Edge of Apocalypse (7 page)

The chairman of this select committee, Senator Wendell Straworth, was a powerful veteran of Washington politics. He was seated in the middle of the dais in a high-backed chair that set him apart from the others. A large, imposing man, with a shiny bald head and thick, tangled eyebrows, he took a minute to survey the room, peeking out over the reading glasses perched at the end of his nose.

"Ladies and gentlemen," the senator began, "this will be a closed and confidential session of this special committee...created to investigate what I consider to be one of the most shocking and disturbing national security events in the history of this great nation,"

Senator Straworth took a long pause before he continued. "Now we are all painfully aware that this committee has issued letter requests for various documents pertinent to this investigation. Letter requests sent to Mr. Joshua Jordan, a private weapons contractor, as well as to his counsel. To date, Mr. Jordan has refused to produce a single document. I note that Mr. Jordan is present in this hearing room, along with his counsel, Mr. Harry Smythe."

Senator Straworth slowly turned his gaze to Joshua. "This committee," he announced with a booming voice, "calls as its first witness Mr. Joshua Jordan."

Joshua stood up from the table and raised his right hand. He then took the oath and swore to tell the truth under the federal penalties of perjury. "...So help me God."

Then he sat down.

Joshua was not a religious man, not in the way Abigail was. But just then, as he looked out over the congressional panel assembled in front of him, knowing as he did, the political and legal quicksand that lay all around him, he was happy about one thing: he knew Abigail was praying for him.

ELEVEN

Senator Straworth was anxious to rip into Joshua Jordan. The North Korean nuke incident and Jordan's RTS antimissile system had spawned a growing media storm. There were allegations that the experimental system was too risky to have been tried and that the missiles could have been disarmed by conventional means that were already at the Pentagon's disposal. Several major media outlets were beginning to call the incident "lasergate," and the blogosphere was spinning out of control with an avalanche of conspiracy theories.

In the midst of this media firefight, Senator Straworth had maintained a public face of disturbed concern mixed with strained neutrality. After all, it was an undeniable political reality that the City of New York and its residents had been saved.

But those who knew the senator understood that beneath his cautiously managed exterior was an attack dog straining at its leash. In the congressional cloakrooms he had made his position clear. The North Korean incident had been mishandled by the Pentagon. White House policy and usual Pentagon procedures had been, in his view, arrogantly disregarded. Not to mention the question of whether the military's choice of antimissile response, lobbing the two nukes back where they had come from, had actually violated international antimissile defense treaties. Because Straworth had personally championed those treaties in the Senate, the use of Joshua's RTS weapons technology was viewed by the senator as a political knife in his own back.

But Straworth had to follow senatorial protocol first. After that, he could start his well-honed political grandstanding.

Straworth smiled, turning to the man seated next to him. "First order of business, the chair will recognize the honorable senator from Wyoming. Now, I understand, Senator Hewbright, that you have some other business you must attend to in another committee you chair. So, Senator, as ranking member, I'll yield, and you may proceed first today."

"Thank you, Mr. Chairman." Senator Hewbright, a square-faced man with his dark hair cut short, almost military-short, turned to face the witness, Joshua Jordan. "Colonel Jordan, let me say, sir, that I consider you a true American hero. I know your stellar military record as an Air Force pilot. I'm aware of the great risks you took to fly secret intel missions over Iran to help us determine the extent of their nuclear ambitions. We all have a copy of your impressive resume: your activities after leaving active military duty, your graduate degree from MIT in applied physics, and your brilliant work as a defense contractor. So let me say thank you, sir, for your courage and your service to this nation."

Joshua nodded politely, bent forward slightly to the microphone, and answered with a simple "Thank you."

