Red Metal

CHAPTER 29

Dan Connolly looked across the dining room table to his wife, Julie, and gave her the thumbs-up. She returned the gesture with a tired smile. Between the two of them was the detritus of a small dinner party: empty plates, half-empty glasses of wine and soda, and a batch of tired, turkey-fattened family members who had eaten well this Christmas Eve.

Their dinner for eight had gone off without a hitch. Tomorrow the meal would be taken care of by his mother-in-law, so Dan and Julie Connolly were basking in the glow that came from the knowledge that their time in the hot seat this holiday season was over.

Dan’s mother; Julie’s cousin; the Connollys’ kids, Jack and Elsa; and Julie’s parents all sat at the table satisfied, chatting about family issues. Just now the topic of discussion was one of Dan’s cousins who’d spent a fortune on a new swimming pool while ignoring his kid’s college fund.

Dan tried to tune out the gossip and appreciate the moment. He’d spent his entire adult life in the military and a large portion of it at war. He’d missed more holiday dinners than he’d made in the past fifteen years, and he knew he had to enjoy himself while here, especially because he wondered if he’d be fighting in Asia this time next year.

More than anything he appreciated the fact that all the family members present seemed to be getting along, with no drama. A Christmas miracle, Connolly thought.

He was about to usher everyone into the living room to sit in front of the fireplace, when his cell phone buzzed in his pocket. Julie gave him a death stare when he pulled it out, but his intention was just to send the call to voice mail.

Until he saw it was Griggs. He looked up to Julie. “It’s Bob, hon. Let me tell him merry Christmas. You take everybody in to get them started on charades. I’ll come in and light the fire in just a sec.”

Connolly answered. “Hey, Bob. I figured you’d be diving into dessert about now, not calling me.”

But Griggs’s voice was serious. “You watching the news?”

“Of course not. It’s Christmas Eve. I’m sitting with the family having dinner and—”

“Turn it on! Now.” Connolly launched from the table with the phone to his ear. He began heading for the den, because whatever the hell was going on, Griggs wouldn’t have called him and spoken like this unless it was damn serious.

As he reached for the TV remote he said, “China’s not supposed to do anything till after the election next week.”

“Not China, Dan. It’s Russia.”

The Marine felt an icy chill down his spine.

The TV came on and Connolly flipped to Fox News.

The network anchor sat at her desk, reading the teleprompter. “While experts encourage calm, they say the loss of virtually all fiber-optic, satellite, and Internet communications to Europe is unprecedented. Once again, for those joining us, Europe is experiencing what some are describing as a total communications blackout.”

A split screen came up and the reporter was joined by a Fox engineer standing in front of a bank of dead monitors. “Jim, you’ve worked in telecommunications for over twenty years. What’s your assessment? Could this be holiday grid overload, or something more sinister?”

“I’ve never seen anything like this, Stacy. We aren’t getting through to our bureaus at all, and can’t even raise them on landlines. Even individual private cell phones are down. No single malfunction could cause this. I can only imagine that this indicates that some kind of coordinated communications attack is under way.”

“How long?” Connolly asked into the phone.

Griggs said, “Just a few minutes, apparently. CNN also says they lost their feeds into all their European bureaus and can’t reach them any other way. There is nothing getting in or out of the Continent right now. It’s as if Europe just went dark.”

Connolly said, “There’s no way that this is anything other than a Russian comms attack.”

Grigg’s agreed. “And there’s no way that screwing with TVs and cell phones was their end goal. They blinded NATO. Something’s coming. Something big.”

Connolly looked at his watch. “It could already be happening. It’s just after oh three hundred in Central Europe. They wouldn’t just turn out the lights. They’d move as soon as they flipped the switch. This is synced with something else.”

Griggs said, “But what? How could Russia invade? We haven’t seen the buildup. The troops in Belarus aren’t enough to take and hold Poland or the Baltics. Our Russian intel desks said they had a firm count on all the Russian rolling stock, and it wasn’t enough to even get through Poland, let alone break out and fight off the rest of NATO. Hell, their best general is down running drills in Iran, for God sakes.”

Connolly said, “I don’t have the answers, Bob, but we need to find them.”

“You gonna go in?”

Connolly looked back to the dining room. Julie was sitting in her chair, but looking his way. “Yeah. I’ll be there in thirty.”

“See you then.”

Dan Connolly went back into the living room, and all eyes turned his way.