Element 94

by Kleiner Jeffries

  “I’ve heard rumors of such a capability for some time now – are you telling me your forces are armed and ready to go?” Kelly asked

  “Yes. It’s part of the standard package on each of our missile boats. The Truman battle group has two cruisers – both are equipped.”

  “And what about Udeen spotters. If they see it coming?”

  “It can be detonated some distance away, and it can be delivered at a relatively low altitude, below the protective cover of radar. It shouldn’t raise much suspicion. The capacitors will initiate an electromagnetic wave that will propagate unidirectionally, and reach Udeen virtually instantaneously.”

  “General, has the mettle of this device ever been tested in a real world scenario?” the national security advisor interjected.

  “Mr Weintraub, this device has undergone over a decade’s worth of testing. It works.” Responded Fitzpatrick somewhat curtly. It wasn’t good enough for the NSA.

  “General, have we ever deployed a weapon deemed ready for the field, with results that were counter to what was expected based upon thorough pre-deployment testing?” The question was deemed rhetorical by the General, who did not offer an answer. Q now turned to the President and stated his case.

  “Mr. President, we can hunt Udeen down in due course, when the time is right. Please - do not act precipitpously.”

  “When will the time be right then, Q? Tell me that.”

  “For Christ sake Josh, we know full well that they actually can destroy the planet! How can you even consider this!” The passion in the NSA’s voice compelled the room to silence. After a brief, uneasy pause, the discussion continued.

  “Sam, what alternative do we have?” The President was obviously not convinced by the argument posed by his close advisor.

  “I don’t know, but there’s got to be a safer way? Bill…” Q looked at Kelly now, seemingly turning to the intelligence officer for support. Every head was suddenly trained in his direction, ready to hear the respected opinion of the counter-terrorism czar.

  “Nothing is completely risk free” Kelly started, picking up on the cue. “And the consequences of failure couldn’t be higher. But we have solid intel now on the bomb design, and from what the General tells me, this device will buy us the time we need.” Kelly was now eyeing his friend across the room, who expressed what increasingly appeared to be a dissenting opinion. Turning now to the President, Kelly continued.

  “Sir, you asked what alternative we have. In my opinion, we don’t have one. Udeen will be able to blackmail us in perpetuity if we don’t squash this threat right now. So no Q, we won’t be able to hunt them down piecemeal at some future juncture.” Again the piercing gaze was turned towards the NSA. “If we don’t wipe them out now, there will be nothing and no one to stop them down the road. As I see it, this is our only window of opportunity. Once Udeen disperses, it will be impossible to counter this threat. Right now, they’re conspicuously nestled in full view, confident we would not dare strike. I think it’s an opening and a risk we’ve got to take, or else Ra’ed will forever have a knife to our throats. And that is just unacceptable.”

  “And if this strike fails?” asked Q

  “We won’t fail” Groves announced peremptorily to the select few assembled in the White House planning room. The President had made his decision.

  Fitzpatrick cornered Kelly as the meeting adjourned. The General noted that Q had not budged from his seat, but knew full well that no argument could reverse the President’s decision and the present course of events, although he did not doubt it wouldn’t be for lack of trying.

  “Bill, how much time do your men need?”

  “General, we both know there is no time to spare. Do what you have to do – I’ll have my men out of there.”

  “Fine. The San Jacinto is ready for launch”, Fitzpatrick stated, referring to one of the two missile cruisers in the battle group. “We’ll prepare for countdown”.

  A silence suddenly filled the valley and hills. The perpetual roar of jetfighters and the occasional detonation of a bomb had ceased altogether – the American fighter jets had been called back!

  Ra’ed still fingered the triggering device – he would keep it on hand, but thankfully it did not appear he would need to use the suicidal weapon Abul had designed. Faarooq had already made contact, and as expected the Americans were now fleeing to their aircraft carrier.

  “Aasim, be prepared to leave” Ra’ed ordered. They would be leaving the area in short order, once confirmation of American visual assets were safely out of range. Udeen would disperse in all directions, and overhead satellites would never be able to determine which way he had escaped. Some would make their way North, into the safety of Algeria, along with the weapon, while Ra’ed and a select few guards would escape to the south. Trusted allies and safehouses were scattered throughout the globe – it would be impossible for the Americans to hunt them all down. Besides, if any danger emerged, they always had their trump card – the ultimate weapon – ready to threaten their adversaries. Ra’ed had not yet developed an overarching strategy to leverage this asset, but he would not be kept in hiding long. He now commanded the most powerful force on the planet, and nothing could halt the advance of Sayf Udeen on the world stage. Nations would accept them, and everything they represented, or die – it was that simple.