Senator Hewbright continued, but as he did, his tone changed. "However, not everyone is as enthusiastic about your recent weapons achievements as I am. As I see it, this special committee is tasked to address several questions. First, there's concern about the use of so-called Return-to-Sender weapons technology, especially when it involves reversing the trajectory of a nuclear warhead, and whether that violates the Six-Party Missile-Defense Treaty, a treaty I personally opposed, and vehemently, I might add. The treaty
didn't
include, as signers, the world's biggest nuclear threats, namely North Korea, Iran, India, and Pakistan. On the other hand, it
did
include nonstate entities like the United Nations and the European Union, which I didn't think was appropriate. But worse yet, to me that treaty represents just one more major erosion of American national sovereignty--"

"With all due respect," Senator Straworth interjected with only a thin veneer of restraint, "I'm going to ask the senator to stick to the issue at hand. Namely, the use of Mr. Jordan's weapons technology, which was unauthorized by the White House on the day it was used, and which had
not
been properly approved through the appropriate congressional channels or through the Defense Department's own vetting. In short it was completely untested and frankly dangerous--"

"Mr. Chairman," Senator Hewbright shot back, "this man's technology saved the City of New York and its inhabitants from a nuclear holocaust--"

"Senator," Straworth cut in, "I believe that this hearing is going to show that the Air Force jets dispatched that day were quite capable of stopping those warheads in midair, without detonating them, without using Mr. Jordan's highly experimental Return-to-Sender laser weapon, without
any
loss of life, I might add, and without creating an international crisis--"

"May I continue?" Senator Hewbright stopped Straworth's speech dead in its tracks. "I was under the assumption I had the floor..."

Straworth's eyes flashed, and he squared his shoulders like a boxer. "You do, provided that you give deference to this committee by staying on track."

Senator Hewbright had won that round but just barely. His voice was firm but measured. "As I was saying, I'm concerned less about any perceived chain-of-command issues and more about our loss of national sovereignty, and with it, a large measure of our national defense. This incident with the North Koreans should force us to evaluate where our nation is right now. How did we find ourselves in such dire straits? How? Well, I have a pretty good idea, and it didn't start with foreign policy or military defense. No. It began as a matter of simple economics. When OPEC decided to cut our oil imports so that India and China could get increased allotments, we all know how that caused an energy crisis here at home. We had failed to make sufficient gains in alternate energy sources so we had to go crawling on our knees around the globe searching for other sources from equally unsavory providers: Russia, Venezuela, Brazil. Now I suppose we could have weathered all of that, but the fates, or the hand of Providence, or Mother Nature, whatever you want to call it, had other plans. A twoyear drought in the Midwest, together with devastating livestock diseases, have had a catastrophic impact on our agriculture. And we've all seen the Dow, the tumbling numbers on the Standard & Poor's index, the closest thing to a stock-market crash since the Great Crash of--"

"Senator," Chairman Straworth interrupted, "I've extended you the courtesy of being taken out of order for your comments; now, do me the same favor by concluding your speech on the United States economy and
please
get back to the point at hand."

Senator Hewbright's face was slightly scarlet now. "The
point,
ladies and gentlemen, is that America's catastrophic financial problems, the ruined dollar on the international monetary market, our loss of credit globally, the fifteen percent domestic unemployment rate--all of this, if I can put it bluntly, simply scared us stupid--stupid enough to sign off on disastrous treaties in exchange for the promise of more favorable trading and credit terms with the European Union, China, and other nations who are now holding us economically hostage. Our freedom and security in exchange for a little more cash in our pocket, a little more oil, and a whole lot more debt--"

"Senator!" Chairman Straworth implored.

But the ranking member kept talking. "I'm not talking
just
about that ill-conceived missile-defense treaty that is involved in this hearing." Senator Hewbright had his arms outstretched in front of him as he addressed the other senators and representatives on the dais. "A missile-defense treaty we negotiated out of our financial fear. I'm also talking about that United Nations Covenant of Tolerance and Human Rights that, I'm ashamed to say, the United States Senate also ratified. And what's the result? We now have permanent U.N. monitors being placed in many of our major cities. U.N. monitors on American soil--giving us advice on how to administer our own civil liberties and our own laws!"

