very long. “Sergeant Major Wohl isn’t a debater. He follows orders, leads men into battle, and kills with extraordinary efficiency.”
Thorn looked into Wohl’s eyes and instantly believed what Patrick was telling him.
“If you’d like a briefing on our prior activities and the reasons behind them, sir, I’d be happy to accommodate you at any time.”
“I’m not interested in dog and pony shows, and I’m sure as hell not interested in excuses,” Thorn said. “I’m letting you know that I’m still not convinced that you’re fighting for the United States of America. You have a long way to go before that happens.”
“Sir, we’re ready to demonstrate our capabilities — and our loyalty — anytime, anywhere.”
“That’s why we’re here, General,” Goff said. He waited to see if the president had anything more to say; when Thorn remained silent, Goff said to Patrick, “Okay, Patrick, show us around.”
“Yes, sir. We call this the BATMAN, or Battle Management Center,” Patrick said. They were in a huge room, like an auditorium, complete with tiered seating, a stage, and even three glassed-in balcony sections. Sixteen four- by-three-foot color plasma displays seamlessly hung together on the forward wall above the stage; a few of them were out of order, but the view was still spectacular. “Here in the center are consoles for the commanders and leadership. Behind the commanders are the support staffs, linked together by fiber-optic networks — intelligence, operations, communications, logistics, weather, and manpower. The rear of the tiered section is the virtual-cockpit command center, where teams will be able to control up to six long-range bombers plus a dozen unmanned combat air vehicles or monitor the automated progress of dozens of unmanned aircraft. Up above is the battle staff area; on either side of that are areas for joint forces or civil commanders; and on either side of BATMAN are observer areas, which can be closed off if necessary.”
“When is all this going to be finished, General?” Hershel asked.
“We’re mission-capable now, ma’am,” Patrick replied. “We already have worldwide communications capability here via high-frequency radio, the Internet, secure fiber-optic landline, and secure satellite. All the datalinks aren’t set up yet, but most of the hardware is in place, and it’s just a matter of programming in the links. At this point we’re about at the level where command posts were in the 1980s. In two months we’ll be up to date. In three to six months — with the right funding — we’ll be state-of-the-art, able to control entire squadrons of unmanned aircraft and collect and analyze real-time reconnaissance and intelligence data from all over the world.”
“I’ve seen better, General — I’m not impressed,” Thorn said impatiently. “If I recall correctly, you were tasked only with investigating how your experimental aircraft and weapons could interface with today’s tactical air squadrons. We gave you back all your toys with the idea that they would be merged into other existing combat units on an as-needed basis. It looks to me like you’re building your own military unit here, using General Furness’s planes.”
“That’s inaccurate, sir,” Patrick said. “I don’t control any of these aircraft. The B-1s and KC-135s belong to General Furness; the B-52s belong to the High Technology Aerospace Weapons Center.
“As I understand them, sir, my orders were to discover ways to integrate the EB-52 Megafortress, EB-1C Vampire, AL-52 Dragon, and other weapons, aircraft, satellites, and sensors developed at HAWC with existing forces,” Patrick went on. He knew he was quoting his orders word for word. “I was also given the task of standing up this facility for use as an alternate national military and civil emergency command center and secure evacuation location for the national command authority. I’m ready to brief the National Command Authority at any time on how these weapon systems and this facility can be integrated into the total force structure. I assembled a team of experts on unmanned aircraft development, on my own authority and budget, and I—”
“What you consider ‘your authority’ is highly questionable to me, General,” Thorn interjected. “You must be taking money from other projects and programs to help fund your project — maybe even taking money from General Furness here. Is that what you’re doing, General McLanahan? You
Patrick looked over at John Long, who was looking directly at him with a grin on his face. He should’ve expected the rat bastard to drop a dime on him, Patrick thought. “Yes, sir,” Patrick said. “That’s what I’m doing here.”
