by Alex Lukeman
"Get one those missiles out here," Rao said.
CHAPTER 63
Selena watched Nick moving through the woods ahead of her. It was hot under the trees. There was no breeze. Tiny insects swarmed and bit her, drawn by her sweat. Her shirt was already soaked through. It felt strange to be doing this in civilian clothes. No boots, no armor. The last time she'd gone into a fight without armor it hadn't worked out well. At least she was wearing jeans and her Nikes. A skirt and regular shoes would have been impossible here.
She'd gotten better over time with the art of moving quietly but she still felt clumsy compared to Nick and Lamont. They made no noise as the team worked their way up the ravine.
She was careful not to dislodge any of the loose rocks in the wash. That's all she needed, kick loose a rock and have Nick give her one of his looks of disapproval.
Damn it, why did she care so much about what he thought? Sometimes she felt like she'd never be able to equal what these men did. They had years of specialized training in warfare she could never match. On the other hand, she could whip both of them in hand to hand, though she wouldn't want to take both on at once. Still, she could kick Nick's butt if she had to.
That thought brought a smile.
They came to the end of the ravine. The land sloped up for another twenty feet and leveled out. Nick held up his hand to stop.
He signaled Lamont. Go left, then up. He pointed at himself and up. I'll take the center. To Selena, he signaled right and up. He pointed at them and at his eyes and then himself. Watch me. Follow my lead. He gestured ahead. Go slow.
She began working her way to the right, the rifle cradled under her chest. The hard metal pressed against her breasts. The ground scraped her elbows. She reached a point where she could look over the edge. Nick was behind her to the left and beyond him, Lamont. She risked a glance toward the tunnel.
The staging area was fifty or sixty yards away from where they lay. She saw a dark shape move under the trees, a man walking down the slope toward the valley floor. She ducked back and looked at Nick, pointed toward the base, held up one finger and pointed toward the stream below. One hostile, moving down.
He nodded, held up two fingers, pointed.
Two more, she thought.
She got ready to fire. There was little cover. If they were seen, they'd try to get off the first shots. Those were the ones that counted.
Better if they weren't seen. Selena wished she was wearing clothes that blended in with the landscape. Not blue running shoes and a pale blouse. She tried to scrunch down behind a dead limb lying on the ground. It wouldn't stop a bullet but at least it gave her some psychological comfort.
Nick signaled. Back to the ravine. He looked at her, touched his lips. Quiet. Then he smiled.
Smartass, she thought. He's like a big kid sometimes. Playing war. Except the bullets are real.
They crawled backwards down to the ravine. She had a dry, metallic taste in her mouth, the taste of fear. Off to her right she heard someone step on a dry branch and curse.
They waited. The air was still and hot. The only sound was the whine of insects and her heart pounding in her ears.
Noise shattered the silence. Diesel engines starting up, big ones. There was only one possible explanation for that. Cobra was moving the missiles out of the tunnel.
CHAPTER 64
The first of the transporters emerged from the tunnel entrance. The truck was painted in camouflage tan and brown, as if the natural colors somehow made the white body of the missile invisible. It was a big vehicle, low to the ground. The Agni III missile lay waiting and silent, clamped to the ramp that would raise it skyward for launch.
A box-like station behind the cab housed a control board and the electronics to initiate the firing sequence. The Agni III had an inertial guidance system augmented by GPS, a recent upgrade that improved accuracy. Targeting was controlled on site. The target data and launch codes were entered by the operator on a computer keyboard or by way of a pre-programmed card. It only took one man to initiate a launch if everything else was ready, unlike the two man systems common in the older ICBM silos.
Rao watched the first transporter move into place. A second crawled from the cavern into the sunlight. Ijay came over.
"It will take us another fifteen minutes to bring out the others," he said.
"We don't need them," Rao said. "These will be enough. Get them ready for launch."
"We only have one man familiar with these," Ijay said. "He has to tell the others what to do. It will slow things down some."
