“That’s the idea. It’s more secure than trying a conventional assault which could cause a war to break out. If there’s one thing the Russians will not tolerate, it’s American soldiers on their soil. We have to avoid that at all costs. That’s why the President— and the Pentagon— has chosen to use this option.”
Dalton rolled his eyes. “We’ve lost one man and we haven’t done jack yet. You think we’re going to be able to do something no one’s ever done before in seven days? You’re gambling everything on that?”
“It wasn’t my decision,” Raisor said. “I can assure you that this was discussed at the highest levels, and the decision was made to move up the timetable on Psychic Warrior to deal with this threat. I am just implementing that decision.”
“Why can’t the RVers here do it?”
“Several reasons,” Raisor said. “First, they’re not trained soldiers. They’re intelligence gatherers. Second, and more importantly, this Psychic Warrior technology, the cyberlink in conjunction with Sybyl, is new.”
“Have you ever sent somebody into the virtual plane and then have them come out in the real at a remote location and conduct a mission?” Dalton asked.
“Not conduct a mission,” Raisor said, “but as Dr. Hammond told you, we have successfully tested it.”
“Yeah, by playing with blocks. I’m sure that will scare the crap out of the Mafia guys trying to take down these nukes.”
“You’ll be able to do more than that,” Dr. Hammond said.
“I’m a little fuzzy on that,” Dalton said. “So far I don’t feel like I’ve accomplished much of anything other than having one of my men die.”
“You’ll be working on your virtual forms next,” Raisor said. “From what Dr. Hammond has told me, that will give you something to conduct your mission with.”
“How does that work exactly?” Dalton asked.
“I don’t know exactly’,’ Raisor’s voice was taking on an edge. “All I know is that it does work.”
“We’re gambling lives on untested tactics.”
“Isn’t every war a trial of untested tactics?” Raisor said.
“Yes,” Dalton agreed, “and they’re usually big screwups. Millions of men dead and the generals in the First World War never really adjusted to the fact that machine guns made frontal assaults obsolete. They were still ordering cavalry charges in the early days of World War II.”
Raisor slapped the tabletop. “That’s why we want to use the technology we have here correctly! To move us into the modern age.”
“When they introduced the tank in the First World War, the generals still never really adjusted. It takes more than new technology,” Dalton added.
“We have adjusted with Psychic Warrior,” Raisor said. “For the first time, we are ahead of the technological-tactical interface.”
“It sounds like we’re too far ahead and it killed Stith.” Dalton stared at the CIA representative. “Do you believe the bull you speak?”
“It’s the way the world is,” Raisor said.
Hammond had been watching the heated exchange. She leaned forward between the two men. “It works, Sergeant Major Dalton. We know it works.”
“It didn’t work with Sergeant Stith!” Dalton yelled.
“Every new technology has its dangers,” Raisor said. “Do you know how many test pilots have died testing new aircraft? This is new and— ”
“Don’t give me bullshit,” Dalton snapped.
“Sergeant Major, this is going forward whether you are on board or not,” Raisor said.
“Do the Russians have remote viewers?” Dalton asked.
“We don’t know,” Hammond said.
“You don’t know?” Dalton didn’t buy that. “Come on. Seems like that’s the first thing your RVers would check on.”
Raisor answered. “We have checked. And we don’t know. We suspect they do.” Seeing Dalton’s look, he amplified his answer. “Dr. Hammond believes it’s possible to block psychic viewing with either technology or with other psychic viewers putting up a wall. So if the Russians do have psychic viewers, they’re blocking us from being able to see that capability. As we are blocking our own capability from them, if they have it.” Raisor waved his hand about. “This entire facility is shielded on the virtual plane from intrusion.”
Dalton remembered the black metal on the vault door and along the walls. “How do you do that?”
Raisor looked at Hammond, who answered.
“We have Sybyl generate a virtual field and run it through specially adapted lines. The parameters of the field are disharmonic to the human mind’s psychometric rhythms, so any RVers trying to get through would— ” She shrugged. “Well, we’ve never tested it on an actual person, but I would assume it would cause severe if not fatal damage to a person’s psyche. Even a person trying to walk through the field would be affected in the same manner. We have had our RVers approach the field and they report extreme discomfort when they come within a few meters of it.”
“That’s why we only have the one entrance to this base,” Raisor said.
“One physical entrance,” Hammond corrected him. “That’s the door you came in through, off the hangar. We also have the entrance our RVers use. That’s a narrow opening— which we call the Bright Gate— in the psychic wall that
Sybyl controls. She can let you out Bright Gate to the initial jump point on top of the mountain and she can also let RVers in when they return to the initial jump point.”
“What does this field do to other things?” Dalton asked. “Once it’s running, do we have communications?”
“We’re not the only place that uses this field,” Raisor said. “Every top secret secure site our country has is surrounded by a psychic field just in case the Russians do have an RV capability. Once we developed the wall, our scientists were able to develop a special cable that can shield a link from inside to outside and allow uninterrupted communications. That’s something we don’t think the Russians have managed to do yet, so we have an advantage there.”
“Let’s get back to the other side’s capabilities then,” Dalton said. “If the Russians do have RVers,” he asked, “wouldn’t they know about this plot in their neck of the woods?”
“If they have remote viewers and if the remote viewers happened to catch this plot, yes, then they would know. But we were lucky; our RVer who picked this up literally stumbled across it checking on some other information on a different tasking. The odds that a Russian RVer found the same thing are unknown.”
“What about— ” Dalton began, but the door swung open and a technician stuck her head in.
“Lieutenant Jackson is back.”
Raisor and Hammond headed for the door.
“Who is Lieutenant Jackson?” Dalton asked, following them.
“One of the RVers you saw in a tank when you got here. She’s been out on a mission.”
They entered the main room. The last two Special Forces men, Barnes and Monroe, had gone into the tanks, leaving Dalton the only one out. At the far end, a woman was shivering, a blanket over her shoulder, wiping embryonic fluid off her face with a towel.
“Lieutenant Jackson,” Raisor said as he came up to her. “Your report?”
Jackson didn’t respond right away. She spit, none too elegantly, and coughed, a dribble of dark liquid rolling down her chin before she wiped it off. She was a tall, slight woman, in her middle twenties, short blond hair plastered to her skull, her skin pale and covered with goosebumps.
“Is everything static?” Raisor asked.
Jackson coughed. “No, sir, it’s not. They’ve changed the schedule.” She looked at Dalton, then back to Raisor.
Dalton had seen that look before— she had information she wasn’t sure she should share in front of people she had never seen before.