World Without End Read Online Free PDF Page A

foot in there without a properly encoded badge, the lab's alarm would sound and he'd be locked inside the lab."
    "Not unless he uses Dixon. He's the only one who can gain access to the lab and the suit without tripping the alarm system. If he kidnapped Dixon and, say, arranged a bomb scare or a fire something to get everyone out of the company then Dix could walk inside the lab and take the suit."
    "That's an interesting scenario."
    "We need to be prepared for the possibility."
    "We are prepared. Pasha's at the Austin airport right now with a surveillance team and two Hazard Teams. Two other teams will follow you and Dixon to the skydiving school, and we've got Randy Scott inside Praxis. And Dixon's wired. Everything the man says or does, no matter where he goes, the surveillance teams will have a lock on him and we'll be ready. For the scenario that you just described to happen, Angel Eyes would have to kill off every member of the IWAC group."
    "Maybe that's the plan the caller was referring to."
    Bouchard was about to say something when he saw the look on Conway's face.
    "You're serious," Bouchard said.
    "This guy… it's like he's made of vapor. He walks into an army base and somehow manages to disappear with a Blackhawk helicopter with the optical camouflage technology. We still don't know how the hell he pulled that off unless there's something I don't know."
    "We came in on that in the end, after the chopper was stolen. That one was strange, I'll give you that much, but this time, we're involved right from the beginning. Angel Eyes doesn't even know we're here."
    "That suit offers total invisibility. Wearing it, being invisible you would be a god. He could walk in and out of any company he wanted, steal whatever he wanted. Shit, the guy could walk straight into the White House and assassinate the President." Conway twirled his coffee cup on the desk, stopped, and then said, "A man would go to great lengths to have that kind of power."
    Bouchard propped his elbows up on the chair's arm, spread his fingers wide and then stared at his fingertips as he bounced them together.
    "You really believe the shit's going to hit the fan today."
    "The truth is we've studied what little intel we've got on this guy, and we're not any closer to discovering what makes him tick. He has an uncanny ability to stay off the radar screen. He reminds me of a bolt of lightning just pops out of the sky, strikes its target and then disappears."
    "Does Dixon's sudden need to go skydiving have anything to do with why you're spooked?"
    Late yesterday evening, Dixon called Conway at home and with a voice bursting with enthusiasm said that they were going skydiving first thing tomorrow morning. Conway, an experienced skydiver, had tried to talk him out of it, but Dix said no, he was going to do it with or without Conway.
    "You've got to admit, it's odd," Conway said.
    "Dix said he had to do it. Today."
    "So?"
    "So you don't know Dixon. This isn't his style. The guy suffers from panic attacks and he suddenly has the need to go skydiving? Come on.
    It doesn't fit."
    "You're suggesting that someone might have put him up to this."
    It was a possibility, sure, but highly unlikely. Dixon's life was monitored around the clock. Every phone call, e-mail, fax, therapy session everything that the man had said or did for the past two years had been recorded and analyzed. If someone had contacted Dixon, the IWAC team would have known and would have immediately reported it to Conway.
    That hadn't happened, of course. So why was that sick feeling still twisting inside his gut, telling him something was wrong?
    It's Psychology 101, my friend. You're afraid that what happened with Armand is going to be repeated today, so what are you trying to do?
    Control the outcome by minimizing the risks.
    "I'm saying it doesn't fit," Conway said.
    "I'll admit it's odd," Bouchard said.
    "But Dixon's an odd duck. I talked it over with Pasha. Everything checks out."
    In a flash,