Page 169 of Slack Tide Kill

"Stability," Sally pressed. "That's Mercer's whole thing, isn't it? He presents as totally in control. He gave nothing to us, nothing to the podcasters. 30 years, he's been stewing over this. Looking for the answer to his question."

"What question?" Gemmell asked, exasperated now, and Liam swiveled to him.

"The one raised by Richter's death. Chaos or order."

"Chaos or order?"

"It's been decades," Sally went on, feeling inches away from grasping something essential. "A long plot, a scheme to wreak destruction and…"

She trailed off, eyes widening as the possibility appeared.

"What is it?" Liam asked.

Sally couldn't speak as the truth unraveled in her mind. The battle for control of Reactor Logistics. Access to all its networks. Roarke Rook restarting his father's people trafficking empire. Jason Harrow posed on the beach staring right at Reactor A.

She'd thought it was the lighthouse. But what if she'd misunderstood, proving Mercer's core thesis from the very outset, that the eyes and ears lied?

"Are there CTSFOs at the reactor?"

"At the reactor?" Gemmell repeated.

"Are there, Stephen?"

He took a second, looking between Sally and Liam, then seemed to snap back into gear. "No. I don't think so. They have security of their own."

"And Mercer had an inside man for years. That's where he's going."

"To the reactor?"

Sally refocused on Liam, a dozen factors spiraling in her head. "He told us all this from the start. Richter. Harrow. Seashells for eyes." Her mouth was so dry she could hardly speak. "If he's got a bomb in Reactor A, dozens of people will die."

Liam's jaw dropped. "A bomb in the reactor? But, it's not active. It's decommissioned."

Sally shook her head, thoughts arcing back to the one time she'd been inside. "Doesn't matter. Decommissioned doesn't mean clean. There's 500 cubic meters of contaminated process water in a huge tank. If Mercer breaches that tank in this storm, it'll spread all across Dungeness. We're looking at another Chernobyl!"

He gasped. "A nuclear spill? You can't be serious?"

"Smaller scale, but yes. Nobody's coming back to Dungeness after that, maybe for generations. Mercer reclaims it for nature."

"Chaos within order," Liam breathed.

A silent few seconds passed as the weight of that sank in.

"But how?" Gemmell blurted. "We all entered that facility. It's locked down hard, heavy security screen on every access. No way he could get a bomb in there."

Sally considered that for half a second. There were countless ways through. Maybe Roarke Rook had brought in the components a little at a time, over years. Maybe he'd built a bomb gradually, secretly. Or…

Her thoughts collapsed into freefall.

"What if the bomb's in his car now? He rams the fence, gets close enough and blows it. With Roarke in and out for years, he'd know exactly where to do it. Then he's dead, Mayhew's dead, the process water's out and anyone who gets contaminated is dead too."

"We've got to stop him from even getting close," Liam finished.

Those words hung between them. Sally looked back out at the bullpen, where dozens of faces were all looking at her now. The large space was silent. She steeled herself and spoke in a loud, commanding voice.

"Our suspect is ex-DI Jack Mercer." Mutters erupted. "As of 10 minutes ago, he's with DCI Mayhew somewhere out in the marsh, we believe heading for the Dungeness reactors." She took a breath. "The DCI may be his final victim, in a murder-suicide involving an explosive device at the reactors."

Gasps rang out. A few cries of disbelief.