The Rock (20 page)

"Tell me about the place you were in," Batson said.

Hawkins described the cavern and machinery as best he could, the rest of the team listening raptly.

"Did you see any sign of life other than the Russians?"

"No."

"What about lighting?" Batson asked.

"As far as I can remember, there was just the distant light source," Hawkins said.

"We cast faint shadows in only one direction," Levy recollected.

"I think we were at a military base," Hawkins said. "There was the craft that picked us up and the other two in the hangar and they definitely had something that looked like a weapon system on the front. The room we were briefed in was very far underground, which indicates a desire for protection."

"I think we were on a planet close by," Debra said. "Perhaps one in the perimeter they showed us, near Earth. The amount of time you say we were gone corresponds to the amount of time we spent on the other side. So however we got there, the travel was relatively instantaneous."

"It was probably a staging area for the Space Forces they told us about," Hawkins suggested.

"All that's well and good," Pencak threw in, "but it doesn't help us with the immediate problem."

"Let's hold up here a second," Fran said. She walked across the tent to the easel where Hawkins had done his line diagrams in previous meetings. She flipped back through until she found what she was looking for. She ran her finger up the line diagram until it rested on NUCLEAR BLAST VREDEFORT DOME. "This is the event that started everything-if we're to take all that happened to Hawkins and Debra at face value." She held up a hand to forestall Hawkins's angry reply. "Listen--I'm going along with all this. This Speaker said that the fact that a nuclear weapon was still missing was one of the factors they considered when looking at the human race for eligibility to join the Coalition."

"A significant factor," Hawkins corrected.

"All right," Fran said. "Even better, a significant factor. That's understandable, because the other bomb is the one that started this whole mess. Well, wouldn't it be a sign of good faith if that one missing bomb was tracked down and brought under control?"

Hawkins nodded slowly, thinking about it. "Yes. I think that might make an impact on their consideration of the options."

"At the very least it might influence them to give us more time to get the politicians to support more positive steps," Pencak noted. "They might keep the portals open awhile longer. I think recovering that bomb would be an excellent first move."

"That's all well and good," Hawkins said. "Except for the fact that I was part of the U.S.'s team to track that bomb down and we didn't have much of an idea of where it is."

"But maybe the Russians do," Pencak said. "Maybe this Colonel Tuskin might have a good idea."

"Except he's on the other side of the world right now," Batson said. "And he's probably getting the same chilly reception there from his superiors that you received from Lamb."

22 DECEMBER 1995, 2323 LOCAL

22 DECEMBER 1995, 1353 ZULU

Despite having worked with the president for over eighteen years-from his early days as a governor--Lamb was uncertain what the expression on the man's face in the video monitor meant He'd just relayed Hawkins's story as briefly and as factually as he could and the President had listened without comment until now.

"Christ, Steve. What am I supposed to do? Do you believe this stuff?"

Lamb had been asking himself the same question ever since he'd listened to Hawkins. "No, sir, I don't But I don't think we should dismiss this outright. Something is going on here-something that is very significant There's a possibility that the Coalition story could be true, a possibility we can't afford to ignore. Even if it isn't true, we're dealing with some very advanced technology and if someone on Earth is behind it, we need to find out damn fast who it is. The most obvious answer is the Russians, but if they are, I don't understand what they're doing. None of it makes much sense."

The President's face drew in tight, a look that Lamb was familiar with-he was upset. "Then call me when you make some sense out of it, Steve, but don't dump all this nonsense on my desk and expect me to sort it out. That's your job! I've got half a dozen major crises and God knows how many minor ones that I'm dealing with-ones that I know are real. Am I supposed to call Pamarov over this? And have him throw what happened with the Orion team at Tunguska in my face? Am I supposed to go to Congress with it? And what exactly am I to tell them? What are we supposed to do? If these things shut down in twenty-four hours, maybe that's all for the best."

Lamb was silent. The President glared at the screen for a few seconds, trying to regain his temper. When he spoke again, the anger was gone, replaced by a deep weariness. "When you figure things out, Steve, you give me a call with some recommendations. If you think it's such a priority, then you work that much harder to solve it."

The screen went blank. Lamb turned off his communications set and sat still for almost five minutes. Then he pushed a button on his desk. "Come in."

Colonel Tolliver and Major Hawkins entered the communications shelter. Lamb looked at Tolliver first. "Report."

The Marine colonel worked from farthest threat in. "The Navy's got aerial and electronic surveillance of the Russian fleet off the coast. The Russians are holding in place. We've alerted the Australian authorities to be on the lookout for Russian agents. No reports from them of anyone suspicious. Our outer and inner perimeters are secure."

"I want a squad of your men detached to my direct command as of now. Have the officer in charge report to Captain Tomkins at the mine shaft."

"Yes, sir."

"That's all." Lamb waited until the marine was gone and then turned to Hawkins. "We've picked up some new information on Pencak," Lamb pulled a manila envelope out of his briefcase and handed it to Hawkins. "That's the dossier on Felix Zigorski-the Russian scientist she was involved with."

Hawkins pulled a sheaf of papers out and glanced at the cover sheet. "She volunteered that he worked with the cosmonaut program." He scanned down. "There's nothing that significant here. Looks like he was legitimate as a scientist, although that doesn't rule out his doing covert work for the old KGB."

Lamb pointed at the envelope. "There's a picture of Zigorski in there. I suggest you take a look at it."