"Just get them ready," Rao said. "There are satellites up there. We don't have a lot of time."
Ijay's headset crackled. It was the sergeant he'd sent down the hill.
"Yes."
"We're down to the valley floor. No sign of anyone."
"Good. Come back up. Stay alert." He turned toward Rao. "No sign of intruders."
"Very good," Rao said. "I need to make a call."
He walked to the edge of the area and called Krivi.
"My friend," Krivi said. He was speaking English. "How are you?"
"Your pills are wonderful, Krivi," Rao said. "I feel good. I wanted to let you know that we're about to proceed as planned."
"Excellent," Krivi said, "excellent. India will always be grateful, Ashok. You will be remembered for generations. What you do today is only the beginning. Others will follow you."
In Virginia, Elizabeth had just finished arguing with the Pentagon about re-tasking a satellite to give them visual coverage of the missile site in Kashmir, with no success. Stephanie's program picked up Rao's call and put it on the office speakers.
Elizabeth said, "Who's Krivi?"
"I don't know," Stephanie said, "but at least Cobra is speaking English for a change."
"We're almost ready to launch," Rao said. "Perhaps fifteen minutes. Islamabad will cease to exist."
Krivi was still talking but Elizabeth wasn't listening.
"Shit," Elizabeth said. "What are the GPS coordinates for that base?"
Stephanie wrote them down.
"I'm calling the White House."
Elizabeth got up and went to her office and called Rice on his private number. The president picked up after two rings.
"Director."
"Sir, we have an emergency situation in India."
"Go on."
"There is about to be an unauthorized nuclear missile launch from Kashmir, aimed at Pakistan. My team is on site but may not be able to stop it in time. I am requesting a strike. We have a window of less than fifteen minutes, no more."
"You're certain."
"Yes, sir, absolutely."
"Director, if you're wrong, we'll be in a shitload of trouble."
"Sir, I'm not wrong. I'm certain."
"Very well." There was a pause while Rice thought it through. Elizabeth realized she was holding her breath.
"I'm connecting us to the Pentagon," Rice said. "Tell them where to go. I'll authorize the mission."
Thank God for a president who's not afraid to make tough decisions, she thought.
A new voice came on line.
"Special Operations Command, General Atkins speaking."
"General, this is the President."
"Yes, sir, I recognize your identity."
"There is going to be a missile launch in India. I am authorizing an immediate strike. Take it out, now. I have Director Harker on the line. She'll give you the target data."
"Yes, sir."
"Go ahead, Director," Rice said.
"General Atkins, this is Director Harker. Here are the GPS coordinates for the missile. It's nuclear."
She read them off.
Atkins said, "Mister President, please hold."
"Who's behind it?" Rice said.
"The same man who set up the attack in Manila," Elizabeth said. "He wants a war."
Atkins came back on line.
"We have a Reaper Q9 running hot out of Bagram over Pakistan," Atkins said. "I'm diverti
ng it to the target."
"Very good, General. Keep me informed."
"Yes, sir, will do."
"Well, Director," Rice said. "We're committed. Better tell your people to keep their heads down."
CHAPTER 65
Nick, Selena and Lamont had worked their way to within twenty yards of the staging area. They watched the second transporter line up behind the first. A man dressed in a black uniform climbed onto the first unit and sat down at the operating console. He set a series of switches on a panel in front of him and then began entering commands on a keyboard.
"What do you want to do?" Lamont said.
"I make it five men, plus Cobra," Nick said. "We take them out, starting with the guy on the truck."
The ramp began to rise on the transporter. In seconds, the missile was aimed at the sky.
"Don't forget the three who went past us," Lamont said.
Nick's ear began itching. Harker's voice sounded in Nick's headset.
"Nick, there's a Reaper on the way. Don't get hurt."
"How soon?"
"Soon. What's your status?"
