Overlord (24 page)

Easterbrook nodded his head and quickly looked down at his shoes. Only Peachtree offered his hand for shaking. Collins looked from the outstretched hand and then up to the man’s dark eyes. Jack turned away and looked at the president as if he had been set up.

“Colonel Collins, I believe Mr. Peachtree has something to say to you.” The president’s hands remained planted on his hips, a stance every American knew meant he was angry and wanted something concluded. The four men at the table quietly spoke amongst themselves as the American problem played out on the other side of the room.

“Colonel, believe me when I say how much this ugly episode has upset the agency.”

Collins stared at the man as if his words went right past his ears without entering. His blue eyes bore into the man’s darker ones and before the assistant director of Operations knew it he had taken a step back.

“Upset the agency?” Director Easterbrook said as he heard the words come from Peachtree’s mouth. “Colonel, we are even now tracking down the murdering bastard who killed your sister and her colleague. We will not rest until he is hanging from the highest tree the agency can find, and the man to tie the knot in the rope is Mr. Peachtree here, especially since it was in his operational area that Vickers committed his crimes.”

“Enough. For right now the colonel will be satisfied with your response—won’t you, Colonel Collins?’

Jack didn’t give the president the courtesy of looking at him. “No, sir. As soon as I’m cut loose from here I’m going to hunt Vickers down myself. These gentlemen have lost credibility when it comes to policing their own agency.”

“And he’ll have company dong it,” Carl said as his eyes did find the president.

“Thank you, gentlemen,” the commander-in-chief said, ignoring both Jack and Carl for the moment. “Our regular security briefings are cancelled for today, as you see I have other guests.” He gestured toward the four men sitting at the table. Peachtree and Easterbrook nodded their heads and Peachtree took a wide path around the two military officers, who only glared at the two CIA men.

The president faced Carl and Jack and shook his head.

“You had your shot, Colonel, now allow the FBI to do their work. They have several men they need to speak to, not just Hiram Vickers.”

Jack’s face took on an angry countenance as he listened but soon softened when he saw Niles and Carl and was held in check by a look from the two men. The president nodded at Collins as he saw that the colonel immediately regretted his action while in the presence of the boss.

“I would want to punch me too, Colonel, but this job sometimes requires a bit of bad taste to get people to listen. Your participation in this matter of your sister is now concluded.”

Jack started to say something but the president held up a hand to stay him.

“Vickers took orders from someone. He gathered war material and several men used it to profit while saying they were patriots. Bullshit. I suspect I know who was behind it and I need the FBI to prove it or nothing will ever be done about it. As I said, your and Captain Everett’s participation in this is at an end. We will track the son of a bitch down and then I’ll let you throw the switch that sends ten thousand volts through Vickers’s black heart.”

“Now, let’s get down to business because, as you see, we have men waiting.” Niles Compton tried to get the meeting back on track and to get Jack’s head away from the immediate situation. He looked at his watch, knowing what he had to say next would place Jack’s mind back at the business at hand. “We have about an hour before the Russians strike at Iran.”

The president raised his brows as he gestured for Everett and Collins to join the men at the table.

“And you don’t know this, Jack, but we have two of our own heading into harm’s way.”

“Who?” Everett asked.

“Sir, your call went through,” a Secret Service agent said from the doorway. Another handed Niles a phone.

Compton looked at the president, who grimaced and then turned away to join his guests. Niles handed the phone to Jack, who gave him a questioning look.

“It’s Lieutenant McIntire.”

Still, the questions filled the cautious look from Jack and even Everett stopped in curiosity.

“Colonel, this is a presidential favor.” Niles held his gaze on Collins. “Sarah and Lieutenant Commander Ryan are going in as consultants to the Russian strike team.”

It was Everett who said what Jack was thinking. “Oh, shit.”

Carl stepped away to give Jack some privacy.

Jack turned away to take the call. He didn’t care how this looked to the powerful men in the room, as all thought of the events happening in the world fell away from his thoughts the very moment he heard Sarah was heading into danger.

“Small Stuff.” He almost choked on the nickname by which he had always called her.

“Hey, baby,” she said, her voice sounding distant and scratchy. “Jack, are you all right? Niles said you were away for a while?”

Collins caught the inference about his mission to kill the man who ended his sister’s life.

“That’s not important. You need to pay attention out there and get your small ass home in one piece. Ryan too.”

“Jack, we have so many Russian commandos here that you better worry about how many times I have to fend them off. I don’t know if those guys ever get time to see any women, the way they train.”

Collins was silent for the longest moment as he swallowed, and thought about the misery he would feel if Sarah was lost to him. “Look, baby—”

“Jack, I have to go; something’s happening here. It looks like we have a massive power surge coming out of Iran. They may be testing again. If they are they could lead the Grays right to us.”

Jack’s heart froze. He looked over toward Niles and the president as several signals officers urgently passed messages to the men around the conference table.

“Listen, I love you.”

Silence. Sarah had been disconnected as the Russian ship she was on went black, meaning the Caspian Sea task force had gone into communications blackout. Jack knew they were getting ready to strike. He turned away and locked eyes with Everett, then tossed him the now silent cell phone. Carl could see the pain in his friend’s eyes as he strode to the conference table just as the president stood with message in hand.

“Gentlemen, we just lost three commercial jetliners in Japanese airspace, and the navy is reporting that we also lost a United States naval supply ship in the North Sea.”

The president of France cleared his throat, then sadly shook his head. He had been conferring with the prime minister of Great Britain, Hamilton Lloyd.

“I must also sadly report that we have also lost contact with one of our submarines in the North Sea. It has been confirmed by a subsequent British report from a submerged source in the same area.” He placed the message he had received back on the table and lowered his head.

