Death Minus Zero

STONY MAN

When innocence is under attack, the Stony Man teams are primed to hit the battlefield. Operating under the President’s orders, the world’s best black ops warriors and cyber techs are willing to pay the ultimate price to uphold freedom.

LAST DEFENSE

Washington goes on full alert when Chinese operatives kidnap the creator of a vital US defense system, a top secret orbiting platform. Tracking the missing scientist to the Swiss Alps, Phoenix Force has to rescue the captive before torture forces him to give up the platform’s secrets—putting millions of lives at risk. While Phoenix Force is overseas, Able Team uncovers a plot to take over the system’s mission control facility. Both teams are outnumbered and outgunned, but they’ll do whatever it takes to stop America’s enemies from holding the entire country hostage.

“HAVE YOU MANAGED TO TRACK THE CAR?”

“Yes,” Tokaido said.

He showed a montage of the suspect vehicle picked up by various traffic cams. After a few miles it turned onto a wide parking lot adjacent to a truck stop. The monitor showed the vehicle swing around and vanish from sight behind lined-up rigs and road trailers.

“Great,” Brognola snapped.

“Not over yet,” Tokaido said.

The view of the truck stop continued for a long few minutes before the suspect car came back into sight. Passing traffic forced it to wait before it swung right and drove away.

Brognola sighed. “So they stopped for a few minutes to use the toilet. Maybe pick up some coffee.”

Kurtzman chuckled. “He doesn’t see it.”

“See what?”

Tokaido zoomed in on the image of the car waiting to merge into traffic.

There had been five men in the car when it arrived, but there were only four when it departed. Only two passengers in the rear instead of three.

“They lost one,” Brognola said. “Son of a bitch.”

Death Minus Zero

Don Pendleton

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Title Page

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

CHAPTER THIRTY

EPILOGUE

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

Virginia

As he did every morning, Saul Kaplan stepped out of his town house and approached the waiting car. As he also did every day, he dropped his briefcase on the seat, climbed inside and took his place in the vehicle. The driver, a uniformed US Air Force sergeant, waited until Kaplan was settled. He glanced in the rearview mirror.

“Morning, Doc,” Sergeant Steven Kessler greeted Kaplan.

“Good day, Steven. I think it is going to be a pleasant day.”

“You sit back and enjoy the ride, Doc.”

Kaplan smiled at the title he had been awarded by those he worked with. In truth Saul Kaplan was neither a professor nor a doctor, though he had been granted honorary degrees as he’d risen through the levels. But he barely recognized them and refused to use the titles; he recognized his skills in his chosen profession and was happy simply to develop his craft, seeing no advantage to having paper titles. Kaplan saw no need for aggrandizement. He was simply Saul Kaplan. That was enough for him. He was at the top of his game.

Kaplan was the man who had created and designed the Zero Platform and the human technology that went with it. It was through his determination and drive that the orbiting satellite had been approved and built. His sheer persistence had pushed Zero through the seemingly insurmountable barriers initially placed in his way. The US Air Force, the branch of the American defense services that had taken on Zero, held Kaplan in great esteem. His creation had already proved itself, and Kaplan’s dream had stepped away from being a flight of fancy to become a solid reality that was continuing to prove itself in more ways than even Kaplan might have envisaged. “Doc” was simply something people called him out of respect for his skill and dedication to the work he did and Kaplan accepted it in the spirit it was given.

The Zero Platform was an orbiting defensive-offensive machine providing observation and analysis, though it also carried an array of weaponry capable of offering destructive potential. Currently that ordnance comprised powerful long-and short-range explosive-warhead missiles that could be used in an aggressive manner if the United States so decided. Weapons planned for future use—laser and particle beam—were still under development, though the complexities of putting them into action was proving frustrating, especially for Saul Kaplan. He was still working out the mechanics of the weapons. His expertise was being tested to the limit as he and the Air Force techs at Zero Command spent their days wrestling with the math and the applications of the weapons. Kaplan was confident they would succeed. The Air Force, always wanting everything by tomorrow, had been forced to step back and allow Kaplan his space.

