McKenzie didn't say anything. His right arm was across his chest, his hand wrapped around the joint where flesh met metal on his left arm. His fingers were slowly rapping out a cadence, the first two giving a shallow thud on metal, then quieter as the last two hit flesh.
Kilten typed a new command into the computer, then pressed the enter key. "Step two."
The tower at Barksdale Air Force Base served two functions. In the top, air traffic controllers ran the day-to-day operation of the airfield itself. On the floor below the top, the duty staff for the 341st Missile Wing ran the day-to-day operation of the LCCs and missiles under their control. The duty staff also controlled the security reaction force responsible for safeguarding those LCCs and missiles.
At the precise moment Kilten hit the enter key, alarms began going off and red lights flashed. The duty officer immediately gave the orders he had been trained to.
"We have an incoming nuclear strike warning! Sound strike alarm. All personnel to the EOC bunker!"
Everyone in the room immediately sprinted for the stairs except the duty officer and one enlisted man. The duty officer sat down at a computer terminal and quickly accessed his command link. Outside, Klaxons were going off and the few personnel on duty along the flight line this Sunday morning ran for bunker entrances.
"We have no orders to launch," the duty officer announced. "Switching REACT computer to automatic." He turned a key and looked at the enlisted man. "Let's get out of here." The two fled the room and the tower was empty.
Thorpe felt a pounding in his left temple. He reached into his pocket and pulled out several aspirin. His hand was shaking and one of the three pills fell onto the cargo bay floor and rolled back under a large cardboard box.
"Damn," Thorpe muttered. He reached down and froze as he saw the tip of a new sneaker sticking out from under the cardboard. Thorpe pulled up the box and Tommy was sitting cross-legged on the floor, looking up at him with wide eyes.
"You're not mad at me, are you, Dad?"
At Barksdale, Lisa ignored the Klaxons as she ran out of the empty hangar, screaming for Tommy. A Security Policeman spotted her and paused in his own flight.
"Ma'am, we have to get to a shelter," he yelled at her.
"My son is in here somewhere!" Lisa yelled.
"Ma'am, that's a strike warning. We have to take cover."
"Not without my son."
On board the Blackhawk, Thorpe had Tommy in the seat next to him and was talking through his headset to the pilots. "We have to go back to Barksdale," he said.
"That's your son?" Kelly asked, twisting about in her seat. "He sure didn't inherit your ugly mug, Captain." She turned to the front and had the chopper banking and heading back the way they had come before Thorpe could think of a reply.
"You're not mad at me, are you, Dad?" Tommy repeated.
Thorpe put an arm around his shoulders. "No, son, I'm not mad."
Inside the LCC there was controlled tension as the pair of officers ran down their checklists.
"What's the targeting matrix for Omega Missile?" Lewis asked.
Parker had already checked that information. Since the end of the Cold War, the United States and Russia had reached an agreement where all ICBMs would no longer rest in their silos targeted at each other's countries. Instead, the standing targeting information programmed in each warhead was for a site in the middle of an ocean, called a Broad Ocean Area. This was to prevent disaster in case of an accidental launch. In case disaster actually was desired and the missiles really had to be used in a conflict, a target matrix would be fed through REACT into each missile and they would be quickly reprogrammed with the new destinations for the warheads.
"We don't have a target matrix," Parker said. "We're to launch Omega Missile with control accessed to MILSTAR through REACT. Whoever's left alive can program the targeting matrix once the missile is up."
Parker knew that was one of Omega Missile's assets to the nuclear launch infrastructure. Omega Missile, once launched, could be used not only to launch but also to input target matrices to every ICBM and every other nuclear platform, including bombers, submarines, and even Red Flyer teams.
"Let's stop yakking and get our missile up," she ordered. But even as she was saying the words, she looked up at the TV at the end of the row of security scenes. This last one showed CNN still coming in over the cable and there was no sign of any special report or trouble. As she was watching it, the screen went blank and then static refilled the tube. "We've lost cable," she announced. Parker picked up the phone. "Phone's down," she told Lewis. "I can't get landline verification."
She put the phone down and looked at her computer screen. "We still have access to Barksdale on REACT. Still shows EAM verified and Omega Missile launch verified."
Parker sat still for a few seconds. Lewis waited on her for the next command. When she spoke, it was hesitant, the flow of action finally slowing down. "That's enough to launch, but I'm going to check with the 20th Air Force in Cheyenne Mountain through MILSTAR to confirm launch."
"We're supposed to launch with what we have," Lewis said.
"I'm in command here," Parker said.
"You're wasting time," Lewis replied, glancing at the clock.
Kilten looked up at McKenzie. "Now!"
McKenzie was waiting, cellular phone in hand. He spoke into it. "Initiate Sim Nuke!"
Drake and his Humvee had crossed the bridge just two minutes earlier. He was parked a safe distance away from the bridge.
Drake heard McKenzie's order and pushed the button. The green light went out and the red one lit.
Six miles away, the line of dump trucks spaced out along the flight line fence disappeared in a massive explosion. The fence was blown away like a thin piece of paper in a strong wind. The blast wave flattened trees and roared across the flight line, destroying everything in its path.
Over two million pounds of a special diesel fuel/ammonium nitrate composition went up in that split second. It had taken McKenzie and his men over a month to carefully buy that much ammonium nitrate in much smaller segments in nine different states throughout the south. Then Kilten had directed the loading and mixing of the composition in the trucks.
Not only was there enough ammonium nitrate in the trucks to cause a massive explosion, Kilten had layered the tops of each pile with special chemicals to simulate the flash effect of a nuclear explosion. The entire thing was also configured to produce the trademark mushroom cloud of a nuclear bomb.
Kilten had done this before — for the government at White Sands Missile Range. After the ban of nuclear testing, the United States had still needed a way to test equipment in a simulated nuclear blast. Sim Nuke had been the result and Kilten had appropriated it for his own purposes here.
Bognar slapped a soldier wearing a red beret on the shoulder. "All yours, Mitchell."
Mitchell nodded and walked back to the other five men overlooking the bridge as Drake and Bognar drove away to link up with McKenzie.
Seven miles from the epicenter of the Barksdale explosion, Thorpe spun about as he heard a yell. A bright flash had blinded both pilots and Thorpe turned in time to see the blast wave rumbling toward the helicopter, a surge of pure energy, pushing debris along its forward edge. A mushroom cloud was rising behind the blast wave.
"I can't see!" Maysun cried out.
"Keep it steady," Thorpe said as the shock wave hit the helicopter. He wrapped both arms around Tommy and pulled him to his chest. The explosion hit the chopper head on.