Shadow Command

Dale Brown Shadow Command

DEDICATION

This novel is dedicated to all who make the often difficult decision to do one simple thing: Go For It. When you see it happen, it’s more exhilarating than a space launch, and twice as powerful.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

AMERICANS:

JOSEPH GARDNER, President of the United States

KEN T. PHOENIX, Vice President

CONRAD F. CARLYLE, President’s National Security Adviser

MILLER H. TURNER, Secretary of Defense

GERALD VISTA, Director of National Intelligence

WALTER KORDUS, White House Chief of Staff

STACY ANNE BARBEAU, senior U.S. senator from Louisiana, Senate majority leader; Colleen Morna, her aide

GENERAL TAYLOR J. BAIN, USMC, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

GENERAL CHARLES A. HUFFMAN, Air Force chief of staff

AIR FORCE GENERAL BRADFORD CANNON, commander of U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM)

ARMY GENERAL KENNETH LEPERS, commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM)

MAJOR GENERAL HAROLD BACKMAN, commander of the Fourteenth Air Force; also commander of Joint Functional Component Command-Space (JFCC-S) of U.S. Strategic Command

LIEUTENANT GENERAL PATRICK MCLANAHAN, commander of the High-Technology Aerospace Weapons Center (HAWC), Elliott AFB, Nevada

BRIGADIER GENERAL DAVID LUGER, deputy commander of HAWC

COLONEL MARTIN TEHAMA, incoming commander of HAWC

MAJOR GENERAL REBECCA FURNESS, commander of the First Air Battle Force (air operations), Battle Mountain Air Reserve Base (ARB), Nevada

BRIGADIER GENERAL DAREN MACE, Air Battle Force operations officer, 111th Bomb Wing commander, and EB-1C mission commander

MAJOR WAYNE MACOMBER, deputy commander (ground operations) of the First Air Battle Force, Battle Mountain Air Reserve Base, Nevada

MARINE CORPS MASTER SERGEANT CHRIS WOHL, NCOIC, First Air Battle Force

U.S. ARMY NATIONAL GUARD CAPTAIN CHARLIE TURLOCK, CID pilot

CAPTAIN Hunter “Boomer” NOBLE, XR-A9 Black Stallion spacecraft commander, Elliott Air Force Base, Groom Lake

U.S. NAVY LIEUTENANT COMMANDER LISETTE “FRENCHY” MOULAIN, XR-A9 spacecraft commander

U.S. MARINE CORPS MAJOR JIM TERRANOVA, XR-A9 mission commander

ANN PAGE, PH.D., former U.S. senator, astronaut, and space weapon engineer

AIR FORCE MASTER SERGEANT VALERIE “SEEKER” LUKAS, Armstrong Space Station sensor operator

IRANIANS:

GENERAL HESARAK AL-KAN BUZHAZI, leader of the Persian military coup

AZAR ASSIYEH QAGEV, heir presumptive of the Peacock Throne of Persia

LIEUTENANT COLONEL PARVIZ NAJAR AND MAJOR MARA SAIDI, Azar Qagev’s aides-de-camp

COLONEL MOSTAFA RAHMATI, commander of the Fourth Infantry Brigade, Tehran-Mehrabad Airport

MAJOR QOLOM HADDAD, leader of Buzhazi’s personal security team

MASOUD NOSHAHR, Lord High Chancellor of the Qagev royal court and marshal of the court’s council of war

AYATOLLAH HASSAN MOHTAZ, supreme leader in exile of the Islamic Republic of Iran

RUSSIANS:

LEONID ZEVITIN, president of the Russian Federation

PETER ORLEV, president’s chief of staff

ALEXANDRA HEDROV, minister of foreign affairs

IGOR TRUZNYEV, chief of the Federal Security Bureau

ANATOLI VLASOV, secretary of the Russian security council

MIKHAIL OSTENKOV, minister of national defense

GENERAL KUZMA FURZYENKO, Russian chief of the general staff

GENERAL NIKOLAI OSTANKO, chief of staff of the Russian army

GENERAL ANDREI DARZOV, chief of staff of the Russian air force

WOLFGANG ZYPRIES, German laser engineer working with the Russian air force

WEAPONS AND ACRONYMS

9K89—small Russian surface-to-surface missile

ARB—Air Reserve Base

ATO—air tasking order

BDU-58 Meteor—precision-guided vehicle designed to protect payloads from the heat of re-entry through the atmosphere; can carry approximately 4,000 pounds

CIC—Combat Information Center

coonass—a person of Cajun ethnicity

E-4B—National Airborne Operations Center

E-6B Mercury—U.S. Navy airborne communications and command post aircraft

EB-1D—B-1 Lancer bomber modified as an unmanned long-range supersonic attack plane

ETE—estimated time en route

FAA Part 91—regulations governing private pilots and aircraft

FSB—Russian Federal Security Bureau, follow-on to the KGB

HAWC—High-Technology Aerospace Weapons Center

ICD—implantable cardioverter-defibrillator

Ilyushin—Russian inflight refueling tanker aircraft

MiG—Mikoyan-Gureyvich, Russian military aircraft maker

OSO—offensive systems officer

RQ-4 Global Hawk—high-altitude long-range unmanned reconnaissance aircraft

SAR—synthetic aperture radar; also search and rescue

Skybolt—space-based anti-ballistic missile laser

SPEAR—Self-Protection Electronically Agile Reaction network intrusion defense system

sun-synchronous—an Earth orbit on which a satellite passes over the same spot at the same time of day