by Bob Mayer
"Give me a reading." The duty officer's voice sounded distant coming out of his mask.
An enlisted woman held a suitcase-size device in her hand. "It's clean," she said.
"What do you mean clean?" the duty officer demanded.
The woman's shoulders rose in a shrug under the heavy material. "Normal reading, sir. No sign of any radiation."
"Try another counter," the duty officer ordered.
"I've tried primary and backup, sir. The air's clean."
The duty officer stared at her for a few moments, then slowly pulled his hood and mask off. "If there's no radiation, what the hell did that to the flight line? And where did the strike warning come from?"
An enlisted man called out from his console. "Sir, I've got Cheyenne Mountain on the horn. They want to know what's going on! They say the warning center has picked up a launch from one of our silos."
The duty officer ran over and looked at his status board. "Our link with the Omega Missile LCC is down. Everything else shows secure." He turned to the communications specialist. "Get me Omega Missile Launch on MILSTAR."
"I'm not getting an answer, sir."
"Status on Omega Missile LCC silos?
"Omega Missile silo is empty, sir! ICBM missile silos are still secure and in place."
The duty officer grabbed the mike. "This is Barksdale EOC. Did you transmit a missile strike warning to us?"
The voice on the other end from Cheyenne Mountain was succinct. "Negative."
"Did you track any missile incoming to our location?"
"Negative.
"Did AFTAC pick up any nuclear detonations at our location?" the duty officer demanded. AFTAC stood for Air Force Technical Applications Center. It operated more than fifty sites around the world in thirty-five countries. Its job was to tie seismic disturbances with information from the Nuclear Detonation Detection System, an imaging system aboard NAVSTAR satellites, to detect a nuclear explosion anywhere on the surface of the planet.
Cheyenne Mountain was on top of it. "AFTAC reports an explosion at your location but not, repeat, not nuclear."
The duty officer grabbed an orange phone. "Get me the War Room in the Pentagon!"
*****
Down on the flight line, firefighters heard the sound of a woman calling for help. They followed the voice to the shattered wall of a hangar. The voice was coming from underneath the wreckage.
"We'll get you out," one of the men called from under his mask.
Beneath the wreckage, Lisa Thorpe could only grit her teeth as the pain from her broken legs kept her from passing out. Despite that, she called to the firemen to search for her son.
*****
"I never thought it would be like this. They're all dead. All of them." Lewis's voice echoed inside the close confines of the elevator.
"We don't know what happened," Parker said, wishing the ride to the surface would go quicker. "Just hang in there."
"My wife never liked me doing this. She used to have nightmares about it. That's why I was going to graduate school, so I could get transferred out. But the money ..." Lewis's voice trailed off.
"Just hold it together," Parker said. "We'll be able to check things out in a little bit."
The elevator came to a halt at the top and the vault door ponderously opened. Parker stepped out. Lewis paused. "I think one of us should stay in the LCC," he said.
"That's not SOP," Parker argued.
"I know. But if we shut the door we can't get back in without the override. And if Barksdale was nuked then ..." His voice trailed off.
Parker shook her head. "We have to secure the vault door and make sure it can't be opened except by override code."
"I'll stay," Lewis said.
Parker frowned. "What about—" she began, then froze as Lewis drew his pistol and pointed it at her face.
"I'm staying, Major."
"What are you—" Parker began but Lewis shoved her off the elevator and the vault door began closing.
Parker threw herself at the opening. Lewis fired and Parker could feel the bullet whiz by. She ducked and the door finished closing. She pounded a fist on the metal. "You son-of-a-bitch!"
*****
Thorpe moved through the woods carefully, pistol at the ready. He crossed a gravel road and then paralleled it as he ran in the direction of the shot. Soon he came to the edge of a clearing. Thorpe paused and looked out. He could see the fenced compound and knew what it was, but couldn't see who had fired a gun. He was about to move forward when he noticed the grass slightly swaying on the far side of the compound. It was difficult because the camouflage was good, but he finally spotted two men in ghillie suits low-crawling toward the compound.
