A Twist in Time (11 page)

"Holy shit!" the driver said.  "We've got to go lock down the fuel farm." 

"Get up to that intersection." Ted pointed.  The intersection was at least a quarter mile away.  "Then you can take a left back to the fuel farm and I'll jump out.  Step on it.  If you get in trouble, tell them Major General Arthurs gave you an order.  I'll back you up. " 

The driver cut him a look.  Ted read her mind. "This old guy with knobby knees wearing running shorts is a two star general?"  She nodded and pushed on the gas.  The little engine in the pickup hesitated, pinged, and tried to wind up.  They got to a blistering 45 MPH before they reached the stop sign for the four-way intersection.  "Go through it, make the turn and let me out," Ted directed. 

"Yes, Sir!" the driver said and tried to take the turn on two wheels.  Ted slid into the woman in the middle because the truck didn't have seat belts for three in the front.  The little truck responded by under-steering and almost running into the ditch.  Ted jumped out of the passenger's side even before the truck stopped.  "Thanks!" he said.  As he started running toward the Project, he heard the driver say, "Holy shit!" one more time.

The remaining half a mile took him four long minutes to run. There was an armed civilian security guard at the gated fence of the Project.  He had the gate open and waved Ted through.  A second guard opened the outer door as Ted trotted up to the building.  "We heard you were coming," the guard commented as they went through the second inner door together.  Even though he was in his running clothes, Ted's arm implant chip was the security pass he needed inside the Project. 

He entered the operations room and stood panting next to the Controller's console.  Bill Wirtz turned his head and nodded to him from the Planning Team Console.

The Duty Controller stood, leaned in, and spoke in a low voice to his Commander.  The Assistant Duty Controller at his side was talking on the phone and studying a checklist on his screen.   "Sir, we received a military-wide CRITIC message at fourteen forty local.  It reported an attack and mass shooting at Ft. Hood in Texas.  It has the elements of a terrorist event with multiple military causalities.  At fourteen forty-two US NORTHCOM declared Force Protection Charlie.  I immediately increased our security force and I have initiated our Oplan One.  We started a recall of bravo crew and we started the telephone tree alert for Charlie crew.  We are pre-cooling the cryogenic chamber and charging the capacitor bank. "

"Did Turkey Point acknowledge?"  Arthurs asked.

"Yes, Sir."  The Project had power feeders that went directly to the Turkey Point nuclear power plant.  It was good to let them know that there might be a sudden demand on those feeders.  The power surge that fired the Project’s array of precisely aimed Lasers came from a huge bank of capacitors.  After each shot the capacitors were re-charged through large transformers and rectifiers. The power part of the system was big old tech.  But, the faster they could re-charge the capacitor bank, the fewer changes they had to make to Laser alignments between shots.    

"The alternate site?"

"Oplan One initiated, Sir."

"Any word from the National Military Command Center?"  The NMCC was  his official operational link to the Chairman.  

"Sir, the NMCC has alerted us to come up on a secure videoconference, but it has not been initiated."   

"Is that the news feed?"  Arthurs walked closer to a television picture showing on a corner of the video wall.  There was no sound, but the banner flashed "Shooting at Fort Hood." 

Bill Wirtz had been speaking into his headset, but now he addressed Ted.   "No information on the television or news wires so far that was not in the CRITIC message. What we’ve got is three shooters, estimates of dozens of military dead, and more than fifty wounded.  One of the shooters was apparently military, an Army officer. "

Ted turned back to the Controller.  "My wife read the initial message and headed for the school?" 

"Yes, Sir.  I'm sure she was thinking Beslan, Sir." 

On September 1, 2004 a group of Muslims from Chechnya attacked School Number One in the town of Beslan in the North Ossetia Republic of the Russian Federation.  In the end, 334 hostages were killed including 186 children.  Sally Arthurs, Bill Wirtz, and the planning team of the Project were familiar with the Beslan attack and frightened by its ferocity. They used it as an exercise to determine what actions they could take to prevent the school massacre.   

"Bill, is there any sign that this Fort Hood attack was aimed at a school?" 

Wirtz shook his head and replied, "No, it seems to be at a military personnel processing center."

The Deputy Controller spoke up.  "Sir, I'm on the Homestead Command Post telephone conference loop.  The local police and sheriff's departments are responding to the schools."

"Well," Ted commented just loud enough for Bill Wirtz to hear, “I hope we don't have to get Sally out of jail." 

Wirtz nodded without smiling.  He had known Sally just as long as Ted and he had already considered the real possibility.  

***

In the moments before the Force Protection Charlie warning went out from US NORTHCOM, Major Jose Valenzuela was reviewing an operations plan in his office with Dr. Rae Dunnan.  Rae, Craig Pulliam, and others put together "TDA Operations Plan 13, Deflection of  Near Earth Objects."  They researched, brainstormed, drafted, run simulated exercises, researched and drafted again, and this was the final refinement of the Op Plan that only needed the formality of Major General Arthur's signature.     

"You know, Jose, "Rae had said with a little touch of sarcasm in her voice, "it would have been easier if I could have read some of your basic operations plans as a template."  Rae wasn’t sure if she was really irritated or just poking Jose to get a rise out of him.
“Take that Mr. Starchy”
she thought to herself.

