The Sword of Cyrus: A Thriller (A Rossler Foundation Mystery Book 4)

by JC Ryan

  Security agencies overseas had been given the keys to repel the attack, just as soon as the various steps to do so were discovered and refined. A strong worry was that they hadn’t had time to assemble enough of the bird-bots to attack every bomb, just as the same might be the case in the US. As Roy had told the president, they were as ready as they could be. Satellites and high-level spy drones had been dispatched to watch as the attacks began, their operating countries hoping that there would be nothing to see.

  At the JOCC, tension was high. The days of activity that made it look like a kicked-over anthill were at an end. The activity was now elsewhere. Every target city in the US was assembling Roy’s bird-bots as quickly as hands could be found to help, and contingencies were being planned for tomorrow’s attack. If there were a nearby military base, the Hawkeye aircraft were being staged there, with others at municipal airports to take over if the military bases were hit first. The more people who had to be briefed about what was happening, the more risk that someone would leak it to the public and cause a panic.

  After the near-miss in which Harper considered informing everyone in Congress, it had been discussed at dinner, and the consensus was to activate the emergency broadcast network as soon as attacks began, since there was now no way to contain a breaking news story that hit the internet. Americans would know hours ahead of time for the attacks on their own cities that something big was going on elsewhere in the world. Even now, the White House PR department was working on wording that would be short, accurate and hopefully prevent everyone running into the streets and creating chaos just as the military was trying to intercept the bombs.

  Roy had won his argument. Even after Daniel protested to Sam in the hope that he’d put a stop to it, Roy’s calm reasoning was convincing. His reflexes were impeccable, and he’d been controlling those bird-bots for longer than anyone in the world. With arguably the most important man in the US, if not the world, President Harper, at stake, it should be he who was at the controls of the bots protecting the central part of DC. To Daniel’s great disappointment, Sam agreed.

  Daniel was preparing to leave for Boulder within the hour, but, along with approving Roy’s desire to be in the air to defend his country, Sam had now informed everyone that he intended to remain in the JOCC. As far as Daniel was concerned, it was a foolhardy gesture. No one should be there. The entire operation should move to the deepest basements they could find, in his opinion. Sam was adamant that there wasn’t time. He and his crew were still coordinating the defenses. Taking the time to move the operation would put that operation in jeopardy. Besides, he was busy also coordinating the deployment of National Guard troops.

  “That alone is going to alert the populace. You’ll need those guys to direct traffic while everyone flees the city.” It was Daniel’s parting shot, and it didn’t sway Sam at all.

  July 29, 2020, D-day

  The mood was mixed in the Deep Underground Command Center, acronym DUCC, pronounced like ‘duck’ as in ‘duck, bend over, and kiss your ass goodbye’. The latest in a line of hardened shelters for the use of the president and other VIPs in times of extreme threat, DUCC had state-of-the art communication and video links, along with room for everyone needed to operate the country in such times. Harper had considered riding out D-Day in Night Watch, but Sam Lewis and his military advisers had convinced him it would be better to be stuck underground for a few days in case of an EMP than to fall out of the sky in an aircraft that had lost its electronics.

  Harper, the First Lady, essential members of his staff and everyone else who now occupied DUCC had been escorted there at midnight on July 27th, there to wait as D-Day commenced in Australia, some fourteen hours ahead of Washington time. Some of the occupants were like overstimulated children, fretting and exhibiting nerves, others business-like and serious. The president and Mrs. Harper spent much of the time in prayer.

  ~~~

  D-day for Australia starting at GMT +10

  It began on the eastern seaboard of Australia with Sydney and Brisbane, at eight a.m. Canberra, the capital, plus three other major cities erupted in confusion as the Emergency Alert System initiated phone messages to stay at home if the citizens weren’t already on their way to work, and to turn around if they were. They had waited too long; they should have made the calls at 6 o’clock. The government had decided that the most efficient way for their military to apprehend the MCUs was to keep the citizenry out of the way. Unfortunately, with not enough prior warning, more confusion than compliance was created. With several major traffic routes in all cities in gridlock because of it, troops on the ground couldn’t get through in a timely manner, and many resorted to getting out of their vehicles and running through the streets to their assigned posts.

  At the nine-fifteen a.m. mark, the photos had shown the cities in rubble.

  But, the first indication that the future had been changed through the efforts of Sam Lewis and his team was when forty of the 50 bombers destined to launch bombs in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra were arrested before they could launch their drones. Eight of the remaining ten bombs were intercepted and disabled by the bird-bots, which the Aussies had renamed cuckoos for the real bird’s tendency to lay their eggs in other birds’ nests. Two small bombs exploded in Sydney - planted by hand at two of the most iconic Australian sites the Sydney harbor bridge and the famous Sydney Opera house, putting all Australians on the warpath.

  It was around seven-thirty on the evening of the previous day in Washington, DC, when the reports started to come in. Prayers of gratitude went up that Australia had so far been spared heavy losses. Half an hour later, Adelaide reported no losses. The Australian air force patrolled the skies above the cities and also all military bases. The terrorists who were supposed to blow up Pine Gap decided to fly out there in a light airplane and were picked up by two fighter jets and forced to land and arrested more than 150 kilometers from their target.

  An hour and a half after Adelaide, Perth reported that they arrested six of the ten bombers before they could launch their drones, the cuckoos took out three in the air and the fourth one they dumped in the sea after they took control of it. In that case, the cuckoo failed to launch properly from the overhead plane. The bomb didn’t explode at all - it appeared that the water disabled all electronics inside, including the laser trigger. This was new and good information to be passed on to other countries - if the hummingbirds fail, try to dump the drones in water if there is water nearby.

  In Australia the two explosions in Sydney caused sixteen deaths and forty-five injuries ranging from severed limbs to minor cuts and bruises.

