The War Cloud (10 page)

“I remember,” said Sachs, looking down at a report on her screen detailing the work of Unit 8200, the signal intelligence arm of the Israeli Defense Forces. “Something about a biblical reference to the Book of Esther that was embedded in the computer code. It pointed to Israel as the originator of the cyber attack. So there’s something like that in the code of this cyberweapon that points to China?”

“Yes,” Marshall said. “The Chinese characters for ‘War Cloud.’ This War Cloud cyberworm infiltratedour most critical systems. We haven’t been able to get rid of it, and we don’t know what its true purpose is, other than it’s malicious.”

Sachs asked, “What could it possibly do?”

“Well, the Iranians wondered the same thing after the Israeli Stuxnet infected their systems. Then it suddenly came alive and disrupted their uranium enrichment centrifuges by causing rapid fluctuations in motor rotation rates, causing some of them to explode. Set their nuclear program back months.”

“So you think this War Cloud worm could actually take down our physical infrastructure like our power grids and defense systems?” she asked, daunted by the prospect.

Marshall nodded. “We’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop. It did today with the attack on D.C. Or, more accurately, the nuke this morning was the first shoe. Now we’re waiting for the second shoe to drop when the War Cloud reveals its true nature.”

Sachs pressed. “What is that nature, General Marshall? What exactly do you believe is the purpose of this War Cloud cyberweapon?”

“To degrade our ability to respond under attack, Madame President,” Marshall said. “Meaning if you don’t act this minute, you might not be able to at all.”

M
arshall’s first read on Sachs was that she had a much quicker grasp of an evolving situation than her predecessor Rhinehart. But he was worried about her trigger finger. He doubted she was born with one.

He sat back in his chair inside the battle staff compartment of his Looking Glass plane and studied President Sachs on the split screen as she took in everything he said. General Carver’s expression from Omaha seemed to be giving her the benefit of the doubt. But then Carver was a consensus builder who only weighed in at the end after all viewpoints were shared.

General Block, buried under Cheyenne Mountain, looked like he was about to burst. Marshall saw it coming a full minute before Block opened his mouth. “Say the word, Madame President, and we’re ready to point and shoot.”

Marshall groaned inside and watched Sachs start.

“Point and shoot?” she repeated incredulously. “That’s the option you’re giving me?”

Marshall cleared his throat and addressed the screen. “You’ve basically got three decent options, Madame President,” he told her. “Tall, Grande and Venti.”

She said, “Venti, I suppose, means an all-out nuclear attack like General Block is suggesting?”

Marshall said, “Basically.”

Sachs said, “I don’t want to bring an end to China, gentlemen. I want to end this war before it gets out of control. So we can eliminate the Venti option right now. What’s the so-called Grande option?”

“Limited strike,” Marshall said. “But we spare their most valued targets and leave them at risk. That way the enemy has a strong incentive to seek an end to the conflict. As you just said, that’s what we want: an end to the escalation.“What if they don’t ‘get’ that we’re only inflicting limited harm? They’re liable to launch everything they’ve got at us. What’s the Tall option?”

Marshall didn’t like the direction this conversation was going. “Something you can reliably recall, like a B-2 stealth bomber armed with a nuclear-tipped Maverick surface-penetrating cruise missile.”

“A Maverick?”

“I’m sending the data over right now,” Marshall said, and immediately a 3-D model appeared on the screen. “It’s a next-generation bunker-buster than can burrow through hundreds of feet of earth and concrete and knock out Zhang’s underground headquarters.”

Sachs said, “Like they took out Washington.”

“Tit for tat,” Marshall said. “An underground detonation. No fallout or windshift worries or civilian casualties. Might even liberate the Chinese people.”

“Or their DF-5 missiles,” said a voice off screen, and then Marshall saw Nightwatch’s chief communications officer, Captain Linda Li, lean toward Sachs and mumble something.