Chairman Straworth was on the verge of censuring his colleague. But Hewbright saw it coming and backed off just in time. "However, all that is simply prelude. What I've given you is merely an introduction to my first question of Colonel Jordan."

Straworth leaned back, satisfied that he had reined in his political opponent.

"Colonel Jordan," Hewbright said, "I have great respect for the innovation that your RTS defense system employs. Please know that. But on the other hand, this body has requested all your documents on this experimental project. Your attorney has responded on your behalf, indicating that you won't produce them. Please help us understand your reluctance to comply with this demand. Explain it to us in as much detail as you can. Because I, for one, want to give you every benefit of the doubt."

Joshua Jordan took a moment to collect his thoughts. Then he leaned toward the microphone, his hands folded on the table in front of him, and began. "Senator, my lawyer, Mr. Smythe, in his letter, has already explained our legal objections to the request of this committee. So let me try to explain the practical problems. The RTS technology my company developed, and which was successfully used during this North Korean crisis, is highly unique and proprietary in nature. Frankly, we believe we should not be sharing this information with anyone but the Pentagon."

"I agree. But you haven't even done that yet fully."

"No, because this committee has not given us their full assurances that they would keep my technology classified and not pass it on to third parties."

"Mr. Jordan, is there a reason you don't trust this committee?"

"Sir, with all due respect, I don't believe the complex technical details of any weapons system is within the province of any congressional committee. The highly classified inner workings of our most secret technology should stay that way--secret."

"What if this committee ends up serving you with a subpoena, Colonel Jordan? What then?" Senator Hewbright's face revealed a deep desire to try to help Joshua to extricate himself. "I would hate to see it come to that. And besides, isn't some of the technology you're trying to keep secret already out in the marketplace, which means it really isn't that unique? Which would mean that your legal grounds for refusing to comply with our request, frankly, would look pretty shaky."

Joshua nodded. "In one sense, you're right. The use of lasers to transmit data has been used recently in other limited applications. You know, in the old days lasers were used to simply destroy things. Like high-energy bullets. Blunt instruments. Then those of us working in this area started to see other possibilities. A number of years ago the wires connecting circuits in computers were replaced with tiny lasers, which could then shoot data back and forth from the chips at higher speeds than wires could. Then there was the successful test where a German satellite and a satellite from our U.S. Missile Defense Agency communicated information back and forth over three thousand miles using only lasers. What we did at Jordan Technologies was to refine those concepts considerably, and with a revolutionary application. As a result, our RTS is capable of sending a laser message to the computer in the nose cone of the incoming missile--with a data-directive that captures the current trajectory flight plan. Then a second laser beam transmits a mirror opposite of that trajectory, reversing it one hundred and eighty degrees. The point is this, Senator, we can't--our nation can't--afford to let this technology get into the wrong hands."

Senator Hewbright glanced at his watch, nodded, and then gave a quick, "Good luck to you, sir." Then he excused himself.

Now it was Senator Straworth's turn. And he stared straight into Joshua's eyes.

TWELVE

"Mr. Jordan," Senator Straworth smiled as he began grilling Joshua, "you just said you have a concern about your RTS technology getting into the wrong hands. Correct?"

"Yes, sir."

"And
who
exactly do you think of as the 'wrong hands'?"

"I think the wrong hands are anyone outside of the United States."

"By 'outside the United States' do you mean our allies too?"

"Yes, sir," Joshua answered forcefully.

"So you would deny our allies the same defense measures as we have?"

"No, sir." Joshua's lawyer leaned in to whisper something urgently to Joshua, but Joshua just shrugged him off. "I believe we should share our technology with our most trusted allies, but we shouldn't just hand it over to them."

"Hand it over to them?" Straworth feigned ignorance.