by Dirk Patton
“How’s the skipper, Doc?” she asked.
The man looked at her, exhaustion writ across his features.
“Not good, ma’am,” he said with a shake of his head. “I just had to intubate and put him on a portable ventilator.”
“Is that as bad as it sounds?”
“Yes, ma’am. That’s all that’s keeping him alive. How soon can we put into a port that will have modern medical facilities?”
“How long does he have?” she asked without answering the question.
“A few hours. That’s the best I can say, ma’am.”
Adrienne nodded.
“Keep me updated,” she said. “I’ll let you know if it looks like we’re going to be able to put into port and get him some help.”
She turned and walked away, her back stiff. Finishing her tour of the boat, she returned to the control room and stood behind the Captain’s chair. It still belonged to Commander Talbot and, even though she was the acting Captain, she didn’t feel right sitting in it. With a sigh, she moved into the sonar room, the Chief looking up when he felt her presence.
“Anything, Chief?” she asked softly.
“Something, ma’am. Too faint to even guess, but I gave an updated bearing to the Lieutenant and we’ve adjusted course to pursue.”
“What are you hearing?”
“Could be a biologic,” he said, meaning sea life. “Or it could be our Russian boomer. Low frequency groan right on the edge of detection. Can’t tell if its natural or manmade. But we’re slowly closing, whatever the hell it is.”
Adrienne watched him monitor the instruments for a few moments, then returned to the conn. Observing the crew go about operating the submarine, she weighed the options available to her for saving Commander Talbot. If this was, in fact, the Russian and they could sink the bastard as soon as he was in range, should she then make a high-speed run for Sydney Harbour and ask for help from the Australians?
“No!” she thought as soon as the idea came to her.
The Russians had a large naval presence in and around Sydney. Primarily to protect Barinov, but they weren’t about to let an American attack submarine sail in like it owned the place. But what about going around the Russians? Contact the Aussies directly and ask them to send out a helicopter to evac the skipper.
She shook her head and dismissed the idea as soon as she had it. The only way that could happen was for her to bring the North Carolina to the surface and provide the ADF with their precise location. She had no confidence the information wouldn’t be quickly relayed to the Russians, who would be very eager to destroy the sub that just sank their last boomer.
With a sigh of regret, she acknowledged to herself that Commander Talbot was doomed. Unless, by some miracle, he suddenly began responding to the medicine Doc had on board, the skipper was going to die.
45
“You’re a fuckin’ daft bastard!” Lucas said, staring at me with concern on his face.
We were at the safe house and I’d just finished filling him in, to include playing the videos that Bering had loaded onto the jump drive.
“Hey, not sure how much of this I’m buying into,” I said. “But I can tell you there is something called the Athena Project. I killed a bunch of Russians in the old Strategic Air Command bunker to take a file on the project away from them. And I’ve spoken directly with Admiral Packard in Hawaii, who has confirmed the information.”
Lucas stared at me, finally tearing his eyes away to look at Rachel. She nodded confirmation, but didn’t say anything. He shook his head after a long moment before turning his attention back to the screen. The video was paused on the moment the team of unknown operators killed Barinov with the TOW missile.
“So, we either stop these guys or it’s the end of what’s left of the world. That’s what I’m supposed to believe?”
“Jesus, Lucas!” I said, letting him hear my frustration. “I didn’t make this shit up. You think I’m happy about having to stop someone from killing that motherfucker? Think again! I’m just telling you what information I have and it’s been confirmed by the highest ranking officer in the American military. Do I believe it? I don’t fucking know. But I sure as hell can’t dismiss it!”
He ignored my tone and went back to staring at the screen. He spoke again without looking away.
“Is that why you were so freaked out by the abo at the hospital?”
“Yeah,” I said, his question calming me down. “Don’t know if I buy into this whole ‘connected with the earth’ spirituality bullshit, but you gotta admit it’s one hell of a coincidence.”
Lucas met my eye and I could see him trying to reason out the situation. Slowly, he nodded, but I didn’t have any idea what he was agreeing with.
“You got a plan on how to deal with these wankers? The three of us and a dog ain’t gonna be enough.”
Dog, thinking he’d been called, got up and went to Lucas, sitting next to him with an expectant look on his face. Lucas’s hand automatically went out and started rubbing his head.
“You talked to Ziggy. Any chance Smyth and the rest of your guys can get out of there?”
I’d set up a call for him, relayed through Pearl Harbor so our location was masked. When he’d gotten off the phone, he’d said the situation wasn’t good, but no one was in immediate danger.
“Not without a lot of bloodshed,” he said, shaking his head. “They’re completely surrounded and told they’re all under arrest. So far, though, no one has tried to force the issue.”
“What about the unofficial official resistance you told me about? Your CO and an Air Marshal?”
“They’ve been scooped up. Someone betrayed us and the PM is rolling up the carpet. Still plenty of regular troops that would answer the call, but the bastard’s cut our head off. No one left to lead.”
“Who betrayed you?” Rachel asked.