During Zero’s early days the USAF had made it difficult for him, and Kaplan had walked away. His return to a full-time commitment to the Zero Project had come after an attempted takeover by rogue elements in the US and an aborted attempt by the Chinese to destroy the project. Kaplan had, in the end, come back to the fold after he had deliberated the point of his involvement with the man he knew as Matt Cooper. It had been Cooper, drawn into the affair, who’d convinced Kaplan that America would be better off having Zero and making sure it was the best. Cooper had also made the point that Doug Buchanan, the human part of Zero, had committed himself to the project and the two men needed each other. Kaplan had capitulated and had returned to the Zero group, determined to carry on his work.

Zero held state-of-the-art communication equipment and was also able to produce pinpoint, bird’s-eye views of the Earth. America did not publicly announce Zero’s existence and most of the nation had no idea that it was orbiting the Earth, monitoring and watching. It had, by nature, been identified, but only as an orbiting information platform. Its full operating capability had not been released. The platform served its purpose and the Air Force considered it one of their most important assets. Unfortunately, Zero’s secrets had been discovered by elements within the upper echelons of the People’s Republic of China, which had long harbored a desire to wrest Zero from the Americans.

* * *

ZERO’S ATTRIBUTES WERE controlled through a unique partnership between Zero, the machine, and Air Force Major Doug Buchanan, the human element within Zero. The uniqueness was in the coupling of man and machine via Kaplan’s genius—more specifically, his creation of the biocouch that fused Zero with Buchanan.

The implants within Buchanan’s cancer-ridden body allowed the man to resist his illness; the coupling kept the cancer under control while generating the symbiosis of man and machine. The biocouch constantly fed him with controlling drugs that held his cancer at bay and with regenerating elements that kept him alive and well.

Since the initial connection Zero and Buchanan had successfully operated the platform, and with each passing year the partnership had grown and proved itself on a number of occasions. Kaplan had labored ceaselessly to improve the setup, making adjustments to Zero’s electronic systems as well as working on ways to reduce the advance of cancerous cells within Buchanan’s system.

While Zero Command’s medical team monitored Buchanan’s physical well-being, Air Force psychologists watched over his mental health. Their counseling sessions found that Buchanan was handling that part of his health far better than they could have expected. They were unable to find any undue stress. No deep-rooted psychological problems. Doug Buchanan passed their probing analysis with ease, leaving them with little to do in that area.

The Crown Victoria eased away from the curb and merged with the light traffic. It was barely 7:30 a.m., the day bright and holding a sharp chill in the air. The forty-minute drive to the facility would take them out of the city and through the countryside. The drive to the Zero Command Center was something Kaplan enjoyed. A relaxing start to the day, allowing him time to gather his thoughts for what lay ahead.

The route they traveled was one of three that could be chosen. Kaplan knew alternate runs were not announced and were picked randomly just before each journey. There had been no problems with the routing since the creation of Zero Command. Sometimes, though, he wondered if the lack of anything but uniformity would lead to complacency.

The Crown Victoria cruised steadily, maintaining a smooth ride along the quiet back road. The single-lane blacktop was bordered by trees and a wide grass verge on each side. It was a pleasant run along a peaceful scene.

Until a car sped into view, swinging in close and causing Kessler to swerve to avoid a collision. The pressing closeness of the vehicle forced him to run off the road and across the grass, narrowly missing the close-standing trees. Kessler stood on the brakes, bringing the Vic to stop. Something about the intimidating presence of the other car alerted Kaplan that something was not right.

“Doc, stay in the car,” Kessler said. “Let me check this out.”

Kessler pushed open his door as he reached to open the glove box where he kept his service automatic.

As fast as he was, Kessler failed to stay ahead of the moment. Kaplan saw the passenger door being yanked open behind his driver, and a dark shape leaned in. Kessler stood no chance. The hand extended toward him held an automatic pistol. The weapon fired a single shot, sending a slug into the back of Kessler’s head. He toppled forward, half out the open door.

Before Kaplan could react, his rear door was pulled open. A stunning shock engulfed Kaplan’s body. His whole body went into a violent series of spasms. He fell back across the seat, body arching in reaction to the paralyzing agony that swept over him. He was barely aware of the hands reaching in to pull him out of the car. Or of the sharp jab of a needle into his neck. The powerful sedative worked quickly and Kaplan lost all conscious thought and feeling...

* * *

WHEN THE VEHICLE failed to arrive as expected, an alert was initiated. Although fitted with a tracking device, no sign of the Air Force car could be found. Electronic searches detected nothing; the tracking device was not working. Search vehicles were sent out from the Zero Command Center. They followed each route, in reverse, but found no sign of the vehicle until almost two hours after it had disappeared.

