The Eden Prophecy

CHAPTER 50

Captain Laurence Petrie of the guided missile cruiser USS Shiloh stood watch on the bridge studying the orders that had come in from the commander in chief of Persian Gulf forces. His communications officer and the officer of the deck stood at attention, awaiting a response.

The orders directed him to launch a Series of eight Tomahawk missiles against a single target. That alone was strange. The Tomahawk carried a hell of a kick, either a thousand-pound high-explosive warhead or what the navy called a combined effects bomb, which spread a hundred smaller warheads over a wide area, all designed to explode roughly simultaneously.

The combined effects bomb created a wide killing zone filled with flying shrapnel, explosive concussion waves, and, from the incendiary core of the charges, a storm of overlapping flame that burned well above a thousand degrees Celsius.

The fact that eight such weapons were being directed against the same target surprised him. In Iraq, Afghanistan, and most recently Libya, the weapons were used primarily in ones and twos, usually against air defense systems or hardened command and control bunkers. When the papers reported a hundred missiles fired they were usually fired at a hundred different targets. The idea of launching eight missiles against a single target sounded like massive overkill.

The fact that the target was an abandoned rock in Iranian waters made the order seem even stranger.

“Did you confirm this order, Lieutenant?”

“Yes, sir,” the communications officer said. “All proper communication protocols were followed and verified. The order is authentic.”

“I’m not worried about its authenticity,” the captain said. “I don’t think anyone broke into the communications suite in Qatar and pranked us. But I’m concerned with its accuracy. I don’t want to find out after the fact that we fired eight of those multimillion-dollar birds when we were supposed to fire one.”

The officer of the deck spoke up. “Sir, the rest of the order indicates this is a joint operation. The San Jacinto and the Bunker Hill will be firing equivalent number of missiles as well. The Normandy has been placed on standby should either we or any of the other vessels have operational difficulties that prevent us from firing.”

Captain Petrie glanced at the rest of the order. Twenty-four missiles aimed at a single target. He’d never heard of such a thing.

“Whatever’s on that island,” the officer of the deck added, “command wants it erased from existence.”

Silently, Captain Petrie had to agree. He folded the order sheet and handed it back to the officer of the deck.

“Sound general quarters,” he said. “Prepare to launch missiles.”

Within seconds the whooping sound of the general quarters alarm was reverberating throughout the ship, accompanied by the words This is not a drill.