Strike Force

“That’s getting to be a very tired old album, McLanahan,” Gardner sighed wearily, “and I for one am starting to get tired of listening to it. There’s never enough time when it comes to you and your operations, is there?”

At that moment a staffer in the room noticed a flurry of movement outside the room. National Security Adviser Sparks entered the Situation Room, followed by Chief of Staff Minden, Vice President Hershel, and then by President Martindale. The staffer called the room to attention. “Seats,” the President said immediately. He turned to the videoconference screen. “Sorry to hear about your loss, Patrick. What do you think the Iranians got?”

“They got Sergeant Dolan, one Tin Man battle armor system with the exoskeleton probably mostly intact, plus plenty of photographs, maybe a few composite material samples, and some electronic gear and computer modules, sir,” Patrick responded. “The communications, transponders, and computers are programmed to auto-erase whenever the emergency shutdown order is given or initiated by the computer in case of an accident or attack, but it’s not foolproof.”

“Is there any kind of self-destruct mechanism?”

“No, sir — that’s too dangerous in a spacecraft normally subject to very high heat and stresses. Master Sergeant Wohl destroyed any electronic components by hand that he could find or that were pointed out to him by Captain Noble; wearing the Tin Man suit, that would have been done very quickly and effectively. But the Iranians may still be able to recover any data or programming stored in the components they seized.”

“What about Sergeant Dolan and the suit he was wearing?”

Patrick looked uncomfortable, almost pained, but he kept his head and shoulders straight as he replied, “We’re hoping that the RPG rounds and the 105-millimeter tank round that killed Sergeant Dolan destroyed most of the armor and electronics in the suit. But the Iranians have taken a very valuable piece of hardware along with the body of a U.S. soldier. They need to give all of it back immediately or face the most severe consequences.”

“That’s not your call, McLanahan!” Jonas Sparks retorted loudly. “We’re in this mess because you didn’t plan properly, and you’re not going to even think about doing anything to recover what was taken without full presidential authority!” He rubbed his eyes wearily. “Jesus, this could be the worst compromise of highly classified technology since John Walker or Robert Hanssen.”

“Those guys were spies and traitors — the Black Stallion was attacked by Iranians inside Turkmenistan,” Vice President Maureen Hershel said. “There’s a big difference.”

“What I meant was, the damage done due to the loss of our most sensitive and cutting-edge technology is much worse, Miss Vice President,” Sparks said. Maureen scowled at the national security adviser but said nothing.

“Sir, I wanted to update you and the national security staff on developments in Iran,” Patrick said. “We’ll have to deal with the loss of the Black Stallion and Tin Man technology later.” The President looked perturbed and grim, but nodded.

“First, we’ve located about a dozen forward-deployed launch sites or hiding spots for as many as a hundred medium- and long-range Iranian missiles,” Patrick said. “The Iranians have deployed a large number of decoys but we’ve been able to separate most of them out. We believe they might have another six to ten more launch sites in other locations. We discover at least one new site per day so I feel confident we can find the rest soon.

“The Air Battle Force has the capability of neutralizing the Iranian missiles in three ways: by destroying as many launchers as possible with air and ground strikes; by hitting missiles in the boost phase with our AL-52 Dragon airborne laser; and by hitting more in the cruise phase of flight with air-launch anti-ballistic missiles,” Patrick went on. “Although we can have the ground units in place quickly, it’ll take two days at least for the full force to get set up over Iran and ready to strike.”

“How many of the dozen sites do you think you can take out, McLanahan?” National Security Adviser Sparks asked.

“Conservatively, with our full force in place: fifty percent,” Patrick replied. “We coordinate the spaceborne, air-breathing, and ground attacks, and make sure our anti-ballistic missile aircraft are over the likely launch and target areas when the attacks begin.”

“Fifty percent? I don’t think that’s good enough to risk a larger-scale war in the Persian Gulf, Patrick,” Vice President Hershel said.