One of the men popped up and attached what looked like a length of hose to the fence, then just as quickly disappeared back into the grass. Then nothing moved for a few seconds until the door to the building inside the compound swung open and a woman in a black Air Force flight suit stepped out.
"Oh, fuck," Thorpe muttered. He raised his pistol and sprinted out of the woods. The concrete next to the woman's head exploded. The cracking sound of the shot being fired followed less than a second later. The woman dove for cover behind a low concrete barrier several feet in front of the door, which had swung shut.
The hose that the two men had placed on the fence flashed and a man-sized hole appeared in the fence. The two men in ghillie suits rushed through, weapons at the ready. Thorpe had covered half the distance to the compound by now. He could clearly hear one of the men calling out to the woman: "Stand. With your hands up!"
Thorpe began firing, his first rounds hitting the lead ghillie-suited figure. As he did so, the woman popped up, firing her own pistol. Between the two of them, they put five rounds into the second ghillie suit and he fell less than ten feet from her location.
The boom of a large sniper rifle sounded and a bullet smashed into the concrete near the woman, spraying her with chips. She flinched as a second round smashed into metal and ricocheted off.
Thorpe halted at the fence. He could see at least a dozen figures breaking out of the far wood line, weapons at the ready. "Come on!" Thorpe called to the woman, as he fired at the new targets.
Thorpe slapped his spare magazine into the pistol and rapidly fired at point blank range at the links in the fence, blowing fourteen of them apart. He grabbed the jagged edges and pulled them wide.
The woman dashed past the two bodies and toward the hole he was making. She slithered through, tearing her suit in the process.
Thorpe could see one of the intruders raising a large sniper rifle. Thorpe froze as he recognized the man. The 50-caliber rifle roared and a round whistled past the woman, spurring her to even greater speed. She tumbled onto the ground and regained her feet. Together they sprinted for the safety of the woods.
*****
The capsule on the end of the Peacekeeper rocket split in two, both shells falling away. Bolted inside, the Omega Missile payload activated itself. Solar panels slowly unfolded, gathering the sun's energy to complete the boot-up of the computer and communications system.
A satellite dish twisted and turned, seeking out the closest MILSTAR satellite. It found one that was in its own geosynchronous orbit two hundred miles away. An inquiry burst was transmitted from Omega Missile to the MILSTAR satellite. A positive link burst was sent back by the MILSTAR computer, indicating that Omega Missile was now online with MILSTAR.
Inside, the REACT master computer checked itself and found all systems to be functioning. Omega Missile was ready.
Chapter Eleven
mckenzie stood next to the door of the Omega Missile LCC and barked out orders. "Bognar, you and Reynolds go after those two." He pointed toward the tree line and the route Thorpe and Parker had taken.
The Humvees were coming out of the tree line with the rest of the men. Machine guns were now mounted in the top center hatches and the vehicles took up defensive positions around the compound.
McKenzie
jabbed a finger at Drake. "Set up the satellite dish, then join me below." He turned to the outer door and slapped a charge against it. "Fire in the hole!" he called out as everyone took cover.
There was a brief blast and the door was gone. McKenzie stepped through the debris into the foyer. He halted in surprise at the sight of the closed vault door.
"I thought you said they would leave it open," he demanded.
Kilten ignored McKenzie. He waved at the video camera just above the door and with a hiss, the door swung open.
McKenzie turned to Kilten. "Where's the other crewman?"
"In the LCC," Kilten said.
"He opened the door for you?"
"Yes."
McKenzie looked at Kilten in a new light. "Got any other surprises that you didn't tell me about?"
Kilten walked to the elevator. "Let's go down. We don't have much time."
As the vault door slowly shut on them, Kilten had a question of his own. "Why did you shoot at the other launch officer?" Kilten asked. "That wasn't the plan."
"Not your plan," McKenzie agreed. "But it seems things are changing a bit now."