“Wish I bloody knew,” Lucas spat. “I’d make the fucker eat his own balls for breakfast.”
“Okay,” I said, trying to get us back on topic. “What about some of your other mates from the Regiment? Think there’s anyone willing to help?”
“The lads I know I can trust are all bottled up at my house,” he said. “Sure, there’s others, but…”
“Yeah, I got it,” I said, standing and lighting a cigarette as I began pacing around the small room.
Rachel reached out and spun the laptop away from Lucas and began running through the data on the jump drive. I let her work, not feeling like witnessing the deaths of millions of people again.
“There’s something else you should know,” I said after a minute of silence.
Lucas watched me, waiting. I took a deep breath before telling him about the Admiral’s plan to call Barinov directly if I didn’t succeed.
“Bloody hell!” Lucas exclaimed, jumping to his feet. “Warn the bastard? Give him a chance to say, ‘fuck it’ and push the button that releases the nerve gas?”
I nodded, but didn’t defend what I thought was the right decision. Sometimes, you can’t save everyone. You have to save the ones you can.
“What the fuck does that mean?” Lucas growled through his teeth.
“It means that’s what it’s coming down to,” I said calmly. “I don’t want it to happen. But it is if we don’t stop this, so quit bitching and let’s figure out what we’re going to do.”
Lucas was seething, probably as much from concern for his family as the fear of millions of his countrymen being murdered. I held his eyes, quietly smoking while he worked through his emotions.
“I can make some calls,” he finally said.
“You sure about these people? We’ve already been betrayed, once. A second time just might trigger what we’re trying to stop.”
“You really think he’d gas the whole country?” Lucas asked. “If that’s the case, why was he worried enough about me to send a team to the hospital to take me out?”
“Who the hell knows?” I said, shrugging. “But to answer you
r question; yes, he’ll gas the whole fucking country. Look what happened to America! You think he gives a shit about Australia? This was just a safe haven for him. His military has been busy setting up shop in California and they’re only bringing in the right people. Maybe this was just a temporary fallback until things were ready in the US.”
“To what end? How does it help him if he wipes out Australia?”
“I don’t know, Lucas. I just don’t know. Maybe he has a masterplan that we can’t fathom. Or maybe he’s just batshit crazy and will happily wipe out millions more before he’s done. History’s full of men just like him. Explain to me what was really in Hitler’s head when he killed millions of Jews. What about Stalin’s purges? Millions more. Mao? The Khmer Rouge? They get off on it, but I can’t understand what this particular bastard will or won’t do. But, if we don’t do our job, I think the odds are too great that he will pull the trigger.”
Lucas stood there, watching me smoke until he finally lowered his eyes and shook his head.
“Fuck,” he mumbled.
“Back to the problem at hand,” I said, checking my watch. “We’ve got a little over sixteen hours until that team breaks into the ADF armory. How do we stop them when we don’t know who or where they are? Can you call a tip into the ADF? Would they put some men there to prevent the robbery? Without that equipment, those guys won’t be able to pull this off.”
“Probably,” he said. “But what then? The team shows up and realizes they can’t stroll in and take what they need. They aren’t stopped, only delayed. They’ll either already have a plan B, or they’ll withdraw and make one.”
I looked at him and grinned.
“And, when they withdraw, we’re there to see where they go. Once we know where they’re holed up, we can take the fight to them. On our terms.”
“If they don’t have an immediate fallback,” he said, but held his hands up when he saw my face. “You’re right. They aren’t going to proceed without regrouping, first. I saw the video. These guys are pros. They’ll have their shit together.”
I nodded, smiling and lighting another cigarette.
“Once we know where they are, we can hit them hard,” I said. “They’d be primed and ready while breaking into the armory. But wherever it is they’re staying? They’ll be alert, but not expecting trouble. That’ll give us an edge we won’t have at the ADF facility. Hell. We probably don’t even need to take all of them out. Just hurt them bad enough that they’re no longer combat capable. You saw the video. It took all of them to get to a position where they could fire the TOW. Deplete them by even half and we’ve done our job.”
Lucas thought about what I’d said for several minutes, working through the scenario in his head. Finally, he extended his hand toward me.
“Fine. Give me the phone and I’ll call in the tip.”
“Got a better idea,” I said, grinning.
I punched in the encryption code and initiated a call to Jessica. As always, she answered on the first ring. Didn’t this woman ever go off duty? A few minutes later, I was speaking with Admiral Packard and explained the plan to him.
“I concur with your assessment, Major,” he said when I was done. “What do you need from me?”
“Sir, I was thinking that the best way to get the Australians to take this seriously is if they get the heads up from you.”
“From me? How the hell do I explain how I know about this?”
“Tell them we’ve intercepted some communications between some survivalists or something like that. Australia’s got to have some of those running around.”
I glanced at Lucas who nodded to confirm my suspicion.
“Anyway, sir, make them believe this is just a raid on an ADF armory to steal weapons and munitions for themselves. Nothing about Russians or Barinov. These guys are just fanatics that are setting themselves up as warlords in the outback, or something like that. You know, Road Warrior wannabes.
