Overlord (49 page)

“You didn’t kill them, Jenksy,” Carl said as he slipped the filthy T-shirt over his head.

“Yeah, I guess.” He reached into his scorched lab coat and brought out five plastic disks. “But all their work didn’t die with them.” He held up the computer discs. “I have all of our simulations right here. All we have to do is get them to where my babies are waiting. I think these hold the keys to the bugs we sorted out.”

“Your babies?” Everett looked around the dimly lighted area beneath the training center.

“Yeah, the goddamn vessels that will get your boys to the target. They’re not here. Thank God some moron was bright enough not to have the ships and the men that would fly them in one place. No, my two girls are down with the rest of Overlord.”

Admiral Everett was looking at the angry men in the basement until he saw a familiar face. It was the young navy SEAL he had confronted during the training exercise that very morning. He was leaning over and tending to the wounds of a Delta sergeant sitting against the cinder-block wall. He saw Everett and then stood.

“How many made it to the shelters?” Carl asked as he too leaned over and examined the Delta commando’s wounds.

“I’m not sure, sir. The whole damn building came down around our ears as we tried to get below.” He looked around at the remaining men of the admiral’s command. “I think all of the officers from both Delta and the SEALs were killed, I’m not sure. At least half of the … the…”

Jenks walked up to the young SEAL and whispered something to him as Carl watched. The kid straightened and then faced the admiral. “Sorry, sir, it looks like we’ll be down to half strength.”

Everett nodded his thanks and then allowed the SEAL to continue tending the soldier, who looked as if he were going to join those already killed by the enemy’s surprise attack.

“How in the hell did they allow this to happen?” he asked Jenks as he turned angrily to face him.

The master chief managed to find another fresh cigar in the rumpled lab coat and stuck it in his mouth.

“We always knew it was a possibility, that’s why the separation of the engineering boys down south and the training of personnel here in Houston. We couldn’t take the chance of having both elements together. It just so happened that those Gray bastards singled us out.” He removed the cigar and fixed Everett with the look that made the master chief the terror of the United States Navy during his long tenure. “So don’t go thinkin’ your bosses left you and your men hangin’ out to dry, they didn’t. What we have to do now is get our shit together and head south as soon as we can pick up the pieces. As far as your command is concerned, you’ll have to pick up some warm bodies from the command already down south.”

“Why not here?”

“Because, as of six hours ago, this entire unit is ignoring the orders directly from the president of the United States. That means we’re not only deserters, Toad, but now a bunch of pirates that’s soon to be on our own.”

“All right, Master Chief, I’ve had about enough of this secrecy crap. What do you know?”

Jenks finally laughed out loud, drawing questioning looks from the men left in the basement.

“You orderin’ me to answer, Toad?” he asked as his smile remained.

Carl took a deep breath and then shook his head. “No, I’m asking not just for me, but them.” He gestured at the dead and wounded men around them.

“Goddamn, that’s below the belt, Toad.”

“Yes, it is.”

“This Overlord plan is so departmentalized for security reasons I only know my part … and yours. The rest is as big a mystery to me as it is to you. Whatever the large part of Overlord is, it’s bigger than anything I can imagine. If they are using my designs for what they are intended for, I really do want to see the delivery method.”

“Explain,” Everett said, not letting up.

Jenks lit his cigar in the darkness of the basement. “Okay, Toad, we have one of the original simulators for one of my babies right down here.” The master chief turned at another set of steel stairs and then stopped. “Well, you wanna see or not?”

Everett followed Jenks into the bowels of the subbasement.

When they got down the two flights of stairs Carl saw a large object covered in plastic sheeting in the center of a large room. Jenks went to a desk that was covered in dust and then found a flashlight in one of its drawers. He flicked it on and gestured for the admiral to follow.

“This was the original prototype of my initial design. We worked out the engineering with some of those boys from DARPA and NASA. But it’s my baby, make no mistake about it. They helped some, I guess, but mostly on the subsequent versions.” Jenks pulled the plastic away from the large vehicle.

“What in the hell is this?” Carl asked. He had to step back and look at the amazing sight before him.

