“I agree with you there,” Norton told him. “The fight is far from over. We will entrain troops to New Jersey —”
“No!” Max said. “We must stop the fleet. We cannot let the enemy soldiers land and complete the encirclement of the First Front.”
Anna was frowning. There was something in the back of her mind. There was something else…
“Mr. President,” Max said. “I suggest another nuclear strike.”
David slowly looked up.
Anna shuddered. She hated the hopelessness she saw on his face. Then she saw something else appear. It began in the President’s eyes. The hollowness remained. He was very tired. But something other than despair shined out of him. It began as a light. She couldn’t think of any other way to express it. The light shined from his eyes. That melted the hopelessness. Then it etched lines in his face so he became like a grinning skull, one vitally alive with unholy power.
The President made a dry sound like one of the undead laughing. His lips peeled back, and like the Homeland Security Director a moment ago, he curled the fingers of his right hand into a fist. He slammed that fist against the table. He hit the surface hard.
Anna wondered if he’d broken bones. She had watched a nature show once that showed a polar bear sneaking up on a seal. The huge beast had used infinite patience. As it reached the nearest piece of ice to the seal, the bear rose up to charge. As the polar bear first charged, however, one of its hind paws slipped. That gave the seal just enough of a margin to slither to its ice hole and dive away into safety. The polar bear went berserk, and it hammered its forepaws against the ice in rage. Then the bear charged the cameramen and they shot the beast in self-defense. The interesting moment came later. The nature people discovered that every bone in the bear’s right forepaw had been broken by smashing it against the ice.
Would David now break bones in his fist? He’d hit the table hard enough.
“I have it!” the President exclaimed.
“Sir?” Max asked.
“The ICBMs failed,” the President said. “Now it’s time to see if the
Max and Norton exchanged glances. The general shrugged.
“THOR missiles?” Max asked the President. “Ah, are you sure they’re… ah…?”
“Get General Alan on the line,” the President said. “It’s time to put those experimental weapons to the test.”
Colonel Foxx of the Experimental C and C Station of the X-THOR missiles sat at his terminal. He used a touch screen. Along with others of the team, he hurriedly designed an attack sequence against the approaching GD armada.
They had communications problems to overcome. Several of the THOR bundles or satellites presently orbited on the other side of the world. They could use a submarine, several of them, actually, as relay stations to send the attack commands. Hmm…yes. That could work, especially if they launched several high-flying drones to extend line-of-sight reach.
Others in the control room worked on the timing of the various attacks. They figured out the angle of the attacks and the distance of the THOR package at the instant of release so they would all come in at once while converging from different areas over the Earth.
Colonel Foxx believed in his missiles and he and his team worked feverishly. It just might work, but to coordinate the THORs in a mass attack on so short a notice—
He sat up, swiveled around and picked up a secure phone. In seconds, he spoke to General Alan in Syracuse, New York.
Anna watched as the President had a phone against his ear. They were still in the underground bunker.
David spoke with General Alan. “I see,” the President said. “Yes, thank you. I’ll let you know my decision about— Yes, I understand the need for haste. Give me five minutes, General, and I’ll let you know for certain.”
The President set down the phone and faced those assembled. “General Alan says it will be a close-run attack. The THORs won’t be ready to strike en mass until the enemy armada is a mere one hundred miles from the coast.”
“Sir,” Norton said. “If these THOR missiles work, or work even half as good as we expect, we should hit the enemy fleet with all the air we can summon. We must be ready to exploit any victory we achieve by swarming the enemy with cruise missiles.”
“Yes, yes,” the President said, nodding. “That’s wise advice. Make it happen, General.”
Norton picked up a phone.
“I have a question, sir,” Max said.
The President nodded.
“Won’t the enemy lasers be able to destroy the THOR platforms?” Max asked.
“Yes, possibly,” the President said. “But we must try.”
“I totally agree, sir,” Max said. “But to give the THORs a greater chance of getting through, I suggest you give the GD more targets to shoot at. Preferably, give the GD decoys, plenty of them to fire at first.”
“What decoys?” the President asked. “I’m not aware we have space-based decoys.”
“I’m referring to more ICBMs,” Max said. “Launch another assault.”
“Just a minute,” Norton said into the phone. He lowered it and covered the speaker with his hand. Then he told Max, “The Germans will shoot down the ICBMs during boost phase. That won’t help the THORs, but it will cost us many nuclear missiles.”
“I’m talking about keeping the GD Strategic Defense occupied,” Max said. “If they can beam the missiles during boost phase…” The director grinned mirthlessly. “Launch one ICBM at a time. That will confuse them as to what we’re doing, and it should keep them watching the wrong place.”
“That’s crafty,” the President said. “Yes, I like it. We’ll use deception on them as they’ve been using it on us.” He scanned those around the table. “Are there any other suggestions?”
“Very well,” the President said. He picked up the phone. “General Alan…”
Warrant Officer Gunther Weise stood outside the air tower. Every time he raised his right hand to take the cigarette, it shook the slightest bit. The nicotine in the cigarette wasn’t soothing him as it usually did.
He didn’t see as many ships now. They sailed farther apart, but they would converge soon as they hit the enemy coast. Before, that had seemed like an adventure. Now, he was worried about what the Americans would try next. Clearly, they would do whatever they could to try to stop the amphibious invasion.
The big ship moved through a rougher sea. Dark clouds gathered in the east. Would it rain? He hoped it would rain. Yet he wanted to see the sun shine.
Gunther inhaled cigarette smoke into his lungs, and he shuddered. The Americans had launched ICBMs at the fleet. He couldn’t believe—
The bottom door in the air control tower opened. The same officer as before stuck out his bald head. “Warrant Officer Weise! You’d better hurry in here. The Americans are launching more ICBMs.”
The cigarette dropped out of Gunther’s mouth. His stomach twisted.
Then he broke into a sprint. The great danger wasn’t over yet.
In the cloudy sky, Lieutenant Penner of the Canadian Air Force leveled his F-35 into position. A US fuel tanker maneuvered its winged boom toward the intake near his cockpit. He could see the boom operator through the two-inch-thick window in the tail.
Penner had more than just his wingman with him today. American Command gathered its last air assets to
