Biowar

92

Now what the Syrian had told Lia earlier made sense — Marie Telach jumped to the panel, punching the line to the piloting area.

“Malachi. Malachi. Abort! Abort!”

She could see on the screen that the timer had drained to five seconds.

“Marie?”

“Abort,” she repeated.

“Once I’m authorized I’m only supposed to abort on Mr. Rubens’ orders. You already confirmed the order.”

“Stop now, Malachi,” she said, her voice calm and cold. “Stop. My authority.”

“If I abort, I still have to destruct. No second chance.”

“Abort! Now!

There was a pause. The timer had hit 0.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Inside the piloting pod, Malachi and Whacker didn’t speak until they were ready to start the destruct.

“Counting down,” said Whacker.

“Roger that.”

“I need your voice,” said Whacker, meaning that Malachi had to give the verbal authorization or the F-47s would not blow themselves up.

“Just a second,” said Malachi. He nudged Bird 2 so that it was lined up to hit the water as it destroyed itself. “Barry Manilow sucks fish.”

“That’s it?”

“You have to repeat word for word.”

“Barry Manilow sucks fish.”

The screen flashed red.

“Confirmed,” Malachi told the computer. “Destruct one. Destruct two.”

The aircraft blew up. The feed reverted to a feed from a Space Command visual satellite that Malachi had selected earlier as a default.

“Barry Manilow sucks?” asked Whacker.

“See? I knew you were a fan.”