by David Capps
This is the human cost of conflict, Jake thought. A group of psychopathic maniacs decide they want to own and control the world, and they are more than willing to sacrifice innocent lives in the process. Then brave people, like these soldiers, and pilots, have to risk their own lives to try to stop an even greater tragedy from happening.
Jake stood and watched as the bodies of fallen soldiers were carried into one of the Ospreys. The people involved in this nightmare would have been given a twelve-hour notice to get into their protective shelters. By then the solar storm would already have been on its way for almost eight hours.
Jake ran back into the building.
“They’re going to send the signal to go to the shelters only after they know the solar storm has been created. The act of leaving and heading for the underground shelter would tell us who is involved. But if the satellites that monitor the sun fail to show the CME as expected, they will cancel the evacuation. We’ll never know who was involved beyond the people we have already identified, and we’ll lose the most important evidence against them. We need to grab as many people as we can when they run.”
“So what are you saying?” Honi asked.
“We have to make it look like the solar storm is actually happening and on its way. That way we can arrest the people who were responsible for this threat. Otherwise, we’re going to miss all of the top-level people. I just don’t know if that’s even possible.”
Honi called Brett. “All that graphics experience you keep telling me about? You’re going to have a chance to prove it. I need you to create the graphics for a solar storm and CME and get ready to blend it into what the sun is doing now. You can use the last solar storm as a pattern. I need it to look like real life, and I need it big. I need it seamless and I need it in four hours. Can you do that?” She nodded and smiled at Jake. “I also need you to locate every satellite the earth has that monitors the sun, identify where they are in their orbits, and what kind of data they send back to earth. Get with Dr. Spencer at the Space Studies Board. You’re going to have to create the data for the other satellites, as well.” She chuckled. “Yeah, I thought you would be, now get to work. I’m going to have to call you back. I’m on a kind of private network right now, so you can’t call me.”
Honi looked at Jake. “Brett’s so excited he gets to create a massive solar storm on company time and with our equipment that he can’t stop talking. It may take another two days for him to calm down.”
“We need Dr. Spencer in on this. I need to call him.” He looked up Dr. Spencer’s number on his phone registry and connected. The phone rang and rang. Jake was about to give up when a sleepy old voice answered.
“Dr. Spencer, it’s Jake Hunter. I’m sorry to wake you like this, but we have a national emergency and I need your help. Can you get dressed and into your office quickly?”
Dr. Spencer’s tone sounded more alert. “This is a real emergency? And you need me?”
“Yes, sir, this is a real national emergency. I need you to get into your office right now. A guy named Brett will be calling you from the NSA. Do everything you can to help him, please.”
Dr. Spencer sounded fully awake at this point. “The National Security Agency?”
“Yes, that NSA. Can you do that for me?”
“Yes. Yes, I can,” Dr. Spencer replied. “You need me there right now, I assume?”
Jake glanced at Honi. “Yes. Thank you.”
“And this person who’s going to call me?” Dr. Spencer asked.
“The guy’s name is Brett.”
“Okay, Brett.”
“One more thing?” Jake added. “Which solar satellite is closest to the sun?”
“SOHO,” Dr. Spencer replied.
“Okay. Thank you, Dr. Spencer.” Jake disconnected.
He then called Briggs. “Yes, sir, it’s Hunter. Our targets are going to run in a matter of four and a half hours. We need to be ready to grab them.” He listened. “Yes, sir, I agree. Follow them to the underground shelters and take them down there. Thank you, sir.”
Next, Jake dialed the President. “This is FBI Agent Jake Hunter. I need to speak with the President, right now.” He waited. “It’s Hunter, sir. We need every available law enforcement body we have in plain clothes, on duty and following suspects. You’ll get a list from the NSA in a few minutes, sir. National security is at stake.” He listened. “Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”
“Word’s going to spread,” Ken said. “The Phoenix Organization’s people inside of our structure are going to know we’re after them.”
“But they’re still going to run as long as they believe the solar storm is on its way,” Jake said. “I don’t see any other way of doing it, do you?”
Ken thought about it for a minute. “It’ll be more convincing if we leak the existence of the solar storm to the radio and TV networks. We don’t have to tell people how big the storm is supposed to be, just that one is on the way, you know—make it look just like the last one, or the one before that. That way nobody will panic.”
“Except the people in the Phoenix Organization. They will believe it’s an Extinction Level Event. They will panic. That’s exactly what we want.”
Stafford had been watching the plan unfold. He made his call. “General Davies, sir, It’s Major Stafford. We’re going to have a lot of people running for underground shelters. We have people watching them, but someone is going to have to go inside those shelters and pull those people out.” He looked at Jake. “Yes, sir, I assume those people will be armed at some point and unwilling to walk out on their own.” He paced back and forth several paces. “Yes, sir, I agree. As soon as an underground shelter is identified, we take it down and take people into custody as they arrive. We can hold them inside the shelters. Thank you, sir.” He disconnected. “Every available military helicopter will be on standby,” Stafford said.
“Aaron,” Jake said. “Can you get us into the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory satellite?”
