The Book of Truths

Chapter 15

“Two minutes since launch,” the Keep said.

Moms looked up. “And?”

“And time for a reckoning,” the Keep said. “According to my book, this has the possibility of getting ugly, so I could use some, shall we say, team for backup.”

Moms and Neeley looked at each other in confusion, but got to their feet. Neeley readied her HK416 and Moms her MK23 pistol.

The steel doors to the PEOC slid open. As if expecting that, the Keep walked in. Neeley and Moms flanked her, weapons extended.

The occupants of the room broke their mesmerized gaze from the screen tracking the nukes to the intruders.

“General Riggs,” the Keep said. She held up the watch. “You’ve had two minutes to reflect on what you’ve just done. What if you had a do-over? Would you push the button again?”

Riggs blinked, confused. The rush of champagne on top of the Cherry Tree had muddied his brain. But the Cherry Tree prevailed.

“I damn well would.”

“Kill him,” the Keep said.

Neeley and Moms fired, both hitting him right between the eyes with a double-tap times two, which effectively blew his head off.

While General Riggs’s body was still crumpling to the floor, the Keep walked over to the table. She stepped over his body and reached into the briefcase. She pulled the cord out and the screen flickered, then snapped into darkness.

“What the fuck?” someone muttered.

“There have been no launches,” the Keep said. “The system is set up so that the person who has the code can enter it. They can think they launched. Then they get two minutes to reflect on what they’ve done. It’s happened before. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Nixon while drunk one night. Reagan over a Fail-Safe—type scenario. And George Bush, the younger. They all launched. And two minutes later, when they got their chance to do over, they all thanked God on their knees they had that chance. And they never entered this room again.”

The Keep held up the Book of Truths. “So it is written. So it is.”

“Only time I’ve ever been happy to lose a bet,” Mac said.

“Bring it in!” Nada yelled into his transmitter.

“You owe,” Roland said to Mac as the five members of the Nightstalkers gathered near the edge of the steel walkway. The W54 was armed and counting down next to them.

“Two minutes, thirty seconds,” Doc said, staring at the old-fashioned analog clock on the instrument panel.

Eagle brought the Snake in fast, flaring to a hover.

“Hey,” Roland said, looking down into the mine tower. “There’s some guys down there. Running.”

“Can’t run fast enough,” Nada said.

Eagle turned the Snake and the back ramp beckoned. They all jumped and even Doc made it without help.

“Go! Go! Go!” Nada yelled.

Eagle slammed the throttle and the Snake roared up and away from the tower.

Inside the abandoned Pinnacle bunker, the old system slowly counted down to launch.

It never made it as the W54 SADM went off, obliterating the tower and the four missiles as well as the stockpile of weapons.

What was more radiation on top of a landscape scarred with it?