Marshall knew Li had a point, but it was obvious that Colonel Kozlowski, standing behind Sachs, didn’t like it. Neither did Block or Carver onscreen. Neither did he. It was all he could do to not tempt the fates by reminding Sachs that if she and her kind hadn’t scrapped his proposed Defender anti-ballistic system that this would be an entirely different conversation and her options would look a hell of a lot better than the box she was in now.

Sachs nodded on screen and then said, “Once battlefield nukes are used, it’s too easy for both sides to justify using more destructive weapons. I’m not going to let it get that far.”

“But it won’t get that far, Madame President,” Marshall injected, aware that his voice revealed the first sign of impatience with her. “Because our Mavericks will decapitate the entire Chinese C3I command-and-control structure. Just like they tried with us.”

“Yes, and leave no Chinese government to negotiate a cease-fire or surrender.”

“Not true,” Marshall said. “The government of our ally Taiwan would replace the old regime, and Taipei would become the new capital of China.”

“Assuming they don’t invade or destroy it first.” She paused. “Something is wrong with this picture. I mean, why haven’t our forward-deployed forces in the Far East been attacked?”

Block, who looked like he was going to burst a blood vessel this whole time, finally blurted out, “Who the hell cares? They hit D.C.! For the love of God, lady, make up your mind!”

She ignored the entire “woman-who-can’t-make-up-her-mind” slur. “I need to think this over before I make an irrevocable decision to kill possibly millions of people.”

Block could barely contain himself. “Think it over?” he cried. “Think it over? You’re not supposed to think.”

General Carver, clearly sensing this so-called “attack conference” was coming to an unfavorable conclusion, seconded Block. “Not to decide is a decision in itself, Madame President.”

“Let me be clear,” she concluded. “For now, I refuse to escalate this conflict.”

St out, leaving Marshall alone facing a blank screen with Quinn standing awkwardly next to him, embarrassed that anyone should speak to the Great American Defender this way.

Marshall simply shook his head and answered the screen, “And if the enemy escalates it?”

K
ozlowski stepped outside Sachs
’ compartment to give her “time to think,” shut the door behind him, and glared at Captain Li. “What the hell were you doing there, Li, spooking the president with visions of DF-5 nukes raining down on us? You and I have no opinions with regards to attack options.”

“I was providing my commander-in-chief with potential consequences of her actions, like she asked.” Li offered no apologies. “You think President Rhinehart would have given us the time of day if he were on board with his VP, SecDef and members of the NSC? History has appointed you and me as the new president’s primary protectors and filters of information. Otherwise, Marshall and the NCA might as well be running the country.”

“That may not be such a bad thing at this point, Captain.” Koz looked at the presidential seal on the door dividing them from Sachs. “What the hell is she doing in there?”

“Maybe she’s dancing to Britney Spears. Or praying. Or bawling her eyes out. Who besides God needs to know?”

“I do, Captain. I need to know. I have no idea what Sachs is thinking. Only that she is. Doesn’t that worry you?”

“A woman who thinks for herself?”

Koz stared at Li’s black, penetrating eyes. “Of course not,” he said, and then he held up the small action figure USB drive Sachs had given him at his request and handed it to Li. “This belongs to Jennifer Sachs. It’s her school USB drive. She’s probably got files on her that might give us a clue to her friends and where she may have gone.”

“Wow, Fembot Fiona,” Li remarked as she took it. “I’ll check her Facebook texts, too. If she’s not talking to her mom, she might be talking to friends.”

J
ennifer crouched beneath the k
itchen window of her Aunt Dina’s house for almost ten minutes in terror, staring at Carla’s body, aware of the red lasersights probing through the dark.

She crawled into the adjoining laundry room and rummaged through Carla’s purse and found her cellphone. It was a simple Nokia candy bar phone. She dialed her mom’s number. Then she heard a crash in the kitchen and froze.

They were in the house.

She could hear the soft, quick shuffles of their shoes fan out looking for her. She held her breath and looked around. Her only way out was through the dog’s door.

She glanced back in time to see a red laser target beam probe the kitchen. She pushed her body through the narrow door, wishing Aunt Dina’s dog Admiral were here right now and not at the kennel. She was halfway out the or when her foot caught on the other side. She tried to shake it loose when she felt a gloved hand grab it and she screamed.

