deliberately sabotaged to turn any unsuspecting train into the defective siding. Now he was trapped.
“I will curse my own incompetence from now and for eternity!” he shouted as he joined Kim beside the engine. “How does it look? Do you think we can move?”
“I think we can move if we clear some of the concrete from around the axles,” Kim said. “It might take full throttle, but I think it can be done.”
Kim got up to retrieve some tools from the engineer’s locker in the engine, but Kong stopped him. “We don’t have time,” he said. “We’re less than two hundred meters from the presurveyed launch point. All we need is a single transit shot to update the launch point coordinates, and then we need to start the heading alignment. We can use the gyro platform heading calibrator at the presurveyed point to cross-check the heading alignment. If we hurry, we can make the launch time.”
Feet dry,” Patrick McLanahan announced. “We actually made it.”
“Amen,” Nancy Cheshire, the aircraft commander aboard the EB-1C Megafortress, said, echoing Patrick’s relief. They had just completed a nonstop eleven-hour flight from Dreamland to Korea, without seeing any land whatsoever since leaving the United States coastline near Big Sur.
“I hear ya, guys,” Dave Luger added. “Good job. Now the fun starts.”
Dave Luger was not onboard the modified B-1 bomber — he was more than a thousand miles away in the Megafortress’s “virtual cockpit” on Naval Air Station Adak in the Aleutian Islands. The HAWC teams had quickly deployed the ground support equipment to Adak while the EB-1 was made ready for its first mission.
The virtual cockpit, or VC, provided Patrick and Nancy with an extra set of eyes on their instruments and on the tactical situation around them. It was like a miniature mock-up of the EB-1 Megafortress cockpit, using computer monitors in place of aircraft gauges and instruments. Several other screens on the side of the module allowed extra technicians to monitor aircraft systems, and to monitor other sensors and displays and pass along their observations to the crew in real-time. The largest screen in the VC, atop the remote cockpit displays, was the “God’s-eye” view, or what the crews called the “big picture,” which combined all of the external and mission- specific sensors available into one big chartlike display. The God’s-eye view combined civilian and military radar information, satellite imagery, shipborne and aircraft radar data, and even information broadcast from ground forces all on one map.
The most important system adding its information to the God’s-eye view was a string of satellites in low earth orbit called NIRTSats, or “Need it right this second” satellites. Four small dishwasher-sized satellites had been released just hours earlier aboard a booster rocket launched from a converted DC-10 airliner and placed into a one-hundred-mile circular orbit, positioned so that each satellite was over the Korean peninsula every twenty minutes. The satellites had been launched and positioned specifically for Patrick’s EB-1C Megafortress mission. They used thrusters to precisely position themselves in space but did not have enough fuel or power to keep themselves in orbit very long or allow themselves to be repositioned into another orbit. Within three or four weeks, their battery power would run out and they would burn up in earth’s atmosphere.
During its pass, each satellite would take a stream of radar images of broad areas of Korea and China and transmit the images to earth. Within seconds, the images would be processed and sent to the virtual cockpit at Adak and to the crew on the Megafortress. The radar images could see objects as small as an automobile and were precise enough to measure the dimensions of a target, compare it to a vehicle database, and actually try to guess at what the object or vehicle might be. Over time, the images would show trails of moving vehicles, vehicle concentrations, and even vehicles that had traveled off known highways or were trying to hide to escape detection.
Coverage was not 100 percent — each satellite was only in the sky over the Korean peninsula for about twelve out of every ninety minutes. But since most ground vehicles didn’t move very fast anyway, it was very good information. The data from the satellites combined with the Megafortress’s laser radar system allowed the crews both on the ground and in the air to see all ground activity for most of the northern Korean peninsula and the border region of China, and all air activity within fifty miles. It was truly a God’s-eye view.
