Operation Hail Storm

Sea of Japan ― on the cargo ship Hail Nucleus

Hail saw the door open and Kara walked back into the mission center.

She walked up to Hail and asked, “Did I miss anything?”

Hail considered telling her that he tried to kill Kornev, but since he had failed, he simply told her no.

“But I am glad you are back in time to see the big boom,” Hail told her.

Hail looked at BEP’s video feed and was comforted to see that the missile section had been dropped off and the driver and truck were gone. The warehouse doors had been wheeled shut and the warehouse was quiet once again. The last THING holding one of the nine shaped charges had been flown up and onto the new missile section and all of the explosive drones were now in place.

“Knox,” Hail said, “Turn Blondie’s microphone back on.”

Alex Knox reached over and unmuted the mic on Blondie and the cricket noise jumped back into the room.

Hail then looked over in Renner’s direction and gave a nod.

Renner, who had been waiting for Hail to give the signal, called out to his THING pilots, “Fingers over your destruct icons and wait for my countdown.”

If there was any part of the mission that Hail thought was low-tech, then this was it. He would have preferred that all the destruct salvos to all the drones could have been synchronized into one switch. But there were too many drones, too much programming, and too little time to put all that together. Therefore, the last step in the mission would rely on twelve fingers pressing twelve icons that looked like a pack of dynamite on twelve separate screens. A little too soon and one premature denotation could knock the drones off the top of the missile parts and the shape charges would have no effect. A little late and the exact same thing could happen.

“We will do this exactly as we trained on it. On zero we will all press at the same time,” Renner instructed.

Renner looked at Hail and Hail gave him another nod and smiled.

Renner began the countdown.

“Five, four, three, two, one, ZERO!”

Hail watched Black Eyed Peas’ video signal turn red and then disappear. BEP’s mother drone, Electric Light Orchestra, was vaporized at the same instant and by default all the communications were automatically routed over to Blondie. Along with his crew, Hail watched the destruction from both Blondie and Men at Work’s video cameras.

Minutes before the blast, Renner had flown Sex Pistols and landed it on the roof of the warehouse. That drone had been destroyed along with the others. Hundreds of rounds of spare ammunition that had been attached to Sex Pistols had been thrown into the air and were falling like metal rain around the ruins.

It was breathtaking. The sound, even over the mission center’s small speakers, was immense. The crew could actually feel the power of the blast as a low rumble distorted the mid tones and the screeching highs fluctuated wildly throughout the room. The view from both surviving cameras was overwhelming. It looked more like a nuclear explosion than a conventional blast. The shaped charges directed their energy straight down. When the shock wave could no longer penetrate the earth, it rebounded and went straight up and out, making a mushroom cloud.

Men at Work fell over on its side as the shockwave blew past it and continued on out into the North Korean countryside. Blondie’s camera shuttered, went white, went black and then came back online in time to see the aftermath, a roaring fire that was consuming anything that was left to burn. The building was no longer there. All that was left were dozens of fiery piles of parts and crates and office furniture and mangled pieces of nothing that was recognizable. A moment later, a secondary explosion puffed fire out in all directions and another shock wave shook Blondie’s camera.

“Holy shit!” Kara said.

“Holy shit, indeed,” Hail agreed.

Renner had a huge smile on his face.

Hail looked around the room and everyone had the exact same smile. Hail realized that he was smiling as well.

“You did it,” Kara told him. “You really did it.”

“I can’t believe you had any doubts,” Hail responded with a degree of cockiness.

As the sound of the blast faded, a voice came over the mission room speakers. Hail recognized it as Dallas Stone, who was in the ship’s security office.

“Marshall, Prince’s radar has detected a fast moving aircraft approaching our position.”

“Do we have an ID on it?” Hail asked.

“Checking now, but it is supersonic and flying low. That would constitute an attack profile.”

The crew’s joy dissipated quickly and the room quieted down so Hail could talk to Stone.

There was a moment of silence and then Stone came back on the speaker.

“It’s ICAO designator ping is showing as United States military…”

A beat and then Stone continued, “Designator F35. I’m cross checking that ICAO code now.”

A moment later, “Its ICAO ping says it is a United States F-35 Lightning Two. Range of seventy-five miles and heading straight for us.”

Hail looked at Kara for a moment and she shrugged.

“Activate the railgun,” Hail told Dallas.

“Wait,” Kara said, placing her hand on Hail’s shoulder. I need to tell you something.”

“And what would that be?” Hail asked her, even though he already knew her secret and therefore understood the intentions of the inbound jet.

Kara looked him directly in the eyes and said, “The United States has a backup plan in case you were not successful in your mission.”

“And what would that be?” Hail asked in a calm and controlled tone.

“That jet is flying a single sortie to blow up the warehouse, if you failed to do so. It’s not coming for you, so you can put your big gun away.”

Kara thought that Hail looked angry, but not as angry as she would have expected.

He said, “Do you realize how dangerous that is? It’s dangerous for everyone.”

“I understand,” Kara said, but Hail didn’t believe her.

“We could have shot this asshole out of the sky before he ever made a pass on the warehouse.”

“I understand,” Kara said. She moved her eyes away from Hail’s and back to the screen that showed the burning warehouse.

Hail asked her, “If this is a backup plan, then why hasn’t this guy turned around and gone home?”

Kara looked back up at Hail and looked perplexed, as if she hadn’t thought of that fact.

“I don’t know. Maybe he hasn’t got the word yet.”

“Then maybe you should get on the horn with your boss and make sure this guy gets called off before he wakes up every radar and anti-aircraft battery in North Korea. I don’t know if you realize it, but we are pretty exposed right here in the middle of the Sea of Japan.”

Hail handed Kara his phone.

“We don’t have time for you to go up to the top deck. Use my phone,” Hail told her.