by Bob Mayer
Dublowski assumed the freefall position, back arched, limbs akimbo. He stabilized, then pulled his ripcord. The square chute deployed above him.
"Give me a count," Dublowski said into his mike.
All the men checked in. Dublowski looked at the navigation board strapped to the top of his reserve. "Follow me on a heading of one-four-zero degrees."
The team was staggered above Dublowski. As he turned, they followed in sequence until the team was heading for the Omega Missile LCC.
*****
The lead Zodiac was planed out, cruising at forty knots down the Anaconda. The second, empty one bounced behind it, half the time airborne. McKenzie had Tommy tied to the rope that ran along the top of the pontoon.
"My dad will get you," Tommy said.
"I don't think so," McKenzie replied. He looked at the boy. "You should be thankful. I'm saving your life. This whole area is going to be destroyed by a nuclear bomb in a little while."
"My dad will stop it. That's his job and he's the best at his job."
McKenzie's eyes dropped momentarily from the young boy's, then he turned to the rear of the boat.
"Faster!" As he turned, his pistol caught on the tarp next to him, revealing a green cylinder with helium stenciled on the side. Tommy noticed that and the thick coil of nylon rope that lay underneath the cylinder. McKenzie quickly pulled the tarp back in place, after making sure that neither Drake nor Johnson had noticed. He failed to detect that Tommy had seen what was hidden.
*****
Thorpe and Parker had finally reached the panel leading into the LCC. Thorpe carefully pushed on it and the metal plate moved.
"Where's the control for the guns on the surface?" he asked.
"It's a gray panel on the right-side wall as you go in," Parker said. "About fifteen feet in and four feet off the ground."
"Will we have a clear shot at it?"
"I'm not sure," Parker said. "I doubt it."
"Then we'll have to make one when we go in. You ready?" Thorpe asked.
"Ready," Parker replied, pistol in hand.
Thorpe kicked the panel out and rolled into the control center, firing. He put two rounds into the first man he saw, dropping him. The remaining Canadians reacted with a blast of automatic firepower that pinned Thorpe and Parker behind a metal cabinet. They didn't have a clear shot.
*****
Dublowski could see the surface entrance to the Omega Missile LCC below him. He could also see the two Humvees parked with machine guns manned. He rapidly began giving orders and the staggered formation broke apart as parachutists headed for their targets.
Below them, the Canadian paratroopers scanned the surrounding woods, oblivious to the death winging down from above.
*****
The Tomahawk cruise missile reached the east branch of the Anaconda River and turned left, heading downstream, less than twenty feet above the surface of the water.
*****
Thorpe was returning fire by sticking the muzzle of his MP-5 over the top of the metal cabinet and blindly pulling the trigger. He had no idea where his bullets were going, but he wanted to keep the Canadians occupied.
"Where's the control?" he yelled.
Parker pointed with the muzzle of her gun. "Over there, behind that console. What's the plan now?" she asked.
"We keep them pinned down until my guys get down here."
"Keep them pinned down?" Parker repeated.
Thorpe fired an entire magazine on automatic, then quickly changed magazines. "Yeah, then we take out the panel."
*****
Dublowski landed on the front hood of a Humvee, firing the last ten feet he descended, his rounds smashing into the machine gunner in the turret. He shifted aim and shot the man who was seated in the driver's seat right through the windshield as his feet touched the hood.
One of the other men on Dublowski's team did the same at the other Humvee. In the space of two seconds, the entire security force on the surface was dead. The rest of the SO/NEST team landed, their chutes cut loose and floating free in the wind as the men sprinted into the compound.
One of them spun, weapon at the ready as a man came out of the tree line. "Hold your fire!" Sergeant Everson yelled.
*****
Thorpe looked up at the security monitors. He could see Dublowski and the rest of the team landing. So could the Canadians. One of them threw a switch and activated the automatic machine guns on the roof of the surface entrance.
*****
Dublowski shrugged off his parachute harness. "Let's go," he yelled. Then he just as quickly dove into the dirt as the ground ripped up around him and the roar of machine guns filled the air.
One of the team members was hit in the first burst and his body was tossed backward into the grass, blood pouring from half a dozen holes in his chest.
"Don't move!" Dublowski screamed.
*****
Thorpe fired a short burst, then glanced up at the video screens. He saw Dublowski and the other men lying in the grass, frozen.
"Fuck," Thorpe hissed. Thorpe handed her the MP-5. "When I count to three, just stick the muzzle over the edge and fire in that direction." He pulled two grenades off his vest.
"What are you going to do?" Parker asked in a worried voice.
Thorpe pulled the pins off both grenades. He dropped the pins on the floor and held the grenades, counting silently to himself.
"Thorpe!" Parker exclaimed.
"One. Two." Thorpe tossed both grenades into the room. "Three."
Parker stuck the muzzle over the edge and pulled the trigger. Thorpe rose and sprinted for the console hiding the panel as the grenades went off. He felt pieces of shrapnel hit his side but he dove for the ground and rolled. He fired with his pistol, emptying all fourteen rounds into the panel as quickly as he could pull the trigger.