  The USS San Jacinto missile cruiser of the battle group Harry S. Truman positioned her vertical launcher in the ready position, and fired the first ever block IV, HEME (high energy microwave emission) technology-equipped Tomahawk cruise missile in a live-battle situation. The weapon quickly glided over the landline, flying at an ultra-low altitude at a subsonic speed of 550 miles per hour to disguise her presence from the invisible eyes of enemy radar. The guidance system on the missile was pre-programmed to drop the weapon into the rural hills of Northwest Africa, well out of range of any human inhabitants. The HEME system, however, would be programmed to deliver an invisible electrical burst of energy prior to her downward descent, which would be propagated for more than a thousand meters - well into the depths of Sayf Udeen’s lair. The electromagnetic wave would travel unnoticed through living tissues. Sophisticated computer equipment and electronics, however, would not hold up so well under the bombardment from 3 billion watts of microwave energy. Military brass described the weapon as “an invisible, man-made lightning bolt”, and added “there were no surge protectors that could offer protection against such a force”. Accordingly, the Pentagon planners felt no one in the Udeen camps would have a clue as to what was unfolding until it was too late. The planned strike was elegant in its simplicity; it was not element 94 per se the U.S. forces intended to incapacitate, but rather its triggering mechanism. The electronics on board the bomb should be susceptible to just such an attack.

  It would ultimately be up to the air force to ensure the terrorist organization would not have time to bypass the fried circuitry. Fitzpatrick had yet another surprise in store for his adversaries.

  “Mr. President, the San Jacinto has confirmed launch – we’re switching to real-time visual”. The nation’s security and military leaders convened in the Pentagon war room to follow the events as they unfolded. On the screen, the cameras of the Tomahawk cruise missile relayed a direct visual, and radar from the Truman battle group tracked the trajectory and flight path of the weapon on an electrical silhouette of the region. It was not long before the fateful announcement was made.

  “The capacitors have discharged”. Within seconds, the cruise missile could be seen falling harmlessly out of the sky on the visual and radar images.

  “What now?” asked the President.

  “We wait…and we pray” replied General Fitzpatrick. The statement seemed out of character for the nation’s top military leader, but the magnitude of the assault drove even the assured General to galvanize the nebulous power of religious faith in order to see them safely through this epochal day.

  “Pegasus, you are cleared for takeoff.”

/>   “Roger, echo one” The pilot of the C-130 combat plane responded just prior to sending his aircraft hurling down the runway of the American air base in central Germany. After takeoff, the plane veered due south and made its way across Switzerland, Italy, and the Mediterranean Sea, finally making her approach to the mainland of Africa. Prior to entering Algerian airspace, the combat talon dipped to an impressively low altitude of 250 feet, out of sight of enemy radar. Advanced terrain-avoidance sensors would safely navigate the American plane across 1,500 miles of uneven topography to her final destination.

  Mack and his team of five operatives rounded up the Udeen captives in their custody, and immediately headed back through the hills from where they had come. The American strategy had been relayed only moments earlier, and there was not much time to make it beyond the perimeter of safety. The operations chief had already planned the escape route long before the order from Kelly was received. The protective air supremacy of the U.S. fighters had evaporated, and Udeen soldiers now littered the hillsides preparing for a mass exodus. The road home would be treacherous.

  After an arduous hike through the surrounding mountain pass, Mack and his team arrived at their vehicles unscathed. They drove along the serpentine path Westward, traversing the Westernmost of the Udeen mountains. As they began their descent into the adjoining valley, a high-pitched screech suddenly sounded overhead, piercing the company’s attention. Mack ordered the caravan of cars to a halt and stepped out onto the dirt road. He looked upward, but could see nothing. The noise soon faded, almost as quickly as it had come. “What the hell?” the veteran said to himself; it was an unfamiliar sound, not like any other he had heard in his many years of military service. He immediately checked his GPS unit to confirm they were out of harm’s way, but found it dead. That was strange. The USS Harry S. Truman should have them on visual surveillance by now – he decided to call in to the carrier fleet. The radio wasn’t working either.

  “Sir, we have confirmation – a fifteen hundred square foot area has been blacked out”.

  “Very Well” replied the general. Fitzpatrick turned to his left, where Kelly and President Groves were attentively following the events as they unfolded. The missile had successfully discharged its payload; only time would tell if they had sufficiently disabled the Udeen bomb. At this point, there was no turning back.

  “Pegasus is a go”. Fitzpatrick was talking to his assistants, who immediately mobilized to various control centers to carry out the order. Many of the civilian officials in the Pentagon war room now looked at the General, a puzzled expression on their faces.

  A powerful wave of electromagnetic energy travelling at the speed of light struck the mountain ranges of Northwest Africa just as the sun was beginning to rise to mark the beginning of another day. The low frequency, high wavelength emissions were reflected and absorbed by the thick earth and rock, but would find their way through the ventilation shafts and numerous antennae of the Sayf Udeen stronghold. They passed through the members of the organization with no mark and leaving no ill effects in their wake, organic tissue immune to its effects. The propagation of the electromagnetic force, however, would prove exquisitely lethal to any device consisting of sophisticated electrical circuitry. Sayf Udeen was dependent on a number of computer systems and radar that remained functional around-the-clock, and it was thus immediately apparent when the microwave energy short-circuited every complex electronic device in the region. The communication grids and every other capability dependent upon such circuitry were rendered useless.

  Ra’ed was awakened prematurely shortly after the blackout struck.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Ra’ed asked his subordinate, dumfounded.

