Overture (Earth Song) (27 page)

“
Let that one go,” came the commander’s voice finally. “This is to be clean OP, he’s outside containment.”

“
Roger that,” the sniper said and watched until the cab was out of range then turned back to the building. Timing was everything in an operation like this. They waited all afternoon to make sure there were no visitors. On a signal from the commander, a minivan pulled up behind the building and parked. Five men in delivery uniforms piled out, each carrying a plain brown wrapped package and headed inside. Five minutes later, right on time, all five were back in their vehicle and it was pulling away. There was no sign of the brown wrapped packages.

“
Insertion team is clear,” the sniper confirmed.

“
Roger that, stand by all teams. Five minutes.” He set his watch and observed. When less than a minute remained, the electronics surveillance tech called out.

“
Someone just dialed 911.”

“
Intercept the call,”

“
Already did, all they got was a busy signal.”

“
Roger that.”

The
sniper saw movement and shifted his view. Someone had just run out the front door, his arms were waving wildly and he was screaming something. The sniper followed his rules of engagement and shot the man through the left eye. The bullet impact spun him around and he staggered back through the door before falling. “Someone must have opened one of the packages,” he said over his throat mike. “One target neutralized just inside the front door. I can see several others investigating.”

“
Roger that, position five. All positions, we’re moving up the schedule. Watch yourselves.” The mike went dead and a second later the SETI building exploded into a fireball. The five delivery men left five boxes full of the most advanced high explosives made. At the same time another man penetrated the basement and severed the gas line. The explosives and the gas combined their forces to compromise the buildings structure. When the smoke cleared there was a roaring fire and nothing left that resembled a building. “Operation complete. All positions evacuate and rendezvous as planned.

The
sniper broke his weapon down and secured it to the inside of its carrying case. Lastly he found and pocketed the spent casing he’d used earlier. He emerged on the street, just another curious businessman with a somewhat thicker than normal briefcase. He paused to look at the burning remnants of a building, even taking a second to ask a passerby what happened. When the man shrugged, the sniper/businessman turned and headed down the street. Police and fire trucks were arriving as he stepped onto a bus. The driver didn’t look up as several other passengers boarded. As the bus pulled away, the sniper was thinking about what he was going to have for dinner.

Billy Harper sat in the situation room and listened to the arguing. His precinct’s senior commanders were yelling at each other, each claiming to have the answers to the crisis. Most of the lieutenants, like himself, were not allowed to speak. The one time today he’d opened his mouth he was nearly ejected from the meeting, so from that point forward he’d kept it shut.

News
of the arrest of NPYD officials had spread through the ranks quickly. It created such confusion that the force was temporarily disabled. General Hipstitch issued a statement that all officers were draftees into the United States military for the length of the national emergency. The only options were serve as ordered or resign from the force. A full third of the officers had chosen the latter. They were summarily disarmed and sent home.

The
meeting was a result of earlier meetings between the remaining higher ups and city lawyers. They were told that the arrests, while unusual, were completely legal under martial law. It didn’t help Billy’s mood any when he learned that one of those detained by the government was his ex-wife. They arrested Niedelmeir as well, and that at least lessened the blow. His attempt to see his ex-wife had been met with solid resistance.

A
short time ago, US Army officers boldly moved into each precinct with orders that all officers reported to them. The current meeting was not approved, and was intended to deal with this intolerable situation.

After
realizing he was only in the room because his captain required it, Billy sat back and day dreamed. If what Mindy told him was accurate, then things were going to fall apart quickly. The news that morning of NASA admitting the asteroid was on a collision course, and that Aries was en route to intercept it, just added credence to her story. So what was he going to do about it? Just then, he heard some news he’d missed.

“
It looks like there was an attack on the terrorists in Central Park last night,” said a captain from the central precinct. That got his attention. “I got the news from a reporter that watched most of the battle through a telescope atop Central Park West, over a mile away. General Hopscotch never said a thing.” They had been calling Hipstitch ‘Hopscotch’ since the meeting began. Sure it was juvenile, but it had stuck. “Apparently, possession of the complex has changed hands yet again. What is significant is that there was considerably less bloodshed than the previous battles. No helicopters were used, and this attack was carried out by the NSA and CIA, not the US Army.” The room erupted into excited discussion. Billy wasn’t interested in hearing any more of it.

He
was glad when the meaningless chatter was finally over and he was dismissed. Outside he made a beeline for a telephone and called Mindy. She was not as surprised as he had been by the takeover in the park. “Leo had said that things would be changing shortly, “she explained. They talked for a few minutes more and he finished by saying he would be over around eight. She giggled and said she would have dinner ready. The conversation over, he went about his duties as best as he could, now under military authority.

As the Aries rocketed out of orbit, events began to spin out of control on Earth. The Israeli Suicide War became more and more pitched as time went by. Three days in, Jordanian terror squads began a series of suicide attacks on Tel Aviv. The majority of the citizens were already hunkered down around the clock against the intensity of repeated rocket attacks from the West Bank and Lebanon. The Arabs no longer experienced difficulty in finding martyrs for their cause. As the night of April 27
th
wore on, a pair of intermediate range missiles from Beirut was launched at Tel Aviv.