She began kicking furiously and succeeded in shaking the hand loose, but she lost her boot. She scrambled to her feet and crashed through the outdoor patio furniture, all covered for the winter, and ran for the barn out back. But her stocking foot slipped in the snow and she fell to her knees, cell phone in hand.

She started to cry as the Green Beret kicked out the laundry room door and stood there in the doorway, starting straight at her with his glowing night vision goggles. He thought he was so cool with his M-16 with the attached laser site and grenade launcher. She knew what he was packing from her hundreds of hours playing the War Cloud game, and the one place he was now vulnerable. She jumped up and snapped his picture with Carla’s cell phone camera, the flash blinding him in his overexposed goggles for a few seconds. Then she ran like hell toward the barn.

She rounded the back of the barn, opened the small side door and ran inside and opened the big double doors. Then she grabbed her saddle off the stake in the wall and ran to Punk’s stall. She strapped the saddle on his back, her freezing hands fumbling with the buckles, trying to get it tight. She slipped her socked foot into the stirrup and hoisted herself up. Punk stamped his hooves and coughed. He didn’t want to go out into the cold.

“Please, Punk. Please.”

She kicked him again with the heel of her boot and Punk bolted out of the barn and knocked over the goon with the M-16, and it went off with a loud crack into the dark skies. She looked back and saw him slip onto his back on the ice while his partner rounded the house and raised his M-16.

She slapped Punk’s neck with the reins, and the horse leaped onto the adjoining trail.

Punk slipped on the snow and for a moment Jennifer thought he was going to fall on top of her. But he regained his balance and quickly galloped through the two feet of powder along the neighbor’s wooden fence.

Suddenly the fence seemed to move and Jennifer heard a loud crash. A black Suburban crashed through the wooden rails onto the trail behind her.

“Oh, God!”

Jennifer kicked Punk as hard as she could, almost breaking the horse’s skin with her boot. She screamed in frustration.

The Suburban, its high beams on, was only a yard or so away, its engine groaning loudly.

Punk picked up his pace with a new surge of momentum.

Jennifer looked back to see the Suburban fall behind momentarily. Then with a grunt and a spin of its wheels, it dug into the snow and zoomed up toward her with no intention of stopping.

Jennifer rode Punk along the narrow trail, the Suburban closing the gap as Punk started to tire, his powerful neck bulging with the strain. Just a little more, she thought, steering him toward the old McAllister place near the country club.

“You know where we’re going, boy,” she told him as he galloped. “We placed second in the Fall Hunter Pace, remember?”

They were riding along Guard Hill Road now, following a low stone wall, the Piney Woods Preserve on the other side, familiar territory to both her and Punk.

But the Suburban was moving up faster from behind.

Jennifer counted her paces. There was a break in the wall coming up. But it was hidden by the piled-up snow. Punk could leap through the gap and break through the snow, but he couldn’t clear the wall if she misjudged the distance.

She kicked Punk and they picked up speed, the break coming up fast.

“Jump, Punk!”

She turned into the wall, gave Punk the right tug on the reins, and closed her eyes. She felt the horse leap into the air and crash through the snow. The ice stung her face, but when she blinked her eyes open, they were into the trees of the preserve, Punk

digging through the snow, his legs working furiously.

Behind her the Suburban tried to stop but slid past the break in the wall on the trail. She heard a crash of metal. But she didn’t dare look back, and galloped on into the woods.

K
oz was sitting on the gold sofa
when Sachs emerged from the bathroom into the NCA commander’s compartment occupied by first-class passengers on a commercial 747. Her hair was wet and slicked back, and he had to admit she did more for the flightsuit that Captain Li had given her than Captain Li herself. Then he was ashamed for even thinking about his commander-in-chief in that way and pushed the thought out of his mind.

“Feeling better?” he asked her. He was sure he had heard her throw up in the bathroom. It was a natural reaction to her stress-inducing meeting with the National Command Authority, although he wasn’t sure she’d admit to something seemingly unpresidential.