*****
Dublowski had been counting to himself. After thirty seconds of not moving, he took his backpack and tossed it several feet away from him. His body tensed, waiting for the expected bullets, but there was only silence.
"The guns are down! Let's go!" Dublowski shouted, scrambling to his feet. He led the men into the surface entrance, through the door McKenzie had destroyed. They ran up to the vault door and came to an abrupt halt. Dublowski stared down at the keypad and ordered his men to prepare their charges. He turned to Everson. "You have the code?"
Everson took the bloodstained piece of paper and punched in the code.
The vault door slowly swung open. Dublowski signaled and two men ran into the elevator.
*****
The Canadians popped up from their covered positions and fired, spraying the room. Thorpe had scurried into the well of a desk and reloaded his pistol.
He blindly fired, trying to keep them from rushing his tenuous location.
Half of the Canadians turned at the sound of the elevator coming down, covering the doors with their weapons. As the doors slid open they fired in, tearing up the interior. They slowly stopped firing when they realized no one was inside, just a small green object on the floor.
Just as they recognized the device, the Claymore mine exploded, sending thousands of ball bearings throughout the room like a large shotgun. The Canadians were blown down, their bodies shredded by the mine. Thorpe heard the balls ping into the metal of the desk and whistle by.
"You OK, Parker?" he yelled.
"Yeah."
In the foyer above, Dublowski tied a rope off to a bolt in the top of the elevator shaft. He hooked it into a snap link in the front of his harness and rappelled into the shaft. Thirty feet above the shattered elevator, he dropped a satchel charge. It exploded, tearing a hole in the roof of the elevator. Dublowski finished the rappel through the hole, followed by the rest of the team.
"Whoa! Good guy here!" Thorpe yelled out, slowly unfolding himself from his hiding place and revealing himself.
Dublowski smiled upon seeing his team leader.
Thorpe pointed. "And there's a g
ood guy over there." Parker gingerly edged herself around the corner of the cabinet. She stared in shock at the torn up bodies of the Canadians.
"What the fuck is going on, sir?" Dublowski demanded.
"I don't exactly know, but I'm sure we'll find out soon," Thorpe said.
Thorpe and Parker quickly searched among the bodies.
"I don't see McKenzie," Thorpe finally said.
"That's Kilten," Parker said, pointing at a body lying near the console. She looked at Lewis's body.
Thorpe checked both corpses. "McKenzie is running things now. I knew he'd have something up his sleeve." He turned to the console. "Can you abort Omega Missile?"
Parker walked over and looked at the battered machinery. "This was the abort controls here," she said. "Looks like they thought of that and made sure we couldn't."
"What about through the computer?" Thorpe asked.
Parker sat down and quickly worked on the computer. "I'm blocked out of REACT. Without the destruct or access to REACT, I can't do anything."
"What about the missile that was launched?" Thorpe asked. "Can you find out what its target is?"
"Yeah, I should be able to. Wait a second. Let's see it's—oh shit! It's targeted for here!"
"Can you stop it?"
"I can't do a damn thing without control of REACT."
"How long do we have?"
Parker pointed up at a large digital clock with red numerals that were winding down. "That's it there. Twenty-two minutes."
"Is there anything we can do?" Thorpe asked.
"Find McKenzie. He has control of this through the satellites, through Kilten's computer. He also has to have some way to control the missile that is inbound here since he launched it remotely."
Thorpe turned to Dublowski. "You guys get out of here."
The team turned and ran for the elevator shaft. They began climbing their way out.
Thorpe sat down next to Parker and swung the mike for the radio close to his lips.
"This is Captain Thorpe calling the War Room. Do you read me?"
Lowcraft's voice rumbled over the speaker. "Thorpe, what the hell are you doing?"
"Sir, we've got control of the control center but Parker tells me we can't abort Omega Missile."
"There's a bomb headed right for you!" Lowcraft exclaimed. "Get out of there."
"We're working on that, sir. We also can't abort that missile from this location." He paused in thought. "Sir, can you get us a chopper? Right away? I don't think we have to worry about it getting picked up on radar anymore."
"I'll get you out of there, Captain." There was a moment of silence, then Lowcraft came back. "There's a medevac chopper nearby, picking up Captain Maysun and your son. We sent it in once we realized the missile was coming down there. I'll send it to your location as soon as it makes the pickup."
"Sir, you said that Kilten asked for money?" Thorpe inquired.
"Right."
"How was he to get that money?"
"There's a cruise missile with the money in a resupply pod flying right now. McKenzie has control of when the pod is released."
"How close to this location does that missile come?"
"Hell, it's flying straight down the Anaconda River right now." There was a pause, then Lowcraft's voice came back. "The chopper's landed at the crash site, but all they've found is Chief Maysun. He was knocked out with some sort of nerve agent. Your son isn't there."
Thorpe stood. "McKenzie!" he screamed in anguish.
