Enemy In The Room by Parker Hudson

Author:Parker Hudson [Hudson, Parker]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Edge Press
Published: 2013-10-17T04:00:00+00:00

20

THURSDAY, MAY 26TH

Victor Mustafin had a special room in the middle of the RTI control center to which only he had access. He and Akbar Kamali, via a remote link, used it for communicating on their most confidential operations—ones that even their own team of duty officers had no need to know--operations that clearly broke laws or risked lives.

Mustafin was alone in the darkened room at one that Thursday morning, with Kamali on a secure link, to observe a test being conducted east of Moscow, ten time zones away. Facing them on the large screen, standing on the bluff overlooking the firing range, were Simon North and General Yevgany Beleborodov. Kamali and Mustafin used an encrypted feed through transmission cut-outs that made it impossible for those in Russia to determine the location or identity of their new owners. The Russian side could hear Kamali and Mustafin, though they could not see them.

Mustafin spoke. “Congratulations again, gentlemen, on your acquisition three weeks ago.”

Their counterparts smiled, and Simon North spoke into the camera, “Yes, the General’s team did a great job. A sad accident, indeed, for auto enthusiasts. But their handiwork is now safely stored and guarded in our warehouse, waiting its first use.”

“And that should come soon, depending on today’s results.”

General Beleborodov spoke, his look serious. “Understood. But you’re asking us to push our system to the limits of its capability. Hitting a moving target on a battlefield is one thing. But on a city street, even in a suburb, is quite another.”

Kamali countered. “The cars may be traveling at high speed, but certainly not too quickly for a GoFor missile.”

“It’s not the target’s speed. This isn’t an aircraft,” said the Russian. “It’s the difficulty of tracking a specific target when it’s surrounded by similar targets, and all of them are moving. If a car being illuminated stops at a traffic light, and the car next to it leaves first, it’s possible that the satellite will mistakenly shift to the second car. The true target will be lost.”

The general received a note from an aide off camera. “The short-range test missiles are inbound,” he read, and turned to look out across the valley. As the view shifted on the screen, he spoke. “The targets are the two red cars being driven by remote control. They were illuminated and tagged twenty minutes ago. The eight blue and green cars are simulating conditions on an urban avenue, as you have directed us. They have been running in parallel with the red cars since they were illuminated. We’ve marked ‘intersections’ in the valley, and the controllers are stopping the cars at each one as they might in the real world, alternating speeds but staying in the general vicinity of the targets.”

Mustafin and Kamali could clearly see the automobiles proceeding along the wide valley, now green with spring grass. North’s voice said, “We should have contact any second now. We didn’t arm them with explosives because…”

Suddenly, as if from nowhere, one of the red targets was demolished by an incoming missile.

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