David held up his hand. “Please. In English.”
“Well… theoretically, we could build a prototype quickly. But it would be limited in range.”
The other physicist said, “And maybe power, too! These are brand-new ideas. Very costly and—”
David said, “How limited would the range be?”
The female scientist said, “Depends on the height of the antenna. It would be line-of-sight, so you could theoretically mount it atop a two-thousand-foot radio tower.”
“That sounds great. What’s the problem?”
“The current idea for generating the weapon is unrefined.”
One of the physicists said, “You’d have to be a madman to go near it, she means.”
The woman frowned at him. “There’s a reasonably high probability that it could set off a cascade event…”
David cocked his head. “Like a nuclear detonation?”
She clicked her tongue. “No, no. Nothing like that.”
David let out a sigh of relief.
“More like a neutron-bomb blast, destroying all life within a certain radius.”
David blinked.
The physicist she had been arguing with said, “Don’t waste your time, Mr. Manning.”
The woman said, “We have nothing else.”
“Even if it worked, and even if you could build it quickly, the range is a real problem,” the other physicist said. “This is because it would have to be land-based. It’s too unstable and dangerous to place on a ship or aircraft. It would also need an enormous power supply. You sure as hell wouldn’t want to place it on Hawaii with all the people there.”
Another of the team members said, “You could place it on an island.”
“An island with no one else on it, maybe.”
David said, “But what would the point of that be?”
One of the experts in surface warfare spoke up. “David, maybe we’re thinking about this the wrong way? What if we created a barrier around the Hawaiian Islands, but these black hole devices were used as gates?”
“What would the barrier be?”
“Mines.”
“That’s a shit ton of mines.”
“Yes, it is. But you don’t need the mines to be everywhere. Just the possibility is enough to deny a certain area.”
David nodded. “So, we use the mines to form a denied area barrier around the Hawaiian Islands, and place this black hole energy device on an unmanned island to serve as a gateway in and out of the castle?”
“Yes, exactly.”
“And it wouldn’t harm friendly ships?”
“No, no. Of course not. Our operators on the gateway islands would know not to target friendly ships, just like with any other weapon system. Think of it like a drawbridge. All the Allied warships and merchants could enter near those drawbridge islands. But the Chinese fleet would either have to pass through a minefield or go within range of the black hole device islands in order to get to Hawaii.”
David’s face lit up. “Could this really work?”
The surface warfare expert said, “It really would take a huge number of mines. I assume that the Chinese will have minesweepers deployed within their fleets. But we could lay undetectable nonmetallic mines, slow them down and spread them out. That could be an opportunity to pick off the peripheral ships, or launch some type of attack.”
The female scientist who had come up with the black hole idea said, “The islands would need to be chosen carefully. The black hole device would need a nuclear reactor or some other type of very large power supply. And the antenna and technology that goes with it would need to be built immediately.”
The surface warfare expert said, “And we would need to check on our mine inventory. With the numbers that we are talking about, the factories might need to go into overdrive increasing production. And all current inventory would need to be pre-positioned on Hawaii and then pushed out to the proper locations.”
“Don’t forget you’ll need to coordinate this with all of the ships coming and going in the Pacific right now.”
David nodded. “Look, however we do this, it will be an enormous undertaking. But the full weight of our nation will be behind it. I’m sure of that.”
A knock at the door. Susan and General Schwartz entered. “Mind if we sit in?” the general asked.
David tried not to be annoyed. Not only were they giving him an impossible task with an impossible deadline, but they were going to look over his shoulder while he made his attempt. At least now, he had a lead idea.
“Not at all. We were just discussing building black holes.”
“Lovely,” said Susan, sitting in the back of the room. General Schwartz sat next to her and began scribbling in a notebook. He stopped and raised his hand.
“Yes, sir?”
“Can you catch us up? Give me the two-minute version.”
David and the group did their best to fill them both in.
General Schwartz said, “So it’s low probability of success? Do we agree on that?”
Reluctant nods from around the room, including David.
The general said, “How quickly can we do it?”
All heads turned to the private sector representation, an executive from one of the largest American defense contractors. “I’ll have to get an estimate on construction. As you can imagine, this isn’t a typical project. Just shooting from the hip, I think most of our project managers would laugh at any timeline under six months. But that’s with a very limited understanding of the technology. It could be longer.”
Shouting and arguing commenced, ending when David gave a loud whistle. “Alright, thanks, everyone. Let’s take a short break.”
As people began getting up and heading towards the restrooms, David huddled with Susan and General Schwartz in the corner of the room. David found himself saying, “I realize it’s a long shot, but I think this could be our best bet.”
Susan said, “Keep fleshing out the details, then meet us later to finalize a plan of action.”
David nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
Susan said, “There’s something else you should know, however.”
“What?”
“Both Chinese fleets have resupplied and begun moving again. Exact whereabouts and destination are unknown.”
24
Edward Luntz, one of the top-level civilians in the Office of Naval Intelligence, listened quietly as General Schwartz gave his recommended plan. Everything about it sounded crazy. The new technology. The timeline. The sheer number of mines that would need to be deployed. Apparently, the national security advisor agreed.
“General Schwartz, you’re telling me that you want us to fill the ocean around the Hawaiian Islands with mines? That sounds pretty drastic.”
“Normally I would agree with you, sir, but desperate times…”
The Pentagon’s senior military officer representative said, “What’s the distance from Midway to Johnston Atoll?”
“About nine hundred and thirty miles, sir.”
“Is our mine inventory able to handle an operation of this size?”
“Sir, our mines are essentially just converted five-hundred-pound and one-thousand-pound bombs. We’ve talked to the manufacturers, and they’re already converting over several production lines to help us out.”
“So will we have the inventory available or not?”
“Yes, sir, we think so. It should be ready for deployment in about two weeks’ time.”
The senior military and intelligence leaders began discussing it among themselves. Luntz normally didn’t butt into this kind of stuff, but he figured he should show that he was paying attention. That way, they would keep inviting him to these meetings.
“Can you describe why you chose the… uh… security gate islands that you chose?”