Peterson caught sight of the guy with the Stinger an instant after the SAM was triggered and twisted his VVRS barrel control to its man-killer setting, taking no chances. Then he called out for him to disarm, noticing an a.s.sault rifle over his shoulder in addition to the missile launcher in his grasp.

The guy half-obeyed his warning and did indeed indeed drop the Stinger--but only to free his hands for bringing up the rifle. drop the Stinger--but only to free his hands for bringing up the rifle.

As Manuel raised and angled the Steyr in Peterson's direction, his movement a near-blur, Peterson hit him with two short bursts, aiming directly at his heart.

Blood sprayed from the center of Manuel's chest, then e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed from his mouth in a red gush.

He was dead before he hit the ground.

A lo hecho, pecho.

After dropping four hundred feet from the table of the plateau in its VTOL att.i.tude, Batter Two perched on a weathered spur of cliff above the ravine, its LZ chosen after careful examination of relief maps prepared from Hawkeye-I's stereoscopic terrain images. From here its twenty-five-man strike team would rappel another hundred feet down to the floor of the trench, then wind their way between its sheer sandstone walls to the hostile camp.

The Osprey's cargo ramp opened and the rappellers, led by Dan Carlysle, debarked in hurried single file, night-vision goggles lowered over their eyes, rubber-soled boots crunching on the rocky earth.

There were five ropes, five climbers to each. Removing blade-type t.i.tanium pitons from their web rigs, the men drove them into the projecting rock with mountaineer hammers, slipped their ropes into the piton rings, fastened them with square knots, and tossed the ropes over the side of the cliff, glancing downward as they uncoiled to make sure they were long enough to reach bottom.

Gloved hands gripped the ropes. One, two, three, four, five hard tugs tested that the pitons were securely anch.o.r.ed. Five nods confirmed that they were.

Straddling their ropes as they faced the anchor points, the lead men wound the ropes into harnesses around their bodies--once around the hip, then diagonally across the chest and back over the opposite shoulder. This done, they began their rapid descent along the cliff wall.

They moved in a kind of springing hopskip, bodies leaned out and away from the slope, backs straight, legs spread wide, treaded boot bottoms scuffing along the furrowed rock face. Their braking hands were down, their opposite hands raised to guide them along the rope-lengths.

The satellite maps had indicated firm, hard slope along most of the decline--favorable conditions--and that was essentially what they encountered. The last ten yards were more difficult to traverse, a scree of pebbles and stones that crumbled out from underfoot in gravelly spills.

Still, they made it down fast and without injuries.

Again they gripped their ropes, this time looking upward. Again they gave five tugs to test the fastness of the ropes--and to indicate they had successfully reached bottom to those above.

Seconds later, the next group of five began their descent.

They found the base camp completely deserted. There were empty tents, some left standing, some partially folded. There was a single dusty, abandoned jeep with a flat tire. There were mounds of burned and buried rubbish, odd, scattered personal articles and pieces of equipment--entrenching tools, butane cookstoves, spools of rope, a metal bucket, first-aid kits, a disposable razor, four D-cell batteries, a pair of sungla.s.ses missing one lens, an overturned wooden table, a commercially available Hammond map of the area with no penned-in notes or highlighted route markings.

The departed occupants of the camp had made a more or less clean sweep of it, leaving behind not a single weapon or round of ammunition, not a single clue to where they had gone.

Carlysle spat on the ground, then switched on his radio headset to contact Batter Two's pilot.

"Roger, team leader, how's it going?" the pilot responded.

"We've missed the party," Carlysle said in disgust. "That's how."

Megan helped Thibodeau settle comfortably back against his pillow, lifted his campaign hat off his head, and laid it on the table beside the bed. He looked weary and haggard, and the ward nurse had reported that his temperature was slightly elevated--nothing of serious concern, she'd a.s.sured Megan, but an indication that it was time for him to get some rest. Though she'd left a plastic cup of painkillers on his tray, he had refused to take them, having insisted on staying awake and alert until word arrived from the strike teams.

Now that it had, Megan poured some water into his gla.s.s and handed him the pills.

"Bottoms up," she said.

