60
General Higgins slammed the phone receiver into its cradle. It was his first show of temper. 'We missed the spotter,' he said bitterly. 'Our monitor units zeroed his location., but he'd flown the coop by the time our nearest patrol arrived.'
'Obviously a mobile unit,' said Timothy March. 'With three out of four cars on the road carrying a CB radio, identifying the bastard will be next to impossible.'
'Our special-forces team and the city police are setting up roadblocks at key intersections around the Capitol area,' said Higgins. 'If we can keep the spotter out of visual contact of his targets, he won't be able to report range corrections to the ship. Then Fawkes will be firing blind.'
The President's eyes were locked on the viewing screen, staring sadly at the enlarged satellite picture of the demolished Lincoln Memorial. 'Shrewd planning on their part,' he muttered. 'A few dead would mean little more than a newspaper headline to most Americans. But destroy a revered national monument and you touch everyone. Rest assured, gentlemen, by this evening a lot of mad Americans are going to seek a way to vent their anger.'
'If the next shell contains the QD… ' Jarvis's voice trailed off.
'It's like playing Russian roulette,' March said. 'Two shells fired. That means the odds are down to two out of thirty-six.'
Higgins looked across the table at Admiral Kemper. 'What do you figure as the Iowa's rate of fire?'
'The time span between shells one and two was four minutes, ten seconds,' Kemper answered. 'Slow by half compared to former wartime efficiency, but respectable in view of forty-year-old obsolete equipment and a skeleton crew.'
'What puzzles me,' said March, 'is why Fawkes is only using the turret's center gun. He seems to be making no attempt to operate the other two.'
'He's going by the book,' said Kemper. 'Conserving his strength by firing one shell at a time for effect. He got lucky on the second shot and found his target. Next time he gets the range you can bet he'll uncork all three barrels.'
The phone in front of Higgins buzzed. He picked it up, listened for a moment, his expression grim. 'The third round is on its way. 11
The satellite camera pulled back to show a two-mile radius around the White House. Everyone's eyes roamed over the bird's-eye view of the city, fearful that this projectile held the Quick Death organism while at the same time trying to guess which landmark was the target. Then came a geysering explosion that pulverized a fifty-foot section of sidewalk and two trees on the north side of Constitution Avenue.
'He's going for the National Archives building,' the President said, a bitter edge to his voice. 'Fawkes is trying to destroy the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.'
'I urge you, Mr. President, to order a nuclear strike on the Iowa at once.' Higgins's normally reddish coloring had turned to gray.
The President looked like one hunted. His shoulders were hunched as though he were cold. 'No.' he said with finality.
Higgins dropped his hands to his side and sat heavily in his chair. Kemper tapped the table with a pencil, quietly mulling something over.
'There is another solution,' he said slowly, deliberately. 'We knock out the Iowa's number-two turret.'
'Knock out the turret?' Higgins said, a skeptical look in his eyes.
'Some of the F-one-twenty Specters are carrying Satan penetration missiles,' explained Kemper. 'Am I right, General Sayre?'
Air Force chief General Miles Sayre nodded in agreement. 'Each aircraft is armed with four Satans, primed to gouge their way through three yards of concrete.'
'I see your point,' said Higgins. 'But the accuracy? Miss, and you might unleash the QD.'
'It can be done.' said Sayre, a usually taciturn man. 'As soon as the pilots fire the missiles, they switch guidance control to the ground troops. Your people, General Higgins, are close enough to the Iowa to lay a Satan within a two-foot diameter.'
Higgins snatched the phone and stared at the President. 'If Fawkes maintains his firing schedule, we have less than two minutes.'
'Go for it,' the President said without hesitation.
While Higgins gave instructions to the forces deployed around the Iowa, Kemper consulted a file on the ship's construction.
'That turret is protected with steel-armor plating seven to seventeen inches thick,' said Kemper. 'We may not destroy it, but we'll sure as hell stun the crew.'
'The SEALs,' said the President. 'Can they be warned of our intentions?'
Kemper looked grim. 'We would if we could, but there has been no radio contact with them since they took to the water.'
Fergus could not make contact, because the radio had been shot out of his hands by a machine gun deployed on the Iowa's citadel. A bullet had neatly amputated the middle finger of his left hand before biting through the transmitter and his right palm. The backup radio was also gone, strapped to the belt of a team leader who took a hit in the chest and now floated lifelessly somewhere downriver.
Fergus had lost six men out of his original party of thirty while boarding the Iowa. They had climbed the sides after shooting and then looping small lines from crossbows across the ship's stern. These were attached to nylon ladders, which in turn were pulled up to the bulwarks. The SEALs were met with a scathing fire when they reached the main deck. Individually and in small teams they began pouring a return fire at the ship's defenders.
Fergus became cut off from his command and was pinned down behind the fantail mounting where the aircraft crane had once stood. Frustration overrode the pain in his wounded hands. Time was running out. His orders were to secure the landing pad before the South Africans could open fire. He shouted a curse as the burst from the third blast rumbled down the river channel.
Above the bluffs he could see the Marine helicopters hovering, waiting impatiently for his signal to land. Warily he poked his head around the crane mount and peered forward. The guns perched behind steel-armor plating atop the main bridge temporarily ignored Fergus and concentrated on his men, who had moved forward without him.
Cradling his automatic weapon in one arm, Fergus sprang to his feet and sprinted across the open deck, laying down a curtain fire. He'd nearly made it to cover beneath the aft turret when Fawkes's men repaid his attention, and a bullet tore through the calf of his left leg.
He stumbled a few steps, fell, and rolled under the bulk of the dummy turret. The new wound felt as though it were burning every nerve ending in his leg. He lay on the deck, listening to the gunfire forward, soaking up the pain as two Specter jets screamed out of the morning sun and expelled their lethal cargo.
If it weren't for the dull ache that clutched every inch of his body, Pitt would have sworn he was dead. Almost regretfully, he pushed the gray from his mind and forced his eyes opened.
Then he ran his hands over his legs and body. The worst he discovered, besides a horde of bruises, were two, possibly three cracked ribs. He probed his head and sighed gratefully when his fingers came back free of blood. The wooden splinters he found embedded in his right shoulder puzzled him.
He pushed himself to a sitting position and then rolled to his hands and knees. All muscles were responding to command. So far, so good. He took a deep breath and wove to his feet, no less elated at the accomplishment than if he'd climbed Mount Everest. A patch of daylight spilled through a jagged hole several feet away and he stumbled toward it.
His mind slowly began to hit on six of eight cylinders and analyzed why he hadn't been crushed to oatmeal when he smashed into the side of the ship's superstructure. The quarter-inch plywood panels installed to replace the steel bulkheads had broken his impact. He'd barreled through one outer partition like a cannonball and made a healthy dent in a second before coming to rest in a passageway outside the officers' wardroom. So much for the mysterious slivers.