Hawkins reached in and pulled out an eight-by-ten glossy. He stared at the figure in the picture and then looked up at Lamb. "What the hell happened to him?"

"He was in a tank in the Great Patriotic War," Lamb said, using the Russian term for World War II. "It got hit during the battle of Kursk and burned up. They pulled Zigorski out and somehow he survived."

Hawkins looked at the photo again, noting the man's deformities. Zigorski's skin in the picture was bright red and looked freshly boiled. He was missing his right arm and was seated in a wheelchair. It was hard to tell from the picture what state his legs were in. "Well, I can certainly see now the attraction he held for Pencak," he said sarcastically. "But is there any indication that he and Pencak might have been part of some plan that has anything to do with what's going on now? We know they were both at Tunguska. Is there any record of either of them ever coming here to Australia?"

"No."

Hawkins tossed the picture and dossier down. "What about Batson? How were his last psych and security evals for Hermes?"

"Good to go on both."

"His last polygraph?"

"Clean."

"He's clean?" Hawkins asked, surprised. "Your people gave an alcoholic a clean bill of health?"

"It wasn't that bad last time he was checked," Lamb said.

Hawkins changed the subject, realizing it was fruitless to talk about something he could do nothing about. "Anything more from Tunguska?"

Lamb shook his head. "Nothing. We checked the imagery from the time you went through to when you came back and there doesn't appear to be any unusual activity."

"What about the Russians going through?"

"We couldn't see what was going on under the tarps. There are more troops in the area now. At least a regiment of armored infantry. They're also flying Hinds around the clock in aerial surveillance. We couldn't get another team in to look under the tarps without compromise."

Lamb paused and stared at Hawkins. "Give it to me straight, Hawk. Do you think you might have been mentally manipulated--that you really didn't travel anywhere and this was all implanted in your mind?"

Hawkins sat back in his chair and thought. He remembered the prick of something going into the back of his hand and the coppery taste in his mouth--what had been the purpose of that? Also the way the voice had sounded, as if it were inside his head, and not coming from the outside. But he had been able to converse with the others in the room.

"I have to admit it's possible," Hawkins conceded. "But I don't think so. I think this is for real. I also don't see any reason it shouldn't be for real. Who on Earth has anything to gain by doing this? Plus, I think we have a lot to lose if we don't accept that this is real."

Lamb shook his head of those thoughts and leaned back in his chair. "What about the other bomb?"

"Nothing. If Qaddafi has it, he's keeping damn quiet about it, and so are all our assets over there. My Orion teams have nothing. What's the status on Libya?" he asked.

"The President is still holding off having the Seventh Fleet cross the thirty-third parallel. The Russians are still keeping quiet about whoever sold the bombs."

Hawkins stood. "What's the next step?"

Lamb waved a hand at him, dismissing him. "Let me think about it."

22 DECEMBER 1995, 2327 LOCAL

22 DECEMBER 1995, 1357 ZULU

Hawkins stepped out of the medical shelter into the warm night air and looked up at the stars, wondering if one of those was where he had been. Richman was doing well; the shoulder wound was clean and he hadn't lost much blood. Hawkins had pumped him for information concerning the missing eight hours and what he had seen at Tunguska, but had learned nothing new. Richman had no memory of a large enclosed space filled with machinery.

"Makes you feel kind of small, doesn't it?" Fran appeared out of the darkness into the glow of the arc lights from the perimeter security.

"What does?"

"All those stars, all so far away."

"Yeah, I suppose." Hawkins nodded his head in the direction of the shaft building. "Are they still down there arguing?"

"Yes. I think Don is in over his head--he's got to put a lot of energy into simply staying straight. Pencak insists it's aliens and your story confirmed what she believed earlier. I'm not sure where Levy's head is at."

Hawkins peered at her in the dark. "Do you believe me?"

She didn't hesitate. "I've thought about it and I've decided that I want to believe you very badly. And if I want to, then I'm going to."

Not exactly the most supportive answer Hawkins had ever heard. "What do you think we should do?"

Fran stared out into the desert. "Lamb's talked to the President. I saw him a few minutes ago talking with Tomkins. They're working on sending the remote camera through with a SATCOM link. If it comes out anywhere on the planet, they ought to be able to keep contact with it."

"It won't work," Hawkins declared.

"I know it won't. But he has to try. He didn't say anything, but I got the idea the President wasn't too impressed."

Hawkins stepped away from the tent and walked over to where triple rolls of concertina wire surrounded the compound. The edge of the Rock was less than fifty feet away, dropping abruptly off to the ground. He could make out the silhouette of a marine right near the edge, highlighted against the moonlit night sky.

"I knew he wouldn't be impressed. We really didn't give him too much to work with, because the aliens didn't give us too much to work with. Pencak's idea is the only reasonable thing I've heard since I came back."

"Going after the other bomb?" Fran asked. "But you said that there are people already on that. What can we do?"

Hawkins sought her eyes out in the dark. "There's something I left out of my briefing to Lamb. When we re-boarded the skimmer to return to our respective portals and go through, I talked to Colonel Tuskin. I told him that I didn't think we would get a good response to what we had seen and heard. At least not a timely one."

"What did he say?"

"He agreed."

A small smile played across Fran's face. "So what plan did you two come up with?"

"How do you know we came up with anything?"

"Because you told me yourself not to trust anyone, and I think you would have been calculating five steps ahead from the minute you came out of that chamber after hearing what the aliens had to say. And you would have known what would happen when you got back--as you just said you did. And I think you would have come up with an alternate plan."