Though a
nti-missile batteries intercept one of them, it still spread its payload over the Arab section of town. The second missile detonated on target. Each carried eighty kilos of weaponized anthrax virus in a liquid dispersion medium. Together they covered nearly twenty square miles of the city. When the all-clear sirens were sounded the people began to emerge and remove their gas masks. No chemical attack had been detected. By that next night half a million were sick with smallpox, a third of them Arab.

A
business consortium in Australia was making quiet announcements through private channels that they were offering a chance to evacuate Earth before the asteroid hit. The price was ten million dollars per person. A generous allotment of ten kilos was allowed for each person. Fees to be paid in gold or platinum. The scientists investigating that Portal, unbeknown to their government, had made a once in a lifetime deal. Those in control of the Portal in Australia planned to save themselves and a hundred others while taking with them an incredible fortune. On April 30
th
the Australian Minister for Internal Security found out about the plot and began an official investigation. On May 2
nd
he left work never to return. Agents sent to his house found he had left with his wife and daughter. That same day, three of the ones who'd booked passage have their payment refunded without comment.

On
April 29
th
there is a major battle in Moscow. Thousands of troops and hundreds of tanks clash for nearly two days amidst the terrified city's residents. Russian Federation loyalists fight valiantly but are forced to defend both the city and a soft target. By midnight of the second day the defenses are shattered and the attackers roll into downtown within sight of the Kremlin.

Their
target isn’t the seat of government, instead they line up and march through the Portal, men standing to the side handing through huge cases full of weapons and ammunition. Occasionally a crate bounces off the shimmering Portal but the soldiers recover quickly and continue. Once most of the lights had lit up, the charismatic leader called a temporary halt. One by one his closest confidantes step through and are passed specially shielded cases. Each has the trifold international symbol of radiation on the side.

As
the last case is passed through, the Portal pulses one last time, then turns as black as night. The remaining soldiers, thousands strong, try to follow. The Portal will not function. Meanwhile outside the square, Federation loyalists have regrouped and are beginning their counter attack. The communist insurgents fight for a short time before giving up. The betrayal broke their will.

Tensions
between India and Pakistan reach the flash point and explode on May 3
rd
. Almost no one in the Indian government is aware of the existence of their Portal located just miles from the Parliament Building. The vehemence and rage coming from Pakistan completely mystifies the government leaders in India. They are forced to respond in kind. The citizens of both nations are unimpressed. The two nations have been within inches of war so many times they are jaded to any possibility of open warfare.

The
Pakistani intelligence knew about nearly every Portal on Earth, and that they were being used up quickly. The loss of the Cairo Portal was a dire pronouncement for the Muslims on Earth, and they had no intention of taking it lightly. Two schools of thought were developed. One suggested an Israeli style attack to take the Portal from India, the other held that it was just a trick and should be destroyed. Those in the know within India were taking no chances. Unlike the Egyptians, their Portal was heavily guarded twenty-four hours a day. Those with destruction in their hearts win the debate.

A
surplus Russian SU-37 detached from its squadron during a border skirmish and moved in under the Indian radar. In the early morning twilight a Pakistani agent had snuck into the New Delhi golf course and set up a spotting laser before sneaking back out. The SU-37 flew to within a hundred miles of New Delhi before climbing off the deck and rocketing high into the sky. Air raid sirens sounded in the ancient city and people rushed to shelters. The fighter/bomber climbed to fifty thousand feet, firing chaff packets and flares all the way up as Indian air defenses lit up the sky. At fifty thousand feet he leveled off just long enough to release a pair of one thousand pound precision laser guided munitions before going into a wild dive to avoid more missiles.

The
pilot volunteered knowing it was most likely a suicide mission. No one was more surprised than him when he reached the hard deck again and roared away from New Delhi at Mach 2, his bird still intact. He had shrapnel damage in a dozen places and was losing fuel, but all the fighter’s essential functions were still working. With luck he would at least make it back to the border where he could safely eject and be picked up by his own side.

The
bombs homed in on the laser light now illuminating the target. None of the city’s defenders noticed the falling bombs before they hit. The pilot watched on his screen as the bomb camera showed its approach to the sheet metal building holding the Portal. The first bomb stuck the ground fifty meters from the building. The shock wave disintegrated the thin metal structure and killed everyone within twenty meters. The concussive shock wave and shrapnel hit the Portal inside making it light up bright purple. The second one hit the Portal dais dead center.

The
technology that went into the Portal’s construction allowed for protection of the energy mass under almost any condition. A thousand pounds of high explosives was one thing its designers never expected. When the energized force field failed there were no backups. For a few milliseconds, the inside of a star was set free in the atmosphere with energetic results.

A
miniature star bloomed uncontrolled, the million degree energy state fissioned the oxygen and then bred a fusion reaction in the resulting hydrogen. A radiant shock wave flashed outward at a high fraction of the speed of light. By the time the dimensional connection was severed, the damage was done.

The
blast that destroyed New Delhi was more than five hundred megatons. Exact measurements were impossible as the closest seismometers (a hundred miles away) were destroyed in the shock waves. The pilot of the SU-37 that dropped the bomb blinked his eyes in surprise as the horizon and sky lit up like a huge flashbulb. He craned his neck to look back just as his craft was overtaken by the hypersonic wave front and shredded. Eleven million people died instantly and another two million more within hours. The shock wave knocked plaster off walls and shattered windows a thousand miles away and left a new volcanic caldera twenty miles across and five miles deep where New Delhi once stood.