Chapter Twenty-two
drake had the laptop resting on the rubber pontoon that made up the side of the Zodiac. His fingers were poised over the keyboard. All three men were watching downriver. They heard the Tomahawk a few seconds before they saw it.
It roared in low and fast, catching them by surprise even though they were expecting it. Drake hit a key. The nose cone of the missile exploded and the pod popped out. A parachute deployed out the end of the pod and then it was down in the river, a quarter mile from their location.
"Let's go!" McKenzie yelled.
*****
Most of the team was up the ropes. Parker had been working the computer while Thorpe talked to General Lowcraft. Thorpe took a deep breath. "McKenzie's got Tommy."
"You have to get him back."
"What about—" Thorpe pointed at the console.
Parker nodded. "We've got a big problem in here, too. McKenzie's used REACT to program Omega Missile with a target matrix. With live warheads."
"How many?"
"Two. The Pentagon's one of the targets. Tel Aviv's the other."
Thorpe was torn between running for the surface and going after Tommy and finding out what was going on. "Oh, Christ. Have they been launched?"
"Not yet, but all McKenzie has to do is hit a button and they launch."
"Is there anything we can do?"
"You've got to go after McKenzie and keep him from launching," Parker said. "You don't need me for that." Parker turned in her seat to face Thorpe. "Kilten recruited me to be here when he pulled this off. He wanted people in here who would launch when he gave them the right stimuli, but I don't think he meant things to turn out like this. And since he's planned this for a long time I think I was put here for another reason. I see that now."
"But—"
"I might be able to do something. Maybe I can override his programming. Regain control of REACT."
"You told me Kilten designed and programmed the thing. How can you—"
Parker stopped him with a look. "I have to try. Just as you have to get Tommy away from McKenzie and abort this missile. Maybe I can beat his program. Kilten had to override this REACT computer to transfer control to his computer. Maybe I can do the reverse. McKenzie's the one running things on the outside. He's your problem." She turned back to the computer. "Kilten—his legacy— is in here. And this is where I have to beat him."
"All right," Thorpe said. "You know the Pentagon's got some heavy firepower coming this way."
"I'll radio them and see if I can get them to call it off," Parker said.
Thorpe turned and ran for the shattered elevator. He looked over his shoulder once as he grabbed the rope. Parker's head was down and her fingers were flying over the keyboard. She glanced over at him. Thorpe snapped her a salute, then began climbing.
*****
McKenzie, Johnson, and Drake pulled the pod out of the water into the second Zodiac. They tied it off to the lead Zodiac with a length of nylon rope, then lashed it down inside the second with more cord. They resumed their way downriver.
*****
Amid the dead in the Launch Control Center, Parker worked feverishly. She looked over at Kilten's body and swore as she reached another electronic dead end.
"Come on, come on, Kilten. You put an override into this. An override and a hidden program so you could take the other computer out. So what's the password?"
She pursed her lips in thought, then typed:
Omega Missile
The computer immediately replied in the negative: improper password She typed in:
Omega
improper password
Parker looked up at the clock. Time was flashing by as the digits dropped second by second. She knew that McKenzie would launch the matrix soon and there was no way of knowing where the missiles would come from or what their flight time would be—Omega Missile would decide that.
She typed in:
Kilten
Computer screen:
improper password
"Damn!" Parker exclaimed.
Dublowski and his team were deployed outside the LCC fence when Thorpe reached the surface. He ran out and joined them. They could hear a helicopter inbound.
"Where's the major?" Dublowski asked.
"She's staying. She thinks she can get the computer working."
Dublowski looked at the building, then back at Thorpe. "That takes guts."
Thorpe simply nodded. "McKenzie has Tommy."
"Fuck," was Dub
lowski's commentary on that. "Do you know where he is?"
"I have an idea."
"We're with you," Dublowski said.
"There's a warhead—" Thorpe began.
"We're with you." Dublowski's tone indicated no further discussion would be tolerated.
"McKenzie's programmed the computer to launch two warheads," Thorpe added. "One at Tel Aviv and one at Washington."
"Great," Dublowski muttered, watching the horizon for the helicopter they could now hear.
The helicopter came in low over the treetops. It was a Blackhawk with red crosses painted on the side. It swooped in to a fast landing. Thorpe and the team ran forward and jumped into the cargo bay. Thorpe noticed CWO Maysun lying inside on a stretcher along with a body wrapped in a poncho next to him.
"I'm sorry about your son, Captain," Maysun said. He was barely conscious.
"You did your best," Thorpe replied. He leaned between the pilots' seats and grabbed their flight map. He scanned, running his finger along the river, then he tapped the pilot on his shoulder, pointing at a spot on the map. "Get us to the river here, then fly downstream.
"I'm supposed to—" the pilot began, but stopped when Thorpe drew his pistol.
"Take us to the river."
*****
The two Zodiacs were moving slower now with the weight of the pod in the second one. McKenzie turned to Drake. "Fire the target matrix."
Drake's fingers went to work on the keyboard and then he transmitted the message to Omega Missile.
"They're fired," he announced.
*****
