The explosive charge in the MHV ignited. The core of the rocket exploded into thousands of one inch diameter steel ball bearings. They spread out evenly, still moving in the vacuum of space with the original velocity of the rocket, now covering an area over two hundred meters wide.
Over two hundred of the bearings ripped into the MILSTARS satellite, shredding it like a shotgun blast to a tin can.
Conners slumped back in her chair. She looked across her desk at Jimmy who was peering intently at his laptop screen. “Well?”
“I’m downloading.”
Conners hit the switch on her satellite phone. “Foreman, what about the pilot?”
“He ejected his pod. We’re tracking it. I’ll get a rescue moving, but we have no commo.”
“Damn.”
“No one’s ever ejected, even inside a pod, at 3,500 miles an hour,” Foreman noted. “What about the pattern?”
Conners looked over at Jimmy. She knew from the look that came across his face what the answer was, but she waited.
“Negative,” Jimmy said. “The lines cross where the MILSTARS was without interruption. We were too late. There’s too many cross connections. Whatever this thing is, it’s rerouted and it can probably do that faster than we can take out satellites.”
Conners relayed the information. There was a long silence, then Foreman’s voice. “Well, then I guess it’s down to stopping it at the source.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
The sleep of the dead, Ariana thought, listening to the uneasy slumber of her fellow prisoners. Having been awake for over twenty-four straight hours and with no course of action available, they had decided to try to get some rest. She’d also ordered Ingram to turn off even the emergency power lights, trying to conserve their batteries as much as possible, leaving the inside of the plane in darkness, other than the two gold beams crossing the main console area and the golden glow coming from Argus’s hardware consoles.
She knew she needed to clear her head and come up with a course of action, but her brain was so tired she could barely think. Still, though, sleep eluded her, as images of Mansor death crowded to the forefront while large snakes slithered about in her subconscious, jaws snapping shut and tongues hissing.
The golden beam in Argus had stopped expanding. Apparently it had accessed everything it needed. They had pulled more access panels off and discovered that a golden beam came out of the back side of Argus’s mainframe and disappeared into the ceiling. Ariana had no doubt that the golden beam she had seen coming out of the rotodome was the same one.
No new gold beams had come into the plane, nor had there been a repeat of the sliding noise. Ariana had described the massive seven-headed snake to the others, but she had seen the uncomprehending looks in their eyes. She knew if it had not been for them hearing the noise earlier they would not believe her at all. As it was, she knew they were giving her the benefit of the doubt in an insane situation, something she wasn’t too happy about.
Ariana turned on her side, trying to get comfortable in her desk chair when she heard a low noise. Someone, or something, was moving through the passageway. Ariana reached down and pulled out the Berretta. As quietly as she could, she checked the chamber, making sure a round was loaded. Then she pulled back the hammer, locking it to the rear. She picked up a mini-mag light from her desktop. Gripping the light and gun tightly, she got out of her chair.
The noise had gone forward, past her compartment to the radio area. She followed, moving stealthily. There was the muffled metal on metal noise of a cabinet being opened.
Ariana held the butt of the gun in her right hand, finger on the trigger and with her left, the mini-mag alongside the barrel. She pressed the on switch for the flashlight as she turned the corner for the communications area.
She caught movement and her finger tightened on the trigger, stopping a hair short of firing as she recognized Hudson crouched over something on the floor.
“Don’t move!” Ariana ordered.
“Jesus!” Hudson exclaimed, blinking in the flashlight’s glow. “You scared the piss out of me.” He started to stand.
“I said don’t move,” Ariana repeated. She stepped forward, the muzzle centered on him.
Hudson froze. “What’s wrong?”
“What are you doing?”
“Just checking on some things,” Hudson said.
“In the dark?” Ariana slid left, keeping the radio man locked in the beam, gun still pointing at him. She wanted to see what he had been working on.
“I didn’t want to wake anyone up,” Hudson said. He reached down for what was lying on the floor. “I just-”
Ariana rapped the muzzle of the gun on the back of his hand, bringing a yelp of pain from Hudson. “I said leave it.” She stuck the gun in his chest. “Back up.”
Hudson put his hands up and pressed back against his main console. Ariana briefly shined the beam down at the floor. A small satellite dish was folded open, sitting on a tiny tripod. She shined the light back in Hudson’s face.
The emergency lights flickered, then came on. Ingram and Carpenter appeared in the corridor, peering into the room.
“What’s going on?” Ingram asked, the other gun held uncertainly in his hand.
“I found our spy,” Ariana said.
“Listen-” Hudson began, but the next words didn’t come out as Ariana stepped close, pressing the muzzle of the gun against his forehead, right between his eyes.
“Did you sabotage the plane?” she hissed.
“No!”
She put pressure on the gun, digging into his skin. “Tell me the truth!”
“I didn’t do anything!”
She nodded toward the satellite dish. “Who were you trying to call?”
“Wait a second,” Ingram said, stepping next to Ariana. “How do you know he’s the spy?”
“It’ll take just the slightest pressure for me to pull this trigger,” Ariana said, keeping her focus on Hudson. “And I really feel like doing just that. If you lie to me now, and I let you live, and I find out you lied, I will make your death very painful. Is that clear?”
Hudson’s eyes locked onto hers. He started to nod, but the gun wouldn’t allow that. “Yes.”
“Are you a spy?” Ariana asked.
“Yes.”
“Who are you working for?”
“Hie-Tech.”
“You were trying to call them with that?” she again nodded toward the dish.
“It’s just a beacon,” Hudson said.
Ariana stepped back from Hudson. He slumped down in his chair, sweat rolling down his flabby cheeks. “I swear, Ariana, I didn’t do anything.” He rubbed his bandaged legs.
“No,” she said, “you just allowed Mansor and I to go out there,” she swung the muzzle of the gun toward the ceiling, “to run cable to the rotodome satellite dish while you had that in here all the time.”
“I couldn’t bring it out before,” Hudson said. “You would have known then.”
“So you let Mansor die,” Ariana brought the gun to bear on him once more.
“I didn’t know! How could I have known?” Hudson pleaded. “I’m sorry!”
“Hold on!” Ingram said, stepping between the two.
“Get out of the way, Mark,” Ariana ordered.
“Listen to me,” Ingram said. “He says it’s a beacon. Let him turn it on!”
Carpenter spoke for the first time. “Who’s listening for the beacon, Hudson?”
“Hie-Tech has a team near Angkor Wat,” Hudson spoke rapidly. “They’ll home in on the beacon and rescue us.”