Heiser-The-Facade - Sparkling Eyes

"Melissa," he said, kneeling by the couch, "surely in light of your field you recallthe major concern the world had over the breakup of the Soviet Union.""Of course. Everyone was afraid of what would happen to their nuclear arsenal. Itwas expected that their nuclear technology would be available to the highest bidder.""Correct," he replied, fingering the case's combination lock. "Which groups wereour greatest concern?""Terroristsmostly Middle Eastern lunatics like Saddam orQaddafi.""Correct again.""But would any of the former Soviet republics have sold any nuclear weapons topeople like that?" Brian asked, wondering where Andrew was headed with hisquestioning."They may not have had to," Melissa smirked. "The republics lost enough of theirnuclear arsenal to destroy the planet; hundreds of bombs and missiles were just `missing'when they took inventory. Talk about incompetence.""You're kidding.""No, I'm not," she affirmed. "In fact, they misplaced over one hundred nuclearbombs that could fit into something the size of ..." she caught herself Brian read herthoughts instantly."A briefcase?" Andrew finished her sentence, popping open the lid. "You neverknow where one of those things might turn up, now do you?"Brian and Melissa stood in entranced horror above the weapon of massdestruction. To their amazed chagrin, Andrew ex-pertly flipped the switches, punched anextended code on the fixed keypad, and zeroed the timer."Not much more difficult than one of those confounded VCRs! Now how long dowe think it should take to get off the base and to Las Vegas?" he asked."I don't like the way this is shaping up, Brian.""I'm sure he's not going to blow us all up . . . right . . . ?" "Not unless the Colonelwants to die as well, or have his little anti-gravitic squadron obliterated.""What a relief," Melissa deadpanned."I'll give us, oh, say . . . two hours. Synchronize your watches. Here," he handedMelissa a small device that resembled a handheld calculator, except it had only threebuttons."What's this?""The remote detonator. It will stop the timer or detonate the device prematurely.The bomb stays here in your room, back under the bed; Melissa will carry the remote. Todetonate the bomb you need to push the first two buttons in order and then release themsimultaneously. The device routes the commands through a satellite and then to a beaconon this base, so we could detonate it from anywhere—that was Malcolm's idea. The thirdbutton will cancel this action—prior to release, of course. If we're engaged by anyone,especially the Colonel, you must tell him that the major gave you the device andinstructed you in its use. He is to let us go unfollowed to our destination. Once there we'llphone him with the location of the bomb so he can defuse it. He'll believe you since theGroup is in possession of several of these briefcase nukes. You're using me as a shield toavoid having to use the bomb. Understood?"Melissa nodded."Are we ready?" Andrew asked, looking them both in the eye. "Once you pass318