Bill frowned thoughtfully. “The problem we’ll have is the whole world knowing a rocket was launched from U.S. soil. Since we’re banned from all space flights, we’ll have to answer why it happened without our knowledge. Even though it’s a private firm’s rocket, it’ll be perceived as a rocket belonging to the United States. To combat the accusation, we’ll have to denounce the flight and offer our full support. We share ownership of the space station with other nations who will be pressing us for answers. So we must come across as supporting those nations and working to bring this mission to an end. Any holding back of information passed on from the crew will look like we are involved. It needs to look like some rogue agent acting on his own, attempting to clear his father’s name. We have to treat it as such and give the impression we are doing everything we can to help stop him.”
“Yes, sir,” Doug said. “But I do believe the ISS crew will be supportive and offer little resistance. I also believe we can prevent them from saying too much to Mission Control.”
“How can you say that, especially with the current commander being Russian?” asked the president with frustration in his voice.
“For a couple reasons, sir; one being since we need the crew’s help moving the VASIMR engine, we decided to put a dummy bomb in the capsule and scare them into cooperating. Second, there will be another man flying with Peter”—Doug paused—“who knows the Russian commander.”
Jack was startled to hear a second man was flying with Peter. He was informed Peter wanted to fly the mission alone. Knowing the second man was not an SID agent, he was curious as to who it was, wondering if Doug had provided a NASA astronaut. “Who’s going along with Peter?”
“Viktor Alexandrov, a Russian cosmonaut.”
“The Russians are helping us?” asked the president, wide eyed.
“No sir, they’re not. Actually I should say, Viktor the ex-Soviet cosmonaut, not the Russian cosmonaut. He’s retired. He’s doing this on his own, without Russia’s knowledge.” Doug shrugged. “Peter has a long relationship with Viktor. Actually, Viktor worked with Peter’s father on the U.S.-USSR mission of the ’70s. Peter insists his experience with the Soyuz and his Russian background will greatly help with the mission, and I agree.”
Jack asked, “Viktor Alexandrov? Isn’t he the father of the current assistant director of FKA? How old is he?”
“Yes, he is. He’s seventy-five. His son, Dmitri Alexandrov, is the assistant director at Roscosmos, and he’s an old buddy of Peter’s. Peter trusts Dmitri and informed him of the mission with the hopes he would influence Russia’s mission control for support after he hijacks the pod.” Doug turned to the president and continued, “Sir, having Viktor on the mission should also speed up modifying the Soyuz. With his help, the two should be able to finish the operation at the space station quicker, and hopefully in the two days as you suggest. Also, the ISS commander knows and respects him.”
“Do you really think a seventy-five-year-old man can handle the rigors of a demanding space mission?”
“Peter is confident he can. I receive updates from Allen, and he too was concerned about Viktor’s age. So far the old man has held his own during training, but Allen is keeping a close eye on him.”
Jack felt compelled to support his agent. “Sir, if Peter feels Viktor can handle it and can help with the mission, I am confident he can.”
The president took a moment to sip his coffee, obviously thinking. He said with a smirk, “So the plan is to scare the crew with a bomb?”
Jack said, “Yes, sir. I suggested this to Doug. The crew will be told it’s on a timer set to blow at a specific time unless they cooperate. Even though Doug suspects the ISS crew will want to help, I felt they needed plausible deniability, which could also help keep Mission Control in the dark.”
Taking charge, the president said, “Okay. Doug, I want you to make sure Peter and Viktor will not be at the ISS longer than two days. Jack, I want you to find out how China plans to stop our boys in flight. Let’s plan on a follow up meeting later next week updating me on the latest. Good day, gentleman.”
Both men nodded in agreement, shaking the president’s hand before they left his office.
VIKTOR SAT ALONE in SpaceQuest’s cafeteria having his breakfast while studying the Soyuz manual. He jumped when a tray plopped on his table and looked up at Peter grinning ear to ear as he pulled up a chair. In a chipper voice the younger man said, “Good morning, Viktor.”
Suspicion tapped at Viktor’s awareness of Peter’s body language. “Good morning. You look much happy. Where you been?”
Peter arranged his tray more neatly and picked up his fork. “Anya arrived okay last night and she’s safely checked into her hotel. Maybe you can stop by and see her at lunch.” He put his head down and started eating as if he did not want to discuss anything further.
Viktor knew there was more to the story, especially after stopping by Peter’s room earlier and it was obvious he had not stayed there last night. From the beaming smile on the boy’s face, Viktor was sure Peter spent the night at Anya’s hotel, but he didn’t want to pry. He was fond of Peter, and he and Anya were grown adults. However, being the father, he considered it his duty to give the boy a little grief. “I stopped by your room this morning and you not sleep there last night?”
Peter kept his head down, eating, not even glancing up as he nervously answered, “Anya seemed a little lonely last night, so I thought I should stay and keep her company.”
Viktor smiled, seeing Peter squirm. This was the first time he’d ever seen the confident young man look uncomfortable. He just wanted his daughter happy; if she was happy, he was fine with their involvement. However, he was concerned the two might get too close. He didn’t want Anya’s heart broken when Peter did not return from the mission. Losing her father was going to be hard enough. He decided he would let it go for now and get his daughter’s take when he met her later, and then decide what to do. He said nothing more as he continued to read.
An awkward silence fell as Viktor continued studying. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Peter slowly lift his head, looking more relaxed.
“I told Anya how busy we’ll be over the next few days and that we might not have much free time,” Peter said. “She hoped to have an opportunity to spend time with you.”
Viktor looked up, smiling. “You mean, spend time with you?”
Peter grinned. “Well, spend time with both of us. I was thinking, since she works for Zaftra, suggesting Allen take advantage of her being here to observe our training. I think it would be beneficial. Besides, it would allow us to see more of her.”
“I not sure it beneficial to mission, but sound good. It would be nice have Anya here, see her more before we move to Cape. Please no tell her mission a suicide. It be too hard on her.”
“Absolutely, that will be one of the first things I’ll mention to Allen to be kept secret.” Peter took a few more bites then said, “After meeting with Allen, I’m going back to Rob’s hotel to see if I can’t figure out how to change out those damn codes in less than twenty minutes. Doesn’t Bernie have you training on the Soyuz this morning?”
“Yes.”
“Cool. Give Anya a call. She is expecting to hear from you. Hopefully you two can have lunch together. I should be back later this afternoon.”
Viktor nodded and went back to his manual while Peter continued eating and grinning.
PETER WAS POISED as he sat across from Allen in his office. He was going to ask about Anya, but needed to first update him on his visit with Rob. “We might have a problem with the laser on the back side. From my meeting yesterday I learned there’s a complicated procedure I’ll have to perform at the moon to reprogram the laser. The exercise normally takes over an hour to perform. Unfortunately, I’ll have only twenty minutes, or we’ll be fired upon.”