Just after 9:40 a.m., a member of the public spotted the abandoned car and contacted the local police. It was in a stand of trees off the single-lane rural road that made up one of the routes. Once the Air Force designation on the vehicle was seen, the AF was informed and the car checked out. It was quickly identified as the missing vehicle that had been transporting Saul Kaplan.

Air Force Sergeant Steven Kessler’s body lay half out of his driver’s seat, the door open. He had been shot in the head. A single bullet, later identified as a 9 mm, had been fired into the back of his skull.

The rear door of the car was open, as well. Saul Kaplan was missing. As was the briefcase that he always carried with him.

* * *

AGENT CLAIRE VALENS had been on the security team assigned to the Zero Project at the time there had been an attempt to sabotage it in its early existence. She had seen her partner, Jackson Byrd, killed in front of her eyes during that incident. She had been actively involved in Zero security ever since, over the years moving up the promotion ladder and now heading the Zero security team that worked alongside the Air Force at Zero Command. She knew Saul Kaplan well, having forged a good working relationship with the man, and on hearing he had vanished she put herself on standby. Valens, along with her partner, Larry Brandon, drove out from the Zero Command Center and headed for the location.

Valens was already getting a feeling of déjà vu. Since the first attempt at disrupting Zero, the sensation of something similar happening had stayed in Valens’s memory. It had fueled her desire to make certain the project was never compromised again. Up until now her fears had been nothing more than shadows—but the possibility of Saul Kaplan having been kidnapped was starting to raise those shadows. Valens found the resurgence of memories unsettling.

Agent Brandon drove fast but safely. He was a couple of years younger than Valens, in his early thirties. He was a good partner and Valens counted herself lucky to have him siding her. He knew all there was to know about the original incident and understood how it drove Valens to maintain tight security around the Zero Command Center. The last thing he would ever do was to remind her of what had happened before. He didn’t need to, because he was aware how Valens reminded herself on a regular basis.

“I can’t believe this is happening again,” Valens said.

“Is it the same?”

“Saul is missing. Work it out, Larry. The car didn’t crash. It was stopped. Steve Kessler took a bullet in the head and Saul Kaplan is missing.”

“So, who?”

“The original conspirators were all dealt with,” Valens said. “At home the threat vanished but...”

“The Chinese?”

“I don’t believe they’ve forgotten about Zero. The Chinese are good at playing the long game. Watching and waiting. They’ll know that Zero performs as it was designed to. And as long as it does, it presents them with a perceived threat. Let’s face it—what country wouldn’t like a piece of hardware like Zero? It would be a hell of a prize.”

“It’s not like they can just walk in and take over,” Brandon said. “Zero is an orbiting platform in space.”

“Saul Kaplan is not in space. And taking him would be something the Chinese could go for. And maybe even a hit against Zero Command. Cripple the nerve center. Do that and if they can gain control of Zero...” Valens shook her head. “Larry, do I sound like some gibbering conspiracy nut? Because that’s what I’m feeling like. Right now I’m having a nightmare in broad daylight.”

“After what happened last time, I couldn’t blame you.”

Brandon swung the car off the narrow road onto the side strip and pulled in beside a local police cruiser. The area was busy with cruisers and Air Force vehicles. Crime scene tape was strung out from tree to tree, and a collection of police and military personnel milled around.

“Great,” Brandon said. “The circus is in full swing.”

Valens had her ID out as she climbed from the car, clipping it to her belt.

“Agent Valens.”

Valens saw a broad-shouldered man approaching. He was average height, in his mid-forties, his receding hair peppered with gray. He was a local cop named Jerry Zeigler. He and Valens had met before. He wasn’t deliberately obstructive but harbored a slightly abrasive attitude toward the agencies that stepped in and took over, pushing the local PD aside. He didn’t take too kindly when it happened, so Valens tried to maintain a professional presence whenever she met Zeigler.

“Detective,” she said, offering her hand, which Zeigler took.

Zeigler glanced at Brandon. “You brought your backup, I see.”

Valens smiled. “Agent Brandon is my partner. And, yes, he has my back.”

A thin smile curled Zeigler’s lips. “I’ll refrain from making any inappropriate comments on that,” he said.

“What can you tell us?” Valens said. “Seeing as you’ve been here a while.”

