“I mean, Colonel, you still got to figure out how to get there, but it’ll work.”
“Damned right,” Munoz said. “If we put all the vulnerable aspects together, we can make it work.”
“Tony,” McKenna said, “get on a secure channel to Wet Country. Tell Lynn and Ben to load up a couple electromagnetic generators and every battery they can find and hustle back here. I’ve got a call to make”
McKenna went back to Spoke One and his office. He placed his call to the Office of the Chairman on a scrambled phone circuit.
The duty officer put him right through, and the Chairman himself answered.
“Cross.”
“Admiral, this is Colonel McKenna. Is General Brackman there?”
“He’s in the can. Maybe it’s something I can answer for you?”
“We don’t need answers, Admiral. I’ve got an attack plan for you.”
“Jesus, McKenna. Already?”
“We spent nearly twenty minutes on it,” McKenna said.
“Sorry. I thought maybe you’d rushed through it. Tell me about it.”
McKenna told him.
“Son of a bitch. You’re sure it’ll work?”
“I’m sure.”
“It requires a volunteer,” Cross said.
“Already taken care of, sir.”
“Who?”
“Me.”
“Shit. We don’t want to lose you, Colonel.”
“You won’t. Promise.”
“Go ahead and get your stuff together. But no go until I personally give you the word.”
“How soon could that be, Admiral?”
“Another two, three hours, anyway. We’ve got to push it through the committees. You understand that, don’t you?”
“All too well, Admiral.”
Until he stepped from the ladder to the steel matting, Aleksander Maslov had not realized how tired he was.
He and Nikitin had been getting their rest in short spurts, frequently in the confines of their environmental suits, and he knew it was inadequate. Fatigue would creep up on him at the most inopportune moment.
But there was so much yet to be done, and there was no one else to do it. Maslov stood at the bottom of the ladder and worked his helmet loose.
General Druzhinin was walking across the runway toward him, beaming.
“Aleksander Illiyich!”
“Comrade General.”
“You and Boris are wonderful! Look around us! We are a viable and a visible force, and it is because of your magnificent efforts.”
“I admit that I was surprised to see such a welcoming runway, Comrade General,” Nikitin said.
“And it gets better from here on, Major. Our position is secure.”
“It will be more secure,” Maslov said, “when we get the next propulsion unit into space. I believe, also, that we should add a second umbilical cable. The more I think about it, we could be vulnerable for nearly an hour after a launch, while the next rocket is being prepared.”
“But, Aleksander, we shall never have to launch the first,” Druzhinin said.
“I am not so certain, General.”
Druzhinin peered intently at Maslov’s eyes and apparently read his sincerity.
“You need a long rest, Aleksander. How would it be if you and Boris took an airplane and flew to Phnom Penh for twenty-four hours of recreation?”
“Perhaps, Comrade General, after we have the second rocket in place. That is essential, I believe.”
Druzhinin nodded slowly.
“We will sleep for… for six hours while the spacecraft is serviced and the rocket segment loaded aboard.”
“If you think that best, Aleksander.”
“We have a toehold on the beach, General, but we need to have both feet firmly planted.”
Pearson received a call from her friend at the National Security Agency, a civilian analyst named Walt MacDonald. She had never met him in person, but the two of them had worked together on several projects.
“I understand there’s been a change,” he said.
“What’s that, Walt?”
“Am I supposed to address you as ‘Full Bird,’ now?”
She laughed. “That won’t be necessary.”
“Congratulations, anyway. You owe me a beer.”
“Come on up and get it.”
“Ah, well, we’ll wait until you’re down sometime. Look, Amy, my section’s been monitoring a piece of Southeast Asia at your request, particularly a brand-new airfield that showed up today.”
“Right.”
“We’ve got a Teal Ruby in geostationary orbit for that task, and we just picked up something interesting.”
“How interesting, Walt?”
“One of your MakoSharks just landed on this airstrip. In broad daylight. Didn’t give a damn who saw it. I suppose it’s the one that went AWOL.”
“Damn. You’re sure?”
“I’m sure. Pretty arrogant, as far as I’m concerned. We ought to complain to the UN.”
“They don’t belong to the UN,” she said.
“There’s always a hitch, isn’t there?”
Chapter Nineteen
McKenna got the call at eleven o’clock in the morning, Themis time, considerably later than he had wanted, but somewhat earlier than he had expected.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff asked, “What’s your status, Colonel?”
“All but ready to roll, Admiral. The equipment has been modified and is being tested now.”
“It’s a go, McKenna. As soon as you can.”
“Roger that, sir.”
The runway lights blinked out behind them as the MakoShark rolled into a sluggish right turn. The weight of the SS-X-25 solid-fuel stage, taking up both cargo bays, made the craft feel ponderous and, Maslov thought, very susceptible to hostile action.
He retracted the landing gear and flaps, but left the throttles in their full-forward position. He was in a steep climb, and the velocity crept upward with apparent slowness, achieving three hundred knots, then 325.
Looking back over his shoulder, he could no longer see the runway, though there were a few lights at the southern end of the clearing. General Druzhinin had terminated the night training flights now that he felt they were a recognized military force. From now on, he had declared, their flight training would be accomplished in the light of day, afraid of no one.
“This, Boris, is becoming much like the schedule of a freight train.”
“Four more flights and we will have all of the rockets in space, Aleks. Then we can relax.”
“You are beginning to sound much like Druzhinin” Maslov said. “Do you really think the Americans will stand around and watch that happen?”
“What do you mean?”
“Chairman Shelepin seems to think that since the United Nations has not responded to his declaration, the New World Order is now a fact of life.”
“And you do not, Aleks?”
“I think we should not have advertised the existence of New World Air Base, nor our control of Soyuz Fifty, until all four rockets were usable. In other words, Boris, we should not yet become complacent.”
“Perhaps I should perform a few scans with the radar,” Nikitin said, his voice betraying a regained nervousness.
“You would not see them anyway,” Maslov said. “We will just have to remain alert.”
The velocity had topped six hundred knots, and the Head-Up Display altimeter read thirty-two thousand feet.
“Right now, Boris, let us prepare for rocket ignition.”
“Of course, Aleks. We want a two-minute burst of the rockets at one hundred percent thrust, then we have an eleven minute wait for the window.”
“Amy, Walt MacDonald.”
“Are you working every shift, Walt?”
“When it gets interesting, I like to stick around the old fort.”