Kilten looked at the soldier. "I knew you would do this."
"Do what?" McKenzie asked.
"Change things."
"Well, that's real good," McKenzie said. "Cause then you shouldn't be surprised by anything that happens, right?"
"Not likely," Kilten said with a sad expression on his ravaged face. "That's part of my job, remember? Predicting and planning. I expected you to deviate from the plan we agreed on."
McKenzie wasn't really paying attention to what Kilten was saying. "Your job invented this and now we're taking it down. And taking things down is my job. Do you have a problem with that?" The powerfully built man spoke with the firm conviction of someone taking control.
Kilten held his hands up. "I said it would be a short relationship, didn't I?"
*****
Thorpe glanced to his left at the female officer running next to him. "I'm out of ammunition. Do you have any?"
Parker pulled the clip out of her weapon and looked. "One round."
"Shit," Thorpe said. He halted. "Hold on for a second." He looked at her uniform. Her name tag indicated she was Major Teresa Parker, U.S. Air Force. "Do you know what is going on, Major?"
Parker was taking deep breaths. "No." She looked at his uniform. "Who are you?"
Thorpe stuck out his hand. "Captain Thorpe, Army Special Forces."
Parker took his hand, her grip firm. "Major Parker, U.S. Air Force. This was all a setup. Lewis was in on it. I should have stayed there and stopped them!"
Thorpe didn't understand what she was talking about. "If you'd have hung around there another couple of seconds that guy shooting the big bullets would have nailed you." Thorpe cocked his head, listening. Then he led her into a small gully and pointed down it. "You keep going."
Parker hesitated. "What are you going to do?"
"We've got people right behind us. I'm going to take care of them."
"How are you going to do that with no bullets?"
Thorpe could hear someone running through the underbrush, not too far away. "Damn it, just do as I say. Keep going."
Parker seemed about to say something, but then she too heard their pursuers. She took off down the gully. Thorpe stepped off to the side and hid behind the thick trunk of a fallen tree. Five seconds later, two men came rushing by, their pace increasing as they spotted Parker fifty feet ahead in the shallow trench.
Thorpe watched them race by his position. One of the men stopped and lifted his submachine gun to fire at Parker. Thorpe stepped out and threw his knife, catching the man in the neck. Blood spurted from the severed jugular. Thorpe followed through on the throw, taking two quick steps and striking out at the other man with his right leg, the toe of his boot connecting with the weapon in Bognar's hand. The submachine gun went flying. Bognar whirled, blocked Thorpe's next kick, and the two men backed off, circling.
Parker came running back, pistol at the ready. Thorpe saw her out of the corner of his eye. "Don't shoot!" he called to her.
Bognar took advantage of the distraction to reach down and draw a knife. Thorpe glanced over at his own knife, still embedded in the other man's throat. "All right," he yelled to Parker, "shoot."
Parker lifted her pistol but didn't fire; the men were too close to each other.
Bognar stepped forward and jabbed. Thorpe leaped to the side, captured the other man's knife arm under his own and levered at Bognar's elbow. But Bognar was ready, sliding out of the trap and slashing. His knife tore a gash down the side of Thorpe's sleeve.
Bognar moved forward, knife flashing, and Thorpe stepped back unsteadily, his foot slipping. He fell onto his back. The knife rose high and was coming down toward Thorpe's chest when a shot rang out and the bullet spun Bognar sideways, wounding him.
Thorpe immediately rolled onto the other man and slammed the palm of his free hand into Bognar's nose, smashing the bone into his brain, killing him instantly.
Thorpe slumped onto his back, lying next to the dead man, breathing hard.
"Are you all right?" Parker asked.
Thorpe could only nod.
"You look sick," Parker added.
"I'm all right," Thorpe said angrily. "He was lucky, that's all."
Parker stared at him without saying a word.
Thorpe got to his knees, then stood up. He swayed for a second, shaking his head. Thorpe knelt and quickly stripped Bognar of his ammunition and cell phone. He walked over and retrieved the submachine gun.
