At the eighty-foot mark, the explosion of the Semtex compound ignited the fuel in missile 16’s booster rocket. The dual explosions breached the skin of the flawed warhead, and the eighteen-hundred-degree heat of the explosions ignited the HE.
It was in this manner that a thermonuclear explosion occurred atop what had previously been a lush Caribbean island called Mango Cay.
The breach in the warhead’s skin permitted a significant percentage of the energy released by the HE blast to escape. In the end, this meant that Cooper had managed to deliver only a low-efficiency nuclear explosion amounting to a yield of under one-half of one percent of the potential of a technically sound W-76 warhead. The blast nonetheless laid its wrath upon the world immediately surrounding its flash point.
The detonation vaporized the hill and decimated every item within the missile cavern, including the ignition and trigger mechanisms for Deng’s secret, forty-third missile. A rim of water extending two hundred feet from shore immediately boiled, while an eight-foot tidal wave spread at great speed in an expanding circle from the explosion’s epicenter. Instantaneously generated winds of nearly 250 miles per hour churned the atmosphere and the ocean’s surface across a five-mile radius from ground zero.
Nearby, the USS Scavenger incurred debilitating structural damage and was nearly capsized by the one-two punch of the initial blast concussion and subsequent tidal wave. Beneath the surface of the ocean, the force behind the initial concussive blast was reduced by nearly fifty percent per quarter mile, so that the initial sledgehammer strike of the blast wave had less impact on the Hampton than on the Scavenger-but still, the Hampton’s crew, along with its limited civilian guest roster, got tossed around the sub like confetti in a windstorm.
Some repair work necessitated a delay in the provision of medical attention to the civilians in the Hampton’s SEAL Hole, but once Captain Sampson regained control of the vessel and conditions returned to normal, the civilians were taken to the sick bay and treated by the submarine’s excellent medical staff.
Cooper and Laramie snoozed through the whole ordeal.
65
Of the fourteen Tridents that were able to clear the Mango Cay vicinity, only missiles 3 and 13 penetrated the NORAD-guided strategic defense weaponry to reach their targets within the borders of the United States. Missile 13 was a replica created by Deng’s team of scientists and turned out to be a dud; failing to release its MIRVs, it crashed uselessly into the tarmac on the longest runway of one of its four intended targets, Ohio’s Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
Missile 3, an original, delivered fifty percent of its payload. Due to advancing age, poor maintenance, and the physical abuse wrought upon them by the sinking of the USS Chameleon, two of the missile’s MIRVs nose-dived past the altitude-trigger height assigned their warheads and disintegrated on impact well off target near Mount Shasta, in northern California; MIRVs 3 and 4 delivered their warheads between ten and fifteen miles off course, at an elevation of approximately two thousand feet above, though well east, of the additional California-based targets of Edwards Air Force Base and Camp Pendleton.
With this limited list of strikes, Operation Blunt Fist failed to deliver the punishing blow Deng had sought. The planned invasions by the member nations of the so-called revolutionary brotherhood, already on hold following the demise of its leaders, were hastily aborted. The dual thermonuclear explosions nonetheless caused the deaths of 4,784 American citizens, in addition to 673 foreign visitors, within twenty seconds of their detonations. Authorities estimated another three to four thousand casualties would result from extreme radiation exposure outside of the core blast zone.
Once certain intelligence came to light-including photographs retrieved from a severely damaged digital camera strapped to the back of a Caribbean-based CIA operative-the United States implemented a series of military actions referred to by the president as “global peace-keeping efforts.” Amassing significant naval power in the South China Sea to deter China from responding, the American military effected an occupation of Taiwan to ensure the republic’s independence; peace-keeping or defensive occupations followed in Yemen, South Korea, and eight other nations around the globe.
The president used the catastrophe to his advantage in two additional ways: first, in a series of diplomatic summits with China’s newly appointed premier, he gained sweeping free-trade concessions hugely favorable to American corporations; second, his stratospheric popularity ratings discouraged Senator Alan Kircher from seeking the Republican presidential nomination, virtually assuring the president’s re-election.
66
Laramie was trying to get oriented. She found she was coming awake in a hospital bed someplace where the sun shone through her window. Palm trees swayed and flipped in an easy breeze. An anesthesiologist, and then a surgeon, visited her, each examining her before informing her she was doing just fine. She asked the surgeon where she was, and he told her she’d been brought here to South Miami Hospital by the U.S. Navy. When she asked why they’d brought her to Miami, he told her it was because of his expertise-that the navy relied on him for such things. When she asked what his area of expertise happened to be, he told her he was pretty good at repairing internal damage from bullet wounds, but that she didn’t need to worry, since the bullet they’d been concerned with had failed to exact any long-term toll on its path through her lower back and upper hip.
She asked him whether there had been anyone else the navy had sent to him for treatment, and he told her there hadn’t been, at least not recently. Laramie thanked the surgeon and he left.
She fell asleep the moment he was gone.
The sun was still out, though more orange than yellow, when she woke up again to see a nurse standing in the doorway of her room. The nurse apologized for the intrusion, but informed her there was a visitor who had been waiting in the lobby for some time, and was quite insistent on seeing her. When Laramie asked who it was, the nurse told her that the man had identified himself as Jacob Bartleby.
Laramie tried to shrug but found this to be unexpectedly challenging and discovered they’d put a splint on her right arm. It kept the arm pinned against her body.
“I don’t know anyone by that name,” she said, “but I suppose you can send him in.”
A moment later, a short man wearing a navy blue business suit entered through the doorway, smiled curtly, and said, “Thank you for seeing me. I understand you’re recovering from surgery, and so, will be brief.”
“Thank you.” Laramie felt vaguely woozy.
The man set a briefcase on the table beside the bed, opened it, withdrew a manila folder, and shut the briefcase.
“Please allow me to introduce myself-as the song goes,” he said and smiled at his own joke. Laramie nodded dutifully.
“I represent a real estate investment firm incorporated in the Cayman Islands,” he said. “From time to time my clients make strategic investments in exotic resort properties and related recreational assets.”
“Recreational assets?”
“Deep-sea charter vessels, SCUBA training schools, tropical-”
“How can I help you? Excuse me, but I’m very tired.”
“Of course.” He withdrew a notarized sheet of paper from the manila folder and turned it around so Laramie could see it.
“As I understand it,” Bartleby said, “this is the deed to your condominium property in Falls Church, Virginia. I’ll leave this on the table for you, or would be happy to arrange storage in a safe-deposit box at the bank of your choosing.”