Vance heard the thunder and felt the shock wave almost simultaneously.
He gripped the wire, trying to hold on, and felt it cut deep into his
palms. The pain seemed to work in opposition to the numbing effects of
the shock wave that had buffeted him, assaulting his eardrums and his
consciousness. For a moment he forgot where he was, shut out all
thought, and just hung onto the wire with his last remaining energy.
In the Agusta up above, Bates was struggling with the controls, trying
to keep stabilized as the pressure pulse from the Cyclops swept down
the island. The dangling bomb, and Vance, were serving as a
counterweight, holding the small commercial helo aright. It was all
that kept it from flipping as the sudden turbulence assaulted the main
rotor.
The energy that filled the air now had yet another release.
As his eardrums recovered, Vance heard a new roar, deeper and throatier
than the sound of the Agusta, welling up around him. Down below, wave
after wave of pressure pulses were drumming the air, and he watched
spellbound as VX-1 shuddered, then began to inch upward into the
morning sky. It was a gorgeous sight, the lift-off of the world's first
laser-driven space vehicle.
Was Cally watching this moment of triumph? he wondered. She should be
ecstatic, even in spite of all the rest.
But would the vehicle make it to orbit? he suddenly asked himself. With
the payload gone, wouldn't the weight parameters be all out of whack.
But then maybe it didn't matter. The mere fact that it was going up
should be enough to cover Bates' contractual obligations with his
investors.
That was down the road. He was so mesmerized by the sight of the lift-
off that he had totally forgotten he was wrapped around a nuke, hanging
on for all he had as the asphalt loomed fifty feet below, like Slim
Pickens riding the bomb down in that famous closing scene from
Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove.
Then the pain in his hands refocused his attention. The bomb down
below, he figured, was now permanently inoperable. But Ramirez still
had Mannheim as a hostage, and he had made good his escape. Which meant
he was still in the terrorists' catbird seat. Using innocents for a
shield rather than slugging it out fair and square.
As the Cyclops continued to pulse, and VX-1 edged upward into the
morning mist, Bates steered the Agusta toward the old landing pad where
it had originally been parked. In moments he had eased down the bomb,
just as though settling in a crate of eggs, no more than twenty feet
from where they had taken off five minutes earlier. It was a marvel of
professionalism.
As the weapon bumped onto the asphalt, Vance had a sudden thought. The
damned thing was useless now, and harmless. But what about the other
one, the one Ramirez had taken with him in the Sikorsky?
"Michael, are you all right?" Cally had leapt from the open door of the
Agusta, looking as disoriented as he had ever seen her. "You were only
a few feet away when the Cyclops turned on. For a minute there, I
couldn't even see you. What was it like?"
"Try the end of the world. Like a thousand bolts of lightning, all
aimed at one place."
"A perfect description." She smiled and reached to help him stand up.
"I'd never realized there'd be a thunderclap when it switched on at
full power. God, what a sight." She was beaming at the thought,
exhilarated that all SatCom's work had been vindicated.
"You know," he said, "speaking of the end of the world, we came pretty
close. I hate to think what would happen if a bomb actually went off on
Crete."
"I've got a sinking feeling the end of the road wasn't going to be
Crete at all," Bates declared, stepping down from the Agusta. "I've
been thinking. Something that little Israeli prick let drop as we were
coming out to start up the Sikorsky finally sank in. He was rambling on
about retargeting the vehicle. You know, I think it was going to come
back here. He had the trajectory set to begin and end right here on
Andikythera. After he bugged out, of course."
"Nice," Vance said. "I actually kind of admire his balls. He was going
to nuke Ramirez."
"And us."
"That part's a little harder to like, I grant you." He turned and gazed
down toward the two Apaches that had landed. "By the way, what were
those all about? The Delta Force saving us?"
"Who knows?" He seemed to have a sudden thought. "Let me get on the
radio and try to call them off. Before they actually end up killing
somebody."
"While you're doing that, I'd like to try and raise Pierre. Find out
what's happening at his end."
"There's a walkie-talkie in the cockpit," Bates said. "Use it."