“That’ll get the Aussies’ attention, ensuring a robust response. And even if the Russians do get wind of it, they’ll dismiss the whole thing as an internal issue the PM is dealing with. Shouldn’t upset them and shouldn’t prompt Barinov to do anything rash.”
The Admiral was silent, thinking through my reasoning.
“You’ve convinced me, Major. Good thinking. Now, fill me in on what else is happening there on the ground.”
I spoke for several minutes, relating everything that had happened. He listened attentively, not interrupting.
“Thank you, Major. I’ll make the call right away.”
With that, he was gone. He had been professional and polite, but I could tell from the difference in his voice that I’d burned down the trust and respect he’d had for me. I felt a little bad about that, but there wasn’t anything I could do to change the past.
Change the past.
I stood there, staring at the wall as I thought about the idea that had just flashed through my head.
“What?” Lucas asked.
“Maybe I know how we can get some help,” I said, unlocking the phone and dialing one of the contacts.
46
“That is not our purpose,” Director Patterson said when I explained what I had in mind.
I didn’t know the guy. Knew nothing about him, in fact. But he sounded like a smug, condescending prick. What the fuck was he talking about?
“Not your purpose?” I asked sarcastically. “What the hell is your purpose, then? It apparently wasn’t to try and undo the attacks that started all of this!”
He was quiet for a moment before continuing. This time he spoke in a calm, slow voice, almost like Mr. Rogers. I was starting to get more than a little irritated.
“If you’ll bear with me, Major, I have asked our chief scientist to join us and she can explain the risks of doing what you’ve proposed. Upon hearing what she has to say, I’m willing to discuss the matter with you.”
“In that case, you should contact Admiral Packard and ask him to join us,” I said.
I don’t know why I thought this would be as simple as making a phone call. Nothing ever is, especially when dealing with government bureaucrats. If what you want them to do isn’t specifically spelled out in some little manual, the chance of receiving their cooperation is just about nil.
It took several minutes for the Athena Project’s chief scientist to come on the line, then we had to wait some more while Admiral Packard was tracked down and brought on. I stalked around the small house, smoking, as I waited.
Rachel was still absorbed with the laptop, digging through a series of files she’d found in a different folder on the jump drive. Lucas looked as impatient as I felt, but knew how to deal with it and had wound up on the floor, rubbing Dog’s belly.
It was nearly ten minutes later when I heard the Admiral’s voice announce his presence on the call. Before I could speak, Patterson repeated my request, then asked the scientist, a woman named Doctor Anholts, to explain the risks of my idea. The Admiral interrupted with a question for me.
“Major, why is this necessary?”
“Manpower, sir,” I said. “I’m outmanned and outgunned. I need help if I’m going to pull this off and there’s not anyone local that is available.”
He was quiet for a beat, then asked Anholts to proceed. I activated the speakerphone feature so Lucas and Rachel could listen in.
“Gentlemen,” she began. “The Athena Project was conceived and placed into operation to support the redaction of particularly heinous acts committed against American interests. Even before the first successful transport of an asset, we recognized the inherent dangers of manipulating past events.”
“Excuse me,” I said, interrupting. “What is an asset?”
“Forgive me, Major. An asset is a human. Currently that would be Agent Bering, whom you have met. Now, as I was saying, we recognized the danger of playing with time in the infancy of the project. Despite the fact that we are only able to travel thirty-six hours into the past, changing
something that has already occurred is risky, at best.
“As an example, let’s assume we were in the business of undoing every bad thing that happened. A single mother is hurrying to pick her children up from school and fails to see a red light. She is struck and killed in the intersection. We have the capability to go back and change that outcome. Slow her down, stop her, or stop the vehicle that collides with hers. The method is unimportant to our discussion, but the results are.
“Now, the mother, who should be dead, is alive and well and arrives at the school and collects her children. She is part of a carpool formed by several families and pulls away with seven children on board. Distracted by her passengers, she runs another red light and all aboard are killed. This is an unintended and unforeseeable consequence of changing past events.”
“I don’t see what this hypothetical has to do with my request,” I said.
“This is not a hypothetical,” Patterson said sternly. “This is an actual event from very early in the project. And the reason we have strict rules about what we will and will not redact.”
“Excuse me, Mr. Director,” the Admiral interjected. “But I’m still failing to see how this translates to the Major’s request.”
“Perhaps this wasn’t the best example,” he said. “However, the point Doctor Anholts is trying to make is that we cannot foresee the impact of a redaction. There are certain events that are simply so heinous that any alternative is preferable. That is what we are here for. That is what we do. We cannot, and should not, interfere in the normal course of events.”
Everyone went quiet, considering Patterson’s statement.
“Major?” the Admiral prompted me, breaking the silence.
“Sir, I haven’t changed my mind.”
“Gentlemen, if I may,” Dr. Anholts said. “I’ve been reviewing the data on the event that Major Chase has proposed we redact.”