  “Our electrical systems are not functioning.”

  “Which ones?” asked the Udeen leader.

  “None of them. Every device is short-circuited, sir.”

  “Every device”, Ra’ed repeated, unable to fathom what was being relayed to him. He automatically checked the triggering device for the bomb that had been with him at all times. There was no signal.

  “How did this happen?” the supreme leader demanded to know.

  “Sayid, we are not sure…” The reply fell short as Ra’ed eyed the man with a venomous gaze, as if to imply the disaster was due to some act of incompetence on their part. The terrible truth, which they all suspected even at this early juncture, was that the current predicament was no mere act of fate. That somehow, the Americans had effected this sabotage. Some incredible new weapon must have been unleashed upon the stronghold and incapacitated their equipment with no warning whatsoever, rendering them totally defenseless.

  “Get Abul in here, now!” ordered Ra’ed. The scientist might be able to salvage some way to detonate their weapon manually.

  “Sir, we sent a party to retrieve the doctor as soon as we learned of the blackout…he is missing.”

  “Well you find him!”

  “Sir, his personal bodyguards have been slain.” The reply made it abundantly clear Abul would not be at their disposal anytime soon. Chafing with frustration now, Ra’ed screamed “Then find me someone else…anyone that can fix that bomb!” The words were spoken in desperation, the leader already digesting the awful truth - that their Dhul Fiqaar, their Islamic bomb, was most likely beyond repair. A completely new triggering system would take days to build.

  No one responded to the outburst as Ra’ed continued to seethe in silence. There was simply nothing to be said – Sayf Udeen was out of options. All except one that is; it was time to run.

  “Sir, all preparations for departure have been finalized.” Aasim spoke the words matter-of-factly. It was the guard’s way of implying it was no longer safe for Ra’ed to remain in the base. The practicality of the words had a surprisingly calming effect on the leader, as if jostling his energies to more productive and immediate concerns.

  “Yes, we must leave this place at once” Ra’ed responded in agreement. The inevitability of what was to come next was abundantly clear: the Americans were coming. Only this time, it was not simply equipment they would be looking to destroy.

  Before Fitzpatrick could muster an answer, Q pointed to an incoming signal from the Truman’s radar making its way across landfall. “What’s that?” the NSA asked as the bogey quickly approached the theater of interest.

  “That’s a little surprise I’ve got planned” Fitzpatrick responded. With the nuclear threat eliminated, they could now bring to bear the awesome capability of American air power and deliver the finishing blow. The second of Fitzpatrick’s one-two punch combination was critical to make sure Udeen did not get a chance to get their weapon up and running after the initial strike.

  “Let’s just hope she gets there in time”

  Mack and his unit continued their journey Westward, well past the area of electronic disruption caused by the HEME device released from the Tomahawk. There were no working radios within the company, and it would be some time before they would arrive at the designated rendezvous point and be able to retrieve functional communications gear. For the time being, they would be cut off from Kelly and the rest of the world.

  “Mack, check that out” Stevie said, pointing skyward. A plane could be seen approaching, flying at a relatively low altitude. The telltale humming of turbo-prop engines could be heard shortly thereafter.

  “Looks like a C-130” the operations chief replied.

  “Sure does” replied Stevie. The plane soon passed their position and flew out of view over the hillside to their rear.

  “Get ready for one heck of a bang” Mack said triumphantly.

  “Echo one, this is Pegasus. We are over the target area – repeat, we are over the target area”

  “Roger Pegasus, you are cleared for landing”. The encoded message indicated the mission was a go; the payload was to be delivered.

  The two pilots of the MC-130H combat talon momentarily looked at one another, and then opened the cargo bay of the aircraft. A single hu
ge parachute opened, dragging its load out of the airplane. 20,000 pounds of explosives began floating downward over what had been designated the Sayf Udeen mountain range.

  Ra’ed’s jeep screeched onto the dirt path, fighting its way up the mountain to the East. The small convoy was desperately making its way out of the region, but the rugged terrain limited travel to no more than 40 miles per hour. Not more than a handful of minutes had passed when the approaching aircraft made its presence known. Udeen’s air defenses were effectively knocked out, and the American fighter brazenly flew overhead in broad daylight. She made no attempt to conceal her intentions as the payload was delivered from her expansive fuselage.

  Ra’ed looked up at the tiny dot of the truck-sized bomb, which could easily be discerned with the naked eye. The Southerly breeze seemed like a blessing from above as the massive device was buffeted away by the air currents. Had the Americans made an error in judgement? Ra’ed wondered as he saw the bomb fall harmlessly along the horizon.

  The answer came suddenly as the weapon detached from its parachute and veered closer to Udeen’s stronghold, as if guided by some magic hand. The flame of an engine could now be seen as the payload descended towards their location, steering itself with uncanny precision.

  “Stop the car!” Ra’ed ordered.

  “What is it, Sayid?” asked the bodyguard driving. The vehicle immediately came to a halt. Ra’ed stepped out of the car, reached into his pocket, and removed his cellular transmitter. Without hesitation, he pressed a button while holding the transmitter aloft. Again no response came from the defunct device.