anything, because his finely tuned brain started working on a problem the moment it presented itself. But for any man, especially someone like Dave Luger, the reality of what he knew and the thought of what could happen were finally too much for him to contemplate rationally and analytically.
“Dave…”
“I’m looking at the pictures and the analysis, Muck, and I can’t fucking believe what I’m seeing!”
“Dave, keep it together, buddy,” Patrick said evenly. “I need you one hundred and ten percent on this.”
“What in hell can we do?”
“The first thing we need to do is turn on all the air-defense infrastructure in North America, and do it
“I’ve already received permission to forward-deploy Hal and Chris to the region,” Dave said. “We’re going to send them to Shemya — five hours one way by tilt-jet, but it’s the best we can do unless we get some support from U.S. Special Operations Command or the Air Force.”
“Do whatever you can to get the mout there, as fast as you can,” Patrick said. “If you can get in contact with someone at the Pentagon, maybe SECDEF’s office directly, we might be able to implement it.”
“What is General Houser going to do with the pictures we got from the NIRTSats?”
“Nothing, until he’s told to do something with them,” Patrick responded. “That’s why it has to come from the top down, and higher than Eighth Air Force or Air Combat Command — Houser might even be able to shrug off STRATCOM. Get moving, Dave, and let me know if you make any progress.”
“Will do, Muck,” Luger said, and disconnected the secure transmission.
Patrick began another secure telephone call to the secretary of defense’s office, then hung up the phone before the encrypted connection could go through. Although he had met and briefed the SECDEF, Robert Goff, on more than one occasion, their encounters had been mostly negative — Patrick was usually being reprimanded for some action he undertook with less than full authority. He was losing friends and allies fast, and a phone call to SECDEF’s office, in violation of a direct order issued just a few minutes ago in the presence of the rest of the Air Intelligence Agency staff, was not going to win him any more. But this had to be done.
Instead he initiated a secure call to the commander of the Air Warning Center of the North American Aerospace Defense Command at its command-and-control center at Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center, Colorado, deep inside the underground military base. The Air Warning Center, or AWC, was responsible for monitoring the periphery of the United States, Canada, and parts of Central America and the Caribbean for unidentified aircraft — including cruise missiles — and passing information to the Cheyenne Mountain Command Center. The Air Warning Center controlled the ground-based radars operated by NORADand also collected data from ground, sea, and airborne military-fighter control radars; other surveillance systems, such as ground-and ship-based radar balloons; Homeland Security radar systems; and civil air-traffic-control radars. Patrick’s 966th Information Warfare Wing routinely passed information to AWC on the status of military forces in Russia and on events around the world, which might give AWC a heads-up in adjusting its surveillance to counter enemy incursions.
After several long, excruciating minutes, he was put through to the AWC Charlie-crew commander, Lieutenant Colonel Susan Paige. “It’s nice to finally talk with you, General McLanahan,” she said after the secure connection was made and verified. “We’ve received the regular information updates from the Nine-sixty-sixth, and we’re very impressed with the quality of work coming from your office. I’d like to—”
“Colonel Paige, I have information provided me by Air Battle Force that shows that Russia may commence a strategic air attack against the United States at any time,” Patrick said. “I’m recommending that NORAD implement full air-defense measures immediately, including a full recall and activation of all northern interceptor units and round-the-clock activation of North Warning and OTH-B. It’s vital that—”
“Who gave you this information, General? Who is this Air Battle Force?” Patrick knew she was stalling for time — she would be hitting a hot key on her computer that would be tracing and recording this call and perhaps notifying the senior controller at the Command and Operations Center of Patrick’s information — or of a crank phone call. After Patrick briefly explained, Paige said, “General McLanahan, you need to take this information to Air Intelligence Agency and have General Houser message—”
“I’ve already done that. General Houser won’t act on it. I need to speak directly with General Lombardi so he can decide if he wants to increase the air-defense posture.” General Lombardi was the commander of NORAD and the man who could activate all of the defense systems around North America with one order.
“Maybe you should speak with Air Force or STRATCOM about—”
This was getting him nowhere. “Colonel Paige, this is extremely urgent, or I wouldn’t have called the NORAD commander’s office directly,” Patrick interjected. “I’m having General Luger of the Air Battle Force transmit his overhead imagery to you and to STRATCOM, but I’m calling to advise you that I believe that a Russian combat air operation is in progress, perhaps an all-out attack against the United States using long-range bombers and cruise missiles.”
“Is this for real, McLanahan?” Paige asked. “This isn’t how AIA issues alerts to NORAD. You should—”
“This alert is from the Nine-sixty-sixth Wing, Colonel Paige, not from AIA,” Patrick said. “The information has not been cleared by General Houser. But I decided to contact you directly because I feel there is danger of imminent attack, and when I briefed General Houser a short time ago, he indicated he wasn’t going to act on the information. I decided to take a chance and contact you directly. I am now going to try to contact the secretary of defense and give him this same information. McLanahan, Nine-sixty-sixth Wing, clear.” Before Paige could say anything more, Patrick hung up.
He had done everything he could with NORAD, Patrick thought. It was up to them if they wanted to act on the information. But even if she didn’t believe him, she would certainly sound the alarm — and an alarm from someplace like NORAD traveled up very, very quickly.
Patrick was on hold with the deputy chief of staff of Air and Space Operations — the highest person he could reach at the office of the Air Force chief of staff in the Pentagon — when someone knocked on his door and then entered without being invited in. It was Trevor Griffin. Patrick was about to admonish him when he noticed his stony expression. “I’m on the phone with the Pentagon, Tagger.”
“I know, Patrick,” Griffin said. “The boss knows, too.” Patrick nodded and waved for Griffin to sit, but he didn’t put the phone down. Griffin held up his secure cellular phone, which had a long list of SMS messages already on it. “Cheyenne Mountain called a few moments ago, and just now the chief’s office called. Everybody wants to know what’s going on. All hell is breaking loose. The boss wants you in the battle-staff area, pronto.” He paused for a moment, then said with a serious expression, “Sir, what are you doing? You’re out of control. You gotta stop this.”
“You’ve seen the pictures and looked over my data, Tagger,” Patrick said. “You know as well as I do how serious this is.”
“Patrick, it’s all speculation,” Griffin said. “It’s a few buildings erected on bases that haven’t been used in a few years, a bunch of tired old Backfire bombers — nothing earth-shattering about that. What are you—?”
“Air Battle Force got new images, Tagger — you saw them yourself,” Patrick said. “Yakutsk is wall-to-wall tankers now — dozens of them. Aginskoye, Bratsk, Blagoveshchensk, Ulan-Ude — the Blackjacks and Backfires are massing everywhere. As fast as they’ve appeared, I think they’re going to disappear just as fast — all headed this way.”
“Patrick, no one believes that,” Griffin said. “No one believes that the Russians would be crazy enough to attack North America. It’s gotta be something else — if there is anything at all.”
“The target’s not Europe. All the bombers and tankers are in Siberia,” Patrick said. “Unless they’re going after China or Japan, I think the target is the United States.”
“Why? Why would they attack the U.S.?”
“Gryzlov — he wants revenge for my attack on Engels, and he wants to kill ten thousand enemy soldiers for every one Russian soldier we kill,” Patrick said. “The guy’s crazy, he’s in charge, and he wants payback.”
“Patrick, this is
