Project Aura (29 page)

He did have a brief glimpse of the fireball that consumed him before he was obliterated.

*****

The screen cleared and a smiley face appeared. Cesar frowned. What was going on?

"Cesar."

He recognized the voice. Souris.

"It is too late for anyone to stop this. We will rule the world."

"Who? Who are you talking about?" Cesar jumped to his feet and slammed the monitor to the ground, glass shattering. The smiley face was still on other screens, grinning at him.

The face disappeared, replaced by a single blinking word.

Transmitting

*****

Dalton settled down with the stock of the Barrett tight into his shoulder. Valika was kneeling next to him, a set of binoculars oriented on the closest satellite dish. They were on the walkway that ran around the rear smokestack of the
Gagarin
, over a hundred feet above the main deck and on level with the top of all the dishes.

He pulled the trigger and the rifle rocked back against his shoulder. The half-inch-diameter bullet hit the exact center of the dish, blowing the core into a thousand parts.

"Adjust, right, one-twenty meters," Valika said.

Dalton reacted, shifting the gun.

"Fire," Valika ordered.

He pulled the trigger and the second large dish was out of commission.

Valika gave him the directions to the next target.

He had the rhythm, the feel of the Barrett, a weapon he had fired in training, and it took less than a second to find the new target. The third bullet took out the next transmitter.

*****

Red lights were flashing in the bridge of the
Gagarin
. "What is it?" Lonsky demanded.

Zenata was staring at her displays. "The two main and first alternate dish are down. Transmission is rerouting to the final dish."

*****

Dalton pulled the trigger.

"Miss," Valika told him. “Adjust, half a meter to the right.”

Dalton felt the snap of bullets whizzing by before the sound reached him. "What is it?" he asked as he resighted on the last remaining dish.

When there was no reply, he pulled his eye back from the scope and glanced to his left. Valika was against the smokestack, a large splotch of red on the upper left quadrant of her chest, a thin trickle of blood flowing from her mouth. Her lips twisted slightly in what might have been a grin, then her eyes glazed over and the body slumped back.

Dalton spared a look down and he could see Cesar running forward, a submachine gun tight against his shoulder. A string of bullets tore into the walkway just to the right of Dalton. He ignored them, knowing he had run out of time, and aimed at the center of the fourth dish.

*****

"Reroute complete," Zenata announced. Lonsky was on the left wing of the bridge, looking back, trying to find the source of the firing.

"Transmit in two seconds," she yelled.

*****

Dalton pulled the trigger and the bullet hit the center of the dish, silencing it. Even while the bullet was in flight he was fading, disappearing from the real plane into the virtual as Cesar fired another burst that tore through where he had been. The Barrett fell to the deck with a loud clang.

Dalton jumped and was on the deck just behind Cesar. He re-formed in the real plane, his left arm shifting into a firing tube. He didn't hesitate or feel any compunction about shooting the other man. He fired and the ball of energy hit Cesar in the middle of his back, blasting him forward.

Cesar was dead before he hit the deck plate.

Dalton shifted back into the virtual and jumped, heading back toward the Ranch.

The computers on the two B-2 bombers had been released from the reprogramming that Jackson had done. The planes were on their way to the nearest Air Force base outside Anchorage. The crews were certain their careers were over. Dropping eighty thousand pounds off-range was an offense they were sure they would never recover from They could only hope they had hit wilderness and not killed anybody.

Behind them, there was little to indicate that 540 steel towers had once occupied the torn and savaged ground. On the hillside where the control center had been, there were just a few chunks of smoldering concrete.

*****

Captain Lonsky looked at the body of the man who had bought the ship. He issued an order. "Throw him overboard."

Once that was accomplished, Zenata waited for the next order.

"Let us head back to Russia," Lonsky said. "The less said about all this, the better."

*****

Dalton raced along the power connection with Sybyl, back to his body at the Ranch.

*****

Souris diverted the Lear to Dallas. She ‘knew’ that Cesar had been unsuccessful, but she also knew that the Psychic Warriors had been responsible for destroying HAARP, so the two canceled out.

She had failed in the mission she had been assigned, but gaining the Psychic Warrior update was a coup. The Mithrans would appreciate that. It would give them a way to enter the real world and fight the Priory.

*****

Dalton climbed out of the isolation tube, his body shivering uncontrollably. Jackson was already back, a towel draped over her shoulders, and she handed one to him as he reached the floor. He immediately noted Barnes's body still in its tube. "Do you have contact with him?" he asked Hammond.

"No," Hammond said. "I've been trying, but he hasn't responded."

"His signs?"

"Strange."

"Strange how?" Dalton demanded.

"Not like the others. He's out there being supported with power somehow, just not from Sybyl."

Dalton turned back toward his tank. "We need to go look for him." He halted as Mentor entered, coming from the operations center.

"You did it," Mentor said, slapping him on the back.

"MILSTAR is still up there," Dalton said, "with the retransmit capability."

"I can work on correcting that, now that I have some time," Mentor said.

"And the Priory and Mithrans are still out there," Dalton added. "We've only stopped them for the moment."

To that, Mentor had no reply.

Jackson put a hand on Dalton's shoulder as he prepared to climb back into his isolation tube. "You need a break. Wherever Barnes is, he can wait for a little while. You need rest."

Dalton was about to argue with her when he realized she was right. He sat down wearily on a crate, Jackson doing likewise across from him

"We have to reconstitute Nexus here in the United States," Mentor said. He pointed at the other three people in the room: Dalton, Jackson, and Hammond. "The four of us."

"Five of us," Dalton said, indicating Barnes. "We need to do better than reconstitute Nexus," he continued. "This war between the Priory and Mithrans has been going on for a long time. With the advances in technology we're seeing that this conflict can destroy us. I say for the next round, we go on the offensive."

He put his hand out palm up. "Are we agreed?"

Jackson immediately reached out and put her right hand on top of his. Hammond followed. The three of them looked at Mentor.

The old man slowly nodded. "It is time." He placed both his hands over theirs.

Dalton could feel the power, the aura of strength, coming off the other three. It wasn't much to fight the Priory and the Mithrans with, but it was a start.

THE END

by Bob Mayer

"Heart-racing, non-stop action that is difficult to put down."-Mystery News on Bodyguard of Lies

"Thelma and Louise go clandestine."-Kirkus Reviews on Bodyguard of Lies

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Mayer has stretched the limits of the military action novel. Synbat is also a gripping detective story and an intriguing science fiction thriller. Mayer brings an accurate and meticulous depiction of military to this book which greatly enhances its credibility.”
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