She reminded him a little bit of his mother. He nodded toward Luger.
'Dave here had to get his beauty sleep. Good buddy that I am, I decided to wait for him.'
Wendy looked worried. 'Pat,' she said, 'do you have any idea why General Elliott called us together?'
McLanahan shrugged. 'I expect we'll find out soon enough,' he said as he opened the door to the shack.
General Bradley Elliott removed a pair of sunglasses and looked out over his captive audience. He wore a thick green nylon winter-weight flight jacket over a set of standard starched Air Force fatigues with subdued green and black name tags, a subdued Strategic Air Command patch, and subdued black stars on his collar. He propped himself on a desk at the front of the room and twirled his sunglasses absently.
'Well, I'm glad that all of you have seen fit to put in an appearance,' Elliott asked. 'Even if a bit late. 'He looked at the four stragglers who had just entered the room.
'I've called all of you here,' he said, 'to provide some explanation for the events of the past two days, and of the past few months. As most of you have surmised, the improvements and modifications we made in those two Excaliburs were not implemented on the off chance that they might prove of use at some future date. They were carried out with a definite purpose in mind. 'Elliott paused to stare at the faces around the room. Directly in front of him, Colonel James Anderson sat straight in his chair. To his immediate left was Lewis Campos, his forehead shiny with sweat. At the back of the room, Patrick McLanahan sat staring at the floor, his legs straight out.
'Ladies and gentlemen 'Elliot said, 'approximately twenty-five minutes ago two B-1s-the B-1s you've worked on these past few months-took off from Ellsworth Air Force Base. They are launching as part of a possible strike force on an area in the Soviet Union.'
There was a collective gasp from those in the room.
McLanahan felt suddenly sick to his stomach. He looked over at Luger and shook his head.
'I said possible. They'll orbit in narrowing circles near Russia while the politicians still work for a negotiated solution.
If there isn't one, the B-1s go in…'
'A negotiated solution to what?' Lewis Campos asked, his voice rising above other whispered comments.
'Quiet down, people,' Elliott said, opened his locked briefcase, extracted a series of photographs and handed them to Lieutenant Colonel John Ormack, who passed each to his left.
' The photographs that are being circulated,' Elliott went on 'show a facility that has been built in the Soviet Union in a small fishing village called Kavaznya. The Soviets have built an actual anti-satellite and anti-ballistic missile laser there. In the past few months they've been using it.'
'On what?' Dave Luger asked as McLanahan studied the satellite reconnaissance photographs. 'There hasn't been anything in the news-' 'And there won't be,' General Elliott interrupted. 'Injecting public sentiment into the situation could make it more volatile than it already is. The fact of the matter is that the Kavaznya laser has proved very effective. Although the Russians haven't even admitted the presence of the weapon, it has.destroyed over five billion dollars worth of American equipment and has taken thirteen lives.'
'MY God,' Luger said, reflecting the collective sentiment.
'Our job is nearly finished here,' Elliott continued. 'I'll want all of you to stand by for the next few hours in the unlikely event SAC command needs your input on some aspect of the B-1s' gear that may not be functioning correctly, but after that you'll be free to go. I've already had the Transportation office arrange your flights back. You also are ordered not to reveal a word of what I have just told you.
You all have topsecurity clearance, and I felt you were entitled to know what you've been a part of. Knowing should also make you acutely aware of the necessity of not revealing to anyone ever what you have been doing here.'
Suddenly the door to the briefing shack was thrown open and Lieutenant Harold Briggs hurried into the room. He halted two steps away from Elliott. 'General,' Briggs said, 'we've got a problem.
Elliott's face turned pale- He noticed that Briggs was wearing his short-barreled Uzi submachine pistol mounted on a shoulder harness, and that the harness had three hand grenades clipped into it. 'Hal?'
'Got a report of a light airplane that dropped off radar coverage into the area a few minutes ago, General,' Briggs asked. 'Ridge-hopped in from Vegas, we think. We've got security patrolling the area from Dreamland on out.'
'Did it make it into Dreamland?' Elliott asked. The odds against it were tremendous-any kind of aircraft over a few hundred pounds in weight would be picked up by a dozen different sensors patrolling the desert.
'We're anticipating the worst. 'Luger and McLanahan were already out of their chairs.
Anderson was leaning forward, ready to move on Elliott's order.
'James,' he said, 'get your people over to the Old Dog's hangar right away. They'll be safer there.'
Anderson nodded and turned to the others. 'All right, you heard the general. Let's get moving.'
As McLanahan hurriedly led Wendy out of the briefing shack and over to the Old Dog's black hangar, he heard the sound of gunfire and explosions. Looking to his left, he noticed a billowing cloud of smoke at the entrance to the compound.
' Holy shit, ' Luger said behind him, ' we're under attack!' In less than half a minute each member of the Old Dog test team was in the hangar and McLanahan was bolting the door.
He had just turned away from the door and was heading into the bowels of the hangar when he heard a pounding outside and Elliott's voice. He opened the door for General Elliott and Briggs.
'It's more serious than we thought,' Elliott told Anderson, who had moved forward to join them. 'You must-' He never finished. The first explosion was felt rather than seen. Its impact point was on the far corner of the black hangar, on the roof. To Elliott, it felt as if the entire four-acre roof above their heads was vibrating like a sheet of tin.
Elliott and Ormack were thrown off their feet by the shock wave.
Anderson tumbled against the Old Dog's front wheels, landing on his head and shoulders.
Briggs managed to stay on his feet. Still gripping his Uzi, he helped Elliott up off the hangar floor.
'Take cover, General,' Briggs said as the second explosion came, three times more powerful than the first. A fifty-foot hole was blown into the roof a hundred feet from the Old Dog's left wingtip, showering the wing with bits of metal and concrete. The wall beneath the hole ripped open as if someone had pulled a giant zipper down the side of the black hangar all the way to the ground. An acetylene line burst and flames shot skyward. Automatic gunfire erupted outside the open mouth of the hangar. The opening was filled with running workers and armed security police trying to spot the attackers and dodge the stampede of terrified workers. Bodies began to fall.
Elliott shook debris out of his hair and struggled to clear his eyes and throat of dust and gas. He turned and saw the first impact point on the far corner, the second right beside the bomber, and the gunfire outside the hangar. He did not need to be a general to realize that the next mortar round was going to be right over their heads and that more bodies were going to pile up outside.
'John. 'He grabbed Ormack and put his mouth next to his ear. 'Get aboard. Start 'em up.'
'What?'
'The engines. Start 'em up. Get this thing moving.'
'Moving?'
'Taxi the goddamn plane out of here, they're going to blow this place apart. Move. 'He shoved Ormack toward the hatch.
Ormack tumbled to the polished concrete floor, and for a split second Elliott thought he wasn't going to get up. Then Ormack scrambled up on his hands and knees, found the boarding hatch, and climbed inside.
'Campos, Pereira. 'He found the defensive system operator and his assistant stumbling around the bomber's right wing, bumping into the Scorpion pylon, not sure which way to turn or run. Elliott grabbed them both by the necks, ducked them under the bomber's belly. 'Get aboard.'
Angelina reacted instantly, scrambling up the ladder. Campos, confused, watched as his assistant disappeared inside. He turned to Elliott.
'No, I can't 'Get up there, goddammit.
'I won't get into that thing. 'Campos used his bony elbows and fists and broke free, bolted toward the open hangar door, ignoring bursts of gunfire erupting all around him. He crashed against the edge of the hangar opening and paused, then turned and took one last look at the black bomber.
s,' Elliott ordered, 'take cover 'Campo Too late. Just as Elliott called out Campos turned and ran outside. As
