Executive Intent

“I’ll bet that ship burning in the harbor is a Chinese warship,” Seeker offered, “so this might be retaliation for a suicide attack. The Chinese went after air and coastal defenses and command-and-control centers…”

“Softening them up for another land invasion?”

“That would be my guess, ma’am,” Seeker said. “I’d better make sure SPACECOM and STRATCOM have these images.”

“I need to talk with the boss,” Faulkner said. She donned a headset and entered instructions into her computer to activate an encrypted voice link, then spoke: “Armstrong to Raydon, secure.”

21 ST SPACE OPERATIONS SQUADRON, ONIZUKA AIR FORCE STATION, SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA

THAT SAME TIME

“Raydon here, secure,” Kai answered a few moments later, after being led to a communications room by the senior master sergeant in charge. Raydon, along with Patrick McLanahan and Hunter Noble, was in a secure laboratory at the 21st Space Operations Squadron at Onizuka Air Force Station near San Jose. They had requested access to a secure facility to examine the classified-data downloads from Armstrong Space Station in the hours prior to the destruction of the Kingfisher-8 weapon garage. The Twenty-first, located in the large windowless light blue-colored building near Moffett Federal Airfield known as the “Blue Cube,” maintained the Air Force’s network of satellite control centers and provided satellite communications between both terrestrial and in-orbit users. Originally slated for closure in 2011, Onizuka Air Force Station-named after Lieutenant Colonel Ellison Onizuka, one of the seven crewmembers killed in the Challenger Shuttle disaster in 1986-was kept open to properly service and support the growing U.S. Space Defense Force satellite infrastructure.

“Faulkner, secure.”

“Hi, Gonzo.” Patrick was immediately on alert-Kai’s face told him this was not a routine call. “What’s going on?”

“The Chinese appear to be at it again, sir,” Faulkner said. “This time in Aden, Yemen.”

“What?”

“It’s happening right now, sir. Looks like they launched bombers from their aircraft carrier off the coast of Aden and bombed defensive sites and command-and-control sites around the city. It might be retaliation for an attack on one of their warships in the harbor.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Kai exclaimed. He turned to Patrick. “The Chinese are attacking Aden, Yemen.” Patrick immediately picked up a secure phone. “Everyone’s been notified?”

“Seeker is double-checking that SPACECOM and STRATCOM got the message.”

“Good. Where’s Camerota?”

“He’s down, sir.”

“‘Down’? What do you mean, ‘down’? What happened?”

“Chronic space sickness ever since he got here, apparently passed out with a throatful of vomit,” Faulkner explained. “He’s breathing again but still loopy. Crawford is with him.”

“You take command of the station.”

“Yes, sir.”

“What’s your status?”

“The station is Code One,” she replied. “I haven’t checked all the garages yet.” She scanned her monitors and studied the one Lukas was pointing to. “Seeker just put it up: Three and Seven show some kind of fault.”

“Are you up, Seeker?”

“Yes, sir,” Lukas responded.

“The faults on Three and Seven: Are they similar to what happened to Eight?”

“The safe and continuity circuit faults? Stand by.” She called up a more detailed readout of Kingfisher-3’s fault. “Yes, sir, same fault on Three.”

“We’re looking at data readouts for the Kingfisher constellation for the past few days before the incident on Eight,” Kai said, “and we’re starting to pick up a pattern: The satellites develop an error in the continuity circuits over just about the same location on Earth each time, give or take five hundred miles.”

“That’s almost a pinpoint in orbital terms.”

“Exactly. We notice the failures at different times, and they’re not exactly the same type of fault, but it’s close enough to get our attention. We’re trying to get tasking to set up reconnaissance over Venezuela. The Russians have two signals intelligence sites in Venezuela: Caracas and El Tigre. They’re doing more than just listening at one of those sites.”

“So you think the Russians are using SIGINT sites to hack into the Kingfisher safe and continuity circuits and fault them so we’re forced to shut them down?” Faulkner asked.

“Exactly.”

“Could they have caused Eight to blow itself up?”

“We might have a different reason for that,” Kai said. “Something I remembered about the moments before the accident. Remember that industrial fire we detected right about the same time, Seeker?”

“Yes, sir. We verified it: A Myanmar natural-gas processing facility caught fire. We photographed it afterward.”

“But if you take the typical attack profile of a Chinese DF-21 missile and place the origin of that profile at that spot, the missile would have hit Kingfisher-Eight,” Kai said. “I think the Chinese set an explosion at that natural-gas plant to hide a DF-21 launch.”

“But no other sensors detected a missile launch, sir.”