“Only because the original call was made to us. But there’s not much more than you can see. One of your vehicles. Uniformed Air Force man shot dead. I was informed by your people there was a passenger. He’s missing. A preliminary search hasn’t turned up anything, so I guess the passenger has been removed from the area.”

Valens checked out the place. A spot off the road where trees and foliage helped to mask the site. A smooth operation could have been mounted and completed quickly on the quiet stretch before anyone was aware.

“They chose a good spot. Away from the main highway. Pretty quiet. Whoever it was, they were well prepared. All nicely worked out. Must have worked fast.”

Brandon had gone to talk to the investigative team near the Crown Victoria. Valens saw him check inside the car before he returned to where she was standing.

“It’s Steve Kessler,” he said. “Bullet to the back of his head. No sign of any struggle in the back.”

“Passenger some kind of VIP?” Zeigler asked.

“Yes,” Valens answered.

“That it?”

“I’m not at liberty to give out that information. Sorry.”

“Oh, I know,” Zeigler said. “Classified, huh?”

“If I was able, I’d tell you, Detective Zeigler...”

“It’s Jerry.”

“If I was able, I’d tell you, Jerry...”

Zeigler glanced at Brandon. “Is she always this hard-nosed?”

“Actually, you’ve caught her on a good day,” Brandon said. “No fingers missing, are there?”

“I can believe she bites if provoked.”

Valens’s cell rang. She moved away to answer it, knowing it was Zero Command by the caller ID on the screen.

* * *

“FROM ALL THE bodies here,” Zeigler said, “I figure you people have a lot to deal with.”

“Nothing gets by you, Detective Zeigler,” Brandon said.

Zeigler grinned. “So smart, so young, so full of bullshit. Nothing you can tell me. Yeah, I know.”

Valens rejoined them.

“If anything comes up that I can tell you,” she said, “I will pass it on, Jerry. Right now I have a missing VIP and it’s my job to get him back. You have problems with that, you can talk to Colonel Corrigan at the base. Best I can do.”

Zeigler felt the frustration rising as he eyed Valens. She didn’t lose a beat and the cop knew she wouldn’t give anything away even if they stood there all day.

Goddamn it, he thought, all this need-to-know crap is killing me.

He let out the breath he’d been holding and managed a strained smile.

“Okay, Agent Valens, you win. Just remember I’m not one of the bad guys. Just doing—trying to do my job.” He turned and made his way to where his police cruiser sat waiting.

* * *

“I DON’T ENJOY freezing the local cops out,” Valens said. “Zeigler has it right. He just wants to do what he’s paid for. And all we do is put up a solid wall and stall him.”

“Your call? Anything important I should know about?”

“That was Colonel Corrigan on the phone. It appears we have a specialist team joining us back at base,” Valens said.

She noted Brandon’s frown. “What specialists?”

“An undercover group—and that’s all you need to know—from the covert agency involved when the original Zero problem occurred. Larry, we need all the help we can get on this. I don’t have any problem accepting that.”

“If you say so. You are the boss.”

“Yes, I am,” Valens said. “So no sulking over this.”

“Moi? Sulk? And here I thought you knew me better than that, Agent Valens.”

“I know you hate bullshit as much as I do. I prefer having stuff out in the open but we have to follow the ground rules. So let’s wind it up and get back to base. I don’t think we’ll be any use here any longer. Let the investigative team do their thing. Something tells me they’re not going to find anything.”

“Yeah. Hey, these covert operators don’t all wear tights and masks and fly around in invisible planes, by any chance?”

“Sometimes I wish we had some of those guys,” Valens said. “Might make our job a damn sight easier.”

“I wouldn’t look good in tights,” Brandon retorted. “You, on the other hand...”

“Do not go there, Larry.”

Walking ahead, Brandon grinned like a schoolboy.

* * *

BACK IN THE CAR, Brandon took the wheel while Valens made a call to their department chief. Brandon was not deliberately listening but couldn’t help picking up the reference she made to a Jui Kai. All Brandon knew about the young Chinese woman was that she was on a long-term undercover assignment in China. Valens took occasional messages from their chief but said little to him about it. Brandon, understanding she was not prepared to discuss the matter, didn’t question her.

Claire Valens was a determined woman with strong opinions about her work, and she held unshakable feelings, most notably the one that resurfaced every so often; Valens was convinced, as she had been for a long time, that the Chinese hadnot forgotten about Zero. It was as close to a conspiracy theory as any belief Valens held. It seemed to be there in the background, a vaporous image that Valens could not—perhaps would not— shake off. And the fact Jui Kai was working the China beat backed up Valens’s suspicions. Her assignment at Zero Command occupied her day-to-day business and this out-of-left-field move and the disappearance of Saul Kaplan would have been a blow to her pride. It would only strengthen her resolve to stay with her theory.

