The Titan leader produced a long blade which cut through the edge of the bag like butter.
“Have all the contents?” asked Razor.
“Yes,” said Ambergris. “Thanks.”
“Attention. Lockdown is now complete.”
BENEATH THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA
The first Ming torpedo veered wide to the right as it chased the false target released by Touchdown. It then veered to the left as another countermeasure sped through the water.
Ming torpedo number two wasn’t being fooled, however. It veered to the port side of the Alamiranta before its guidance system identified the target as false. It resumed course for the Titan ship.
The Alamiranta’s bow was three hundred yards ahead.
Chapter 32
TITAN TEN AND TWELVE, SAVAGE BAY
“The Titan teams from Pakistan didn’t make it in,” said Vista as he walked with his men and Ambergris down the main tunnel.
“Let’s find Six and see what Mrs. Caine wants after that,” Razor said.
A bullet caught Razor’s second-in-command in the gut. The Titan fell to the floor and curled into a ball.
Four Dragons appeared, two on each side of the tunnel. Each wore a smug, sinister smile.
Bet you thought the fighting was over, they seemed to say.
“What the hell!” cried Vista.
“Four Dragons,” said Touchdown.
“Yeah,” said Razor, raising her rifle. “We’ve noticed, thank you very much.”
The Dragons opened fire using HK416 assault rifles. The one on the far right was holding an 82-2S fragmentation grenade.
The ten team members sprayed the Dragons with single bullets and machine gun fire. All Dragons were cut down in short order — but not before the fragmentation grenade exploded in the commando’s hand.
“Holy shit!” yelled Vista.
The Titan teams and Ambergris dropped to their bellies.
Body parts from the Dragons on the right rained down, spattering the tunnel with blood and guts. A hand landed at Razor’s feet. A commando head rolled horizontally across the tunnel.
“I thought these bastards had bugged out in the sub,” said Vista.
“I think you’ll find two heavy blankets on either side of the tunnel,” Touchdown said. “They have superior thermal shielding. I couldn’t see the Dragons on my screen.”
“But what are they still doing here?” asked Ambergris.
“A Chinese insurance policy,” said Caine. “They left a suicide squad behind to make sure that anyone lucky enough to get into the base would be killed. If no one made it into the base, they probably had orders to find Six and kill them if the radiation hadn’t already done the job. I suspect they didn’t count on running into two more Titan teams.”
“Titan Six is straight ahead,” said Touchdown.
“On our way,” said Razor.
TITAN FIGHTER SQUADRON TWO, AIRBORNE OVER THE MEDITERRANEAN
Two jets had split off to the left, two to the right. The two groups were now flying straight toward the Ming class sub from opposite sides. Their target was four hundred yards ahead.
“All right, gentleman,” said Flamer. “Me and Firecracker are launching sidewinder missiles. The rest of you folks release your torpedoes.”
“Sounds like overkill,” said Firecracker.
“That’s always our objective,” said Flamer, his thumb depressing the red buttons on his fire control lever.
Two sidewinder missiles dropped from beneath his wing and accelerated, leaving a trail of smoke in their wake. Two more rushed from beneath the wings of Firecracker’s F-16.
On the other side of the sub, eight hundred yards away, the other two F-16s dropped torpedoes at low altitude. The weapons sank into the sea and acquired their target, white bubble trails racing toward the sub at incredible speed.
OPS CENTER, ABOARD THE ALAMIRANTA
Caine had made her decision.
“I want to destroy that Beijing sub,” she declared resolutely.
“Please, Mrs. Caine,” said Cruz in a pleading tone. “Your daughter’s on that sub. Is this really what you want to do? Plus you could precipitate an international crisis.”
“The Chinese have the Genesis data!” Caine shot back. “And I make the decisions here! Do you understand?”
Cruz made no reply. She walked to the opposite side of the Ops Center and sat in a vacant chair.
“Touchdown,” said Caine. “Can we launch?”
