The automatic detonator clock in the control console, located against the wall of the superstructure where the missile exploded, disintegrated at a count of 1.75 seconds. The onboard receiver for Sadim’s remote manual detonator was demolished a half second before his signal arrived.
The Fortson sailed on. Crouched and rubbing his eyes, the captain yelled, “Light off your radars. Find that helicopter and take it out!”
The massive air search radar above them began rotating while Teri pushed buttons to reload the one undamaged launcher rail with an antiaircraft missile. Hugh realized he was breathing again.
Ten seconds later Thomas Dobbs reported, “Contact identified, bearing one-six-five, range one-two miles.”
Teri linked her fire control radars to the air search information. One of the powerful radars swiveled around and sent a pencil beam of energy out to illuminate the target. “Locked on!” she announced.
“Confirmed!” Hugh said.
“Fire!” called the captain.
There was another fireball from a second missile leaving the launcher.
As Sadim pressed the buttons on the detonator, they all looked away, out to sea, expecting a brilliant flash to turn night into searing day. But there was no flash. Sadim cursed again and turned to look back toward New York. There he could see a small illumination, like a fire, about where the Bright Star should be.
As he pushed the detonator buttons again and tried to figure out what he was seeing, there came another flash. But this time a bright star appeared to lift up and begin a quick journey in their direction. Instantly he knew what it was.
“Incoming missile!” he screamed.
The pilot immediately dove the helicopter toward the ocean and tried to run out to sea. But the fire control radar on the Fortson remained locked on, and Sadim watched in horror as the missile drew ever closer, homing on the reflected radiation bouncing off the helicopter’s fuselage.
Kolikov screamed and tried to open the cabin door.
There was a tremendous explosion over the ocean, and the helicopter was no more.
The Fortson turned to starboard and circled the Bright Star, trying to assess the damage and the condition of the bomb. Looking through the big eyes, a signalman reported that he could see the bomb still resting on its tower, unharmed. But there were fires burning in the superstructure. Captain Robertson told Radio to send the precoded signals that meant: Best possible results. Command and control damaged. Bomb appears intact. Send fire-boats. No radioactivity detected. Mission accomplished.
Within thirty seconds the message from the Fortson was relayed from the Situation Room to the ballroom in New York. Everyone clapped and cheered. Everyone except William and his sister Mary. They were standing together near the speaker phone when the message arrived. Silently they joined hands. William looked over at her and saw the same tears, the same peace, and the same joy he had first seen forty years ago in the pew at St. Stephen’s Church.
“It’s going to be all right,” he whispered.
“I know,” she said, tears streaming down her face.
“Not just here. I mean America,” he explained.
“Yes, yes, I know,” she said. Turning to face him, she smiled through her tears. “Thank God.”
William offered her his handkerchief.
“If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.”
JEREMIAH 18:7-10
Afterword
My wife encouraged me for quite a while to write a book “about the government.” Like most who consider that God made us and we do well to listen to his instructions, she and I share an increasing sense of frustration and pending disaster as our government in all three of its branches seems to jettison one proven biblical principle after the other. And we, like others, ask, “Why?”
Her advice was well taken, but how to approach the government in a work of fiction? I decided to write about a hypothetical administration several years from now, in which the events in the future are the direct results of seeds that are being sown today. After a short historic introduction, the perspective of the book shifts, as you know, to “just over the horizon,” to the world we are creating for ourselves in only a few years if we don’t mend our ways.
Having chosen that approach, I was then faced with two challenges. The first, sadly, was that as I wrote, trying to describe actions that our government will take in the future but that still seem far-fetched today, the challenge was to keep the fiction ahead of today’s headlines! Over the past two years, as I would imagine some absurd situation or government action, reality kept catching up with me almost faster than I could write.
I must therefore issue an apology to the reader if some of the subjects and scenes in this book were neither pleasant nor godly. But I truly believe that they either represent our nation today or will all too soon. I tried to keep these situations to a minimum, while still communicating the tragic course on which I believe we are now set. Unless we recognize what we are doing to ourselves in all its reality, we cannot hope to be saved from it. I tried to use nonoffensive language to describe these situations, but I apologize if the concepts described still offended. Be aware that they offend me as well; but like a wound that needs to be cleaned to stop the infection, sometimes situations such as the ones described herein have to be brought out into the open and confronted in order to be healed.
The second challenge was much more positive. It involved rediscovering what the founding fathers really meant for this nation to be, and particularly the important role they saw for the Christian faith in our country. That challenge led me to study some of their original works and to read many excellent contemporary nonfiction books on this subject, which go to the heart of our problems today.
Most of these books are listed below. I am indebted to these authors for refining and polishing the many facets of the current debate on the proper role of faith in our government. Many, many of the statements by the fictional characters in this book began as concepts I first read about in these nonfiction works. It would be presumptuous of me to imply that these authors in any way approve of what you have read here; they have not. But hopefully on many issues this book can serve as a fictional complement to their works of nonfiction.
I am particularly indebted to David Barton and Gary DeMar. Both of these men and their staffs have spent untold hours over many years researching, documenting, and cataloging the original writings of our founding fathers, and both of them have written extensively on these subjects. Each one pointed me in fruitful directions on important but subtle distinctions. Most of the quotations from historic figures found in this book I read first in Barton’s and DeMar’s works. I highly recommend all of their books, and each man publishes a periodic newsletter.
I hope God both challenged and blessed you as you read this book, as he did me in writing it. My family hopes that your family will be blessed in considering anew the true foundations of this country, as well as the actions we must take as a nation in order to put our house in order.
If you are interested in reading more on this subject, I suggest the following books, all of which were helpful to me in considering the proper balance between faith and government, and the key role of Christianity in our American history. Most but not all of these are Christian in their worldview, but all will challenge you to a deeper understanding of the miracle we call America.
Barton, David. The Myth of Separation. Aledo, Tex.: WallBuilder Press, 1992.
Bauer, Gary L Our Journey Home. Dallas: Word Publishing, 1992.
Bennett, William J. The De-Valuing of America. Colorado Springs: Focus on the Family Publishing, 1992.
Colson, Charle
s W., with Ellen Santilli Vaughn. The Body. Dallas: Word Publishing, 1992.
Colson, Charles W, with Nancy R Pearcey. A Dance With Deception. Dallas: Word Publishing, 1993.
Colson, Charles W., with Ellen Santilli Vaughn. Kingdoms in Conflict. William Morrow/Zondervan Publishing House, 1987.
DeMar, Gary. Americas Christian History. Atlanta: American Vision, Inc., 1993.
DeMar, Gary. You’ve Heard It Said. Brentwood, Tenn.: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, 1991.
Federer, William J. America’s God and Country. Coppell, Tex.: FAME Publishing, Inc., 1994.
Grant, George. The Family Under Siege. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1994.
Grant, George and Peter J. Leithart. In Defense of Greatness. Fort Lauderdale: Coral Ridge Ministries, 1990.
Guinness, Os. The American Hour. New York: The Free Press, 1993.
Knott, Paul D. Remaking America: The Values Revolution. Denver: Colorado Family Services, 1993.
Leithart, Peter J. The Kingdom and the Power. Phillipsburg, N.J.: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1993.
Lutzer, Erwin W. Where Do We Go From Here? Chicago: Moody Press, 1993.
Marshall, Peter, and David Manuel. The Light and the Glory. Tarrytown, N. Y.: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1977.
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