Jose smiled.  "You know, Rae, the military has some of its little secrets to keep.  It's all that need-to-know stuff." 

Rae had a reply on her lips when the PA system went off.  "Attention crew, implement Force Protection Charlie.  This is not a drill.  Implement Force Protection Charlie." 

They heard the sounds of movement in the hallway.  Rae started for the door, but Jose said, "Don't get in their way.  They'll knock you down." 

The Boulder City detachment didn't have the luxury of an armed civilian guard force.  They had to provide their own security.  While anonymity was their primary protection, an armory that would have been the envy of any metropolitan police SWAT team was part of the equation.  Warrant Officers moved quickly to hand out weapons and vests.  After the pounding footsteps receded, Rae and Jose moved to the small operations room.

The Duty Controller for the Detachment saw Jose enter and said, "Sir, headquarters has initiated Op Plan One in response to an apparent terrorist incident involving US military personnel and we are shadowing their actions.  We are pre-cooling the cryogenic chamber and charging the capacitor bank.  A laser alignment test was underway when the alert came in and we are securing from that test. "

"Where is the event?" Jose asked. 

The Controller replied, "Fort Hood, Texas.  The first reports say multiple shooters and many fatalities and wounded in a personnel processing center."  The warrant officer's voice became softer.  "Major, we've all been in that Soldier Readiness Center on Fort Hood.  It's all just desks and cubicles jammed with people.  If some shooters got in there it will be bad." 

Jose looked the Warrant Officer in the eyes and nodded.  "Mission Geometry?" he asked. 

"Doctor Wirtz is working on initial geometry and some of our team called him and they’re talking to him about what they know.  Since our folks here know the area, we are giving some estimates of distances and dimensions of the building's layout to the mission geometry team." 

"Homestead has us in ready status?" 

"Yes, sir.  With the exception of the laser, we are at Charlie and in ready status. Homestead says they have been alerted for an NMCC video conference, but it has not been initiated."

"Bravo crew on recall?"  Jose knew that recall of the crew scheduled to come on next was a standard part of the operations plan. 

"Yes, sir." 

"Call each one of them and tell them to proceed in slowly.  Tell them to take time to look around on their way in.  Tell them to be cool and don't raise a profile." 

"Yes, sir.  Recon and low profile."

"And let's add that to our Op Plan One for the recall,"  Jose said. 

Four hours later they watched the Secretary of Defense on television say that it appeared there was only one attack and that it was not terrorist related.  That conclusion raised boos and curses from the warrant officers. “He yelled  Allahu Akbar!” one of the warrants shouted at the screen. “What the hell do you call that if not Jihad?”  A few minutes after that, the US NORTHCOM alert status went down to Force Protection Alpha.

But, the Homestead and Boulder City facilities of the Technical Defense Agency stayed on full ready status.  The crew circulated in and out of the operations room and read the latest intelligence messages.  The confidential list of victims created a stir because several names were familiar to the veteran US Army Warrant Officers.  After more than ninety minutes of almost total silence in the operations room, Rae Dunnan approached Jose and asked, "May I see you for a moment in your office, Major?" 

Jose nodded and moved out of the operations room.

In his office, Rae said, "I'm trying to understand.  Basically, why did you cool down the chamber and heat up the capacitor bank?  At first I thought you were looking for an opportunity to take down terrorists if they hit somewhere else using that white-hot bullet I've heard you talk about.  But, now you are still fully powered up and your security guards are still locked and loaded even after the alert has been cancelled.  I guess I'm just asking why?" 

Jose spread his hands in a dramatic gesture.  "Perhaps something will come up," Jose said.  "It's better to be ready." 

The words sounded weak even in his ears.  But, they weren't a lie.  What he expected to happen was that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs would tell the Homestead facility to reach back into time and put a white-hot bead into the heads of the guys who had killed these military people before they even did it.  According to Oplan One, the Boulder City Detachment One Alternate Site would shadow the actions of the Homestead facility in this kind of operation and be prepared to take over in the event of some malfunction at Homestead.  He had known he would have to ask Rae Dunnan to leave when that started, but now, even with nothing happening she was asking questions he didn't want to answer.  

Rae just looked at him for several seconds.  "I am too old to use the term 'Whatever' and too polite to say bullshit, so I think I'll just go home for the evening.  Oh, and tomorrow I’m going to UNLV to interview.  Good night, Major." 

"Good night, Rae."  Jose said.  As she walked out the door he bitterly thought,
"Well, that went well."
   He took the few steps into the operations room.  The duty controller saw him and said, "Sir, General Arthurs on the secure line." 

Most military command centers put their secure communications devices inside a glassed-in cubbyhole that is always referred to as the “phone booth."  In this small facility the secure voice system was built into the Duty Controller's console.  Jose picked up the phone and said, "Major Valenzuela." 

"Jose, you are going to get a stand-down order in just a minute.  I don't think that's going to go over well with some of your folks."

"Possibly not, Sir."  Jose replied. 

"The word here in my crew is that some of your crew knows people, military people, hurt in Texas.”

"That's true sir." 

"You're going to have to tell them that the Chairman has decided that we are standing down." 

"Yes, sir.  I understand."