"That there are two ways to play this. Somebody could use these
vehicles to deliver a bomb someplace. Or they could be used to put a
bomb into orbit, to be delivered later." He leaned back. "Am I right or
not?"
Her eyes darkened, and she suddenly found herself sorry she had ever
come back to Greece. For this. Then she caught herself and answered
him. "I suppose either one is possible. The reentry trajectory is
precisely controlled. In fact, we power it down, more or less like the
space shuttle."
"And the whole thing can be done within an hour or so, right? That is,
once it's in orbit."
"A low-earth insertion means a full orbit of about ninety minutes for a
satellite." She was thinking. "If the vehicle itself stays in orbit,
then--"
"Everything would still be controlled from down here, correct?"
"We beam power up to the vehicle using the Cyclops.
That's the whole idea." She was thinking. "What you're saying is, once
they get a vehicle, and a bomb, into orbit, they've got a loaded gun
pointed at any place they choose."
"Doesn't that sound like the worst-case scenario?"
"They'll never pull it off." It was more a hope than a statement of
fact.
"How are you going to stop them? If Ramirez thinks you're not
cooperating, then all he has to do is start killing more of your staff
until you do." He looked down the hill, where the facility was now dark
except for the yellow sodium lights around the storage sheds and the
blaze of floods that illuminated the two vehicles. "But I definitely
think they're going to try some kind of launch. You said they're being
very careful not to disturb anything. So what are the possibilities?"
"The easiest thing would be not to bother putting it into orbit at
all," she answered after a moment. "In fact, Number One or Sabri
Ramirez or whoever he is had Georges running some trajectory aborts. It
all fits."
"Also, you've got two vehicles, and that box had enough detonators for
several bombs. So, say they had two nuclear devices? They use the first
one as a small demo, to prove they're serious. Sort of like we did on
Hiroshima. And hold the second one in reserve. For more blackmail." He
reached up and touched the bark of the tree above. "But any way you
look at it, they seem to be dead serious about delivering a nuke
somewhere. Where?"
"You know, there's a U.S. base not far from here."
"Souda Bay?"
"It's on Crete."
"So close they probably couldn't miss." He thought about it. "Taking
out that base could decimate the U.S. Sixth Fleet. It would be a very
attention-getting demonstration. Think they could really do it?"
"Crete would just be a short hop for VX-1."
"It's easy and it's a nightmare. Sounds pretty good for . . . uh-oh."
He pointed down. Moving through the shadows at the far edge of the
facility, past the bright circles cast by the sodium lights, was a
group of black figures. "Guess it had to happen."