Page 112 of The Devil's Ransom

The Situation Room at the White House was not much better than Auriga mission control, with everyone arguing back and forth at the new turn of events, all trying to assess what the attack meant.

President Hannister entered the room, quieting the scrum. He took his seat at the head of the table and said, “Okay, what the hell is going on?”

General Baggetti, the commander of both the NSA and Cyber Command, said, “Sir, my opinion is just what I said earlier. There is a rogue element within Iran that’s doing this. The IRGC or the mullahs found the original cell and shut it off because they don’t want to go to war, but somehow, that same cell is now initiating again. There’s a fight going on within the Iranian government over who is the true leader against the Great Satan.”

President Hannister said, “Okay, so they know it’s been initiated again. Even if it’s a rogue cell, they’d have to prepare the regime for our response. That’s the whole point. What are we seeing for posturing? We sent the back-channel message saying they chose the right path by turning it off, and told them we were standing down. The rockets stopped, the Hezbollah activity ceased. Are they ramping back up again?”

General Baggetti rubbed his hands and said, “No. We’ve heard no chatter about mobilization. In fact, the only thing we’ve heard is that their posturing caused us to back down. They’re bragging about it to each other.”

Kerry Bostwick, the D/CIA, said, “Meaning they don’t know what the hell is going on and are taking this as a victory of deterring the Great Satan. Sir, they aren’t doing this.”

“Then who is?”

“I don’t know. I wish I did, but I don’t.”

President Hannister said, “How much time do we have?”

The hapless NASA liaison said, “About three hours before they impact the space station.”

“And can we abort?”

“Yes, sir, but if we do, the spacecraft has about a fiftypercent chance of survival. Without the ground control, it’s a flip of the coin whether they survive.”

President Hannister rubbed his face, then looked around the room, going face to face. He said, “This is my call. We abort. I’ll take responsibility for the disaster if it occurs. I can’t have that ship destroying the International Space Station.”

The NASA liaison looked pained at the statement. President Hannister said, “You don’t agree?”

“No, sir. It’s not that. We don’t own the capsule. We have no legal ability to order Auriga to abort. It’s not our ship.”

That caused President Hannister to chuckle. He said, “The space station is a government thing, not private. We own the right for them to go there. Tell them they no longer have permission to dock. Let them figure it out.”

The NASA liaison nodded, looking sick.

President Hannister said, “That won’t work?”

“Sir, they’re headed to that space station at Mach five. They aren’t going to dock. They’re going to bring it down.”

President Hannister said, “Get me the CEO of Auriga. I’ll order him to abort.”

The NASA liaison said, “Sir, he’s on the capsule.”

President Hannister looked around the room, supposedly the greatest minds of the finest country on earth. He said, “Is there anyone here with a solution?”

Chapter67

I saw the people on the screen doing their zombie dance, running back and forth, and said, “Branko’s no help. This isn’t him.”

Wolffe said, “Well, somebody’s doing it. And either it’s the Iranians, or it’s Dark Star. One thing’s for sure, if this thing goes bad, we’re blaming Iran.”

I said, “Creed’s got everything Branko had. Tell him to start working it, but I’ll bet Branko’s codes are no longer valid. It’s not Dark Star, and it’s not the Iranians.”

“Then who?”

“It’s Sphinx. It’s the American. He’s at the heart of this thing.”

“Who is he?”

“I have no idea, but I know how to find him. Can you get Kerry Bostwick to do some work? I have a linkage, but it’s not in our problem set. It’s CIA.”

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