Parker looked out at the Humvees with machine guns mounted on top. "Even if we get past those guards, Kilten will have shut the vault door. We can't get in that way."
"How did you get in this morning?" Thorpe asked.
"I had a duty code. It can only be used once, then the code recycles."
"How would the security forces get in?" Thorpe asked.
"They'd have an override code."
"Can we get them on the radio or by phone and get the override code?" Thorpe wanted to know.
Parker shook her head. "Standard operating procedure for the override code is that it can not be transmitted by any electronic medium for fear of intercept."
"Even when the LCC is taken over by an enemy force and the good guys need to get in?" Thorpe was incredulous.
Parker shrugged. "There are no exceptions that I know of. The chance of the code getting intercepted or the duty officer being tricked into transmitting the code is too great. The other danger is that the same override code controls all of Barksdale's LCCs. You have to remember there are nine other LCCs that control their own missiles around here."
"Jesus!" Thorpe hissed. "The bad guys are already in the only one that counts."
"I didn't make the rules," Parker said.
"No, Kilten did." Thorpe thought for a few seconds. "What good is an override code then?"
"The security force will be given a hard copy of it by the EOC duty officer to take with them. They're the ones who are supposed to get into the LCC if bad guys take it over."
"Is there another way to get to the LCC?" Thorpe asked.
"No."
"There's always a way. You know this place. Think like a bad guy. Speaking of which." Thorpe pulled the cellular phone out. He flipped it open and looked at buttons. "I would be willing to bet that McKenzie's phone is number one in the memory. Want to bet?"
"My last bet was with my mom," she said. "That I couldn't get into the Air Force Academy. I'll pass, thanks."
Thorpe punched in memory one.
McKenzie pulled the phone out of his vest and flipped it open. "McKenzie," he growled.
"McKenzie, you little prick, how are you doing?"
McKenzie glanced around. Kilten was focused on Lewis who was banging away at the computer keys like he was writing Moby Dick. McKenzie walked away from the others and lowered his voice to a low, harsh whisper. "Thorpe, it's quite a surprise hearing from you."
"Wish it would have been enough of a surprise to give you a coronary," Thorpe said.
"I heard about you, Thorpe," McKenzie said. "Shouldn't you be drying out somewhere? Why don't you tell me where you are and I'll send some of my men to pick you up and take you to Betty Ford's."
Thorpe paced with anger. "Shut up, McKenzie. I've never been more sober in my life and right before I kill you, I'll prove it."
Parker was leaning close, listening to the conversation.
Thorpe got himself under control. "Hey, how's Kilten?" Thorpe asked. "You and him hanging together? Getting along OK?"
There was a long pause.
"Cut the shit, Thorpe."
Thorpe glanced at Parker. "All right, McKenzie. Just tell me what the hell you're doing." Parker reached out and tapped his arm, then signaled for him to calm down.
"You wouldn't understand," McKenzie said. "You've got your head so far up the government's ass you can't see reality. Even when it hits you in the face, like on that beach, you blind yourself to the truth. Keep drinking, buddy. Maybe you'll get lucky and it will go away. But I don't think so."
"Why don't you help me see reality?" Thorpe asked.
"I don't need to help you understand, Thorpe. You're not important. You're not a decision maker. It's the people in Washington that have to understand. You wouldn't believe the shit they're into."
Thorpe tried another tack. "Why are you doing this?"
McKenzie's bark of laughter cut through the phone "Why? You should be the last person I have to tell why. They've fucked me over for twenty-two years. Well, now I'm on top. I paid for every dime they're going to give me with my flesh and blood."
"You're nuts," Thorpe said.
"And you're not?" McKenzie replied. "Didn't you see it, there on the beach? Didn't you realize that you would have been one of those guys unloading that hovercraft if you'd been ordered to? You have no personal ethics, no morals. You do what you're told to do. Well, not me."
"This isn't the way to do it. You don't kill people to help people."
"Tell that to Churchill and the people of Coventry. You saved my butt once, so I'll save yours," McKenzie said. "Stay away."
"You know I can't do that," Thorpe said.
"You can't? Why not? You know what was in that missile your little friend launched?"
"Yeah."
"You want to protect something like that?"
"A lot of innocent people could get hurt," Thorpe said.
"That's exactly why I'm doing this!" McKenzie's voice was louder. "Some are going to have to die so the rest of the world can live. There's no other way. You can't ask people to change, you have to make them. When enough have died, then the world will demand change."
"Come on—" Thorpe began, but he was cut off.
"You try to stop me and I'll kill you, Thorpe."
Thorpe tried putting a lighter tone into his voice and the conversation. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've heard it before. You've got to catch me first."
McKenzie didn't bite. "Nice try. But I'm exactly where I want to be, and you're not." "You have to come out sooner or later, and when you do, I'll be waiting."
"It'll be much too late by then."
"Say hi to Kilten for me. I'll be seeing him, too." Thorpe flipped the phone shut.
Parker was staring at him. "What now?"
"We see if McKenzie reacts. He's nuts enough, he just might. And if he does, we need to be ready."
McKenzie slowly put the phone back into his vest. He stared across the room at Kilten and Lewis for a few seconds, then walked over to them.
"That other officer. The woman who got away. Did you know her?"
Kilten nodded. "Major Parker. I brought her down here specifically to be on the crew. As I did with Lewis here, except he was on the inside. She was brought here because she would launch, given the right stimulus. It was all part of my plan," he added. He looked at the cellular phone in McKenzie's hand. "She's out there, isn't she? She's still alive?"
"Not for long."
Kilten absently nodded to himself. "She's smart. Very smart."
"Smart can't outrace a bullet." McKenzie said. He opened up his cellular phone and called his senior man on the surface. "Send a patrol out." McKenzie briefly described Thorpe and Parker. "They'll be close by. I'll try to bring them up on the cellular again and you get them on your tracker. Find them and finish 'em."
Hill lit a cigarette and threw the match on the floor. "Can we stop Kilten?"
General Lowcraft figured this wasn't the time to tell the national security adviser that the War Room was a 'no smoking' area. Before speaking, Lowcraft glanced at the main display, which now showed a map of the Pacific. A series of very close, parallel red lines were heading toward empty ocean southwest of Hawaii: the Trident missiles the Kentucky had launched.
"The Omega Missile system, because it was designed as a weapon of last resort, will resist all our attempts to stop the launch codes and orders from being transmitted," Lowcraft said. "Kilten knows the system better than any of us and he knows we can't stop him unless we get to the REACT computer in the Omega Missile LCC and reprogram it."
Hill sighed. "Even I am beginning to see his reasoning. Why have this system if it controls everything and you can't take control back? It doesn't matter that he invented Omega Missile. It would be just as impossible if he were any flake off the street."