Shadow Tyrants

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Juan advanced on Kapoor. “How long until the satellite is in position for the Vajra system to go active?”

He pointed to a large screen above the picture window showing the status of all nineteen satellites already in orbit. They were displayed in green, while the one currently on its way into space was depicted in gray.

Kapoor shrank back and said, “You know about that?”

“How long?”

“Eight minutes from launch.”

“If we can’t abort the launch, can we stop Vajra from activating?”

Kapoor nodded and pointed at the screen nearest to him. Juan waved Murph over to take a seat in front of it. He didn’t trust Kapoor at the controls.

Murph started shutting it down.

“But there’s a problem,” Kapoor said.

“What?” Juan said.

“Mallik has an identical setup on his yacht. He can control it via the satellite dish on board.”

Murph slapped his hand on the screen. “He’s right. Every time I try to shut it down, someone keeps reactivating it.”

“He must be furious by now for not taking the time to make the lockout include the Vajra satellites,” Kapoor said. “He can’t keep you from accessing the system, but you can’t stop him, either.”

“What happens when the new satellite gets into orbit?” Juan demanded.

“Then the system will go live automatically a minute later,” Kapoor said, cowering. “Every computer on earth will be rendered useless. After that, we won’t be able to shut any of them down ever again.”

Many of the engineers in the room stared at Kapoor, agape at the revelation.

“If you want any leniency for your part in all this,” Juan said to Kapoor, “you better help us stop Vajra. Raven, stay here to protect Murph while he keeps trying to get control of the satellites.”

She nodded. Murph didn’t even look up.

Juan sprinted out of the room with Eddie, Linc, and MacD toward where the yacht was tied up to the command ship.

As he ran, he radioed to Gomez, “Make sure nobody gets an airborne advantage in that helicopter.”

The smoke was starting to clear, and it was obvious by now that the fake assault had been a diversion. And Torkan saw how it had been done. Small drones littered the deck, all of them destroyed by the explosives they had carried.

He saw another one appear, just visible behind the helicopter. Torkan took aim, thinking it was coming toward him for an attack, but it settled onto one of the Huey’s twin rotor blades.

As soon as it touched down, a small grenade went off, disintegrating the drone and snapping the blade in two. It clattered to the deck.

“There’s no one here, and the Huey is no longer functional,” Torkan said over his radio to Mallik. “Are you back on the yacht?”

“Yes. I’m interfacing with the Vajra system.”

Torkan could see the 300-foot Paara moving away from the command ship.

“I saw the launch,” he said. “It looks like we’re in the clear.”

“Not yet,” said Mallik. “Someone in the mission control room is trying to deactivate Vajra.”

“Kapoor?”

“I can’t tell. You need to go back in there and shut them down.”

“Understood.”

Torkan waved for his eight men to abandon the search for intruders and come with him to the mission control room.

They were halfway to the superstructure access door when it flew open and four men came out. Torkan immediately recognized the black man and the Asian man from his previous encounters with them.

Two of his security team were taken down in the first volley. Torkan ducked behind a stanchion and radioed Mallik as a vicious firefight raged.

“Getting to mission control is going to be a problem.”

“I don’t care if you have to sink the whole ship!” Mallik screamed. “Just shut them down!”

Torkan looked at the damaged helicopter. They had been planning to take it up to intercept the incoming boat before it disappeared from radar.

“Is the observation window in the mission control room bulletproof?” he asked Mallik.

“It’s reinforced safety glass, but it’s not bulletproof.”

“Then I’ll destroy it from the outside.”

“How?”

“I put an RPG launcher on the helicopter when we thought we were going to take out that incoming boat.”

“But you said the helicopter is nonfunctional.”

“Trust me, Romir,” Torkan said.

“I do, Asad.”

Torkan instructed the rest of his security team to give him suppressing fire while he ran toward the disabled Huey. He snatched the RPG launcher and a spare rocket from the open passenger compartment.

Then he called for one of his men to join him. They sprinted to the stairway leading down the command ship’s floating dock and the speedboat that had returned from the satellite launch platform.

From his position crouched behind a deck crane support, Juan saw Torkan and another man run down the stairs.

“He got an RPG from the Huey,” Juan said to Eddie between shots.

“Gomez told us there was a speedboat tied up down there. What’s he doing?”

Juan thought about the big picture window in the mission control room.

“He’s going to attack from the outside… Linda, where are you?”

“Idling on the starboard side of the ship by the superstructure. I just saw two men jump into a speedboat.”

She was only a hundred feet away from Juan’s position. “Prepare to pick me up.”

He said, “Eddie, cover me.”

Juan dropped his weapon and his gear and dashed toward the edge of the ship. Bullets ricocheted around him as he ran, pinging against the deck plating and bulkheads. Without breaking his stride, he dived over the railing and into the sea below.