Shadow Tyrants

SIXTY-FIVE

Thanks to Vajra, the unknown cargo ship armed with the missiles was still motionless. Twenty minutes before, the radar signature of a small boat had been reported heading from that direction toward the launch command ship, but five minutes ago, it disappeared. Mallik assumed it was a lifeboat from either the Maurya or the cargo ship, and it had sunk because of damage from the explosions they’d observed. Once the Kalinga had finished off the large ship, it could take its time searching the surrounding waters for any survivors to eliminate.

The countdown was now T minus four minutes. There were still no impediments to a successful launch, although Mallik couldn’t relax, not so close to finishing something that had taken so long to complete. He was already envisioning what would come next. The new world.

An alarm interrupted his reverie. Torkan rushed in carrying an assault rifle and said, “Stay here.”

“What is it?” Mallik asked.

“We’ve spotted smoke on the aft deck by the helicopter.”

“Fire?”

Torkan shook his head. “The smoke is red, like from a grenade. Or five. It’s covered the entire stern.” With the breeze from the monsoon gone, it would linger for a while.

“We have intruders,” Mallik said. “Go get them off my ship.”

Torkan nodded and ran out to join the rest of his security team, leaving just the two guards behind with Mallik.

“Should we hold the launch?” Kapoor asked halfheartedly.

Mallik sneered at him. “What do you think?”

Kapoor turned away and announced, “T minus three minutes and counting.”

Fearing that he would have a mutiny if there was a firefight on board, Mallik stood and went over to the control panel.

“We are committed now. Nothing is stopping the launch. I’m going to make sure of that.”

He tapped on the screen and brought up the command to lock out all changes to the launch sequence. The screen asked for his authorization, and he looked into the camera. The retinal scanner confirmed his identity. The screen read Abort command locked out.

Now nothing could stop the launch.

Using his crossbow, MacD stood atop the Gator and shot a bolt with a hook on it at the railing directly under the forward superstructure of the command ship. Juan, Raven, Linc, Eddie, and Murph stood next to him in full combat gear. When the nylon rope ladder was secured in place, Juan used his comm unit to talk quietly to Gomez, who was inside the Gator. He had already landed a dozen small drones on the stern of the ship to make it look like they were sneaking on board from that direction.

Half of the drones were carrying smoke grenades. The other half held gunshot simulators.

“Set them off, Gomez,” Juan said.

“Roger that,” he answered.

Instantly, the air was pierced by a series of loud cracks that sounded identical to multiple AK-47s firing simultaneously from different angles. As long as the smoke remained, it would be impossible to know if there was any enemy force on the stern.

Juan quickly scaled the ladder, making sure that they were alone when he got up to the deck. Since he was right below the bridge wing, no one up there would see armed operatives climbing up from the Gator unless they leaned over the railing and looked straight down.

Once the other five had joined Juan on deck of the command ship, Linda, who was driving the Gator, resubmerged with Gomez and stayed on station for the post-mission pickup.

The sub/boat hybrid had been easier to modify than the Oregon. They’d used the high-speed surface mode for most of the journey from the Oregon and then dived the boat when they got close enough to be seen.

Thanks to the files stolen from Mallik, Juan and his team had a detailed layout of the ship. Although the mission control room was buried deep in the superstructure, there was a direct path to get there. It could be easily defended, assuming they could take it in the first place.

Juan led the way. It looked like their ruse had worked because they didn’t encounter any armed security before they reached mission control. On the count of three, Juan and his team rushed in, shouting for everyone to get down. Juan was ready to take down at least a couple of security forces, but there weren’t any, and everyone followed his command and hit the deck.

There was someone else missing, too.

“Who’s in charge here?” Juan demanded.

A man with graying hair and a headset raised his hand.

“Get up,” Juan said. “Who are you?”

“Kapoor, the flight director.”

“Where’s Mallik?”

“When he heard the gunshots, he took his security men and went back to his yacht.”

Juan looked up and saw the timer counting down from twenty-three seconds. They’d made it in time.

“Abort the launch,” he said to Kapoor.

“I can’t.”

Juan raised his weapon. “Do it! Now!”

“I can’t! Mallik has locked the system. We can’t make any changes to the launch.”

“Murph?”

Murph took a seat at the nearest workstation. He typed on the screen and shook his head.

“He’s right. It requires Mallik’s retinal scan to unlock. Five seconds.”

The clock ticked down… three… two… one…

Smoke billowed at the launchpad. Then a spear of flame knifed down as the rocket lifted off.

By the time they heard the thunderclap of its powerful engines igniting, it was already five hundred feet in the air and accelerating.