Brown, Dale - Patrick McLanahan 01 Read Online Free PDF Page B

“There
was no way we could be sure what happened.”
                 “Goddammit,
General,” the President said. “We’ve lost twelve men and women and an unarmed
spy plane and you can’t tell me what happened?”
                 “We
don’t have all the data in yet, sir.”
                 “But
you are accusing the Soviets of shooting down that plane?” Marshall Brent
asked. “Without evidence?”
                 “It
had to be the Soviets,” Curtis shot back. “There was no way—” “Well, what have
you got, General?” the President asked impatiently, pouring himself and Brent
more coffee. “From the beginning. And it better be good.”
                Curtis cleared his throat and began:
“Sir, the RC-135 concentrated its patrol on a large research area north of Petropavlovsk —”
                 “We’ve
received intelligence about secret weapons research activities there,” Mitchell
interjected. “They’ve built up defenses there, too. They have an airfield and
fixed surface-to-air missile batteries almost as large as at the sub pens at Petropavlovsk . But all we’re certain of is a huge nuclear
power plant at the facility.”
                 “That
may not be all,” Curtis said. “We received data from the RC-135 about several
new long-range early-warning and surveillance radars in the area, including one
of tremendous power. It was powerful enough to disrupt the data coming from the
RC-135 in all bands.”
                 “They
were jamming us?”
                 “Not
jamming,” Curtis said. “Interference. They blotted out a wide frequency
spectrum with that one radar.”
                 “So
what is it out there?” the President asked everyone in the room. “Are you
saying it’s a new antiaircraft site? A jammer? What?”
                 “We
have reason to believe, sir,” Curtis replied, “that the Soviets have been
conducting research into high-energy antisatellite and antiballistic missile
lasers at Kavaznya. That radar has enough power and enough capability to find
and track objects in Earth orbit. Sir, we believe they may have a laser defense
system in operation there.”
                 The
President’s jaw lowered. He looked quickly at Mitchell and Brent. “Jesus,
Curtis,” Mitchell said, giving the General an exasperated look. “Pure
speculation. You don’t have enough information to—”
                “Do you know what they do have out there, Mitchell?” Curtis
asked. “Of course,” the CIA chief said. “A huge reactor, a large airfield,
increased air defense sites—but not some pie-in-the-sky laser defense system.
We suspect they have a myriad of weapon experiments being conducted out
there—nuclear warhead production, nerve gas, maybe some particle-beam and laser
experiments dealing with future antisatellite and ABM devices. But an
operational system? Impossible.”
                 “That
radar is immensely powerful,” Curtis said. “They could easily have constructed
a radar with far less power to guide missiles to an atmospheric target. This
one can track targets, we estimate, as far as our highest orbiting satellite—as
far as thirty thousand miles.”
                 “Suspect.
Possibly. Estimate.” The President glanced at his watch again. “Is that it?
Nothing more definite?”
                 “We know it is a giant research
facility,” Curtis said, trying to regain his lost credibility. “They have the
energy source and a tracking and targeting capability. They’ve also spent
enough money on that complex to achieve spectacular results—”
                 “We
also know,” Mitchell interrupted, “that despite the massive amount of money the
Soviets have spent on research, they are still at least twenty years from
developing a laser sophisticated enough to deploy a credible