“Getting a fix on the sub now. It’s . . . ” Touchdown looked over his shoulder. “Negative. The sub is already going into a deep dive and employing evasive maneuvers.”
“Damn,” said Caine. “Damn.”
CHINESE SUBMARINE 412, MEDITERRANEAN SEA
“Counting down from ten, Commander Chu,” said the weapons officer. “Cruz missile one is targeted for Es Vedra.”
“ . . . nine, eight, seven . . . ”
“Missile two will be targeted at the Titan Global ship,” said the officer.
“ . . . five, four, three . . . ”
Everything on the bridge of 412 grew very bright — and then very hot. Chu and his officers shielded their eyes.
***
Flamer had circled back so that he was flying towards his target.
This should be spectacular, he thought.
It was.
The torpedoes hit the sub first, causing two red fireballs to erupt from the surface of the Mediterranean. The boat’s aft section had been squarely hit.
It was the two sidewinder missiles, however, that caused the growing dawn to become even brighter. One of Firecracker’s missiles caught 412 ten feet behind its nose. Flamer’s struck directly beneath the conning tower. Huge yellow fireballs grew in size above the sub’s deck as 412 rocked from side to side. After a ten-second delay, the entire submarine exploded into thousands of pieces as the firestorm spread outward across the waters of the Mediterranean.
OPS CENTER, ABOARD THE ALAMIRANTA
“Ming class sub is destroyed,” said Touchdown. “But . . ”
He rolled his wheelchair a few inches back from his console.
“Torpedo one hundred yards to our port bow,” Touchdown said. “She got off two torpedoes before she was hit by Squadron Two. This is going to be close.”
“What’s our speed?” Caine asked.
“Ten knots,” Touchdown said. “Torpedo now fifty yards and closing.”
Silence fell over the Ops Center.
“Twenty yards. Ten.”
An explosion could be heard at the rear of the ship. The chairs in the Ops Center rocked gently, throwing their occupants off balance.
“Almost feels like an earthquake tremor,” DJ remarked.
“The torpedo caught our right propeller shaft,” Touchdown said. “Repair crews already dispatched.”
“How bad?” Caine said.
“No immediate danger to the ship,” Touchdown said. “But let’s hope the Beijing sub doesn’t want to surface later and fire on us when it’s downrange. We’ve lost maneuverability.”
TITAN SIX, SAVAGE BAY
“We’re with Titan Six now,” Vista said. “It doesn’t look good.”
“Vital signs are extremely weak,” Ambergris announced.
“Administer Thorian 18,” Caine ordered.”
Ambergris paused. “I’m sorry, Catherine. There’s nothing I can do. Madison and the entire team . . . they’re not going to make it. I give them a few hours at most.”
“Then why are the Triad members and Dr. Boren still standing?” asked Caine angrily.
“I administered Thorian 18 to myself and others not trapped by debris as soon as I detected the rise in radiation,” Boren said.
There was no transmission from the Ops Center for a full minute.
“Make them comfortable,” Caine finally said. “Cruz said there’s probably an underground medical facility.”
“I have a good idea where it is,” Dr. Ambergris said. “Follow me.”
<
br /> Titan teams Ten and Twelve lifted the unconscious bodies and followed Ambergris as he made his way to the south portal storage area. Once there, they descended to the underground corridor that traversed the base.
86th FLOOR, JIN MAO TOWER, SHANGHAI, CHINA
“I offer my resignation,” Admiral Hwai-su said with shame, his head lowered. “Ming class 412 has been destroyed by a squadron of Titan Global jets.”
Li Soo Yang turned from the window to face the Admiral.
“That will be unnecessary,” Yang said quietly. “Catherine Caine is a formidable enemy. As the Americans are fond of saying, we shall live to fight another day.”
“But the West will now have the Genesis data,” Hwai-su said.
“That is true, but we shall nevertheless prevail with our larger plans.”
Yang returned to his desk and sat. “That is all, Admiral. Thank you.”
