"We're going down!" Kelly yelled. "I've got the controls! Brace for impact!"
The helicopter nosed over, hitting trees. The blades splintered branches and cut through the trunks of two large trees. One of the blades broke off and slashed through the pilot's side of the chopper.
Thorpe had only one agenda: holding Tommy with all his might as the sound of metal ripping and tearing reverberated through the cargo bay. He was thrown from side to side but his seat belt held and his arms clung tight to his son.
The chopper finally came to a halt, tangled in the wreckage of the trees it had crashed through.
Inside the Omega Missile LCC, Parker and Lewis stared in stunned silence at the video image from the security camera on top of the silo closest to Barksdale Air Force Base. A mushroom cloud was rising over the horizon in the direction of the base.
Parker slowly put down the satellite phone. They could feel the ground rumble from the force of the explosion.
"Barksdale's been nuked!" Lewis exclaimed.
Parker tore her gaze from the video. "We launch now!"
In the hole, Kilten disconnected the computer. He took a pair of bolt cutters and severed the remaining cables. Then he climbed out and joined the others. McKenzie and his men were staring at the mushroom cloud.
"It looks just like the real thing," McKenzie said, impressed for the first time today.
"It should look like the real thing," Kilten replied. "It took us four years to develop after the testing ban went into effect."
"In-fucking-sane," McKenzie muttered. Then he shifted his gaze back to the immediate area. "Let's get moving. They'll launch for sure now and we need to be ready."
"To launch control," Parker ordered. Unlocking their seats, they both rolled along their respective tracks to the middle of the launch control room. The launch consoles faced each other but were separated by ten feet and a Plexiglas, bulletproof wall bisecting the room. A speaker in the wall allowed Parker and Lewis to communicate. They both locked their seats down in front of their respective consoles.
Parker put her eyes against the retinal scanner and the REACT computer's voice echoed out of a speaker on the console.
"Launch officer verified. You may insert key."
Parker pulled her red key from under her shirt and inserted it into the appropriate slot.
The REACT computer verified Lewis's retina and instructed him to insert his key, which he did.
Thorpe unbuckled with one hand, the other still holding Tommy.
"Daddy!" he yelled, trying to control his fear.
"It's all right, son, it's all right." As soon as he was free, Thorpe picked Tommy up and climbed out of the buckled door. He carried his son thirty feet away and set him down at the base of a large oak tree. "Wait here, Tommy. I'll be right back."
Tommy was wide-eyed, staring at the remains of the chopper.
"Wait here, you understand?" Thorpe repeated, putting his hands on either side of Tommy's head and staring into his eyes.
Tommy slowly nodded.
Thorpe ran back to the chopper and slithered between the seats. He grimaced as he noticed that one of the blades had splintered through the cockpit and hit Kelly in the chest. He reached out and felt for the artery in her throat. Nothing. He felt Kelly's blood soaking into his fatigue pants as he pushed himself farther into the cockpit and turned his attention to the copilot, who was thrashing about. He unbuckled Maysun's belt, then pulled the copilot out the door and dragged him to Tommy's location.
Maysun was blinking, trying to clear his eyes of the bright image that had blinded him. "Where's Kelly? Do you have her?"
Thorpe looked back at the chopper. "I'll get her in a second. Take it easy."
A small fire had broken out in the engine compartment. Thorpe ran back to the cargo bay and pulled out the fire extinguisher he had held at the airfield. He quickly doused the flame.
"On my three," Parker said, staring through the glass at Lewis. "One. Two. Three."
They both turned their keys at the same time.
Inside the Omega Missile silo, the solid first stage of the LGM-118A ignited. Umbilicals fell away and the rocket slowly began lifting on a tail of flame, clearing the silo.
Thorpe was kneeling over Maysun, doing a primary survey of his injuries when he heard a loud, roaring noise to his right rear. Just over the far tree line, a large rocket appeared, accelerating straight up. Thorpe watched, mesmerized.
"What's that noise?" Maysun demanded.
"Dad, look!" Tommy cried out, pointing. "What is it?"
Thorpe continued to watch the rocket as it raced up toward the white clouds. "That's an ICBM from one of Barksdale's silos," he said quietly.
"Oh, man," Maysun muttered. "It was a nuke that took us down." He grabbed Thorpe's arm. "Do you have Kelly? Is she all right?"
Thorpe lowered his voice so Tommy couldn't hear. "She's dead."
Thorpe felt pain as Maysun's hand squeezed tight. "Oh fuck! No! Check her, man. Maybe she's just hurt. She can't be dead!"
"She's dead. There's no doubt."
McKenzie was leaning out the side of the Humvee watching the long red tail of the ICBM. "It worked."
"Of course it worked," Kilten wasn't even bothering to watch. The convoy of Humvees was racing along a gravel road. "Have your people at the LCC reported anything?"
"All secure there."
Kilten nodded. "The crew will need a couple of minutes. We'll be there before they take any further action."
The first stage of the Peacekeeper had finished its sixty-second burn and separated, the second stage immediately taking over. The missile had been going straight up, simply absorbing the upward thrust of the first stage, but the second stage had some thrust-vector and the rocket turned slightly to the north and west, heading up at over a thousand miles an hour and still accelerating.
Chapter Ten
"Omega Missile is away clean," Parker said, checking the telemetry readouts. "First-stage separation clean and tracking proper vector for command orbit." She leaned back in her seat and wiped the sheen of sweat off her forehead.
"What happened to her? I mean, did she suffer?" Maysun was blinking his eyes, trying to clear the glowing spots that prevented him from seeing.
"No," Thorpe said. "She didn't suffer." He looked over at Tommy who was sitting with his back against the trunk. He had his knees pulled up to his chest. "You all right, Tommy?"
"I want to go home," he said.
"We will," Thorpe assured him. "I have to take care of this man first."
Maysun was rocking back and forth. "Kelly saved us. I was blinded and she took the controls and kept us from inverting. We'd be dead if we'd inverted."
Thorpe pulled the radio out of Maysun's vest. "I'm going to try your survival radio. Call for help."
Maysun's voice was high. "Help? From who, man? Barksdale just got nuked and the survivors are launching missiles in retaliation. Besides, the EMP would have fried the radio."
Thorpe was adjusting the frequency. "My operations sergeant is at Fort Polk, Master Sergeant Dublowski. He's monitoring on a set frequency. Maybe I can get him."
Maysun shook his head, tears coursing down his cheeks. "That radio doesn't have the range to make it to Polk."
"I know that," Thorpe said, "but I'm going to try anyway. Maybe somebody around here is listening."
Thorpe tried the emergency frequency and, as he expected, received no answer. "What's the frequency for the tower at Barksdale?" he asked Maysun. Thorpe set it on that frequency.