Project Aura

25

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 for a few moments, then issued an order.

“Throw it 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. They 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, wherever they are,” 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, this conflict almost just destroyed 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.