Northern Thunder by Anderson Harp

Author:Anderson Harp [Harp, Anderson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Published: 2019-07-18T17:23:17+00:00

Chapter 24

Cheyenne Mountains

“It’s quiet in both the Pacific and the Atlantic.”

“How about China? Any planned launches today?”

“No, quiet there as well.”

The Missile Warning Center was good duty. A small computer room buried deep within Cheyenne Mountain’s Operation Center, the MWC was where sensors, satellites, radars, and surveillance equipment fed all their information from around the globe.

If something big happens, I’ll be the first to know, thought Air Force Sergeant Billy Algrade. Which means I’m the one who gets to tell the president the shit has hit the fan.

The Saturday morning shift at MWC had become rather routine for Billy, the senior noncommissioned officer of bravo crew CD. He enjoyed “being at this point of the spear,” as his commanding officer often said, although it grated on him that the generals would all be out playing golf while he spent his Saturday morning at work.

“Why don’t you run off that stale, old shit,” Billy commanded his junior airman. Johnson and the crew always expected Billy to start each shift by giving them a certain amount of grief—and by ordering a new pot of coffee. This morning, Billy had managed to do both at the same time.

“Yo, Johnson,” he said a few minutes later. “What the hell’s taking you so long?”

At that same instant, the alarm began on the main computer—a shrill sequence of beeps—and in a split second repeated on the second, third, and fourth monitors. Dominoes seemed to fall as each computer sounded the same distress call.

“What is it?” Billy said.

Adrenaline coursed through the room.

“Launch detection,” said Johnson.

“Okay, check list and location.”

“Sergeant, it’s the Pacific.” At that moment, the bravo crew officer of the day charged into the room and pulled up a chair next to Billy’s desk.

“Okay, Billy, what’s it look like?”

“Satellite detection of USA 394, sir.”

“China launch facilities?” Satellite USA394 passed north to south along the eastern end of China, then across the East China Sea, the Korean peninsula, the Sea of Japan, and the Sea of Okhotsk.

“No, sir, and none are expected from China.” Even with the strain of politics, the superpowers had gotten into the habit of giving each other a heads-up on future launches. For China, as with the others, there wasn’t any advantage in keeping launches a secret. Besides, launch preparations were visible by spy satellites for months in advance.

“Where, then?” said the officer.

“DPRK.”

“No way.”

“It looks like that’s it, sir,” said Billy.

“We haven’t had one from them in months.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Where in DPRK?”

“God, sir, this is pretty far south—almost at the DMZ.”

A chill ran down Billy’s back. Depending on the launch’s direction, his first thought was that this was a North Korean strike across the DMZ. A missile flying south would have already traveled the thirty or so miles to Seoul and detonated. Even with the instantaneous reaction of surveillance satellites and their computers, the distances were too short in Korea. If this missile had been sent south, the death sentence to millions in Seoul—including thousands of American forces in close proximity to the border and the city—was already history.

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