Hwai-su bowed and left.
***
Yang leaned back in his chair, hands clasped. Dominique Caine was a beautiful woman and a voracious, passionate lover. She was also naïve in the extreme. The Genesis research would indeed be used one day to heal many of mankind’s ills, and China would lead the way. The United States would never again be seen as the world’s savior. China would become pre-eminent in its philanthropic mission to heal suffering mankind.
But the Genesis data also put many military options on the table. Rewriting DNA in detail offered opportunities that had never before been available to any government. Genetic mutations could be introduced into the populations of western governments, mutations that could decimate an entire country. By the same token, such mutations could produce super-warriors.
Additionally, new DNA could be used to program armies and assassins. It could be used as a brainwashing tool or an instrument of exquisite torture.
Even more mind-boggling was the possibility of creating a new race of super-humans who, after conquering the world, might even advance to dominate and conquer the entire solar system. Astronauts could endure years in space while mining precious minerals and ores from planets and asteroids.
And ultimately, it would be the Chinese, rising from the ashes of poverty and overpopulation, who would reach across the interstellar void and conquer the stars.
Yang smiled. He was getting ahead of himself. The universe could wait. For now, he would concentrate on reading The Genesis Code and putting Planet Earth in order.
His victory would be glorious.
Chapter 33
TITAN SIX, SAVAGE BAY
Ambergris and the Titan teams had reached the middle of the long corridor that ran beneath the main tunnel of Savage Bay.
With the light so dim, Ambergris had instructed Razor and Vista to use high-intensity flashlights to examine the walls carefully. It was Vista, his hands playing across the dusty surface of the wall, who noticed the vertical seams.
“They’re spaced twenty feet apart,” Razor noted. “From floor to ceiling.”
“There’s a small square next to the right seam,” Vista observed.
“It’s the cover of a keypad,” Ambergris said. “Pry it off.”
“Easy enough,” said Razor.
She produced a knife and forced the tip into the wall while pushing the handle forward. The cover popped off, revealing a keypad with the numbers one through ten, plus zero.
“What the hell is the code?” asked Vista.
“It’s not in Manticore,” Touchdown said.
“It would have been known only to a U.S. base commander during the Cold War,” said Cruz. “The code would have been kept in a sealed manila envelope inside a safe somewhere in the base.”
“That really narrows it down,” said Caine sarcastically.
“I doubt that it would still be there,” Cruz said. “When the United States left, they would surely have taken all classified materials and codes.”
Smiling, Ambergris stood and silently approached the keypad. He punched eight numbers on the pad and a door slid sideways.
2 3 7 1 2 2 2 0
“That’s a neat trick, Doc,” said Vista. “How did you
know the code?”
“This elevator leads to a special medical facility for the president of the United States. The first president was George Washington, who was born on February 22, 1732. That converts to 02/22/1732 in standard abbreviation. Reverse the numbers and you have the code I used.”
“Logical, but you just pulled this out of your hat?” asked Razor.
Ambergris considered his response carefully. “Let’s just say that I’ve been to such underground medical bunkers before.”
“You hobnob with presidents?” asked Vista.
Ambergris just smiled. “I’ve known a few.”
***
Florescent lights flickered in the elevator.
“They’re programmed to come on automatically when the door opens,” Ambergris explained. “Let’s get Titan Six down to the RPH.”
“The what?” said Razor.
“Remote Presidential Hospital.”
There were two buttons in the stainless steel elevator, one for UP, another for DOWN.
Ambergris, Boren, Vista, and five Titan team members helped carry the bodies of Titan Six onto the elevator. Ambergris pushed DOWN.
When the doors parted after a ride of thirty-seconds, Ambergris stepped into a dark room and pushed a series white plastic rectangles on the wall — light switches.
“This is amazing,” Boren said.
They had arrived at an underground medical facility with operating theater, a ward with twelve hospital beds, a lab, X-ray machine, testing areas, and a sophisticated computer network.