  ~~~

  D-day for Oleg Zlatovski

  It would be another four hours before Moscow and St. Petersburg, the next targets, were out of the woods. After Australia reported their losses, Sam Lewis was in a vicious mood. He sent for Oleg Zlatovski and his niece, Tamara, and had Tamara waiting in a connecting room when Oleg was brought to him. It was ten-thirty in the evening, a little over ten hours to go before the attacks were expected to start in his city, and Russia, Israel and the UK at risk in the meantime. His orders were to cuff Zlatovski to the chair and have him wait.

  By eleven, Sam considered it sufficient time to have completely terrorized Zlatovski. Now he’d see just how quickly he could break this evil man. He opened the door and strolled in, a half smile pasted on his lips.

  “Good evening, Oleg. I trust you have been well cared-for during your stay with us.” Sweat was rolling down Oleg’s face. He’d been told nothing of the preparations that were waiting for the nanonukes.

  “For the love of God,” Oleg said, “we must leave here!” He apparently saw no irony at all in calling on a deity whom he did not believe in and had been officially denied to exist by his old country’s government.

  “Oh, I think we’ll stay,” said Sam, smiling a little more broadly at the desperation in Oleg’s expression. “I thought you’d like to be here to get the reports when Moscow and St. Peters
burg are hit by the nasty little nukes your employers deployed there.”

  Oleg blanched. “How did you…?” His eyes widened when Sam threw down copies of the pictures showing Moscow in ruin. “Where the devil? This hasn’t happened yet, it can’t have! The attacks were to take place…”

  “On the first day of Hajj, yes, I know. If you’ll think about it, you’ll realize that it has already started, on the other side of the world. We have reports from Australia. The pictures came from the 10th Cycle Library. I’m sure you’ll have questions.” Sam pressed a button that unlocked the connecting door, which was behind him. He wanted to see Oleg’s face when Tamara came in. It was a very satisfying experience.

  Oleg went even whiter than before and the white ring around his pupils made his eyes look as if they were about to pop out of their sockets.

  “You told me you would protect me if I told you everything!” he cried. Tamara had her little dagger in her hand. “You promised!”

  “Oh, no, Oleg, I did no such thing. I told her she couldn’t talk to you yet. It’s time. Tamara, I’d appreciate it if you let him live until we know about Moscow.” Sam didn’t want to even hint to Oleg that Moscow would probably survive, and St. Petersburg as well. Let it be his last conscious thought - that he’d failed, and his fate was sealed no matter who had him. “You’re sure you don’t want to send him to meet with his employer, Dalir Jahandar? I have been told that Jahandar has been frantically trying to reach him the last few days. ” Sam asked, bewildering Oleg further.

  “No, thank you,” Tamara said. “This is for me to do. I suppose you do not want it to happen here?” Sam nodded.

  “I’ll send an escort to take you somewhere more…appropriate, in about five hours.” He left the room, with Oleg howling his terror at being left alone with the niece he’d abused so brutally as a child. It was not up to the US justice system to punish him; he was a Russian citizen and the crimes had happened there. Sam had not a moment’s remorse.

  ~~~

  D-day for Russia GMT +3

  In Russia, estimates indicated they were looking for about two-hundred and fifty of the bombs in Moscow and St. Petersburg combined. Police and military ground forces picked up 60% of the terrorists in their calculated positions, about one hundred and fifty of them, before they could launch their drones.

  Of the remaining drones, some eighty-five were disabled with the hummingbirds. Several malfunctioning hummingbirds failed to launch properly, allowing one bomb in Moscow and two in St Petersburg to detonate, fortunately near the ground. The rest, thanks to timely information from Australia, they managed to dump into nearby bodies of water, which prevented them from exploding

  Russia tragically, ended up with about 1,500 people dead, most of them civilians, and close to 4,000 injured. The Red Plain was destroyed The Kunstkamera, the Palace Bridge and parts of Peter and Paul Cathedral were destroyed by one bomb in St Petersburg. The other took out the Winter Palace and other landmarks. It seemed by now that the terrorists had wanted to strike at the national pride of the target nations, as much as at their governments and population.

  ~~~

  D-day for Israel GMT +2

  The Israelis turned out to be the most efficient of all countries. From their many years of experience living with constant threat and dealing with terrorist attacks such as Hamas attacking them out of Gaza every chance they got, they knew how to handle situations like these.