He grumbled something under his breath, tossed the pills into his mouth, and washed them down with a single gulp.

Taking the gla.s.s from him, Megan pressed the b.u.t.ton to recline his backrest, pulled the sheets up over his chest, and bent to kiss him on the cheek.

"Night, Rol," she said. "I'll see you in the morning."

He looked soberly up at her.

"Them prisoners won't talk," he said. "You know that."

She nodded. "I doubt they will."

"An' le chaut sauvage ... le chaut sauvage ... he wasn't there. Must've been on the plane got away." he wasn't there. Must've been on the plane got away."

Megan nodded again.

"Another thing bothers me's that we still don't know why they went to the trouble they did breakin' into this compound in the first place, use all a' that fancy equipment just to try and blow a low-security warehouse got nothin' besides spare parts in it," he said. "Can't make any sense of it, you know?"

She patted his arm.

"Sleep," she said. "It's been a long day, and there's nothing more we can do right now."

Dimming the light, she lifted her purse off her chair, and strode toward the door.

"Meg?" he called weakly from behind her.

She turned toward him, her hand on the k.n.o.b.

"Somethin' goes down in Kazakhstan, you think this Ricci gonna be up to takin' care of it?"

She stood there for a long moment, then merely sighed.

"Tomorrow's another day, Rollie," she said.

Then she stepped out into the hall, softly closing the door behind her.

TWENTY-ONE.

KAZAKHSTAN APRIL 26, 2001.

PERHAPS BECAUSE OF THE DARK CLOAK OF SECRECY under which Russia's s.p.a.cecraft testing has long been conducted in southern Kazakhstan, the region has since the early 1950's been the scene of hundreds of unexplained UFO sightings by local peasants. Sugar-beet farmers, grain growers, goatherders, cattlemen, sinewy Mongol horse traders ... many have had stories of strange airborne vehicles glimpsed above the brown, moraine-covered steppes, some accounts accurate, others embellished over the course of time and countless retellings, a considerable number complete fabrications contrived to amuse friends and kinsmen and add a little brightness to the drowsy tedium of life in their remote, mountainous comer of the world. under which Russia's s.p.a.cecraft testing has long been conducted in southern Kazakhstan, the region has since the early 1950's been the scene of hundreds of unexplained UFO sightings by local peasants. Sugar-beet farmers, grain growers, goatherders, cattlemen, sinewy Mongol horse traders ... many have had stories of strange airborne vehicles glimpsed above the brown, moraine-covered steppes, some accounts accurate, others embellished over the course of time and countless retellings, a considerable number complete fabrications contrived to amuse friends and kinsmen and add a little brightness to the drowsy tedium of life in their remote, mountainous comer of the world.

The dark, disc-shaped object that went skimming over the promontories near the Baikonur Cosmodrome around sundown on April 26--a singularly overcast evening in what had been an even more extraordinary spell of damp, cloudy weather--would be spotted by the entire al-Bijan clan, from great-grandparents on down to its children, all sixty-seven of them gathered outside an ancestral home still occupied by family members to feast on grilled horseflesh, drink potent alcoholic beverages (at least in the case of the adults), dance to chords strummed on the three-stringed komuz, komuz, and generally celebrate the wedding of one of its daughters to the son of a well-respected and, by Kazakh standards, well-heeled livestock breeder. and generally celebrate the wedding of one of its daughters to the son of a well-respected and, by Kazakh standards, well-heeled livestock breeder.

In this instance, their subsequent accounts of its appearance did not require any exaggeration.

Ricci sat alone in the silence of the trailer that served as his personal quarters outside the Cosmodrome, looking over some maps of the area, liking his situation, and particularly his Russian hosts, less and less with every minute that pa.s.sed. Expecting them to keep a promise of cooperation was like thinking you could hire some degenerate pedophile as a camp counselor and accept his absolute guarantee that he'd keep his hands to himself. Their original agreement to put the launch center's security under Ricci's full direction had, in the last twenty-four hours, been qualified and ultimately redefined so that he was now in charge only of perimeter perimeter defense, with the VKS s.p.a.ce cops, or whatever they were called, a.s.suming control of the facility's interior grounds protection, even prohibiting access of Sword personnel to some of its buildings. And there already had been clashes of authority at the outer checkpoints that were supposed to be his team's areas of patrol. defense, with the VKS s.p.a.ce cops, or whatever they were called, a.s.suming control of the facility's interior grounds protection, even prohibiting access of Sword personnel to some of its buildings. And there already had been clashes of authority at the outer checkpoints that were supposed to be his team's areas of patrol.