“Gentlemen, the time has come. We must assume we are under attack and the strike on Iran is now paramount to recover the alien engine.” The president turned to the leader of Russia. “Sergei, are your follow-up forces ready in case the first strike at recovery fails?”

“Yes, we have the Nineteenth Guards Division ready to move in from Azerbaijan, if needed.”

The president sadly shook his head, and sat down while looking at his old friend Niles Compton, who was seated along the wall. The eye contact was brief but they both knew that the plan they had drawn up along with Matchstick and the late Garrison Lee was now fully on the table. The fate of the world was now predicated on a small green alien and a man who died a year ago, along with two college friends who just five years before had never thought anything like this could ever happen.

“Gentlemen, Operation Overlord is now in effect. We have a lot of work to cover. Colonel Collins, we better start the brief. When the Grays strike in force, you will be immediately transferred to another location.”

Collins was shocked he had been mentioned at all. Every set of eyes was on the forty-two-year-old career army officer as his gaze went from Niles to Everett.

“You, Colonel, will be instrumental for the time we need to make Overlord work, and that may be quite some time. You will lead a fast-reaction unit of Special Forces to secure the Overlord location.”

Again all eyes went toward the head of the table and focused on the president’s words.

“Gentlemen, alert your home forces and let’s prepare to defend ourselves.”

The world was going to war—and they would fight as one.

PART TWO

THE FAILINGS OF MAN

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

—Winston Churchill, 1940

6

THREE MILES OVER IRANIAN AIRSPACE

The three Ilyushin IL-76 Ds started to disgorge over two hundred and fifty of the most highly trained soldiers in the world. Colonel Vladimir Tiushkin was in constant verbal communication with the Russian government as he watched his elite but truncated 106th Guards Airborne Division start their HALO (High Altitude, Low Opening) jump into harm’s way. The colonel was the last soldier to leave the safety of the aircraft. His unit was tasked to secure the university science buildings and then allow the Russian and American propulsion specialists to deactivate the alien power plant and secure it for transfer back into Azerbaijan, and then from there to whatever secret destination was called for. The colonel knew that if his unit failed a full-scale invasion was being prepared by not only Russian forces from the sea, but also from NATO forces based out of Afghanistan.

In the final twenty minutes of their flight the colonel had been told that they were being tracked by a possible hostile flight of aircraft that may or may not have originated in Tel Aviv. The operations intelligence people had told him that they had picked up transmissions from Israeli fuel tankers leaving their immediate area and they could only figure it was a flight of Israeli fighters that were going to finish what the Russians might have started. Now the colonel had Israeli forces to contend with as well as an undetermined number of Iranians. He only prayed that more levelheaded minds prevailed inside the halls of the Iranian government.

FIFTY MILES EAST OF BIRJAND, IRAN

The commander of the 50th Mechanized Division of the Iranian army had placed his tanks well away from the city and university and was hidden well behind a series of small hills surrounding the valley. His instructions were simple: move fast after the attack on Tel Aviv and secure the university. Other forces would move on the government in Tehran and secure the capital. The rumor that the new Iranian president had been having high-level talks with the American president weighed heavily on his mind as this act of high treason meant that they were going to hang if the attack and coup failed.

The general only prayed that the new president ignored the Americans.

UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

BIRJAND, IRAN

The first Russian troops landed hard just inside the university compound. It had only taken seconds for the first warning shots by security forces loyal to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to respond. Several of the highly trained commandos were killed as they touched down, forcing others to start firing before they hit the ground. This was a scenario they had expected and the excellent marksmen of the 106th Guardsmen soon settled the initial security situation of the attack. Thirteen of the ex-president’s men hit the ground dead before the first Russian soldiers had removed their jump equipment.

The commandos knew exactly what to do and immediately assembled inside the large university grounds. The initial assault on the applied sciences building began at exactly fifty-five seconds after the campus was secured.

*   *   *

Inside the large facility, at the bottom-most level, noise from the outside world could not be heard as the large alien power plant started its initial sequence in initiating the elements of the wormhole to open. The weather over Tel Aviv was light wind and no cloud cover. The Iranian technicians knew that if they had targeted the large city correctly the skies over Israel would soon cloud over as the machine gathered bits of moisture from the surrounding air and sea into the swirling mass that was the alien wormhole. The only three recon satellites of the Iranian nation had been re-tasked six hours earlier so they could witness the destruction of the Israeli problem firsthand.

“Power is at 80 percent and rising,” came the lead coordinator’s voice over the intercom as Ahmadinejad listened and watched through the thick glass. He was anticipating many things this night—not only the destruction of Israel, but also his anointed return to the head of Iranian government.

His smile wanted to break free from his stern countenance. The general seated at his side was on the opposite end of the spectrum as he watched the activity of the alien engine startup. He was overly concerned about his forces and their ability to secure the capital and reinforce the university. Thus far the only word that had come in was from the university element that awaited his word in the hills surrounding the city; that they were in position and prepared to defeat any opposition from the outside world. There had been no word from his division commanders outside of the capital or the holy city of Qoam. He knew that if Rouhani was not taken into custody and the ayatollahs kept under lock and key until after their power base had been secured, the entire coup would be over before the plan had been fulfilled.

Ahmadinejad turned in his seat and examined General Yazdi’s face. “Are your units prepared to enter Tehran?”

The general wiped the small bead of sweat from the space between his upper lip and pencil-thin moustache and nodded.

“Yes, my president, the forces loyal to you are moving as we speak,” he lied.

“Good. I want my cabinet inside the capital in one hour. They are to secure all government office facilities and disarm the Revolutionary Guard.”