“This is the landing craft
Spruance
.” Jenks’s eyes traveled over the graceful lines of the spacecraft. “The first of her kind and the lead vessel for a new class of transport—smaller than the space shuttle, but sturdier and a whole lot faster.”

Everett examined the lines of the ship. It did look like a smaller version of the shuttle, with the exception of the wing assembly. These were short and stubby, almost nonexistent. The tail boom was that only in name, as it ended abruptly just aft of what Carl assumed was the cargo hold.

“Seats a command crew of six, plus the load master. She’s capable of transporting a strike element of fully equipped, fully suited commandos to their final destination. She is armed with two five-thousand-watt laser cannon designed by the boys at DARPA and the Raytheon Corporation.” He turned to face Everett. “I understand that you may have had a hand in securing the technology somewhere in South America.” He smiled. “If the rumors are true.”

Carl didn’t answer as he examined the snow-white skin of the landing craft. He saw the collar on the front nose of the ship below the pilot’s compartment and the ring that would secure it to whatever target it was sent against. It was designed to mate with another craft, but Carl didn’t know what that craft was, but knew his men had been training for its eventual use on the destroyed mock-up that came crashing down with the training center.

“There, now you know as much as myself, Toad, my boy.” Jenks turned and admired the obsolete version of the ship that he had designed. He puffed on the cigar vigorously as he turned back to Carl. “Now, you gonna go with it, or do you want to sit down and cry your little pussy eyes out over the fact that not everybody hands out secret shit like Halloween candy—you little shit-ass.”

Everett turned and faced his old SEAL instructor and shook his head as he returned his gaze to the amazing seventeen-ton craft sitting on its pedestal.

“I think I’ll come along for the ride, you old, crusty son of a bitch.”

“That’s more fucking like it, you candy-ass officer.”

CAMP ALAMO

ANTARCTICA

The winds had picked up just after their arrival at Camp Alamo. Jack stood warming his hands at the space heater as Henri fumbled with the bulky arctic gear, trying to remove the warm parka. Will Mendenhall made no bones about staring at the young British SAS officer who sat at the small desk, writing out the departure time of the helicopters that had delivered the three to the most desolate spot in the world.

Will leaned over and showed him the black captain’s bars on his collar. The SAS lieutenant looked up and gave Mendenhall a brief smile and nodded his head in approval, then returned to his logbook.

“In America,” Will said, drawing his words out like he was explaining something to an immigrant that spoke very little English, “a captain outranks a lieutenant. How about in your country?” he asked as Jack looked over with a small smile. Henri stopped struggling with the bulky parka and watched the exchange. The lieutenant had remained silent since their arrival and that was also getting on the Frenchman’s nerves as much as Will’s.

The lieutenant stopped writing and then fixed Will with that irritating grin.

“Yes, sir, the chain of command is very much like your own. However, the man who will answer your inquiry will arrive shortly.” He smiled and nodded his head. “Sir.”

Mendenhall gave the SAS lieutenant a dirty look and then turned to Collins. “These guys keep a secret better than the director.” He too went to the space heater and warmed his cold hands.

The lieutenant finally stood up as the buzzer on the plastic wall went off. It was like an old-fashioned telephone ring that shut off after only a second. The lieutenant walked to the far wall and faced the still struggling Farbeaux, who had finally removed the difficult parka.

“Colonel, please step aside. Professor Bennett has arrived.” The lieutenant gestured for Henri to step closer to Jack and Will.

The three men heard the soft whine of an electric motor and then the plywood flooring gently parted near the far wall. As it did the two halves slid back, revealing an opening that was dark and foreboding. As they watched in amazement a man in a furry winter coat rose from the darkened abyss. The disguised elevator stopped and the man stepped off.

“Does the same guy that invented half the stuff at Group design stuff for everyone?” Will asked as they watched the man with the thick, horn-rimmed glasses approach them.

“Evidently,” Collins answered as he took in the average-sized man.

“General Collins?” He held his hand out to Jack.

“Yes,” was the quick answer as he shook the man’s offered hand.