  Their armed forces had instructions to shoot and kill MCU operators on sight. The Dome of the Rock was saved, and the highly efficient Mossad led the Israeli Army defense troops in disarming every bomb, a remarkable feat, since there were enough bombs deployed there to wipe out every Israeli in the country.

  Dalir Jahandar had hated Israel more than any other government, and his failure to wipe Israel off the map was complete.

  The death toll was zero - no bomb exploded and not one hair of any Israeli’s head was harmed.

  ~~~

  D-day for the UK GMT

  Across the United Kingdom, most of the three hundred bombs were concentrated on targets in London. A handful in Belfast and Glasgow proved to be no problem. London’s two hundred and seventy or so were stopped before they could be launched by the arrest or shooting of their operators, save thirty, twenty-five of which were disabled by the hummingbirds.

  Of the remaining five, one exploded and took the Big Ben down and one took part of Cambridge University off the map. The rest the Hawkeyes managed to dump in the Thames. The UK’s toll was fifty dead and about three times that many injured.

  ~~~

  D-day for the USA GMT -5

  For Harper and the others in the DUCC, the day had already been long, beginning with the first images and reports from Sydney hours before, and continuing with various expressions of dismay and relief as the nine a.m. hour marched from east to west across Asia and Europe.

  They had only a few hours to rest before it would start again with their own city and a few others on the east coast. From then, it would be unrelenting until well into the afternoon, since the US comprised no fewer than five time zones. So far, no images of either Alaska or Hawaii had been discovered. Everyone hoped that none had been missed. Ground troops were on alert in both states, but Hawkeyes, which were already spread pretty thin, weren’t posted.

  As soon as they’d heard from the Prime Minister that casualties in London were under control, Harper and most of the others did their best to rest and sleep for a couple of hours before being awakened with offers of breakfast at six a.m. Eastern time. It would start soon, but the mood was now lighter. So far, the reports were good. Did they dare hope that the outcome would be the same – or better – here in the US?

  Sam Lewis had experienced much of the same ups and downs as those in the DUCC had. He was with a skeleton crew at the JOCC, and by six a.m. all were alert and waiting. A few blocks away in a hotel room where they’d shared the past couple of weeks, Roy and Salome said an emotional goodbye before Roy departed for the naval base from whence his Hawkeye would take off and Salome joined the others in the JOCC.

  In Boulder, the extended Rossler Foundation family had watched the events of the previous day until the wee hours of the morning and then most had succumbed to exhausted sleep. Daniel’s alarm was set to wake him at five a.m., an hour before the earliest attacks were expected in DC. He’d wake the others, and would call Roy just before his plane was scheduled to take off.

  One other group in the US had also watched the way it unfolded. Separately, because they didn’t know of each other, the drone operators who were waiting for their big moment to release their payloads of anthrax on people fleeing the cities realized that the big moment was not going to come. If the other countries, even Russia, with its inefficient bureaucracy, could escape their fate and prevent the nukes from detonating, surely the US could do the same. One by one, the terrorists began an exodus that would see some of them captured at airports serving major cities, and others attempting to make their way out of the country against the tide of neighbors to the south trying to get in. Their dangerous weapons were left behind to be found by landlords cleaning out abandoned apartments. By that time, though, word of the potential danger would have been disseminated, and most landlords who found the drones in their properties would know to call the police, who would send decontamination crews to handle it.

  ~~~

  By nine a.m. Eastern, hundreds of drone operators in New York, Boston, Washington, DC, Langley, Virginia. Norfolk, Virginia and Cape Canaveral, Florida were cooling their heels in local jails. Those who managed to launch their drones before being arrested watched in awe as circling aircraft that looked like aliens in UFOs had them captured took control of the drones and sent them spiraling to near ground level, where crazy hummingbirds attacked them, each emitting a small puff of smoke before being lowered gently the rest of the way to the ground. Only a few had an inkling of what had been averted.

  The same was true for the bulk of the American peo
ple. Thousands were kept home by the simple expedient of sending out Emergency Broadcast System alerts, beginning at six a.m. in each time zone. A few hardy souls were already on the road by then on the East Coast, especially near New York and Washington, but those were turned away well before they reached the cities by National Guard units barricading the highways.

  Roy and his military counterparts circled their assigned cities in their Hawkeyes, running the software hack that would detect drone-generated wifi hotspots as soon as they showed up. But only a few did, thanks to the efforts of the ground troops. Along the East Coast, D-Day was, as Harper had hoped, a non-event.

  The Central Time Zone and Mountain Time Zone looked like reruns. One drone did manage to detonate on the Pacific Coast. The main casualty was the Hollywood sign, with no known human victims.

  D-day in Tehran

  In Tehran, the Sword of Cyrus were gathered around a state-of-the-art wall display showing satellite feeds from across the world. As the time for the first bombs to detonate drew near, Dalir Jahandar, sitting with calm dignity at the head of the table, spoke in a soft voice. “Our time has come.”

  Indeed, when the bombs exploded in Sydney, a grin split his face and the others cheered. But, something was wrong. Only a few of the bombs detonated. What had happened? Dalir and the others sat in tense anticipation of the others, only to be disappointed as time after time, the devastating attack that had been planned went awry with little effect.