Hawkins shook his head. "Sounds like we've got a winning team here. Anything else I should know about?"
Lamb pressed a button on his desk and the door opened. Colonel Tolliver who'd been waiting outside walked in, his fatigues drenched with sweat. "Colonel Tolliver just flew in from the Rock. What's the tactical situation?"
Tolliver pulled out a rag and wiped sand from his forehead. "The Rock is secure. We're a hundred and eighty feet in and the drilling is going well."
"Strategic SITREP?" Lamb continued.
Tolliver frowned. "The Russian Task Force is making the Australians very nervous. My Aussie counterpart says he's getting a lot of pressure from his higher-ups to find out what the hell is going on. That's besides the flak about the drilling."
"What's the location of the task force?"
"They're in the Coral Sea still heading south. Intelligence believes they will go around the east coast of Australia and position themselves to the south in the Great Australian Bight, a thousand miles to the south of here.
"One of the dish antennas on the Gagarin is oriented directly toward our location. The other tracks the sky above Australia in a sweep pattern. We're picking up a lot of secure SATCOM traffic between the Task Force flagship and Moscow."
"How long before they're in position?"
"Thirty-six hours."
"Think they picked up the second transmission?" Lamb asked.
Tolliver shrugged. "We were on top of the Rock and didn't pick it up because we weren't up in that band width. Depends if the Russians were-we have no way of knowing."
Something had been in the back of Hawkins's mind. "Is there any activity at the site in Siberia?"
Lamb reached behind him and pulled out some papers. "Yes. Our eye in the sky is picking up extensive military maneuvers being carried out there. They're looking for something."
"Their Rock," Hawkins mused out loud. "What else?"
"Langley is concerned that the Russians will try to infiltrate the project here."
Hawkins nodded. He knew that. He was worried about it, too, and having Levy here already and bringing in Pencak didn't thrill him. He looked at Tolliver. "Remind your men that we're looking for more than direct military action. It's more likely that any action that occurs will be covert. They're to check everyone and take nothing for granted. It's possible we've already been infiltrated."
"Yes, sir." Tolliver paused. "Of course, you know that the most likely source of a compromise is one of the outsiders that have been called in."
Lamb fixed the marine with a cold stare. "I know that."
He dismissed Tolliver and then looked back at Hawkins. "Things are not going well in the big picture. There's already political instability in several Third World countries. The governments are keeping the loss of the gold reserves quiet, but some of those leaders are already scrambling to cover their own position-never mind worry about the welfare of their people. It looks like there will be at least four new governments before the end of the year."
He let out a deep breath and again changed the subject. "Anything from your people on the bomb search?"
"They're pursuing two possibilities," Hawkins replied, "One is Libya."
"He certainly had the money to buy a bomb," Lamb noted. "And it fits with some other Intel I've been getting. Qaddafi's suddenly begun making noises again about his line of death in the Gulf of Sidra. The President is thinking about using the Sixth Fleet to push him on it. Intel believes that Qaddafi wants to draw the fleet in and then have a small boat-or more likely a submarine-with the bomb on board try to get near one of the carriers and detonate it."
Hawkins frowned. "Why is the President reacting, then?"
"That's his job. All I know is that a carrier task force is cruising the thirty-third parallel waiting on the President's word to cross." Lamb sounded frustrated. "I'm sort of out of the loop here, sitting on my ass in the middle of Australia." He shook his head. "What's Orion's status on Libya?"
"They've infiltrated two small recon teams. Nothing yet, according to the last transmission."
"What's the other lead?"
Hawkins picked a slim file folder marked TOP SECRET/Q CLEARANCE. "They picked up a smuggler who disclosed under questioning that he delivered something to an Arab. A check of his cargo hold picked up slight traces of radioactivity. That and the smuggler's description of the package makes it possible it was one of the bombs. He transported his cargo from a point on the northern shore of the Black Sea down to the Mediterranean and cross loaded offshore of Syria to the Arab."
"Do they have a line on the Arab?"
"Not yet, but they're pushing it hard."
"Could it have gone to Qaddafi?"
"Possible. Or it could be someone else-that is, if it was one of the bombs. It could even have been the South African bomb on its way down there."
Lamb rubbed his forehead wearily. It could be anyone in that cesspool known as the Middle East. The Syrians would love to use one on the Israelis. The Lebanese against each other. The Jordanians against just about anyone. "All right. Let me know right away if you break anything out on that second transmission."
Hawkins didn't move. "You've been deploying some of my people in Orion about, without consulting me."
"Yes, I have. We're both out of the loop here. We have to be prepared for some contingencies, and your people are the best ones trained for action if we need it.
Hawkins nodded and left the van, accepting the fact but intensely disliking that he had to accept it. He had a feeling they no longer were in control of much of anything-this whole business seemed to be an exercise in reaction, which was not a mode of operations that he preferred.
When Hawkins got back to the control center, Fran and Don were gathered in front of the computer, peering over Spurlock's shoulders, awaiting the answer to their eight-hour question on Voyager. Levy did not appear to have moved from her position in front of the other computer. On Spurlock's screen the messages from the computer slowly scrolled up as the seconds went by.
<DISK ALIGNING Vl54P657 VOYAGER 2 VIM PROJECT.
<DISK ALIGNED V154P657 VOYAGER 2 VIM PROJECT.
<ALL SYSTEMS CHECK. AWAITING BOUNCE BACK TRANSMISSION.
Spurlock looked at the digital readout on the upper left-hand corner of the screen. It slowly clicked off the seconds, winding down. "Five seconds," he muttered unnecessarily.
The last digit flickered into a zero and then stopped. Spurlock blinked and looked at the screen.
<ALL SYSTEMS CHECK. AWAITING BOUNCE BACK TRANSMISSION.
He grabbed the keyboard and furiously typed out a message.
<CONFIRM NO BOUNCE BACK V154P651 VOYAGER 2 VIM PROJECT.
The reply was brief and to the point.
<CONFIRMED. NEGATIVE ON BOUNCE BACK V154P651 VOYAGER 2 VIM PROJECT.
His fingers slammed the keys again.
<CONFIRM BOUNCE BACK TRANSMITTED DT6 21 DEC 2818 ZULU.
<CONFIRMED WIDEBAND BOUNCE BACK TRANSMITTED DT6 21 DEC 2818 ZULU
Spurlock wasn't going to give up.
<CONFIRM DIRECTION OF BOUNCE BACK WRS V154P657 VOYAGER 2 VIM PROJECT.
There was a ten-second pause during which Spurlock's fingers gouged the arms of his chair.
<CONFIRMED DIRECTION OF BOUNCE BACK V154P657 VOYAGER 2 VIM PROJECT.
Spurlock let his fingers slide off the keyboard and turned to the others. "Voyager 2 is gone."