Delta Green - [14]

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“If that is not possible, we will destroy it, rather than let someone else have it, or copy the technology.”

“The big question, Hannibal, is where do we cross the line from priority one to priority two?”

“You are not to put at risk your remaining craft or crews. As far as we know, this is not an event equivalent to the accepted danger levels of war.”

“That doesn’t give me, or McKenna, much leeway.”

“I know, Marvin, but that is the way it has to be.”

“I can free my weapons systems then?”

“The rules of engagement are that MakoShark crews only are allowed to fire if fired upon. The one exception to that, of course, is if they find Delta Green and must shoot it down. They may fire without warning in that case.”

“And Delta Red?” Brackman asked, aware of previous administrative reticence to endangering unduly the pilot of that MakoShark.

“I think Major Haggar proved her, and Colonel McKenna’s, point at Peenemünde. She’s a combat-capable pilot, and McKenna may assign her any normal squadron duty.”

Brackman assumed that Mays and Cross had had to argue for equal treatment, and he appreciated their support. McKenna would also.

“All right, Hannibal. We’ll go looking.”

“Don’t look too long, Marvin, before you start hunting.”

USSC-1

It was two o’clock in the morning aboard Themis when Pearson called Wet Country and had someone there go rouse McKenna from a nap.

Army Sergeant Don Curtis was manning the communications console, but Donna Amber was still hanging around after her shift. General Overton, Colonel Avery, Major Haggar, and Captain Olsen, her WSO, were also crowded into the compartment called the radio shack or floating outside the hatchway.

Lynn Marie Haggar was stylishly slim and four or five inches taller than Pearson, and her dark hair was trimmed short, framing a heart-shaped face. Her eyes were a clear, clean aqua blue, and her ivory smile might have moonlighted for toothpaste ads. Pearson pictured her as a short-haired Naomi Judd. She appeared completely at ease in the light blue jumpsuit that was so convenient to living aboard a space station.

Amy Pearson was not jealous of her, but she sometimes wondered what it would be like to be in a more active role, flying hot combat craft instead of probing the innards of computer data bases.

Ben Olsen, her backseater, was short and wiry-muscled, with Scandinavian fairness in flesh, eyes, and hair. He wore a lopsided grin most of the time, as if he found most of life amusing in some way. Today, he wasn’t grinning.

McKenna’s voice finally came through, echoing slightly as a result of the radio scramblers on both ends of the transmission.

“McKenna here, Amy-baby.”

Pearson let her voice drop a tone or two toward icy. “Colonel McKenna, we have present General Overton, Colonel Avery, Major Haggar, and Captain Olsen.”

“And I’ve got the rest of the gang here, Amy, all waiting for you to give us the word.”

He sounded a little too flippant, but she wouldn’t say anything about it just now, naturally. Her relationship with McKenna had become more complicated than she had ever planned, and Amelia Pearson believed in maintaining professional protocol.

“What is your situation, Colonel?”

“Cancha and Nitro Fizz have departed for Hot Country to start flight trials on the new bird. Delta Yellow and Delta Blue are hot and ready to go, except for a minor hitch.”

“Hitch?” Pearson asked.

“General Cartwright has sealed the base, and us on it, until his security problem is resolved. I expect that will be resolved as soon as he gets off the phone with Semaphore.”

Pearson glanced at Jim Overton, who simply raised one eyebrow.

“Country Girl?” McKenna asked.

“We can launch within ten minutes, Colonel,” Haggar responded.

“Colonel Pearson?” McKenna asked, finally getting to the formality she expected with so many people in hearing range.

“I’ve had to work with several assumptions,” she said. “First, the window of opportunity existed for about an hour. Cancha landed at four-oh-three, and Delta Green was serviced by a few minutes before five. The intruders took off with her some time between five and six. It was already getting light by then, and the assumption is that they headed west to stay under cover of darkness.”

“But they could have entered the base earlier than that, couldn’t they?” Overton asked.

“Certainly, General. Any time during the night. Then just waited until Delta Green landed.” She knew what he was getting at. If they rode their hang gliders into the base sifter Delta Green’s unannounced arrival, then they likely had been signalled by someone from within the base. The security examination would have to determine whether or not there had been an insider involved. She looked to him for other questions.

“Go on, Colonel.”

“We’ve backtracked the tapes for our infrared sensors, as well as for those of the reconnaissance satellites in the area at that time. There is no indication that the rocket motors were utilized.”

There was no technological development yet available for disguising the infrared signature of the MakoShark’s rocket exhaust, especially when full thrust was required for orbital insertion. Most rocket burns, however, lasted for about four minutes, with the maximum burn around nine minutes. Observers on the ground probably mistook the burns for meteorites entering the atmosphere.