The MakoShark passed under both aircraft with less than fifty feet of separation, and it passed under in less than a half second, leaving behind a trail of violent turbulence that shocked the pilots and the weapons systems’ operators who were concentrating on reaching well number eight.
With the rocket motors shut down and the turbojet throttles set at full retard, the MakoShark did not even leave a visual trail.
It left two Tornado pilots fighting catastrophe and panic. In the rearview screen, McKenna saw the lead plane leap up abruptly, then turn completely over, nosing into a spin. The wingman fought to keep his plane upright and nearly collided with his flight leader.
McKenna didn’t think they would spot Delta Yellow, even by accident.
Nine
The telephone jangled shrilly in the middle of the night. Felix Eisenach detested phone calls in the middle of the night.
He rolled over and sat up, shaking his head.
The telephone rang again.
“What is it, Felix?”
“I do not know yet, Marta. Go back to sleep.”
His wife was good at taking orders. She rolled over, away from him, as he picked up the receiver.
“Eisenach.”
“Diederman here. We have a problem, General.”
“So, tell me, Hans, what is the problem.”
“The dome of Platform Eight has been blown out.”
“What! How?”
“I’m at the platform now, General. I have one man dead, and five injured by falling debris. We’re sending them… ”
“What damage?”
A long pause, then Diederman responded, “There are three very large holes in the upper dome, fifty meters above the deck. That is in what we call attic space. But large pieces of debris crashed through the ceiling of the upper dormitory, and that is where the casualties… ”
“The equipment, Hans? Is it still operating?”
“Yes, of course. Structural and engineering damage is minimal.”
“The cause?”
“Obviously an attack from outside sources, General. Nothing else would explain the kind of damage I see. The dome imploded.”
“The Soviets?”
“I have no idea, General Eisenach. No one saw the intruders. No radar contacts, no visual sightings.”
“You have talked to Weismann?”
“Two of his aircraft were in the area. They saw nothing, but they complained of running through heavy turbulence.”
“It is the Americans, then. It was their stealth aircraft.” Diederman did not respond.
“This will require investigation.”
“You will tell the High Command?” Diederman asked.
“I will leave here shortly. I want you to prepare a full report.”
“Of course, General. Perhaps you would visit the hospital at Bremerhaven and speak to the injured men.”
“Yes, perhaps. Later.”
It was eleven o’clock at night, Themis time, before Amy Pearson and Donna Amber got the film packs from Delta Yellow.
It was one in the morning by the time the two of them had developed the film and run the video comparisons with similar wells in California, Italy, Mexico, Japan, and New Zealand. They worked on the computer terminals in the Radio Shack, and McKenna, Munoz, Conover, and Abrams hung around in the Command Center, poking their heads into the Shack every few minutes to check on progress.
“What do you think, Donna?” Pearson asked.
There were two images on the monitor, the screen split to show the infrared image of well number eight situated next to an infrared image of a well located near the Sierra Nevadas and operated by the California Power Company.
“Well, Colonel, the sites are different. The California well is located on land and doesn’t have the same spread of heat in the soil as the German well has in the water. Ignoring the outer edges, though, and concentrating on the core, they look just about the same.”
McKenna floated through the hatchway, took one look at the screen, and said, “You were right, Amy. Geothermal tap.”
“Damned right, McKenna.” Even though it rankled a little, she felt as if a compliment were in order and added, “You did a good job.”
“Not all my doing. Tony pulled the trigger. And while I think about it, I’d like to have you send Mabry Evans one or two of those pictures, so he gets some feedback on how his ordnance worked.”
“All right, I’ll do that.”
Donna Amber said, “I don’t get it, at all. If we’ve got geothermal wells in California, why can’t the Germans have them?”
“On the legal side, you’re probably right, Donna,” McKenna said.
“The purposes will be the same,” Pearson said. “It’s an energy source. Tap into superheated steam and boiling water, and use it to run turbines coupled to generators, transforming the steam energy into electrical energy. Typically, there’s a primary well, extracting the steam and boiling water. It’s run through the turbines, then the cooled water is injected back into the earth’s crust through a secondary well. The spectrograph shows some steam containing earth elements. Sulphur, primarily. Lots of condensation. There’s no excessive salt content, so it’s fresh water, rather than seawater.”
“The California wells exhaust a lot of steam,” Amber pointed out.
Pearson pointed to the storage tanks mounted to the back side of the dome. “I suspect that is what these tanks are for, a series of traps used to reduce the quantity of byproduct steam. It disguises the true nature of the well.”
“There’s still some vapor emitted from the fifth tank,” McKenna said.
“Yes. And then again, perhaps they’ve developed a method to extract yet more energy from equipment placed in those external tanks,” Pearson said. “That would give them a primary source and several secondary sources, plus hiding the vapor output.”
“It’s a hell of an undertaking. As I recall most of those wells have to go down twenty-some miles,” McKenna said. “Plus doing it offshore. Some geologist discovered the right location.”
“Maybe they found some undersea geysers?” Amber said.
“I doubt it, in that area,” Pearson told her. “But obviously, like Kevin says, the Germans have a geologist who guessed right. And Donna, a geyser is useful if it’s hot enough, but a geyser produces both steam and water. Steam alone is better, and that’s called a fumarole. Down in the earth’s crust are fractures which collect the steam and trap it in place. The objective of drilling a well is to hit one of those fractures.”
“If they’re just energy taps,” Amber asked, “why hide them at all?”
“Two reasons,” Pearson said.
“We’d better put in a call to Cheyenne Mountain,” McKenna told her.
She checked her watch. “It’s eleven-thirty there.”
“Hell, Amy, I’ll make the call. It’s the best time of all to get a general out of bed,” McKenna said. “It gives you a chance to see them operating at their best.”
Gen. Marvin Brackman called Hannibal Cross at his home in Arlington Heights.
“You know what the hell time it is, Marvin?”
“I know, Hannibal. But you’ll want to hear this. I’ve got a set of pictures, and they’re being transferred to your office by data link.”
“You’ve confirmed that the wells are geothermal taps, then?”
“We think so, yes. Pearson says she’s ninety-nine percent sure.”
“Generating electricity?” Cross asked.
“Almost certainly.”
“That fits in with some information the CIA has developed. Quite a bit of German industry has been converted to electrical usage. New plants are driven by it. Older plants have been switched to coal from fuel oil. What do you suppose the electrical output is, Marvin?”