The duplicity had been pure borscht, reminding him of what had happened in Yugoslavia after the bombing war back in the '90s, when Moscow had no sooner cut a deal with NATO not to enter Kosovo than it had ordered a military occupation force into one of Pristina's key strategic airports. Back then, they'd had a President who'd looked and acted like a huge leech pickled in vodka to blame for the supposed confusion ... but what sort of excuses were they making now?

Ricci shook his head gravely. He knew Roger Gordian had been in repeated contact with Yuri Petrov, trying to persuade him to stick to his original commitments. But Ricci's own last conversation with Gordian had taken place twelve hours ago, at which point he'd been told to sit tight and await further news. Gordian hadn't sounded optimistic, though, and there had been nothing from him since--a clear indication that Petrov had fallen victim to the hereditary Russian breast-beating reflex and would keep thumping away until he keeled over backward. In other words, negotiations were stalled indefinitely and Ricci's curtailed functions would continue to be the status quo until after the ISS launch was history.

a.s.suming it occurred without disaster striking first.

Ricci studied his map, feeling stretched thin in every sense. His exhaustion and jet lag, the haste with which he'd needed to organize his guard force, the ongoing logistical problems of building it up to a reasonable level of adequacy, Petrov's frequent curve b.a.l.l.s and increasing restrictions upon his authority ... the whole kit and kaboodle was grating on him. Nor had there been a bit of encouragement in anything he'd heard about the strike on the terrorist camp in the Chapadas. Whoever had been occupying that base had flown the coop aboard the Lockheed, which had itself vanished without a trace. And if they were as good and well-equipped as his information led him to believe, Ricci figured they'd have a network of safe, tucked-away airfields where they could make layover and refueling stops en route to their ultimate destination.

And where do you think that's going to be? he thought. he thought. Come on, take a guess. Come on, take a guess.

Ricci studied the map, thinking they were out there someplace close by, knowing it with a strange and implacable certainty he could not have explained to any other human being ... with the possible exception of Pete Nimec. Sometimes when he was with the BPD and had worked a criminal investigation to where a bust was imminent, he'd been able to feel the accelerating energies of the thing with his nerve endings, the way he supposed animals in a forest could sense a coming storm.

They were out there, out there someplace--but where? Even the weather was working to his disadvantage. As long as the low-pressure front remained in a holding pattern over southern Kazakhstan, the Hawkeye-II satellite would be wearing what amounted to a blindfold of clouds, severely reducing its capabilities. To offset this handicap, Gordian and Nimec had shipped Ricci another of their little toys, a SkyManta unmanned air recon vehicle that looked for all the world like a flying saucer in some 1950's-era drive-in masterpiece. Earth versus the Aliens from Zanthor. Earth versus the Aliens from Zanthor. He'd seen other drones in his military days, including the Predator, which had been in its experimental stages at the time, and was eventually given over to the exclusive use of the Air Force's 11th Reconnaissance Squadron ... the Predator, and another UAV called the Hunter, both of which had outwardly resembled conventional airplanes. He'd seen other drones in his military days, including the Predator, which had been in its experimental stages at the time, and was eventually given over to the exclusive use of the Air Force's 11th Reconnaissance Squadron ... the Predator, and another UAV called the Hunter, both of which had outwardly resembled conventional airplanes.

