Brown, Dale - Patrick McLanahan 10 (42 page)

 
          
.
.. and then learned what had happened: Radiation alarms were going off. There
had been an intense release of gamma and neutron radiation in the past several
hours. Although the radiation levels now were high—he would have to get out of
the area within thirty minutes or risk getting seriously sick—they had been a
thousand times higher not long ago.

           
A neutron bomb. It had to be.
Someone had set off a neutron bomb on the base. Everyone within a mile of the
explosion would be dead within hours, and everyone within two miles would get sick
from radiation poisoning. The neutron bomb—a conventional hydrogen bomb without
its uranium-238 jacket—was designed to kill humans but leave vehicles and
buildings intact.

 
          
Wendy...

 
          
So
the Libyans couldn’t release the prisoners, Patrick thought grimly. It was
impossible. The news report said some of the prisoners were tortured. The
Libyans couldn’t allow the world to see that. So they planted a nuclear device
into one of the buses and set it to go off just as the prisoners were being
off-loaded. All of the evidence of what they had done would be wiped clean.
They would of course deny they had anything to do with the nuclear detonation.

 
          
Wendy
.. . my God, Wendy ...

 
          
Zuwayy
was going to pay for this, Patrick vowed. He was going to die, brutally and messily.
He was going to rip his beating heart out of his chest and rub it in his face.

 
          
The
air felt electrified, as if every movement of his body caused thousands of
static electric shocks that were growing in intensity. Patrick knew that if he
stuck around much longer, the shocks would eventually kill him.

 
          
Patrick
reluctantly turned his back on what was once
Egypt
’s largest military base outside
Cairo
and headed southwest, toward a rendezvous
with his men. As he drove, he felt nothing—no anger, no weariness, no hatred,
and no sadness. The battle had been fought, and he had lost.

WHITE
HOUSE SITUATION ROOM
,
 
WASHINGTON
,
D.C.

A FEW HOURS LATER

 
          
The
detailed briefing had just concluded, and the men and women present sat in
stunned silence as the room lights were brought back up. The Air Force
intelligence officer that gave the briefing was dismissed, leaving behind the
members of President Thomas Nathaniel Thom’s “National Security Council.”
Although the Thom administration did not have a formal NSC, Thom met with Vice
President Lester Busick, Secretary of Defense Robert Goff, Secretary of State
Edward Kercheval, Director of Central Intelligence Douglas Morgan, and Chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Venti to discuss any military
developments.

 
          
“Damned
brutal attack,” Secretary of Defense Robert Goff remarked. In his mid-fifties,
with a round face and compact frame, Goff was normally energetic and animated,
even jovial—but the briefing he had just received left his features cold, hard,
and angry. “What kind of a sick bastard does this?”

           
“Someone who obviously did not want
to leave any traces of evidence behind,” Vice President Lester Busick offered.
He turned to General Venti. “What did our reconnaissance folks report,
General?”

 
          
“Space
Command recorded the explosion from geosynchronous satellite infrared sensors,”
Venti explained. “Based on radiation and photon levels, the Command is
estimating between a-point-five-and two-kiloton device—a so-called ‘backpack’
nuke, probably from a nuclear artillery round or torpedo warhead. It appears to
have been an enhanced radiation device, what we call a neutron bomb—designed to
kill humans but leave buildings and vehicles intact. Probably fired from a
small artillery piece or large mortar mounted in a truck. It did its work very,
very effectively.”

 
          
“Radiation?
Fallout?”

 
          
“None,
sir,” Venti replied. “Enhanced radiation devices leave no fallout, and the
radiation is present for only a few seconds at most. But the damage to human
cells is massive. Within a mile of ground zero, death occurs within twelve
hours; within two miles, death can occur within twenty- four hours. It would
take twenty feet of earth or twelve inches of steel to block the radiation
enough to survive.” Thom was leaning forward in his seat, elbows on the table,
his lips hidden behind his interlaced fingers. His advisers were accustomed to
talking among themselves, as if the President of the
United States
were not even in the room, while he
processed what he heard and combined it with his unique insights, intelligence,
military experience, and philosophies to come up with a plan of action. After
several moments of listening, he looked at his Director of Central
Intelligence, Douglas R. Morgan. “What’s been the region’s general response,
Robert?”