"There are two missiles out in the open. One's ready. It looks like there's only one guy who knows what he's doing. He finished with the first and now he's gone to the second to set that one up. That one is still down on the bed of the transporter."
"Nick, whatever happens, that missile can't launch."
"Yeah, I know."
"Wait. If the drone doesn't get there in time, stop it any way you can."
"Copy that."
"Good luck."
"Yeah."
Nick looked at the others. "You heard Harker. We'll wait. If it looks like they're going to push the button, concentrate your fire on the guy at the console."
"We'd better move back some," Lamont said. "They're likely going to drop a 500 pounder or two. We're too close."
"All right. As long as we keep line of sight on that console."
They moved back into the trees.
"That's far enough," Nick said. He looked at his watch. "Can't be more than a few minutes, now."
Sudden shots splintered chips of bark from trees nearby. The three sentries had found them. Selena moved behind a tree just as bullets kicked up dirt where she'd been standing. She reached around the trunk and fired blind at the shooters. Nick and Lamont opened up. The afternoon quiet vanished in the sharp explosions of automatic weapons.
Up on the staging area, Rao and Ijay heard the shooting. Rao ran over to where Ijay's man was working on the second missile.
"Is it ready?"
"Not yet. The other one is."
"Leave this. Get over to the other. Here."
Rao took the card Krivi had given him with the codes and programming for the missile out of his pocket. It went into a slot on the console. Once loaded into the computer, the flick of a switch would send the missile on its way.
"You know what this is?"
"Yes, sir."
"Use it. Fire as soon as you can." He gave the card to the soldier. "Hurry up."
The man ran over to the transporter and climbed up onto the back, the card in his hand.
Ijay signaled his men away from the launch. Rao moved to the safety of the tunnel. It wasn't a good idea to be near the tail of the missile when it ignited.
Nick fired at one of the soldiers shooting at them and brought him down. He looked around and saw Ijay's man climbing onto the truck. He swiveled and fired and an empty casing caught in the ejection port. The gun jammed.
On the truck, the operator inserted the card and activated the firing sequence. He got up to leave the unit for cover. Nick cleared the jam, aimed and fired and the man fell off the truck.
Seconds later the Agni III came to life. Flame and smoke erupted from the base of the missile.
"Fire at the missile and the control panel," Nick yelled.
Selena and Lamont turned. The three of them stood and emptied their magazines at the console and the missile. Nick saw holes appear in the white body. It began to rise. Nick dropped a magazine, jammed in another, and emptied it at the console with it's switches and gauges. He could see fragments fly off where the bullets hit.
Ijay's men were still shooting at them. A bullet plucked at Selena's sleeve. She turned and shot another man. One man still came on. She shot him too. He fell to the ground, clutching his gut and screaming. She couldn't hear him over the roar of the rocket engine. She turned back to watch.
The missile climbed toward the sky on a column of orange fire and billowing white smoke. It began to pick up speed. The noise was deafening.
"Too late," Nick said. "We were too late."
Then the missile slowed. It tilted to the side and fell back toward the launching site, the rocket engine belching flame.
"Jesus," Nick said.
They dropped down flat. Selena covered her head with her arms.
The missile hit the ground and exploded. Flaming bits and burning fuel fell back to earth in a hellish rain.
Then the Reaper struck with a 500 pound bomb.
The explosion ripped branches from the trees and sent them flying through the air in a lethal storm of splinters. Selena covered her ears. The shock lifted her body from the ground. A huge, burning tire from one of the transporters crashed into the dirt a foot from her head and rolled away down the hillside.
She lay there, waiting. There were no more explosions. Slowly, she stood and looked around. Everything was muffled, as though her ears were stuffed with cotton.
Fires burned in a dozen places. It wouldn't be long before the forest of pines where they stood would be in flames. The staging area had been destroyed. The transporters and helicopters were twisted hulks of charred metal. A breeze brought an unpleasant odor of burning rubber.