“SOHO? Sure. Every one of our satellites up there has a back door allowing us unlimited access. Hang on…”
“Where is the SOHO satellite?” Jake asked.
“It is in a gravity neutral orbit between the sun and the earth,” Aaron replied.
“Gravity neutral?”
“It orbits the sun where the pull of the earth and the pull of the sun are equal. It maintains a fixed position in relation to both us and the sun.”
“How far away.”
Aaron typed on the keyboard. “Nine hundred thirty thousand miles.”
“That’s five seconds delay for the transmit time,” Andropov said. “We’re going to have to break into the signal at just the right point.”
“Yeah,” Jake said. “With the last solar storm it took the nuclear detonation about twenty seconds to dissipate, but this one is twelve hundred times larger. The Phoenix Organization will be able to see the detonation visually, won’t they?”
“Yes, I’m afraid so,” Andropov said. “Any properly configured telescope will see the detonation.”
“What about the solar storm?” Jake asked. “Would they be able to see that with a telescope?”
“Yes, that too,” Andropov said. “But a CME is easier to see with the proper filters on the satellites, and SOHO has public access, so anyone can see what the satellite sees on their home computer.”
“Then our insertion point is when the detonation fades and the solar flare starts to form.”
“Assuming a flare forms in the first place,” Andropov replied.
“Yeah, assuming.”
* * *
Honi called Brett at the five-minute mark before detonation. “It’s now or never.” She smiled at Jake. “He’s ready,” she whispered. “We sync and switch signals as soon as the nuclear blast fades.” The countdown counter on the computer reached zero and stopped. The screen appeared frozen for a few seconds and then the program closed automatically. “Show time in eight minutes and fifteen seconds.”
&nb
sp; “Where is the bomb?” Andropov asked Dr. Franklin.
“Nestled right next to the Reflector. When the bomb detonates, it’s going to destroy the Reflector satellite at the same time.”
“The Phoenix Organization is going to lose communications with the reflector,” Andropov said. “They’ll know something has gone wrong.”
“Maybe not,” Jake said. “With an EMP that large, they may expect to lose communications, at least for a while.”
Andropov nodded. “Time will tell.”
“Two minutes,” Honi said.
“Dr. Franklin, can you switch to the SOHO satellite now?” Jake asked.
“Retargeting. Satellite acquired, control system responding. We’re good to go.”
“One minute,” Honi said.
Aaron brought up the SOHO link on his secure computer. Everyone crowded around the screen.
“Three, two, one,” Honi counted.
The 1.2 megaton detonation created a brilliant white flash and expanded into a huge glowing fireball. With the emptiness of space, there was no visible shockwave, just the rapid growth of the bright glowing ball. Before it dissipated, a solar flare erupted on the surface of the sun.
“Brett, you getting this? Start morphing your graphics.” She watched the giant fireball gradually fade away. “Almost there. How close are the images? Good. Graphics synchronized, switching signals from live satellite images to computer simulation now.” She waited for the five-second delay from the satellite. “What you see now is our computer graphics. How did it look during the transfer?”
“Seamless,” Aaron replied.
“Brett is switching the other satellites to our control now. All of the incoming data should agree.”
“What if the Phoenix Organization uses the server and the communications network to warn its top people that we took their facility?” Ken asked.
“Aaron?” Honi asked. “Can you get into the server and block any notice the Phoenix Organization might try to send out?”
“Depending on which software they’re using, I can.” Aaron connected to the server and typed in some commands. “Yeah, no problem. Same encryption code. I’ve got control of the server.”
“Okay,” Stafford said. “We need Aaron to stay here and control the server.”
“The trap is set,” Jake said. “Now we wait and see if they take the bait.”
CHAPTER 21
“Are we going to know when the signal is sent to go to the shelters?” Jake asked.
“Oh, yeah,” Honi replied. “Brett is busy with the graphics, so I have Tracy monitoring the burner phones. They shouldn’t be hard to spot—thousands of burner cell phones going off at the same time. It’ll take a few seconds to retrieve the content of the calls. If they’re going to take the bait, when do you think the calls will go out?”
“Well, the detonation took place a little after four this morning. With under eighteen hours travel time for the CME, minus twelve hours warning, I’d say around ten this morning, east coast time—seven on the west coast.”
“That’s in about five hours,” she replied. “I’ll let Tracy know. I just feel like we should be there, not stuck in the middle of Bolivia.”
“Yeah. Fastest time to get back home is ten hours. By then most of the action is going to be over.”
They walked out of the building into the darkness. Jake turned on the light of his M-16 rifle and swept the bright beam around. The ground was actually asphalt paving painted with small squares in six different muted colors, ranging from very light green to dark green, with some brown and black mixed in. The building was covered with the same colors.
“Fractal camouflage,” Jake said. “No wonder it looked like trees from the satellite.”
They walked over to the undamaged saucer covered with a fractal camouflage tarp. The saucer was fifty feet in diameter and ten feet high. Both the top and the bottom were gentle domes with their curve blending to a straight angle that met in a sharp circular edge six feet off the ground. Jake lifted the tarp and looked underneath.
