Having been responsible for generating the numbers that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs was laying out, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force added his thoughts. "The people, our fellow Americans, who die within the first few seconds of that holocaust would be the lucky ones, Mister Chaplin. Those who survive are the ones I pity."
Though the tone of the Air Force general's comments angered the National Security adviser, he held his tongue. When he saw that the senior officer in the Air Force did not seize the opportunity to revisit the plan that he had fought for so vehemently on previous occasions, the President's adviser realized that their options were limited to one. "Well, gentlemen, I appreciate your candor," Chaplin mumbled as he struggled to find a graceful way to extract himself from this discussion. "I will advise the Commander in Chief of your opinions and endeavor to get a decision from him soon."
Relieved that Tempest was not going to be scuttled at the last minute, Smith leaned back in his seat. As he ran his fingers along the edge of the table and stared at them, the Chief of Staff of the Army sighed. "When you do see the President, Mister Chaplin, please advise him that he doesn't have much time in which to make up his mind."
This comment caught everyone, including Smith's superior, off guard. "Well, how much time do we have?" the National Security adviser asked.
Slowly, Smith raised his arm and looked at his watch. "Exactly four hours and thirty-seven minutes, sir."
Having gone over the plan in detail, Shepard turned to face Smith. "What's so significant about that?"
Looking around the table at the President's key advisers, Smith shrugged. "Well, ladies and gentlemen, that is when the Tempest teams begin to exit over their targets."
"Wait a minute," the Air Force chief blurted. "It'll take longer than four and a half hours to reach their targets from Scotland."
Unable to resist, Smith sported the smile of a little boy who has just pulled off the perfect prank. "Yes, that's true, provided the aircraft are still in Scotland."
Shaken for the second time that evening, Shepard all but leaped out of his seat. "You mean you've launched Tempest?"
Facing his old friend, Smith nodded. "In your heart, Eric, you knew this would happen. You knew someone would get cold feet at the last minute. So I took the initiative."
Shocked by this revelation, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs said nothing. Turning toward the National Security adviser, Smith glared at the equally dumbfounded man. "While we can always recall them, Mister Chaplin, I recommend that we don't. The time to act is now. The situation on the ground in Siberia is extremely chaotic. Both Likhatchev and Moscow are permitting international relief agencies in, a factor critical to us since this will allow us to slip the military transports in with the Tempest teams without raising undue suspicion or concern." Smith paused, looking around at the other members of the Joint Chiefs. "There is not a person here, Mister Chaplin, who can guarantee that this window of opportunity will remain open. If I were Likhatchev, as soon as I had the ability to exercise my authority over the region, I'd start making trouble. While I regret having taken this matter into my own hands, I believe we cannot wait for this to happen. The sooner we de-fang the bastard, the sooner we will be able to settle down to the serious business of rendering aid and assistance to the victims of the asteroid strike, as well as propping up the government in Moscow."
From the back of the room, where the straphangers stood huddled about watching the tumultuous proceedings, a voice broke the ensuing silence. "Thy will be done."
Looking down at his notebook, Eric Shepard finished that thought by adding, "Amen."
With that, the meeting broke up as the participants scattered to the various places from where they would sit out the next few hours and watch, listen, wait, and pray.
Chapter 11
The Uisk assigned Colonel Demetre Orlov and his men was both simple and straightforward. It was not unlike a dozen or so other missions they had been assigned before. Even with the knowledge that they would be arriving over their target in the wake of a natural disaster unlike anything known to man. the Russian colonel did not let this minor point dominate either his planning or his preparations. There were other, more practical matters that he needed to concern himself with, such as the prevailing weather and the lie of the land, elements over which even the most gifted commander had no influence. Since the Russian colonel could not pick the timing of his assignment, he was obliged to accept the conditions on the ground as they existed when he arrived in the area of operations.
Relying on the best information his nation's foremost experts could supply, he came to the conclusion that the disruption created by the asteroid would do little more than add another element of difficulty to the operation, which would have to be mastered, just as would the armed resistance they would face. Of course, neither he nor the trained experts who had advised him had imagined the true magnitude of the devastation that Orlov's special-response team would face as it sought to bring additional death and destruction to selected inhabitants of the region.
The fallacies of using the Tunguska event as a model from which to estimate damage projections quickly became obvious to all. Unlike the asteroid that struck Siberia in 1908. Nereus 1991 HWC hit the earth like a shotgun blast, scattering multiple fragments through the region in a random manner. Unlike the pellets spewed forth by a shotgun, each of Nereus 1991 HWC's fragments were different. No two pieces weighed the same, were shaped alike, or hit the atmosphere at the same angle. Some of the larger fragments, like the chunk that took out the World News Network team, made physical contact with the earth's surface. These strikes shattered the earth's crust, sending shock waves through the tectonic plates across the region and beyond. While the ground itself was being shaken to the core, millions of cubic tons of dirt and debris, something to the tune of one hundred times the weight of each asteroid fragment that struck, gouged out impact craters, hurling the spoils into the upper atmosphere. Huge amounts of this material was captured by the jet stream, which whisked it away to the east, from where it would either return to earth in Asia or continue on across the Pacific and blanket North America. Some of the superheated debris that was too heavy to be held aloft by the winds fell back to earth, igniting monumental fires.
Not every particle of the asteroid was able to complete its supersonic journey through the dense air of the lower atmosphere. When the extreme heat created by friction became more than a fragment could absorb, it would literally explode, unleashing a burst of energy comparable to the detonation of a nuclear device in midair. Known as airbursts, these events lit up the sky with a fireball that was, for the briefest of moments, more brilliant than the sun itself. Though measured in milliseconds, each touched off a conflagration that devastated the surrounding countryside. Depending on the altitude at which the explosion took place, everything within the tight circle that comprised the zone of total devastation, known as ground zero, was simply incinerated. A bit farther out, all combustible material, including the clothing of those souls unfortunate enough to be caught in the open, burst into flames. The retinas of human and animal alike, those impulsively drawn to view the spectacle, fried as skin and hair were scorched, burned, and destroyed. The lucky died quickly. Those who survived were left to endure indescribable pain and agony, with little or no hope of salvation or relief.
As catastrophic as this was, the shock waves that followed both the airbursts and surface impacts proved to be even more devastating. Traveling at hundreds of miles an hour, trees, structures, and even rock formations, were bowled over, uprooted, or simply crushed. In some cases, fires started by the tremendous release of thermal energy were extinguished by this overwhelming blast of air.