 
          
“General
alert of active-duty Egyptian military and paramilitary forces along the
Libyan-Egyptian border— that’s it,” Morgan responded, flipping through his
briefing notes. “No counterattacks or mobilizations. Israel has already been on
heightened alert status. I believe everyone simply considers this to be a
terrorist attack, not a general attack.”

 
          
“Although
I’d expect a general attack to take place at any time,” Secretary Goff said,
“and we can’t rule out the use of nuclear weapons—full-yield fission weapons—by
the Libyans again.”

 
          
“All
of our forces in the Med are on heightened alert, sir,” Venti added. “Securing
ships at sea was accomplished very quickly, and the ships are positioning
themselves to assist other vessels. We’re hoping it won’t be a killer. We’re
ready in case the Libyans try to take a shot at our ships or launch a rocket
attack against
Israel
or
Europe
.” The President nodded, then turned to his
secretary of state. “Ed? Reaction from local politicians, neighboring
countries, and organizations?”

 
          
“The
streets of
Alexandria
and
Cairo
are practically deserted, sir—looks like
most folks expect more attacks in the cities,” Secretary of State Edward
Kercheval replied. Kercheval was not a Jeffersonian Party member, as was the
President and the rest of his cabinet officers, but was considered a highly
respected and valuable addition to the President’s inner circle of
advisers—even though he disagreed more with his boss than agreed with him.
“Immediate and heated condemnation of the attack by Dr. Ahmed Kalir, the prime
minister of
Egypt
and the leader of the current majority party. Dr. Kalir has requested
help from the
United States
in fighting off an impending invasion by
Libya
and possibly
Sudan
.”

 
          
“Does
that appear likely?”

 
          
All
heads turned to the Director of Central Intelligence. “Very possible—given the
new information we’ve seen over the past several days,” Morgan replied. “
Libya
has no capability to beat
Egypt
in a conventional conflict—
Egypt
has a three-to-one numerical advantage and
at least a twenty-to-one technological advantage. But
Egypt
has no weapons of mass destruction as far
as we know, and a patchwork air defense system stitched together from many
countries that doesn’t all work well together. If
Libya
decides to launch a nuclear attack against
Cairo
or
Alexandria
, it might very well succeed. Plus, several
thousand Libyan troops are stationed in
Sudan
now—they could open up a second front
against
Egypt
at any time.”

 
          
“As
far as the rest of the Arab world, most nations are neither condemning nor
endorsing the raid, except for other Muslim Brotherhood nations, which praised
the raid as the beginning of the end of Western imperialism in the Arab world,”
Kercheval went on. “It appears that the leading opposition member in
Egypt
, Khalid al-Khan, was killed in the
explosion.

 
          
“No
word yet from Susan Bailey Salaam, the widow of the assassinated president,
either, who is a candidate for president,” Kercheval added.

           
“Information has it that she might
be under arrest or in hiding from Khalid al-Khan’s men.”

 
          
“I
thought she was killed in that attack at the mosque a couple weeks ago.”

 
          
“So
did the rest of the world, Mr. President,” Kercheval said. “She suddenly turned
up at a National Assembly meeting to announce her candidacy for president
before being refused by the Assembly on technical grounds. She was injured but
not seriously.”

 
          
“She’s
an American, I believe?” Thom asked.

 
          
“Yes,
sir. Ex-Air Force. Dual citizenship.”

 
          
“She’d
better hightail it back here where she belongs before her husband’s assassins
catch up with her,” Vice President Busick idly commented. Thom glanced at the
veteran politician but said nothing.