Rebecca cut in quickly, “Sir, I fully authorized General McLanahan’s use of wing resources for his—”
“I seriously doubt it, General Furness,” Thorn said. “I’ll look into that issue myself.” Thorn and McLanahan stared at each other for a few moments. Then Thorn asked, “So tell me, General — did it work?”
“No, sir,” Patrick replied, “it did not.”
David, Rebecca, Daren, and even John Long looked at McLanahan in surprise. “It
“The tests proved what we already knew about the StealthHawk unmanned combat air vehicle system — it’s a mostly reliable and effective weapon system,” Patrick elaborated. “Unfortunately, the tests we performed regarding unmanned full-size bomber aircraft being used both as a mothership and as an attack platform were unsuccessful. Although we were able to launch and retrieve a StealthHawk UCAV remotely, we were unable to complete an aerial refueling, which was our main objective.”
Thorn looked at the surprised expressions of the officers before him — something wasn’t quite jibing. He gave them a few heartbeats to speak, perhaps come to McLanahan’s defense… but they did not.
“Too bad, General,” he said finally. He wasn’t about to prompt anyone for more information. If they didn’t want to be forthcoming for some reason — meaning, if they didn’t believe in the project enough to back the boss — he certainly wasn’t going to do it for them. “I hope all you’ve wasted is a little jet fuel.”
“I would like to see the full results of your flight tests,” Goff interjected.
“Secretary Goff gave you an assignment recently, General,” the president asked. “Got something for us?”
“Yes, sir,” Patrick replied. “My deputy, General Luger, has the information you requested.”
“Then let’s get started.” They all took seats, and Patrick motioned to David Luger.
“Good morning, Mr. President, Mr. Secretary, Miss Deputy Secretary,” Luger began. “Last week, on orders transmitted to the First Air Battle Force from the Joint Chiefs of Staff deputy commander for operations, I was directed by General McLanahan to perform an operational air-battle assessment of the eastern Turkmenistan region, concentrating specifically on recent military maneuvers by a group of insurgents identified by the CIA as the same Taliban fighters we interdicted in Operation Hilltop a couple weeks ago,” Luger said. “An air-battle assessment is a tasking whereby we identify and classify threats in a specific area using our own surveillance assets, combined with national and international sources, and then develop a plan of action to counter the threats. I looked at all threats posed by these insurgents but primarily focused on the threat to U.S. interests — national and civil as well as military — in Central Asia.
“In general, sir, we identify no credible threat to U.S. military interests in Central Asia and only minor military threats to U.S. interests in neighboring areas such as the Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean, or Black Sea regions. However, we have identified an imminent and serious threat to U.S. commercial interests in Turkmenistan that could have grave repercussions in the entire region and neighboring regions.”
“You mean those insurgents and the threat to TransCal’s pipelines,” Maureen Hershel interjected.
“Yes, ma’am,” Luger acknowledged. “In short, the TransCal pipelines — all of them — are effectively right now in the hands of the insurgents, and at this point they fully control them. They can shut them down, blow them up, hold them hostage, keep them running — whatever they want to do. The Turkmen army is virtually incapable of resisting them any longer.”
“It’s worse than we thought, then,” Goff said.
“The insurgents control fifty percent of all the pipelines in the entire country — nearly ninety-five percent of the lines not owned by Russian oil companies,” Luger said. “Duty Officer, slide number one.” Several of the screens in front of them came to life, showing a map of Turkmenistan, the border region with Uzbekistan highlighted. “Here is a map of all of TransCal’s pipelines — five billion dollars’ worth, a joint venture by TransCal and the Turkmen government, transporting crude oil and natural gas from Turkmenistan’s substantial known oil and gas fields to a few refineries, but mostly to users in twelve neighboring countries and to shipment points in Pakistan. Turkmenistan itself uses only about three percent of what it produces. Overall, the pipelines are modern, aboveground, well hardened against earthquake and storms, and mostly remotely monitored, with quarterly visual inspections.
“The biggest pipelines — both oil and gas lines — run right along the entire Turkmen-Uzbek border. As you