Parker grabbed Thorpe's arm. "We have to get back to the LCC entrance!"
"The LCC?"
"Launch Control Center," Parker said.
"Hold on a second. We just barely survived these guys and there's a whole bunch more of them at your LCC. Let's figure out what's going on first." Thorpe gently removed her hand. "You said that your partner was down in the LCC, right?''
Parker nodded. "Lewis. He must be with them. He pulled his gun on me and made me leave. I'm sure he's opened the vault door for them."
Thorpe had caught his breath. "There's nothing we can do about it right now," he said.
Parker stared at him. "Why didn't you want me to shoot at first?"
Thorpe checked the magazine in the weapon. "You might have hit me."
"I know how to shoot," Parker said.
Thorpe glanced at Bognar's body. "You hit him in the shoulder."
"That's where I was aiming," Parker said.
"Next time, shoot to kill," Thorpe said.
"I've never killed anyone," Parker said.
Thorpe spotted some grenades on the other man's vest and walked over and appropriated them. "Nine-millimeter ammo," he said, pulling some magazines out of pouches. He tossed a couple to Parker. "Reload." He also checked out that man's sub.
Parker took the offered submachine gun.
"Careful, there's a round in the chamber," Thorpe said. "Are you familiar with the H&K MP-5 submachine gun?"
"Yes."
Thorpe eyed her suspiciously. Parker took the weapon and spoke like she would to a recruit. "This is safe, this is semiautomatic, this is automatic. Keep it on safe and only fire on semi. Automatic is just a waste of bullets." Parker looped the sling over her neck, not giving Thorpe a chance to comment on her expertise. "Do you have any idea what's going on?"
"I was hoping you could tell me since it's your LCC they're after," Thorpe said. "I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time." He pointed at the corpses. "I do know these guys are ex-Canadian paratroopers."
"How do you know that?" Parker challenged him.
Thorpe showed her a tattoo on Bognar's forearm. A winged dagger with a barely legible inscription below it. "That's their airborne insignia. The other guy has the same tattoo."
"How do you know they're ex?" Parker asked.
"What, you think Canada's invading us?" Thorpe didn't wait for an answer. "Because their airborne regiment g
ot stood down last year after getting accused of various war crimes. Torturing prisoners, that sort of thing."
Thorpe was thinking. "They're not the problem, though. The problem is the guy who had the big sniper rifle. He's American. An ex-Navy SEAL. He was medically retired this year. Name's McKenzie. He knows what he's doing and he's good."
"It's worse than that," Parker said. "The other man in the tree line with him, the older man, his name is Kilten. He's a civilian who works for the Pentagon, GS-God level. He designed the Omega Missile system and the LCC. He knows more about the setup than any man alive. Even more than my ex-partner down there."
"Great," Thorpe muttered. "Two fucking nutcases. You launched your missiles didn't you?"
"Only one," Parker said.
"Gee, only one nuclear missile?"
"The missile we launched didn't carry a nuclear warhead."
"Thank God for that," Thorpe said.
"It's worse than if we had launched a nuke carrier," she said, ending Thorpe's brief feeling of relief.
"Oh, great," Thorpe said. "How come nothing here is getting any better?"
Parker was almost talking to herself, replaying it in her mind. "We launched Omega Missile, but there was a nuclear strike on Barksdale! We saw it on video."
"I don't think that was a nuke strike," Thorpe said. "It was a big explosion and there was a mushroom cloud, but," he pointed at the two bodies, "they didn't seem very concerned about fallout and my bet is that they were the ones who made the big boom." He slapped himself on the side of the head. "The dump trucks!"
"What dump trucks?"
"There was a row of dump trucks parked on the outside of the post fence, near the flight line. I saw them as we flew out. They must have been loaded with explosives. Damn," Thorpe said, "the flight line has got to be a mess. I hope they got everyone under cover."