'Clone missiles.
'But Chameleon isn't limited to Iranian Shahabs and North Korean Taep'o-Dongs. Other missiles that have been cloned include the Indian Agni-II, the Pakistani Ghauri-II, the Taiwanese Sky Horse, the UK Trident-II D-5, the French M-5, the Israeli Jericho 2B, and of course the Russian SS-18.
'They are designed to start wars, but to make it look like someone else fired the first shot. If ever the US needs an excuse to wage war, it simply fires a clone of whichever country it seeks to blame.
'The thing is, just as the Chameleon Project has been contracted to the Axon Corporation, the Kormoran supertanker shells are built by Kopassus Shipping. And that is the key. Both projects are contracted to companies owned by M-12 members.'
'At 11.45 on October 26 we are going to see a rain of nuclear missiles. A rain such as the world has never seen. Co-ordinated. Precise. Missiles falling in fifteen-minute intervals, to accommodate the global news media. One missile hit is reported just as another lands, then another—striking major cities around the world. London, New York, Paris, Berlin. The world is plunged into chaos, wondering which major city will be next.
'And when it is over, the investigation begins, and the missiles— by their flight characteristics and blast signatures—are determined to be Iranian and North Korean.
'Terrorist weapons.
'The world is aghast. Then, naturally, horror turns to anger. The War on Terror must be expanded. It has already been going for two years. Now it runs for another fifty. A new Cold War has begun and the military-industrial complex is mobilised like never before. And Majestic-12 makes billions.''
Book's mind raced.
Disguised supertankers. Cloned missiles. And all of it created by his own government. He couldn't believe it. He knew the US Government could do terrible things, but setting up other nations with false missiles?
And now these cloned missiles were to be fired—not by the US Government, but by the missiles' builders, the men of Majestic-12— on major cities around the world: New York, London, Paris and Berlin . . .
New York, London, Paris . . .
And now Book saw the decimalised numbers on the list in a new light.
They were co-ordinates.
GPS co-ordinates of both the launch boats and the targeted cities.
It was then that he noticed the names of the Kormoran supertankers—Ambrose, Talbot, Jewel Hopewell, Whale. Cute joke. They were all named after ships from the Mayflower fleet, the ships that had seeded the New World. Just as Majestic-12 was now attempting to create a new world.
But what did all this have to do with Shane Schofield and a bounty hunt requiring his death by 12 noon today? Book thought.
And then he recalled Rosenthal himself, shouting in the rain on the roof of the King's Tower in London:
'It's all about reflexes. Superfast reflexes. The reflexes of the men on that list are the best in the world. They passed the Cobra tests, and only someone who passed the Cobra tests can disarm the
CincLock-VII missile security system, and CincLock-VII is at the core of Majestic-12's plan.'
CincLock-VII. . . Book thought.
He flicked through the many folders in front of him, searching for those words.
It didn't take him long to find them.
There was a whole file marked 'axon corp—patented cinclock
SECURITY SYSTEM'.
It was filled with documents belonging to Axon Corp and the US Department of Defense. The first document's cover sheet was marked:
Book flicked to the section marked 'security', read the lead paragraph:
DISARM SYSTEM—CINCLOCK VII
In keeping with the high level of security necessary for such a weapon, the Chameleon series of missiles has been equipped with Axon's patented CincLock-VII disarm system. The most secure anti-tamper mechanism in the world today, CincLock-VII employs three unique defensive protocols. Unless all three protocols are applied in the prescribed sequence, system activation (or de-activation) is impossible.
The key to the system is the second protocol. It is based on the well-established principles of pattern-recognition (Haynes & Simpson, MIT 1994, 1997, 2001), whereby only a person who is familiar with, and well-practised in, an established sequential pattern can enter it on demand. A stranger to the system, unless he or she is possessed of abnormally quick motor-neural reflexes, cannot hope to overcome such a system (op. cit. Oliphant &C Nicholson, USAMRMC, 1996, NATO MNRR study).
Employing these principles, field tests have shown the CincLock VII system to be 99.94% secure against unauthorised use. No other security system in the military can boast such a success rate.
PROTOCOLS
The three protocols of the CincLock VII unit are as follows:
1. Proximity. To ensure against unauthorised arming/disarming, the CincLock unit is not attached to the delivery system. It is a portable disarming unit. The first protocol, then, is proximity to the delivery system. CincLock will only operate within sixty (60) feet of a Chameleon missile's central processing unit.
2. Light-sensor response unit. Once inside the proximity perimeter, the user must establish a wireless modem connection with the disarm system. This is effected by satisfying Axon's patented light-sensor interface. It is here that the principles of pattern recognition play their crucial part. (See NATO MNRR Research Program results, USAMRMC, 1996.)
3. Security code. Entry of the relevant disarm or override code.
To this last line Rosenthal had added: 'Universal Disarm Code insertion was supervised by subject Weitzman. Latest intelligence suggests use of a yet-to-be-determined Mersenne Prime.'
Another page, however, was clipped to this protocol section. It was a Mossad telephone intercept transcript:
Trans log: B2-3-001-889
Date: 25 April, 1515 hours E.S.T.
Rec from: Axon Corp, Norfolk, VA, USA
Katsa: ROSENTHAL, Benjamin Y (452-7621)
VOICE 1 (DALTON, P.J. AXON CHIEF OF ENGINEERING) : Sir, the D.O.D. inspection report is in. It's good. They're very pleased with our progress. And they particularly loved CincLock. Couldn't get enough of it. Christ, they were like kids with a new toy, trying to crack it.
VOICE 2 (KILLIAN, J.J. AXON CHAIR AND CEO): Excellent, Peter. Excellent. Anything else?
VOICE 1: (DALTON) The next oversight inspection. D.O.D asked if we had a preferred date.
VOICE 2: (KILLIAN) Why don't we make it October 26.
I believe that date would suit some of our partners on this project very nicely.
Book II leaned back in his chair.
So there was the significance of the date.
October 26.
Killian had set it as the date for a Department of Defense oversight team to examine his installation plants.
But then Book saw the next document, and suddenly the meaning of the bounty hunt became clear.
Ironically, it was the most innocuous of all the documents he had seen so far. An internal email from Axon Corp:
From: Peter Dalton
To: All Engineering Staff, Project C-042'