Read Online The Last Line by Anthony Shaffer - Free Book Online

Mexican intelligence network up and running again. Then we need to find out if someone—possibly one of the cartels—has just smuggled a couple of small nuclear weapons into Mexico.”
    â€œLos Zetas with nuclear weapons,” Wentworth said. “It doesn’t bear thinking about.”
    â€œMaybe it’s not the cartels bringing in the nukes,” Teller said. “Maybe it’s the Iranians.”
    â€œI don’t buy it,” Larson said, shaking his head. “If Iran got caught playing those kinds of games, some major Armageddon would come down on their turbans, and they know it. They’re not going to risk all-out retaliation over a couple of pocket nukes.”
    â€œJust how big a nuclear device are we talking about?” Teller asked. “I thought suitcase nukes were pretty small. What, five or six kilotons?”
    â€œIf they’re based on Russian RA-115s, yeah. Sixty-five pounds for the device, three- to five-kiloton yield, or thereabouts. That’s less than a third the yield of the device that flattened Hiroshima, but it’s more than enough to wreck the downtown area of a major American city. They might also be built from old Soviet nuclear artillery shells. Those have smaller yields—half a kiloton up to about two kilotons. Still nasty.”
    â€œSo what does a Mexican drug cartel want with a pocket nuke?” Procario asked.
    â€œExtortion, most likely,” Chavez replied. “All of the cartels have been under a lot of pressure lately, both from the Mexican government and from the U.S., the FBI and DEA. All of the cartels have a history of killing people they perceive as enemies in spectacularly bloody and public ways in order to send a message. ‘Back off, or this’ll happen to you.’ They might well threaten to nuke downtown Mexico City if the government and the army there didn’t do what they said.”
    â€œAre we sure Mexico City is the target?” Teller asked.
    â€œNo.”
    â€œBecause we also have a Shiite terror group and their Iranian sponsors getting cozy with the drug cartels. Maybe they’re the ones bringing them in. Maybe they’re planning on smuggling those bombs across the Mexican border.”
    â€œWe’ve thought of that,” Larson said. “For the past week we’ve thought of little else. But, like I said, the Iranians aren’t stupid. They’re not going to let Hezbollah screw things for them, either. We know Hezbollah is in Tehran’s pocket. Most of us think it’s not Hezbollah behind it, but al Qaeda.”
    â€œEither way,” Wentworth said, “it’s not pretty. JJ said you people might have some ideas. If you do, we’d love to hear them.”
    Teller exchanged a look with Procario. “Of course we do,” he said. “We’ve got exactly what you need.”

    21ST CENTURY CITY
    SANTA MONICA BOULEVARD
    LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
    1002 HOURS, PDT
    â€œHey, you should lay off that stuff, man,” the driver said, watching the two in the backseat in his rearview mirror.
    â€œYeah,” the other passenger said. “ Cojones químico. That’s no good, Mannie. We need to be at our best, y’know?”
    â€œI can handle it, man.” He’d sprinkled some white powder from a small plastic bag onto a square of paper. “Solamente una pizca de blanquito, no más.” He inhaled the powder through his right nostril, then jerked his head back, crumpling the paper. “¡Ay! ¡Qué bueno!”
    The driver scowled. “¡Qué malparido!¡Eres un angurri!”
    â€œC’mon, c’mon,” the other passenger told the driver. “He’ll be okay. You got our packages?”
    â€œAquí.” He handed back two large canvas tote bags, the kind with retail logos on them used by green-conscious shoppers in the United States. Both bags were quite heavy and bulged a bit.
    â€œWait for