“Nuclear laser? Are you serious?” he asked. “Sounds like something from a sci-fi movie. Or James Bond.”
“Very serious,” Pocket Protector announced, adjusting his glasses, his face solemn. “Lawrence Livermore has worked on the concept off and on since the seventies. We’ve never done much beyond proving the theory with a series of small-scale tests, but at one point, the technology was going to be the cornerstone of Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, with nuclear lasers being used to take down hundreds of inbound intercontinental ballistic missiles—or ICBMs, at a time—destroying them before they ever reached the lower atmosphere.”
Well, damn.
“And you think what we saw in Siberia was a test of this nuclear laser system?” Jake asked. “Someone using a B61 warhead to push the concept to the next level?”
“With the setup you described? There’s no doubt.” Pocket Protector turned his gaze on Jake. “They used the twists and turns of the tunnels to strip out most of the blast and thermal energy while capturing the gamma, X-ray, and neutron energy. But whoever pulled this off did more than push the concept to the next level. They’ve advanced it beyond anything we’ve even considered. It’s decades beyond current technological capabilities.”
Caleb leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. “This is all very interesting in a Bill-Nye-the-Science-Guy kind of way,” he said drily. “But why do we care that somebody used a nuke to shoot a laser beam into space?”
“Because they didn’t simply shoot the laser into space,” one of the suits from the CIA said.
The man tapped a few keys on a keyboard just out of view. A few seconds later, a collage of pictures showed up on their side, the large monitor making the images pop off the screen. The photos had obviously been taken from far away, then enlarged to allow whoever was looking at them to see the details. Caleb wasn’t sure what he was even looking at. In one photo, the thing kinda resembled burnt, twisted metal sitting in shallow water. Other photos showed pieces of debris along a smoldering hillside.
“As I was saying,” the CIA guy added, “that laser beam wasn’t shot randomly into space. It was aimed directly at a satellite positioned above Siberia in low earth orbit. That satellite, in turn, bounced the beam off several others until it was split into two separate beams and redirected back to earth. The pictures you’re seeing now are the results of those beams hitting their targets.”
From the expressions on their faces, this was obviously news to everyone on the call. Caleb heard murmurs of concern from not only the NSA and Lawrence Livermore’s contingent but McKay and his STAT teammates, too.
“The pictures on the left were taken at the Sangnam-ni Missile Base located in North Korea, about 250 kilometers north of the DMZ,” the CIA agent added. “What you’re looking at are the remains of a Hwasong-10 intermediate-range ballistic missile. The radiation signature we picked up from the site confirms the missile was equipped with a nuclear warhead.”
Complete silence reigned now, unless Caleb counted the sounds of elevated heart rates as some of his teammates realized the implications of what the man said. Caleb’s heart was beating a little faster, too. Someone had used this laser thing to blow up a North Korean weapon. Wars had been started for less.
“The pictures on the right were taken near the Yulin Naval Base on Hainan Island, China,” the CIA guy continued. “The twisted metal just visible above the water is all that’s left of one of their Jin-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines. It was destroyed at nearly the exact same time the missile in North Korea was hit. That type of submarine can carry multiple nuclear-capable sub-launched ballistic missiles. We don’t know how many were on this particular sub, but the entire base has been evacuated, which suggests that the contamination release wasn’t trivial.”
“Holy hell,” Forrest murmured.
Caleb silently agreed. This was beyond bad. World War III may have already started for all they knew.
“North Korea remains completely silent, not even acknowledging the event occurred, while China is downplaying the severity of the situation, claiming it’s a minor issue with the sub’s reactor core,” another CIA agent said, her voice grim. “But behind the scenes, tensions are high. Russia is trying to claim they had nothing to do with it, but everyone knows the laser beam originated in Siberia. The lid’s staying on the boiling pot at the moment, but barely.”
Caleb zoned out again as everyone started arguing about whether Russia really was to blame for this. The nerd herd at Lawrence Livermore refused to believe anyone in Russia had the technical know-how, while the NSA thought it was a rogue movement within the Russian government behind the attacks willing to start a war to gain what they were after. The CIA insisted the Russians were scurrying around in a panic, trying to figure out who was framing them for this mess. That only led to more arguments and debates between the three agencies.
It was enough to give Caleb a headache, trying to keep track of all the different moving pieces and the possibilities.
Caleb’s stomach was about to crawl out to find some food on its own by the time the briefing was finished. The end results of all the talking and complaining were that STAT would continue to lead the operation in the field while the CIA and NSA continued to provide intel support, with everyone’s attention focused on finding the other nineteen missing nukes—not only where they might be located but also who had the technical know-how to build a nuclear-powered laser as strong as the one fired in Siberia.
“Can we go eat now?” Caleb asked the second the last person dropped off the video teleconference. “I’m so hungry I’ll even pay.”
Most of the team seemed on board with the idea, especially when Caleb mentioned there was a pub that served pizza within walking distance of the safe house. But then Misty said she wanted to start looking for clues on who’d built the facility in Surinda, mentioning she’d seen something while inside the computer there that might help point her in the right direction. Forrest immediately said he’d stay with her.
Genevieve begged off next, saying she was going to start researching the satellite system that had been used to route the laser beam from Siberia to the two target areas. “It shouldn’t be that hard to figure out who owns those satellites. Knowing that should lead us to the people behind this whole thing.”
Jake and Jes decided to stay behind to help her, leaving Caleb, Brielle, Harley, Sawyer, and Hudson. Caleb was kinda surprised Brielle wanted to come with them. While she’d looked eager to grab dinner earlier, he could tell that she had a lot of other stuff on her mind at the moment.
“Hey,” he said, pulling her off a little to the side as the others started getting their coats on and taking orders for what everyone staying behind wanted to eat. “I understand if you want to stay back here and work on trying to find a new lead on Julian. I’ll even go through all the intel reports with you again and see if we can figure out where your brother went after that last photo we have of him here in Odessa.”