 
          
“Recommended
course of action, sir?” General Venti asked.

 
          
Thom
thought for a few moments. The “Kitchen Cabinet” was accustomed to Thom’s
seemingly disconnected way of pondering an issue—he would adopt a faraway
expression, as if searching through space, for an answer. Former military men
called it the “thousand-yard stare,” but even though Thom was ex-Army Special
Forces, no one gave him that kind of credit.

 
          
Thomas
Nathaniel Thom was the first third-party candidate since Abraham Lincoln to be
elected to the White House. To be elected president of the
United States
without a massive, well-organized political
machine behind you was unusual enough—but Thom was odder still. He was a loner,
a politician who seemingly shunned crowds and the spotlight. He was rarely seen
in public, although now into the third year of his term he was seen more and
more on the reelection campaign trail. He worked long hours in his private
study or in the Oval Office in a very hands-on but decentralized management
structure. The executive branch of government was the smallest in sixty years,
all carefully orchestrated by a man who used to kill for a living but was now
perceived as one of the gentlest, nonconfrontational, and nonconformist
commanders-in-chief ever to occupy the White House.

 
          
As
was his custom, Thom glanced up with an unspoken request in his eyes, first to
his vice president. “Park a carrier battle group off the Libyan coast,” Busick
said.

 
          
“I
agree, sir,” Secretary of Defense Goff chimed in. “One carrier battle group
would just about equal the entire Libyan military’s strength.” Left unspoken
was the fact that an aircraft carrier battle group was just about the
only
option open to them—since one of
Thomas Thom’s first acts as commander-in-chief was to bring most troops
stationed overseas home. Although the United States still had basing rights in
all of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries and still deployed
overseas often for joint military exercises, no U.S. combat forces were
permanently stationed anywhere in Europe or the Middle East.

 
          
“Of
course, we would condemn the attack in the United Nations, in the media, and in
every appearance we made for the next few weeks,” Secretary of State Kercheval
said. “I think it would be easy to swing world public opinion against
Libya
. But I think moving an aircraft carrier off
Libya’s coast would send a pretty strong message as well—the United States
thinks it is definitely in our best interests to defend Egypt.”

 
          
Thom
turned to General Venti. “General? Who’s over there?”

 
          
“The
Stennis
carrier group is cruising in
the Med right now, sir,” Venti responded. “The
Reagan
group is scheduled to join them in four days. They have a
week of joint exercises planned in the Med, and then the
Stennis
was scheduled to come home. The groups have canceled their
exercises and are at threat condition Delta. The
Reagan
sails with an amphibious squadron assigned—three to five
ships, two thousand Marines. We also have an amphibious group assigned to the
Med attached to the
Stennis
with
twenty-one ships and approximately fifteen thousand Marines.”

 
          
“How
far out are other forces?” Thom asked. “If we did have to go into
Libya
or
Egypt
in the next twenty-four hours, what other
forces would we have to draw on?”

 
          
“Primary
strike forces would be ship-or sub-launched cruise missiles, followed by
carrier-based bombers,” Venti replied. “Those strikes could be launched within
six hours if needed and would be focusing on neutralizing air defense,
surveillance, and antiship forces, softening up the beachhead in preparation
for an amphibious landing. Bombers from the CONUS would then follow up and
strike larger targets deeper inside
Libya
—infantry bases, ports, warehouses, docks,
and supply lines, as well as defensive positions—concurrently with a Marine
beach landing, well within twenty-four hours.

 
          
“I
need a decision on whether or not to generate the nuclear forces to alert
status, sir, and what targets you would like loaded up,” Venti added. “The
Peacekeepers can be reprogrammed for Libya-Sudan-Syria-Iraq target set in about
two hours. The naval forces in the Med will take about a day to reprogram
targets after they receive their messages—the subs take a little longer to
decode valid messages. The B-2 stealth bomber fleet needs seventy-two hours to
generate both squadrons, eighteen planes, to full nuclear alert status.”