Patrick activated the laser radar system and got his first look at the Korean peninsula from the Megafor-tress — a five-second LADAR shot was all that was necessary to get a detailed view of everything around them for fifty miles. The LADAR could detect small vehicles on the ground and aircraft at any altitude, map terrain, scan for weather, and identify ships at sea; it could even detect satellites flying overhead in low earth orbit. Patrick could manipulate the LADAR image to zoom in on the smallest return or out to take a look at the entire tactical situation over a span of 100,000 cubic miles around the aircraft.
The EB-1C Megafortress was loaded primarily for ballistic missile and launcher hunting, but it also carried a big self-defense weapons package. In its forward bomb bay was a rotary launcher with a total of sixteen AIM-120 radar-guided AMRAAMs (advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles). The AMRAAM was a “launch and leave” antiaircraft missile: each missile was programmed right before launch with the target’s position, heading, and speed, which meant that the launch aircraft did not have to stay locked onto the target. But since the Megafortress’s laser radar could stay locked onto a target even while maneuvering, the AMRAAM received updates on the target’s flight path until it got close enough to use its own onboard radar to home in on the target and complete the intercept. The Megafortress’s laser radar system could simultaneously track three dozen air targets in any direction and could attack six of them at one time.
The center bomb bay contained a rotary launcher with eight Lancelot antiballistic missile missiles, two of which were armed with plasma-yield warheads. The aft bomb bay had another rotary launcher with eight Wolverine cruise missiles, all with conventional warheads.
The EB-1’s “supercockpit” display, the large computer screen on the right side of the cockpit, was showing the God’s-eye view of the area within Lancelot missile range of the bomber. The NIRTSat radar data showed positions of ground vehicles, making identification guesstimates when the radar got a clear measurement of the target. The laser radar data displayed data on aircraft and ground and sea targets, and the bomber’s electronic warfare suite displayed early-warning radars throughout Korea. As the bomber flew farther inland, it came closer to Seoul, Ch’unch’on, and Kaesong radar coverage, which was displayed as green circles. The size of the circle was a measurement of the strength of the radar signal and the estimated detection threshold of the bomber itself. If the bomber’s radar cross section was larger because bomb doors were open or communications antennas were extended, the radar circles became larger; if the Megafortress was in full “stealth” configuration, head-on to the radar and running completely “stealthy,” the circle would become smaller, indicating it was safe to fly closer to the radar if necessary.
“Muck, looks like we picked up a newcomer ground target,” Dave Luger radioed. With a flashing pointer, he indicated the new NIRTSat radar return on Patrick’s supercockpit display. “Appeared on the last satellite pass. Slow-moving, big, long. Take a look.”
“Got it,” Patrick said. He zoomed his display in closer, then overlaid topographic and highway charts over the sensor display. “Looks like the newcomer is right on a railroad track. We might have ourselves a missile train.” He zoomed in on the digital display again. As he did, the targeting computer rendered its best guess on what the radar return was. “Computer says it’s a train, all right. Chinese gauge, seven cars. Could be a Nodong missile unit.” Patrick entered commands into his laser radar system and bombing computers, preloading a Wolverine missile with the train’s coordinates. “Looks like it’s parked close to a North Korean missile launch point,” he said.
“I’m relaying the find back home,” Dave said, entering the information into a secure datalink back to Dreamland. “I think Korea’s been looking for this baby.”
“Dave, see if the NIRTSats came up with any other trains on previous passes,” Patrick ordered.
“Already done,” Dave said. “We’ve actually got seven other likelies.” A few moments later several radar returns flashed on Patrick’s supercockpit display. “You’re within LADAR range of two of them.”
Patrick directed a slight turn north toward the two closest radar returns, then activated the laser radar again. Taking LADAR shots from several different directions was the way to get ultradetailed three-dimensional images. These shots were combined with earlier shots and with the NIRTSat radar images to further enhance the target. “No go on target one,” Patrick said. “The computer says it’s a bus or truck — too small for a seven-car Nodong unit. But target number two could be another player. It’s a seven-car train, Chinese gauge, moved into its current position just an hour ago.”
