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He withdrew the key At this point, the only way to stop the launch was to reinsert the key and switch it to OFF Even if someone threw the entire control case into the harbor, the countdoould continue

Polk didn’t coh they were all set to get a share of the profits if the attack was successful There was always the possibility that one of them was a saboteur

He walked out to the bridge wing and chucked the key in the harbor Nobody was going to stop the launch now

“Bring five men and come with me,” he said to the chief mercenary

He took theo bay four The rockets were arrayed in black tubes pointing straight into the sky They’d already been uncovered and checked over earlier in the day

At least Rathed

The seas between Nhulunbuy to Sydney could be rough, so each of the rockets had a safety pin to prevent accidental ignition The pins were attached to red cloth ribbons marked REMOVE TO ARM

“Take out of each one of these carefully,” Polk said to thethem to me and I will dispose of them” He planned to throw them overboard for the same reason he tossed the key

In a cere the first of the two hundred and ninety-eight rockets He felt a tinge of excite he was about to launch a New Year’s Eve party no one would ever forget

SIXTY-SEVEN

At 11:31 p a suppressed Heckler & Koch MP5 sub of the Centaurus The ship’s lights were on, but he couldn’t feel the h the metal deck

Two of the ship’s four cargo bays were open That could onlyprepped for launch

As Raven’s head peeked over the deck, he heard so fronal to halt She stopped

Juan unsheathed his KA-BAR knife and crouched behind a rope capstan One of thea Chinese-un with its own suppressor He didn’t seerabbed hi his hand over the ed the knife into his back The led for a moment and went limp

Juan hissed twice to give the all-clear Raven finished her climb, followed by Eddie, Eric, Linc, and Sylvia