“There’s nothing remotely nuclear about them,” Alan said. “I’ve already said that, but it is one of the project’s strongpoints, at least when considering international law and worldwide public opinion.”
The President chuckled, a throaty, almost sleepy sound. “No doubt, Max would urge me to use them immediately. He’s been pressing for nuclear strikes. He’d know I couldn’t drum up an objection against using these.”
Anna’s chest tightened. Did David already know about Max’s challenge to his authority?
“How do these things operate?” the President asked. “Keep explaining it to me.”
“First,” Alan said, “I should point out that one of our biggest drawbacks is the lack of communication and guidance satellites. Those have all been destroyed. We tried putting two up in secret, but the GD spotted one and beamed it to smithereens. The Brazilians destroyed the other one. So we know our enemies are still searching space for anything we put up.”
“Hmm,” the President said. “We can still use AWACS and high-flying drones for geo-data, right?”
“They’re not really the same thing, Mr. President. Geo satellites are much better for our purposes, and we need the comm satellites to message the THOR bundles if they happen to be on the other side of the planet.”
“We could use submarines to radio them,” the President said. “One or two of them would be in line of sight communications on the other side of the world.”
“Possibly,” Alan said. “It depends on their exact location at the time. Now it’s true we’re not utterly blind without geo satellites, but our THOR accuracy might be limited, and that’s crucial with these weapons. Accuracy is everything with a kinetic strike.”
“Spotters,” the President said. “Can you use ground spotters painting the target with infrared lasers to guide the missiles down?”
“That’s a good idea, sir. It’s also another one of the things Project THOR is testing.”
“You still haven’t told me how they work,” the President said.
The general stood. “Sir, this is a highly experimental project. You shouldn’t pin any hopes on it.”
“Get to the point,” the President said, testily.
A touch of color crept up Alan’s neck. He nodded, and like a schoolboy reciting his lesson, he began to speak. “We send a coded signal to a THOR satellite. The bundle uses attitude jets to orient itself. At the right time, rockets fire to deorbit the satellite. After they burn out, the bundle opens and individual missiles begin to target their victims. These missiles do not have blunt noses, but very sharp ones into order to slice through the atmosphere. In this way, they maintain most of their orbital velocity.”
The President laughed with glee.
“Seconds before impact,” Alan said, “terminal guidance systems take over. Each missile strikes at four miles per second. What that means in reality is that a twenty-pound object will hit with the power of a two hundred pound bomb. When working as planned, it would be spectacular, and the attack would be over in five seconds. The project manager believes that the enemy would have no idea what had just occurred.”
“Would there be any telltale signs of an attack?” the President asked.
“Well, yes,” Alan said. “The missiles would leave luminous tails from space that would slowly dissipate.”
“Incredible,” the President said.
“Compared to other weapon systems,” Alan said, “the actual THOR missile is cheap. Launching them into space is another matter.”
“Is it really a missile?” the President asked.
“It’s a slender, dense metal rod,” Alan said. “And that’s it except for guidance systems and some control nubs. That means the missiles contain no explosives to go bad while they’re in space. In addition, on the positive side, there aren’t any firing mechanisms that might fail at the wrong moment. You simply aim and drop.”
“You said kinetic energy,” Anna said. “What are you talking about specifically?”
“Are you familiar with the shaped-charge grenade of an old TOW missile?” the general asked.
“I have an idea, yes,” she said.
“Okay,” Alan said. “When a TOW warhead detonates it produces a jet of metal particles that travel at the same velocity as a THOR missile. The TOW metal particles weigh a fraction of an ounce. Yet it can punch through the armor of most heavy tanks.”
“Not a Behemoth’s armor,” the President said.
“No, not a Behemoth,” Alan agreed. “In any case,” he told Anna, “the smallest THOR missile weighs twenty pounds, not a few ounces, but it travels as fast as the TOW particle jet. That twenty-pound projectile could punch a hole through a battleship and smash another hole at the bottom of the vessel. It could also destroy a Behemoth.”
“Or a Kaiser HK,” the President said thoughtfully.
“I should point out that there are various types of missiles,” Alan said. “They aren’t only meant to use against armored vehicles. One missile is made from depleted uranium. After punching through an ICBM cover, for instance, the metal produces an incendiary blast as the cloud of uranium vapor detonates. There are ways to use other compositions that would produce a shockwave that would flatten soldiers, ships and other targets. It would act as a fuel-air bomb.”
“This is a science-fiction marvel,” Anna said.
The general shook his head. “No. I assure you this is modern technology used in innovative ways. The trick is making a system the enemy can’t take over. That’s one of the biggest sticking points, and I find it utterly frightening.”
“Meaning what?” the President asked.
“If any of our enemies had our codes and radio frequencies,” Alan said, “they could order our own missiles to fall and strike us.”
“That must never happen,” the President said.
“It’s one of the things we’re testing and believe me trying to prefect,” Alan said.
“How many of the experimental satellites do we have in space at the moment?”
“I believe four bundles are presently in orbit, sir.”
“We need more,” the President said, “many more.”
“If they worked as predicted, I totally agree, sir. At the moment, however, we lack the launch facilities to send many more aloft.”
The President began rocking in his chair. He had a far-off look on his face.
After a time, the general glanced questioningly at Anna.
She shrugged. She’d seen the look before. It was a good sign. David was processing.
The general finally sat back down and began leafing through his papers. He licked the tip of his index finger every few seconds to help him. Anna went back to reading her device.
Maybe twenty minutes later, the rocking chair stopped squeaking. Both Anna and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs looked up.
David eyed them. “I’m giving this priority one.”
“Sir?” Alan asked.
“The THOR Project,” the President said. “From now on it gets full priority ahead of everything else.”
General Alan balked. “But sir, we don’t even know if the missiles work yet. What I’ve just been telling you, it’s all theory. We can’t just dump what works for some pie in the sky project.”
“Hmm,” the President said. “There’s far too much that doesn’t work these days. We need a war-winner and we need it now.”
“I understand that, sir, but—”
“The Behemoth tank gave us part of the answer,” the President said in a rush. “The Jefferson tank is important, too. This might be another answer, maybe the ticket we need to finally beat these aggressors for good.”
“Or it might be a rabbit trail that wastes precious time and resources,” Alan said.
Anna watched David. She hadn’t seen him like this for some time. Normally, the flesh hung on his face and he gave monosyllable replies. Now, the skin seemed to have tightened, especially on his cheeks. There was