“The door’s open. Has anybody been inside yet?”
Honi shook her head. “Possible radiation hazard. Andropov has to check it out first.”
“So what’s wrong with now?”
“Nothing, I guess. Let’s go get him.”
“I don’t have my radiation suit,” Andropov protested.
Honi put her fists on her hips.
“Okay, okay,” he said. “But if it looks even a little hot, I’m out of there.”
“Agreed,” Jake replied. “We aren’t going to need the camo tarp.” He gave it a hard yank. The whole tarp slid off the saucer and crumpled to the ground in a semicircular pile.
Andropov went into the Osprey and emerged carrying his radiation sensor and a flashlight. He started with the outside surface and crawled underneath the saucer.
“Same signature as the one in New Mexico,” he said. He scrambled out from underneath and continued with checking the ramp, as he slowly entered the saucer. “Element 115 is present. Radiation levels are above background but still within safe levels. They must have been able to shield the passenger compartment from the drive source.”
“So we can come in?” Jake asked.
“Yes. Just don’t touch anything until we know what it does.”
Jake ducked under the circular edge of the saucer; Honi walked straight in. They slowly crept up the ramp. The inside room was circular with a center section raised six inches above the surrounding floor. Two padded seats were mounted in the center on swivels next to a curved console, which formed three-quarters of a circle around the two seats. The outer edge of the room was formed into a continuous padded bench with safety harnesses placed at three-foot intervals. The ceiling sloped down from the curved dome at the top leaving just enough room for someone to sit comfortably on the bench. Jake couldn’t stand up straight unless he stood on or next to the central platform, but Honi could. She walked around the room taking in the sleekness of the design.
Jake stepped up onto the central platform and examined the console.
“Hey. The labels look like they’re in German.”
Andropov came over and looked. “They are. At least it’s not like some of the alien writing I’ve seen. This I can understand.”
“How do we turn on the lights?” Jake asked.
Andropov studied the console. “There’s nothing about lights here. This button says ‘Power’.” Under the label was a circle darkly etched into the console. There were no buttons, knobs or switches. Just the smooth flat light gray surface with words etched above circular and rectangular zones.
Jake reached out and touched the circle under the ‘Power’ label. A quiet whirring noise emanated from the floor.
“No, no, no,” Andropov yelled. “I told you not to touch anything!” He began sweeping his radiation sensor around wildly.
“Actually, you told me not to touch anything until we knew what it did. This turns on the power, just like it said.”
Andropov moved his sensor down to the floor and, stooped over, walked around the center console. “Radiation levels are higher, but still tolerable.”
Honi stepped up on the center platform and sat in the seat on the left. The inner domed ceiling began to glow soft white, which spread to the sloped section around the upper half of the saucer. Suddenly images appeared on the ceiling and the lighted sloped section. Everything around the saucer was visually clear, as if it was daylight and the sides didn’t exist at all.
Jake could see three Army soldiers turning toward the saucer. He saw their mouths move as the sound was filtering in through the open doorway. Dave Smith of the President’s Unit came running out of the building. A soldier pointed to the ramp on the saucer and Dave came running on in.
“What the hell are you guys doing?”
“We seem to have gained a functioning saucer,” Jake said. “Now all we have to do is figure out how to fly it home.”
“Oh, no you don’t. We
have experienced pilots for that. You aren’t qualified to fly anything. I’ve read your service jacket, now shut this thing down before you get somebody killed.”
“The longer this saucer sets here, the more likely the other saucer is to return,” Jake said. “And it may not be alone. We need to move it sooner rather than later.”
Dave pursed his lips and looked around the inside of the saucer. “We were planning on lifting it out with a CH-47 Chinook helicopter. But we can’t get one in here until noon, seven and a half hours from now.”
“We would like to be back in Washington when the rest of this goes down,” Jake said.
“So would we,” Dave replied. He looked at the round bench seat circling the room. As Dave’s eyes moved jerkily from one harness to another, Jake could see him assessing the space for his team.
“Do you have any certified pilots in your unit?” Jake asked.
“Yeah,” Dave replied slowly.
“Any of them read German?”
Dave looked at the console. “Unfortunately, no, we don’t.”
Jake smiled. “Let me guess. You’re the pilot.”
Dave smiled. “Actually, two of us are pilots, but neither of us knows any German.”
“Andropov knows German. So what are we waiting for?”
“We don’t know how this thing operates and we don’t know about navigation. We don’t even know what kind of fuel it uses.”
“The Professor said one of these saucers flew to Mars and back. I’m guessing fuel isn’t going to be an issue, and if one of these saucers went to Mars and back, the navigation system has to be pretty sophisticated and easy to use. In fact I’d bet the flight controls are user friendly, as well.”
Dave looked closely at the console. Jake could almost see the wheels turning in Dave’s mind.
“Sit in this seat,” Jake suggested.
Dave walked around the console and sat next to Honi. He studied the words on the console and observed what was happening outside the saucer by looking at the walls.
“Anyone have a black marker?” Andropov asked.
“There are some inside the building.” Dave used his radio. Thirty seconds later one of his men handed him the marker.