“Complete the setup,” Dan told the TAO. Mills bent to the mike, passing commands to the bridge, then to Mitscher. Dan half turned in his seat. Shouted across the compartment, “Sonar? One last check. No contacts?”
Rit Carpenter, over the 21MC. “Clear scope here, Skipper.”
Mills was still speaking. “Launch-warning bell aft and forward.”
Dan reached into the neck of his coveralls and fitted the firing key once more. “This will be a two-round salvo.”
Noblos frowned. “Why waste rounds? Launch point’s two hundred miles away. And it’ll be a stern chase. Ten to one, it’ll never catch up.”
“I’m aware of that, Doctor. Which is why I have to fire early, before pitchover.”
Noblos reached across the console to squeeze his shoulder. “Refer to your rules of engagement, Captain. If your P-sub-K’s below point two, you don’t need to fire. And if you shoot before pitchover and IPP identification—”
Dan pushed the hand off, catching, as he did so, a whiff of something minty, aftershave or mouthwash. He lifted his head, trying to pierce the fog of fatigue and uncertainty, and the aftermath of infection, to penetrate to the core of what was right to do. Maybe it wasn’t doctrine. Maybe it wasn’t even possible.
But he had to try.
He’d defended it at a congressional hearing. Risked his career on it.
But he still wasn’t sure it was right.
He had to balance not just capability, but intentions. And beyond even that, anticipate the most distant ramifications of his decisions. He’d shot down a missile from one side. Didn’t he owe the same responsibility to the other?
“Matt, help me out,” he muttered. “Take it down? I’m wondering about the message we’re sending if we don’t.”
“We don’t have the aim point yet, sir. If it’s on a military target set, we should let it go.”
“You heard Dr. Noblos. By the time we know, it’ll be too late.”
“You’ve been reading the news from home, Lenson,” Noblos said, bending close, like a confiding sorn. “Every round’s going to be irreplaceable. Don’t waste them. Not on some kind of political statement.”
The Terror’s voice: “Commencing pitchover.” And on the screen, the brackets quivering, quivering, then starting to move.
Headed north. Dan glanced at Mills, but got only a dropped gaze.
It was up to him.
But why should that be a surprise?
He was the captain.
“Ah, fuck it,” he muttered. He snagged the clear plastic cover of the switch with a thumbnail. Flicked it up, and snapped the toggle to Fire.
Once again, that agonizingly stretched-out pause. The dampers whunking shut. The ventilation easing to a stop, leaving harsh, tormented-sounding breathing. His own.
A roar built forward. Singhe sang out, “Bird one away… standing by… bird two away.” The symbology winked into existence on the display. “Two birds, dual-thrust ignition, seekers activated, on their way.”
On the center screen, the Indian missile, Meteor Bravo, was into pitchover and starting to track north. No, northwest by north. Mills grimaced. “Headed away, Skipper. Target’s someplace up around Islamabad.”
“I told you the geometry would be disadvantageous,” Noblos pontificated. “Didn’t I?”
“Yeah, Doctor. You did.” Dan quelled the impulse to reach across, grab that stupid knitted vest, and punch the shit out of him. “What I’m wondering is, why everyone has an opinion on what I ought to do. Who exactly’s in charge here?”
The moment the words were out, he realized they were a mistake. The horrified glances from Mills, Wenck, and the CIC officer were testimony to that. “Sorry, didn’t mean that the way it sounded,” he amended, passing a shaky hand over his forehead. “Guess I’m burning a short fuze here.”
Noblos said loftily, “I’d like it recorded that I officially recommended against this launch.”
“You’re not in the chain of command, Doctor. But sure, we’ll document it.” Dan lifted his head. “Get that down in the CIC log.”
From the pure hatred in the scientist’s eyes, he’d mortally offended him. Well, too fucking bad. He had other fish to fry… and other birds to follow.
Like the ones on the screen. They’d dropped their boosters and were now propelled by the Block 4’s extended-range motor. Nearing four miles a second and still accelerating, they jumped forward across southern Pakistan with each ten-hertz rescan. The steering-control sections were still receiving midcourse guidance from ALIS, fed automatically unless overridden by Terranova. Once they were out of the atmosphere, the last finned stage would be jettisoned, and the warheads, guided now by their terminal homers, would fly on. Each warhead was propelled in the exoatmospheric phase by a small sustainer engine, then maneuvered to collision in the final milliseconds by infrared sensors coupled to gas generators and reaction nozzles spaced around the airframe.
“Stage-two burnout,” Wenck announced. “Commencing terminal homing.”
Onscreen the target was still boosting, perhaps by its own second stage, headed northwest. The blue semicircles of Savo’s missiles were closing from astern, but more and more slowly as their quarry accelerated. Dan coughed and coughed, trying to suck air past the obstruction in his throat. His inhaler… in his cabin. He clutched the desk, panting. “Do we have an IPP yet?” he grunted. “Get it up on the screen. Now!”
“ALIS is calculating,” Terranova said. “She seems a little slow… Coming up now.”
The area of uncertainty was a quivering blob far inland. Past where the last, frozen frame from GCCS had placed the northernmost Indian spearhead. Dan squinted. “Where… what’s the nearest city? Can you read that?”
“Peshawar.” Mills cleared his throat and repeated, a little louder, “Peshawar. Where the Pak air strike launched from.”
“That makes sense.” A scent of sandalwood, and Singhe’s soft tones, hardened now. “They took two separate nuclear attacks before deciding to hit back.”
It wasn’t quite that clear-cut, Dan thought, but didn’t say. “Lieutenant, I need you back on your console.”
“The strike team’s ready, Captain. If you have a package for us?”
“I’d just like you in your seat,” Dan told her, and got a smoldering scowl back. She turned on her heel and stalked away.
When he looked back, the three symbols were only a short distance apart on the display. They hung there, pulsating, red and blue. Speeding across the face of the earth, a hundred-plus miles up, at nearly orbital velocity. Across the broad fertile plain of the ancient Indus, where Darius and Alexander, Chandragupta Maurya and the British Raj, had marched and conquered. The earth seemed to turn perceptibly beneath them. Speeding stars, as fast as meteorites. Locked now onto their target, mere miles ahead.
Their lead Standard flickered.
It slowed. The callout beside it flickered and began to drop.
Terranova said quietly, “Terminal guidance burnout. Shall I send destruct order?”
“I told you so,” Noblos observed.
Dan took a slow, deep breath. “Maybe you were right, Doctor. Technically. But that’s not all I have to take into account. Terror, Donnie, if we hit the abort button on the first bird, will that decoy the second?”
“Number two’s starting to lose velocity too, Dan. I mean, Captain.”
When he lifted his gaze again, it was true; the callouts for the second bird were flickering downward as well. Both his missiles were falling back into the atmosphere. At the speed they were traveling, atmospheric friction would probably cook off their high-explosive warheads, but he couldn’t count on that. “All right. Send the destruct order.”