." "So will we." James lifted off the dark field. The wreck fell away below them. Ahead lay the safe field, and past it, the long run home with every UNCLE spy's name locked in the case at his side.