Familiarity with the situation may have been partly to blame, even though Valens would take it badly. The protocols in place had been working well. Kaplan was delivered to the AF base and returned home each evening— unless some urgent matter arose with Zero. It had become the norm. Perhaps too much so. The delivery of Kaplan to the base, a routine that had been smooth and undisturbed, had become an accepted ritual. The route changed daily, allowing for some flexibility, and operated with clockwork efficiency. Valens was charged with on-base security, the Air Force with the actual fetching and carrying of the man who was responsible for the oversight of the Zero Platform’s daily routines.

Over the preceding months, the ongoing routine never varied. Kaplan in. Work done. Kaplan home. A hard routine. It was as set as the ticking of a clock. Checks were made on timing and routes. The Air Force maintained a tight schedule for the daily trip—which was the reason Kaplan’s absence was picked up so soon after the event.

Even so, Kaplan was gone.

Where, no one knew.

The why was a little easier to work out.

The man carried knowledge of the operation and the know-how about Zero.

The platform was up and running, monitored day and night.

Kaplan’s imaginative dream had become a working reality, giving America a unique piece of hardware.

Everyone at Zero Command would know with all certainty why Kaplan had been taken.

A deliberate attempt at gaining a hold over Zero’s creator and possibly an outright and hostile try for the platform itself.

That seemed to have been the easy part.

The hard part—getting him back alive and well—was something else.

* * *

WHOEVER WAS BEHIND the kidnapping had upfront knowledge. The AF vehicle had been fitted with a tracking device that had gone off-line. And Kaplan himself had an implanted signal tracker that was supposed to show his whereabouts. It was not transmitting, either. The snatch had been well planned. The disabling of the trackers only highlighted how well organized the kidnappers had been.

Claire Valens took note of these items. It concerned her that somewhere, someone had gained such knowledge and used it against Zero.

She was unable to stop wondering what came next.

Valens felt her thoughts turning toward Major Doug Buchanan, the man who controlled Zero’s 24/7 functions through his command position. Buchanan would not be happy when he learned about Kaplan’s kidnapping. Buchanan had an abiding faith in the man. There was more than the simple dependency that Buchanan had with Kaplan. He had become so tied in with Zero’s creator the bond was as strong as Buchanan’s with his biocouch. Maybe even stronger.

Buchanan, for all his characteristic strength, depended on Saul Kaplan as a son with a father. It had become far more than their working relationship. Buchanan owed his continuing existence to Kaplan’s genius, to the superior intellect that had devised and overseen the electronic wonder of the Zero Platform. It had been Buchanan’s salvation, drawing him back from a certain, painful death and allowing him the opportunity to carry on doing what he loved—working for his country. Offering back something for the debt he would never be able to pay completely.

Doug Buchanan knew and accepted that he was as much a part of Zero now as one of the circuit boards. An integral part of the complex machine Kaplan had envisaged and seen through to completion, Buchanan knew his life was with Zero. The ravaging cancer that had started him on the countdown to the end of his life was held at bay by the bioimplants that fed his body on a continuous basis, holding the cancerous cells at bay and maintaining his existence.

Buchanan had only asked Kaplan once how it worked. Kaplan’s explanation had lost him within the first couple of minutes and Buchanan had asked him to stop. Buchanan decided the only thing he needed to know was that the process worked. As long as he remained on his biocouch, linked to the system via the implants in his body, he would survive. The question as to how long never came up. To have been given even a short extension to his life was enough. The fact that it allowed him to function in his capacity as an Air Force officer, defending his country, was reward enough.

The multiple functions of Zero, as a defensive as well as an offensive weapon, presented Buchanan with day-to-day operational involvement. His routines were mapped out for him by the electronic machine that surrounded and sustained him. Buchanan monitored and collated information, passed it back to Zero Command and took his orders from the base.

Learning that his mentor had been spirited away would not be welcome news to Buchanan. He would utilize Zero’s functions to search for him, and Doug Buchanan’s unflagging spirit would not back away from that task.

If there was a chance to locate Kaplan, Valens thought, Buchanan would do his best to find it.