Starcross

Chapter Five - Part lll

Presidential Bunker Underneath White House

Washington D.C.

Late 5 March 2020

            Wheeler looked like he was about to jump out of his skin as he stared down the screen with the white blips depicting the Druidth warships slowly drifting apart. The missile readout said that they were less than five minutes away and from the looks of it less than half the ships would be hit. Everything looked like victory was so assured, but everyone there should have known that the aliens would detect the incoming weapons and move to avoid them.

            Despite the coolness of the air and the gentle whirring of the circulating air, sweat beaded on Richard’s forehead as the stress of the situation weighed on him as well. Having nothing to do other than watch, he toyed with a cup of coffee, the good stuff, which had gone cold long ago. Next to him, as always it seemed, sat William Lovett who sat quietly reading a report. The rest of the Cabinet and White House staff sat around the large wooden table watching the screen.

            One of the radio operators looked up and announced “China Lake reports possible engagement with Druidth ground forces.”

            “Good,” President Garrett said, still watching the screen. “Did they get the intelligence we sent about weapon capabilities?”

            “Yes, Sir. And they report to have most of the defending forces outfitted with bullet-proof vests.”

            “Good,” Garrett said again. It seemed like he was trying to speed the missiles up, or slow the Druidth ships down by force of will alone. “Is there truly nothing we can do about those ships?”

            “No, Sir.” Wheeler answered, defeat could be heard in his voice.

            “That’s not necessarily  true…” Lovett said as he stood up with whatever he was reading in hand.

            “Does the mysterious CIA have something we don’t know about?” Laughlin asked sarcastically. “Really, you’d think they want you to believe them to be omnipotent.”

            “Not really,” The Spy Chief said with a dismissing wave of his hand. “That’s bad for business when something like the Colonial Massacre happens. Everyone points a finger at us and demand to know why we didn’t do anything about it…”

            “As interesting as this conversation is,” Burbank interrupted. He wanted to add And as much as I like seeing you one-up Laughlin, but refrained because he knew it wouldn’t do any good to insult his boss. “What did you mean by ‘not necessarily’?”

            Lovett smiled. “Glad you asked my friend.” Were they friends? They certainly got along better than most of the other people in the room and not to mention the CIA Chief treated Richard much better than his own boss. Also, Burbank got the feeling that Lovett didn’t want a war with the Druidth but knew that there was nothing either of them could have done to prevent it.

            “I got this from the Pentagon,” Lovett continued, holding up the packet of papers marked ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ in bold, red letters. “It merely gives detailed information about the missiles that we are currently watching like an engaging golf match.”

            “How did you get that?” Wheeler demanded

            “I’m a spy. It’s my job.” Lovett answered with no small amount of skepticism that they still couldn’t comprehend that Clair was quite possibly closer to home with her snide comment than she knew. “Anyway, it says that the USS Florida and Dallas both fired seventeen missiles. Each boat carries about eighteen, twelve to fourteen of which are conventional warheads…” He stopped, letting the silence fall and making everyone else to fill in the blank.

            “Which means there’s about six MIRV’s out there!” Wheeler shouted, nearly jumping up and down. Then to the man working the missile control console, “Can you order those to break apart?”

            Put on the spot the young man stuttered. “I…I don’t know.” His fingers flew across the keys rapidly, either searching for the command prompt he needed or trying to look busy enough to win the approval of the Secretary of Defense so he wouldn’t have him hunting landmines with a hammer this time next year. After a tense moment he answered, “Yes! Yes, Sir. And the computer predicts that if we break them up now it will catch most of the ships.”

            Without hesitation, Garrett leaned forward and said, “Sargent, activate those MIRV’s.”