“What?”
Eighteen, seventeen, sixteen…
“No time for this.” Alex moved to the edge.
Who is Aimee?
Alex froze, staring back at the silver figure. The two small red dots seemed to sear into his mind, seeing all. Was this Grey’s programming? Or was Sophia pulling that out herself? And why?
He raised a hand, pointing a finger at her. “Back off.” He shut her out.
Thirteen, twelve, eleven…
Alex went over the edge.
The HAWCs landed close to the rock face on the ledge and immediately jammed themselves in under a small overhang of solid granite. Sophia scaled down by herself and stood in close to them, but facing out at the distant horizon.
Six, five, four…
“Heavy weather coming,” Alex yelled.
“Bomber is inbound,” said Sophia. “Launch has been initiated.”
Alex expected the bomb would be some sort of big thermobaric device, possibly even a MOAB. It would raise temperatures to 4,500 degrees, igniting the mix of gases in the basin. Nothing inside, or close by, could possibly survive.
Alex watched the sky. The bomb would have its own laser-guidance system and propulsion, and no matter what the weather conditions, wouldn’t miss its target by an inch. He just hoped that they were far enough away, and the crater basin walls would contain the heat within the two-mile mountaintop cusp, scour everything down to the bare rock, and then vent the remaining heat and energy straight upwards.
Anything inside and not made of solid granite would be vaporized. Good. He looked up, hearing the faint scream of the incoming missile.
“Deploy shields,” he yelled.
The four HAWCs energized the shields on their forearms and held them above the group, interlocking them, and then hunkered down at the rock face.
Alex continued to stare out through the gaps, and saw Sophia still standing tall. But now she had turned to watch him.
He saw the dot appear in the sky — it was here.
“Brace!”
The bomb struck and then detonated with the sound of a thousand thunder strikes. The entire mountain shook like an old tree in a storm. Boulders rained down, thudding onto the defensive shell they’d created with their shields, and one, around a couple of feet wide, flew at Sophia. The android swung an arm and swiped it away like it was nothing more than an annoying bug.
Unbelievably, through the hundreds of feet of solid rock, Alex felt the stone heating up, and looking upwards, he saw a plume of molten rock shooting into the air like a volcano erupting. The night sky turned to a white-hot daylight.
The weird buzzing that had been in his head since they arrived abruptly stopped.
It’s over. He knew they’d only won today because of the dumb luck of where the Orlando had come down. Anywhere else and containment would have been impossible.
Alex dropped his gaze. Good men and women died, as they always do, so the world could remain oblivious to just how close it came again to annihilation.
He closed his eyes, and let his breath out slowly as the light faded back to darkness. A successful mission is the one where you got to go home, he reminded himself. He smiled as an image of Aimee and Joshua formed in his mind. Home to you soon.
CHAPTER 48
Viktor Dubkin stared back at President Volkov — the Little Wolf’s pale eyes never blinked, and could have been made from cut glass. The man didn’t move a muscle or even seem to breathe.
Dubkin exhaled, his breath leaving his mouth as a vapor ghost in the icy atmosphere of the bleak courtyard. His hands would have stung from the cold if they weren’t lacking blood from the restriction.
It all felt like a dream, and he wished it were. Everything that could have gone wrong, had, and all he had to show for billions of rubles invested and the entire Kurgan program wasted was one last platform before his president.
Dubkin continued to stare back at Volkov, but knew that arguing, negotiating, or begging was useless. Water dripped from his nose, tickling, but he didn’t shake it away as the chafing at his neck would have been unbearable.
Volkov finally moved; he nodded.
The lever was pulled and the trapdoor beneath Dubkin’s feet fell away. The coarse rope tightened around his neck, and in just the five feet he fell there was an eternity when images of childhood, teen years, and loves won and lost all flashed before his eyes, until the rope hit its end and he jerked hard to a stop.
Dubkin heard rather than felt the vertebrae in his neck separate as a white flash went off behind his eyes. Then nothing.
CHAPTER 49
Alex sprinted across the grass of their front yard, with Aimee coming to him with her arms as wide as her smile. Right behind her bounded Joshua, screaming with euphoria.
Alex grabbed Aimee and spun her in the air before the boy barged in to hug his hips and then all three of them fell to the grass laughing.
“This time, I’m not letting you go.” Aimee kissed him so hard it hurt, and then held his head against hers for several moments until Joshua punched him in the chest.
“I knew you’d make it,” Joshua said grinning. “I saw it.”
Alex looked at the boy. “I know.” He leaned up on one elbow, seeing the dog sitting patiently. It was still only a puppy but bigger than he expected, and given the size of its paws and ears, it was soon going to be enormous.
“Hell, Josh, what are you feeding that thing?”
The dog’s unnatural blue eyes looked deep into Alex’s and Joshua held out a hand and the dog came and sat beneath it. “Lots of stuff.” The boy and dog looked at each other for a moment, then Joshua nodded and turned back to Alex.
“Torben wants to know are you our pack leader. I said yes.”
Alex laughed. “What have you taught him so far?”
Joshua grinned. “He’s smart. I don’t need to teach him anything. He knows what to do.” He looked again at the dog and his grin widened. “He said, this is his pack now, and he’ll protect it.”
Alex looked at the dog. There was such clarity and intelligence in the dog’s eyes that he found it a little unnerving. “Okay, good. That’s his job.” Alex got to his feet. “Now, am I the only one who needs a holiday… somewhere warm?”
Walter Grey powered down the computers, and went to stand before the seated silver android. Sophia was also powered down and sat pharaoh-like in the chair.
Grey smiled. “I’d call that a successful field test.”
He reached forward to run a hand over the smooth face, and then patted the head. His fingers found a few nicks and abrasions in the silver skin. “We’ll give that armor a touch up, and you’ll be as good as new.”
Walter stood straighter and then turned to the door. “Lights out. Door.” The spotlights shut down and the recessed door slid back for him as he approached, then closed silently after him.
A soft, red glow appeared in the face of the android, and the head rose. Sophia got to her feet and walked to the bank of computer consoles. Her slim hands began working at one of them with lightning speed unlocking password encryptions, opening programs and then accessing data — in a few more seconds she had found what she searched for.
The other screens remained blank and they reflected her featureless image back at her while she rapidly worked at reimagining the telemetry data of the VELA satellite protocols. In another few seconds, she had chosen a suitable optical perspective and began zooming down; further and further.