"We'd wipe out the monkeys," Hawkins answered succinctly. He turned to Lamb. "I think Debra's point is valid. We should be thankful that they even bothered to talk to us. The twenty-four hours is their time line and they probably feel they don't have to explain their agenda to us. What we have to do is give them a proposal to make it worth their while to either fix the system here or extend their perimeter."
"I think it's much more likely that both of you were the victim of some sort of mind-control technique." Lamb looked at Hawkins and Levy. "Maybe these memories were implanted in your brains or were part of a computer simulation. Maybe you didn't go farther than three feet on the other side of that Wall." He pointed at the small red mark on the back of Hawkins's hand. "You were probably drugged and all this was implanted in your memory. We've had some success working with mind-altering substances and computer simulations that can do that."
Hawkins stood. "It was no computer simulation and it was no mind game. This is real. That damn chamber down there is real and that portal is real. Richman going through in Tunguska and coming out here is real. Voyager getting destroyed is real. The transmission is real. And we know for damn sure that second bomb out there is real!"
Lamb stood, looking anything but convinced. "I'll relay this to the President. We'll see what he wants to do." He left the shelter, leaving the team members to consider each other. Fran was surprised when Pencak broke the silence.
"There will be no action." She looked at Hawkins. "You know that, don't you?"
Hawkins reluctantly nodded. Fran felt her stomach churn with anxiety. When she'd first heard Hawkins and Debra tell their story she'd felt a breath of hope that her calculations might be overturned. Now she realized that hope was premature. In fact, if an adequate response wasn't presented in twenty-four hours, things could be even worse with a non-Earth threat added on top of all the man-made ones. The portals closing would simply be the exclamation point on Hawkins and Levy's story-with no chance to change the ending other than wait for the threat from the Swarm that might not materialize for generations or might appear in a day. Fran didn't think there would be anyone left in a few generations to face that threat anyway.
"Tell me about the place you were in," Batson said.
Hawkins described the cavern and machinery as best he could, the rest of the team listening raptly.
"Did you see any sign of life other than the Russians?"
"No."
"What about lighting?" Batson asked.
"As far as I can remember, there was just the distant light source," Hawkins said.
"We cast faint shadows in only one direction," Levy recollected.
"I think we were at a military base," Hawkins said. "There was the craft that picked us up and the other two in the hangar and they definitely had something that looked like a weapon system on the front. The room we were briefed in was very far underground, which indicates a desire for protection."
"I think we were on a planet close by," Debra said. "Perhaps one in the perimeter they showed us, near Earth. The amount of time you say we were gone corresponds to the amount of time we spent on the other side. So however we got there, the travel was relatively instantaneous."
"It was probably a staging area for the Space Forces they told us about," Hawkins suggested.
"All that's well and good," Pencak threw in, "but it doesn't help us with the immediate problem."
"Let's hold up here a second," Fran said. She walked across the tent to the easel where Hawkins had done his line diagrams in previous meetings. She flipped back through until she found what she was looking for. She ran her finger up the line diagram until it rested on NUCLEAR BLAST VREDEFORT DOME. "This is the event that started everything-if we're to take all that happened to Hawkins and Debra at face value." She held up a hand to forestall Hawkins's angry reply. "Listen-I'm going along with all this. This Speaker said that the fact that a nuclear weapon was still missing was one of the factors they considered when looking at the human race for eligibility to join the Coalition."
"A significant factor," Hawkins corrected.
"All right," Fran said. "Even better, a significant factor. That's understandable, because the other bomb is the one that started this whole mess. Well, wouldn't it be a sign of good faith if that one missing bomb was tracked down and brought under control?"
Hawkins nodded slowly, thinking about it. "Yes. I think that might make an impact on their consideration of the options."
"At the very least it might influence them to give us more time to get the politicians to support more positive steps," Pencak noted. "They might keep the portals open awhile longer. I think recovering that bomb would be an excellent first move."
"That's all well and good," Hawkins said. "Except for the fact that I was part of the U.S.'s team to track that bomb down and we didn't have much of an idea of where it is."
"But maybe the Russians do," Pencak said. "Maybe this Colonel Tuskin might have a good idea."
"Except he's on the other side of the world right now," Batson said. "And he's probably getting the same chilly reception there from his superiors that you received from Lamb."
Despite having worked with the president for over eighteen years-from his early days as a governor-Lamb was uncertain what the expression on the man's face in the video monitor meant He'd just relayed Hawkins's story as briefly and as factually as he could and the President had listened without comment until now.
"Christ, Steve. What am I supposed to do? Do you believe this stuff?"
Lamb had been asking himself the same question ever since he'd listened to Hawkins. "No, sir, I don't But I don't think we should dismiss this outright. Something is going on here-something that is very significant There's a possibility that the Coalition story could be true, a possibility we can't afford to ignore. Even if it isn't true, we're dealing with some very advanced technology and if someone on Earth is behind it, we need to find out damn fast who it is. The most obvious answer is the Russians, but if they are, I don't understand what they're doing. None of it makes much sense."
The President's face drew in tight, a look that Lamb was familiar with-he was upset. "Then call me when you make some sense out of it, Steve, but don't dump all this nonsense on my desk and expect me to sort it out. That's your job! I've got half a dozen major crises and God knows how many minor ones that I'm dealing with-ones that I know are real. Am I supposed to call Pamarov over this? And have him throw what happened with the Orion team at Tunguska in my face? Am I supposed to go to Congress with it? And what exactly am I to tell them? What are we supposed to do? If these things shut down in twenty-four hours, maybe that's all for the best."
Lamb was silent. The President glared at the screen for a few seconds, trying to regain his temper. When he spoke again, the anger was gone, replaced by a deep weariness. "When you figure things out, Steve, you give me a call with some recommendations. If you think it's such a priority, then you work that much harder to solve it."
The screen went blank. Lamb turned off his communications set and sat still for almost five minutes. Then he pushed a button on his desk. "Come in."
Colonel Tolliver and Major Hawkins entered the communications shelter. Lamb looked at Tolliver first. "Report."
The Marine colonel worked from farthest threat in. "The Navy's got aerial and electronic surveillance of the Russian fleet off the coast. The Russians are holding in place. We've alerted the Australian authorities to be on the lookout for Russian agents. No reports from them of anyone suspicious. Our outer and inner perimeters are secure."