he really think that the good faith on the part of men such as Senator
Williams was sufficient for him to entrust the safety of the men and
women under his command to them? Would Williams make good decisions,
decisions that would strengthen the nation rather than weaken it? Or
did the larger picture” national strategy,” as Williams was fond of
referring to it outweigh the safety of the men in the air, and his
commitment to keep them alive?
“It’s set up now, isn’t it?” Williams asked.
Loggins nodded. “We’ve already programmed the vector to the command
post. And the link between Arsenal and the missile is working well.
All we have to do is authorize the divert and it’ll be on its way. But
I think we ought toNO!” Admiral Loggins grabbed at Williams’s hand,
which was poised over the execute switch. The admiral’s fingers grazed
the back of Williams’s hand as me senator quickly flipped the lever
into execute position.
Four rows of green lights flickered on Loggins’s console as the UAV ran
its self-check verifying what it had known all along, that everything
was in working order and commenced executing its last given
instruction.
As an additional safety precaution, the UAV was programmed to lock out
further orders after it received a go signal, to prevent the
possibility of enemy jamming or cryptological deception making it
deviate from its course.
Loggins watched in horror as the UAV gently rolled out of its orbit,
shuddered, and pitched its deadly rounded snout up. He saw the exhaust
spit a whiff of black smoke, then steady into a clear, turbulent blast
of hot gas. Seconds later, the missile was no longer under visual
observation and could only be tracked by its small blip on the radar
scope.
That, too, was intermittent, given the Stealth technology of the
missile.
“Dear God, what have you done?” Loggins gasped. “You had no right
to ” Williams leaned back in his chair and smiled, an ugly, twisted
parody of a pleasant expression. “If you had the guts, you’d have done
it yourself. Remember that, Loggins.
Remember that.”
0657 Local (+5 GMT) Tomcat 202
“Stoney, it’s starting a rollout!” The first trace of excitement
entered Tomboy’s voice.
“I see it, I see it I’ve got it now.” Tombstone identified the UAV’s
green blip on his heads-up display. “How long?”
“Minutes. Stoney, if that missile detonates on target, we don’t have a
chance. Neither do those men in the air to the south.”
“I know it.” Tombstone jammed the throttles forward into full
afterburner. “It should be accelerating keep giving me range and
bearings to it. Tomboy, as well as a vector to intercept. There’s
going to be a very small window when it’s within range.”
“Sidewinder,” Tomboy suggested.
Stoney clicked the mike twice. “Roger. It’s the only one reliable
enough to trust for one shot.”
And one shot is all he’d have. One chance to knock the missile out of
the air, to send it tumbling helplessly to land before the nuclear
warhead armed, to detonate it into a conventional explosion in the
atmosphere without invoking the deadly hellfire contained in its nose
cone. One chance, one shot.
0700 Local (+5 GMT) Washington, D.C. “You’re insane,” Loggins blurted
out. Suddenly, the sheer lunacy of their position struck him full
force. How had he gotten involved in this, one part of his mind
wailed. To wander so far from the traditional honors and values of the
United States Navy, to allow political control to assert itself over
the very targeting decisions the military made? If anyone ought to
know better, it should be you, he chided himself. After Vietnam, you
swore you would never let this happen again. Not only did you let it
happen, but you’re part of it.
“They’ll think you did it, you know,” Williams said softly. “Some sort
of post-traumatic stress syndrome you should be able to blame it on
that. They might even let you keep your retirement.” The senator
smirked. “I’ll say I tried to stop you, but if they compare our
records, they’ll know who’s really behind it. You were all the way; it
was all your idea.”
“No,” Loggins said, his voice strong and firm. “I don’t think so. You