UpLink's pilotless vehicle was in another cla.s.s. While far from a scientific wizard, Ricci was was a quick study, and his understanding based upon Nimec's apprisal was that its outer sh.e.l.l was called a "smart skin," a composite alloy imbedded with microelectromechanical systems--MEMS was the acronym Pete had used--which included sensors tiny enough to be carried by a quick study, and his understanding based upon Nimec's apprisal was that its outer sh.e.l.l was called a "smart skin," a composite alloy imbedded with microelectromechanical systems--MEMS was the acronym Pete had used--which included sensors tiny enough to be carried by ants, ants, and which gave it the ability to pick up infrared heat concentrations, plus near-real-time video, and most significantly under present meteorological conditions, synthetic aperture radar images that could penetrate the cloud cover hindering his surveillance efforts. Pitch black like a Stealth bomber, it had a circ.u.mference of thirty-five, maybe forty feet, making it difficult to eyeball from the ground at night. Also, something about its saucer shape, he wasn't quite sure what, would allow it to slip past ground-to-air radar arrays even more easily than aircraft with Stealth design. and which gave it the ability to pick up infrared heat concentrations, plus near-real-time video, and most significantly under present meteorological conditions, synthetic aperture radar images that could penetrate the cloud cover hindering his surveillance efforts. Pitch black like a Stealth bomber, it had a circ.u.mference of thirty-five, maybe forty feet, making it difficult to eyeball from the ground at night. Also, something about its saucer shape, he wasn't quite sure what, would allow it to slip past ground-to-air radar arrays even more easily than aircraft with Stealth design.

The technical operators that had brought the SkyManta from Kaliningrad had launched it about an hour back, and Ricci was leaving it to them to keep tabs on its transmissions. If anything of interest turned up, they'd give him a shout. But what he'd needed this evening was a few hours of solitude, a chance to simply think. think.

Ricci looked at the map, running his fingertip over the topographical features of the Cosmodrome's surrounding terrain. Everywhere he looked, there were tucks and folds in the hills where an a.s.sault force with a basic knowledge of cover and concealment techniques could have been a.s.sembling for days or even weeks. And whereas they could choose the time and place to hit--and hit they would, said his own low-tech internal sensors--he was shackled by Petrov's hairy-chested exercise in self-a.s.sertion.

Shaking his head again, leaving the map on the table as he rose to brew some coffee, Ricci wished himself the best of luck trying to stop them if that hit came soon.

Dressed in the uniform of a lieutenant in the Voenno Kosmicheskie Sily, Voenno Kosmicheskie Sily, Kuhl rode up to the checkpoint station at the north gate of the Cosmodrome in the two-seat cabin of an MZKT-7429 military semi-trailer truck. He was on the pa.s.senger side. Oleg, a native Ukrainian with whom he had seen action in many mercenary operations, was at the wheel. In back were Antonio and four of Kuhl's best, most dedicated men from Brazil-- men who had replaced the original occupants of the truck, actual Russian Military s.p.a.ce Police, now dead in a ditch some miles away with bullets from Antonio's .22-caliber pistol in their heads. With Kuhl and his men aboard the trailer was the High Power Microwave cannon--tested and proven when used against the commuter train outside Sao Paulo--and its smaller but far more potent cousin, the long-range Havoc HMP device that would be placed aboard the Russian s.p.a.ce station module. Using ISS's solar array as its power source, it would be both reusable and retargetable--allowing Harlan DeVane to virtually destroy the electronic infrastructure of any major city on earth at his remote command. Kuhl rode up to the checkpoint station at the north gate of the Cosmodrome in the two-seat cabin of an MZKT-7429 military semi-trailer truck. He was on the pa.s.senger side. Oleg, a native Ukrainian with whom he had seen action in many mercenary operations, was at the wheel. In back were Antonio and four of Kuhl's best, most dedicated men from Brazil-- men who had replaced the original occupants of the truck, actual Russian Military s.p.a.ce Police, now dead in a ditch some miles away with bullets from Antonio's .22-caliber pistol in their heads. With Kuhl and his men aboard the trailer was the High Power Microwave cannon--tested and proven when used against the commuter train outside Sao Paulo--and its smaller but far more potent cousin, the long-range Havoc HMP device that would be placed aboard the Russian s.p.a.ce station module. Using ISS's solar array as its power source, it would be both reusable and retargetable--allowing Harlan DeVane to virtually destroy the electronic infrastructure of any major city on earth at his remote command.

There were five sentries at the gate. Two wore the dark blue attire of UpLink's security team; three had VKS uniforms like Kuhl's--but with privates' patches on their field jackets.