“Bloody good.” He shook first Will’s and then Henri’s hands. “You made the perilous trek in one piece, good show. No unexpected in-flight horrors, I take it?”

“If you call potholes in the sky a horror, we had plenty of those,” Collins said as he examined closely the strange man before him.

“Potholes,” the man repeated, and then got what Jack was saying. “Ah, yes, potholes. Good show, old man. Yes, I can only guess at the rough air you must have traveled through all the way from the States.”

Collins exchanged looks with Mendenhall and Farbeaux. Henri just closed his eyes and shook his head as he listened to the Englishman. The man just continued to smile without saying a word. Collins shook his head.

“I’m afraid you’re the second gentleman from your country that’s had the advantage over us when it comes to knowing names in the past two days.”

“Oh, my, yes, that would be appropriate, wouldn’t it?” He smiled but still said nothing until Jack raised both brows, urging him to connect the dots. “Damn, I’m just excited that you’re here, General. My name is Bennett, Charles Darcy Bennett, professor of Astrophysics and a member of Her Majesty’s Design Bureau, and former Dean of Sciences at Cambridge University.”

“Sir Darcy Bennett,” Henri said as he looked from the crumpled man to the general. “He’s got so many letters after his title that you may as well throw in the alphabet; his credentials would be shorter and more to the point that way.” He surprised both Mendenhall and Collins with his sudden burst of knowledge.

“You’ve actually heard of me? Good show, old man.” Bennett was impressed by the Frenchman’s knowledge.

“Yes, well, I ran into you a few years back, I believe. You had just misplaced a rather expensive particle accelerator from the University of Sheffield laboratory.”

The man allowed his mouth fall open in surprise. “Yes, but how would you know about—”

“Professor,” Jack interrupted as he shot the French thief a cold look. “You really don’t want to know. Let’s just say Henri here was aware that your government misplaced that particular piece of priceless equipment and leave it at that.”

Mendenhall smiled and shook his head knowing that it was Farbeaux who had relieved the British government of their little science experiment. Henri just smiled at the professor and said nothing more.

“Well, I’m sure you’re exhausted and would like to get below. We have a rather long day ahead tomorrow.” Bennett leaned in closer to the three men like a conspirator. “Our package is due to arrive.”

Collins nodded his head as if he knew what the package was. He looked over at Will and sadly shook his head.

“Now, shall we descend into madness, gentlemen?” Bennett gestured toward the lift and the dark hole beyond. “Lieutenant Davidson, you may tell your man outside to place his detonator on hold for the moment.” He smiled and looked at the three men. “Our guests’ DNA analysis came back and they are whom we believed they were.”

The SAS lieutenant nodded his head and smiled at Will Mendenhall. “Yes, Professor,” he said as his eyes finally left Will’s, and then he raised a small radio and did as he was instructed.

Bennett saw the questioning look as the three men hesitated at the lift.

“Oh, sorry, the lieutenant and his man, who is hidden quite well outside, had orders to blow you all to hell with twenty pounds of plastique—rather nasty stuff—if your DNA sequences weren’t confirmed when you walked inside and breathed the air of this room. Sorry, we’re cautious buggers around here.” He walked to the lift and then waved the men on. “MI6 is running the security for our little band of mad scientists.”

Jack, Will, and Henri cautiously stepped onto the lift with the smiling Bennett. The professor stepped on a hidden switch buried in the steel grate and the elevator started down into the solid ice.

“Rather much I know, but the James Bond attitude is seriously warranted after the attack on your Camp David, and especially after the disasters of last evening in Mumbai and Beijing.”

Jack looked at the man and raised a questioning brow.

“Oh, of course you couldn’t have known. Both cities have been totally destroyed after the Gray sots absconded with the bulk of their populations. Yes, I’m afraid the fun and games around here are over.”

“I would think so,” Will said, becoming angry at the professor’s flippant remark.

The man became serious as he saw the upset way in which the young captain responded.

“I didn’t mean to make light of the horrors of what happened, young man, but you must realize that we are in no better position here at Camp Alamo—thus the name the soldiers have given it.”