“Dominique must have updated the facility with computers for her own purposes,” Ambergris speculated. “From the looks of things, she perhaps even did some genetic testing here. The plastic biohazard refuse bins on the wall have fresh material in them.”
“What now?” asked Razor.
“Get Titan Six onto the beds in the ward. I’ll start them on IV fluids and oxygen to make them more comfortable.”
OPS CENTER, ABOARD THE ALAMIRANTA
“What is your position, Flamer?” Caine asked.
“We’re just flying the friendly skies,” came the reply.
“Touchdown, where is the Beijing sub?”
“Headed east into the waters of the Mediterranean. Its signal is growing weaker.”
“Send Flamer its present course and heading,” said Caine. “I want to know if it surfaces.”
“Roger that,” said Touchdown.”
“Why wouldn’t it be going toward the Strait of Gibralter?” asked Caine.
“Too obvious,” said Quiz. “It could be heading for the Suez Canal.”
“Or just about any island base in the entire Mediterranean,” said DJ.
“Keep an eye out for it, Flamer,” said Caine. “We’re playing the long shot on this one.”
“Understood,” said Flamer.
***
In the morning skies above the Mediterranean Sea, Titan Squadron Two fanned out horizontally so that the four F-16s could view and track any vessel within a twenty-five mile circumference along the heading supplied by Touchdown.
There was no Chinese submarine in view as the squadron headed east.
REMOTE PRESIDENTIAL HOSPITAL, SAVAGE BAY
Dr. Joshua Ambergris looked at the very modern computer room installed by Dominique Caine. He was joined by Dr. Heidi Boren.
“I believe you were in charge of gene sequencing, Dr. Boren. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“Would I be mistaken in saying that you found something very interesting on Intron one thousand one hundred and eleven?”
Boren cocked her head to the side. A smile slowly spread across her face.
“Emilio Gonzales’ final words were ‘Boren in eleven eleven,’” Ambergris said. “I believe he was actually trying to say your name plus ‘intron eleven eleven.’”
Boren nodded
. “I made the discovery a few months ago. Not even Christian was in the loop at the insistence of Dominique even though we had all discussed the importance of the eleven eleven phenomenon.
“If one multiplies 1,111 by itself, the answer is 1,234,321 — a seven-digit mathematical pyramid on either side of the number four. This was a sacred number to the Egyptians, with the Great Pyramid at Giza having many proportions with a ratio of seven to eleven.”
4
3 3
2 2
1 1
“The hydrogen atom,” said Ambergris, “is the most elemental atom in the periodic table. It is composed of one proton, one electron, and one neutron. Three single units. One, one, one. And according to Brian Greene in The Elegant Universe, string theory hinges on the existence of eleven dimensions.”
“There are even many mathematical resonances, depending on the calculation, between 1,111 and pi,” said Boren. “But you might be intrigued to learn that much of the information that you and Christian collected before the Genesis Project was relocated to Savage Bay can be correlated to the number eleven eleven.”
“Really? Please fill me in,” said Ambergris as he glanced at the motionless bodies of Titan Six in the medical ward.
“Christian learned from Dr. Vazquez at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago that the number 4,320 can be found in many ancient cultures — Aztec, Mayan, Egyptian, Hopi, and so forth. Now let’s say that we write the number as two distinct units, or two ‘ones.’”.
4320
4320
“We now have two units. Next, subtract three from four and two from three in each number. The subtraction operation produces two sets of the number eleven.
4-3=1 3-2=1 11
4-3=1 3-2=1 11
“That’s quite amazing,” said Ambergris.
“Let’s also use subtraction on the Magic Square that you discovered while researching the Mayans,” said Boren.
“Every strand of DNA is mapped out in terms of sixty-four codons, or the codes for how the amino acids of adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine are grouped. These are the classic A,C,G,T proteins that are attached to nucleotides in the Watson-Crick double helix.”
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