Countdown by Heather Woodhaven Read Free Book Online

alerts to someone—I don’t know who—on the status of radioactive material.”
    Her mauve-tinted mouth dropped open. “Radioactive? Is that normal?”
    James studied the thin carpet underneath his sneakers. How much detail should he go into? “For this launch, the radioactive part isn’t normal. I had a hunch about what it could mean, though. Do you know what an EMP, an electronic magnetic pulse weapon, is?”
    She cocked her head. “Something that could knock out our power?”
    â€œAt a rudimentary level.”
    Rachel darted a glance at the boys. Her frown was so intense her eyebrows almost touched her thick lashes. “You think you found that?”
    â€œThe process indicates something radioactive hiding within the satellite, something not on any of the schematics.” He blew out a breath. “The launch had been approved. All the necessary permits gathered. The air force even had to certify it beforehand, and it passed with flying colors. There are government officials on site to oversee things, which made me wonder who I could trust.”
    â€œThat’s why you contacted the NSA?”
    â€œA friend of mine, yes. He got back to me a couple days ago and asked me to stall the launch. He said there was reason for concern, but he needed more time to investigate to get to the bottom of it.” James sighed. “I agreed to help and wrote a process that writes more processes and sends error messages about the rocket’s engine being faulty.”
    She squinted. “Are you trying to say you wrote a virus?”
    James looked at the ceiling. Technically, what he did was different, but he didn’t have time to discuss semantics. “Uh, basically. A very complicated virus, if you want to call it that. Bottom line is they won’t be able to launch until it’s fixed.”
    â€œOh.” She blinked rapidly and turned toward his desk. “That’s...a lot to take in.”
    James raked a hand through his hair, the curls off his forehead a moment before they bounced back into position. “I thought the NSA would take over by now. I did my part. But I believe whoever is hiding something on that satellite figured out what I did and shut me out of the system. I got locked out at the same time someone tried to kidnap my kids.”
    She put a hand on her cheek as she paled.
    He hadn’t meant to say “kidnap,” but the kids didn’t react to his slip-up. “That’s why,” he said, “I think they’ve been looking for someone to use as leverage against me.”
    She dropped her hands. “So you’ll fix the virus.”
    James sighed. It was a relief she understood the gravity of the situation and seemed to believe him. He didn’t want to explain why the NSA knew it would take other men with the same qualifications days to be able to stop a process James had written. His own parents didn’t know the extent of what he had done for the NSA in his younger years.
    Crash!
    Every muscle stiffened at the sound from above. It sounded like the men broke his back door window to get inside.
    â€œDaddy, I’m scared,” Ethan whimpered.
    Rachel turned to the boys at the same time as he reached out to hug them. “Your daddy is here, and you’re safe.” She leveled a cold glare at him. “Now that we know they’re not here for a chat, what’s the plan?”
    He stood and turned the volume on the intercom speaker to low. “They can’t hear us, but we can hear them.” The basement wasn’t soundproof, but he knew from experience that he would have to be yelling before anyone would hear him upstairs, through the closed door.
    He pulled out his smartphone. Telling the police his theories about Launch Operations would be foolish but alerting them to a break-in seemed pretty cut-and-dried. “I’m calling 9-1-1.”
    Footsteps and doors slamming could be heard even