Kuhl slipped his hand off the MP5K beside his seat. The Russian presence might make using it unnecessary.

As Oleg slowed the truck to a halt before the gate, one of the Sword guards approached, coming around to the driver's-side window.

"We need your identification, please," the guard said in English. Then in choppy guidebook Russian: "Pakuhzhee-tyeh, pa-zhal-stuh rigis-tratsiuh. " "Pakuhzhee-tyeh, pa-zhal-stuh rigis-tratsiuh. "

Oleg was reaching down for his own submachine gun when Kuhl nodded slightly for him to be still, unrolled his window, and leaned his head out.

"What is this?" he said, speaking English with a fabricated Russian accent. "Do you realize I am an officer of the military police?"

The Sword guard looked calm but determined.

"I apologize for the inconvenience, sir, but my detail's been a.s.signed security of this entry point, and if you'd just show your papers we can let you right on through."

Kuhl feigned affront and gestured toward the Russian watchmen.

"What is this?" he barked in Russian. "Am I to be insulted by these outlanders?"

The Sword guard might not have understood his words, but his tone made their meaning clear.

"Sir," he said. "I a.s.sure you this is strictly a routine check--"

Suddenly one of the Russian guards stepped up past the American, slapped his hand against the truck's rear panel, and waved it forward, signaling one of his men to open the gate.

"Nye byespakoytyes!" he told the driver in Russian. "Go on through!" he told the driver in Russian. "Go on through!"

Oleg nodded and put his foot on the accelerator.

The Sword guard watched with dismay as the huge semi began rumbling past the checkpoint.

"Just a minute minute--"

"Nyet!" the Russian said, puffing himself out. "He is commanding officer of our military guard, not common criminal!" the Russian said, puffing himself out. "He is commanding officer of our military guard, not common criminal!"

The Sword guard looked at him, weighing his options. He could could order his men to stand the truck down, but the d.a.m.n thing was going full steam ahead, and they'd have to raise their weapons against it to do so. On the other hand, this was the third such dispute he'd had with the Russians since coming on shift tonight to suddenly find they'd crashed his party, and both times before they had bristled but ultimately yielded to his authority. a.s.sholes that they were, he had to bear in mind they were acting on orders from higher-ranking a.s.sholes--and allowing a minor confrontation to trigger an out-and-out donny-brook would only complicate his job if something serious requiring their cooperation cropped up. Maybe it would be best to radio ahead, have the bra.s.s tussle it out, let these guys save a little face. order his men to stand the truck down, but the d.a.m.n thing was going full steam ahead, and they'd have to raise their weapons against it to do so. On the other hand, this was the third such dispute he'd had with the Russians since coming on shift tonight to suddenly find they'd crashed his party, and both times before they had bristled but ultimately yielded to his authority. a.s.sholes that they were, he had to bear in mind they were acting on orders from higher-ranking a.s.sholes--and allowing a minor confrontation to trigger an out-and-out donny-brook would only complicate his job if something serious requiring their cooperation cropped up. Maybe it would be best to radio ahead, have the bra.s.s tussle it out, let these guys save a little face.

He turned away from the Russian and flicked on his communications headset.

Inside the truck, Kuhl had already turned on his own trunked radio and ordered his strike team to mobilize.

On receipt of Kuhl's command, the small army he had gathered in the foothills southeast of the Cosmodrome burst into hurried activity, emerging from behind artificial boulders, foliage, stone panels, and other blinds, peeling the camouflage netting off their vehicles, moving from the pockets of concealment where they had patiently hidden while going about their preparations. Often over the past week, and again earlier that night, advance scouts handpicked by Kuhl had reported back with descriptions of the launch center's eastern perimeter defenses, indicating they would be unable to withstand a direct, concentrated, lightning-fast strike. Resistance would become more intense once VKS and American reinforcements were called up from other areas of the center, but the attackers did not have to worry about penetrating it too deeply. Their objectives were limited: move in, put on a good show, move out.

They did not suspect that, in the interests of putting on the best, most convincing show possible, the scouts, under orders from Kuhl himself, had lied to them.