"We'd better get up there before these woods go up," Nick said.
They climbed the rest of the way to the top. The fire spread through the trees below. Small fires dotted what was left of the staging area. The bomb had left a gaping crater in the smooth surface.
A body lay near the tunnel entrance on its back, eyes staring toward the sky. The dead man's face was marked by birthmarks that looked like spots. Debris smoldered in front of the tunnel. It looked as though the interior of the complex was intact.
Lamont brought his rifle up. "I saw movement in the tunnel."
"We have to go in," Nick said. "I'll take point."
They entered the cavern. Scraps of metal and smoking bits littered the first ten yards. The remaining missiles lay silent at the back of the cavernous space. There were bodies on the floor, one in the uniform of a ranking officer. It was dark inside except for light from the entrance and the window of one office. They heard someone singing to himself.
They kept up against the wall and reached the office. Nick took a quick glance through the window and ducked back.
"It's Cobra," he said. "He's sitting at a desk. He has a pistol in his hand."
"How you want to do it?" Lamont said.
"He's the only one left," Nick said. "I want to try and take him alive. Ready?"
Without waiting, Nick stepped into the door of the office and pointed his M-16 at Rao.
"Game's up, Rao. Put the gun on the desk and your hands behind your head."
Rao swiveled in the chair, the pistol coming up as he turned, but it wasn't pointed at them. He held it in his right hand, the barrel pressed against the side of his head. In his left, he held a great, red stone.
For a second, Rao's face was a mask of anger. Then he smiled.
"Carter," he said. "How did you know?"
"We've been listening to your phone calls," Nick said. "Put down the gun. Slowly."
Rao held up the stone. It blazed with color under the lights.
"Do you know what this is?" he said.
"It's pretty," Nick said. "Put down the gun."
Rao laughed. It trailed off to a giggle. Selena and Lamont looked at each other. Lamont twirled his finger by his head.
"Pre
tty," Rao said. "You are looking at the soul of Mother India and all you can say is it's pretty."
"Why don't you tell me about it," Nick said. "I'm willing to learn. But put down the gun."
Rao ignored him. "I think the lady knows what I'm holding. Don't you, Doctor Connor?"
"You know who I am?" Selena said.
"Of course. And Mister Cameron, AKA Shadow. Unfortunate about Sergeant Peete, wasn't it? Did you know he died this morning?"
"You son of a bitch," Nick said.
Selena knew he was going to shoot. "Wait, Nick," she said. "He's lying. Elizabeth would have told us."
"Maybe." But he relaxed, just enough.
"So, Doctor Connor?" Rao held up the jewel.
"If I'm right, it's a jewel called the Eye of Shiva," Selena said. "No one has seen it for centuries."
"Very good," Rao said. "Doctor Connor, are you an honorable person?"
"What do you mean?"
He's nuts, Nick thought. I should shoot him. He watched Rao's gun.
"Are you honorable? Do you keep your word?"
"I believe in keeping my word. I guess that makes me honorable."
"If you give me your word about something, I will put down the gun."
"What is it?"
"I want you to take the Eye back to where it belongs. To the temple of Shiva, off the Peshwa Road in New Delhi. Anyone can tell you where it is. Give me your word that you will give it to the priests there. They'll know what to do."
"If I give you my word, you'll put down the gun?"
"I will."
"All right," Selena said. "You have my word. I'll take the Eye back to the temple."
Rao sighed. "I would have liked so much to bring it myself. Not much chance of that, now."
He leaned forward. The gun never wavered from his head. Rao slid the jewel across the desk.
"Pick it up," he said to Selena.
"Careful, Rao." Nick said. His M-16 was aimed at Rao's head, his finger on the trigger. "I'll shoot if you blink wrong."
Rao smiled again. Selena moved forward, keeping out of Nick's line of fire, and took the stone. It felt cool. The jewel was heavy in her hand. She stepped away from the desk.
