Firefall: A high-tech conspiracy thriller (Shadow Operatives Book 3) by J.D. Lasica

Author:J.D. Lasica [Lasica, J.D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: A Shadow Operatives Thriller (Book 3)
Published: 2022-11-12T16:00:00+00:00

32

Greenwich, Connecticut

“Juliet, what’s the time?” Redman raised his voice a notch as he paced across the great room of his smart home.

“The time is one fifty-seven, sir,” a young-sounding female computerized voice replied.

Redman smiled. Pleased that his smart home upgrade was working as advertised. And more than pleased that his virtual assistant had called him sir. I just may replace Monique with Juliet one day, he mused.

He drew a deep breath. It was Cotton Ball Thursday. The sweet, subtle aroma of cotton balls wafted through the air. Monique had programmed the smart home to release a different scent for each day of the week, a pointless practice he had tolerated until now. He peered out the bay window again at the security detail. One of the officers gave him a two-fingered military salute.

“Juliet, connect me with my two o’clock.” He stepped over to the large screen on the main wall.

“Opening the connection now, sir,” Juliet said.

For today’s session, he’d arrange for a live stream from the Sovereignty Conference Room at Raven Rock. The screen filled with the usual suspects. His son Barrett. Vasily Radinov. Oleg Drozd. Tosh Farraday. Bo Finnerty—a bargaining chip to leverage Farraday. And a satellite uplink to Maximum One in the Sentinel satellite.

“Gentlemen, good day,” he began.

“How are you holding up, Father?” Barrett asked.

“All’s well enough. But I need to get back to Raven Rock.”

“That might be difficult.” Finnerty looked up at the camera from the far end of the conference table, his purple face still displaying Drozd’s handiwork. “Nobody getting in or out.”

“True … for the moment,” Redman said. “Radinov, I want an update.”

Radinov cleared his throat. “We’re using the satellite’s krypton ion thrusters to position Sentinel over the coordinates of targets in Operation Firefall.”

Redman eyed his two captives, who pretended they weren’t paying attention. Radinov knew better than to disclose the details of the operation, but no matter. Finnerty and Farraday weren’t going anywhere.

“But we wanted to wait for you to begin this next phase,” Radinov went on. “Maximum One, initiate solar array deployment.”

Redman watched as the screen filled with a live video—an exterior shot taken from the base of the satellite. Against the deep black recesses of space, he could see a slot open up along nearly the entire length of the rocket's cone. Slowly, a solar array emerged, lined with scores of golden hexagonal mirrors. Redman caught his breath at its grandiosity, unfurling to the size of a tennis court and dwarfing the Sentinel craft. As the thin panel locked into position to capture the reflected sunlight, the mirrors shimmered with a brilliance so intense that he had to look away.

“What am I seeing?” He raised his palm to shield his eyes.

Radinov smiled with satisfaction, watching the faces of those in the room. “You are seeing a photovoltaic array that uses giant mirrors to redirect solar rays onto smaller solar panels, where the captured energy will be harnessed and sent to hundreds of cells for storage. It will take the better part of an hour for my engineers in the next room to finalize the latching process.

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