Edge of Apocalypse Read Online Free PDF Page B

nothing had happened. The body of the captain had been dragged away, but his blood was still streaked across the area where he was shot.
    The admiral huddled with the XO over the radar officer's station, the gun still clutched in his hands. He grimly cheered on the tiny green blips on the screen as the two nukes continued their trajectory toward Manhattan. The seventy-two-year-old man was beyond ecstatic. Even as a child he had never known a united Korea. He'd always lived with the hated enemy occupiers just to the south, so close you could almost reach across the DMZ and put your hands around their throats. He'd dreamed about driving the Americans from his sacred homeland since he was a boy, but the nuclear tripwire had always prevented each side from making the first move. But now they'd tripped that imaginary wire, and, as fate would have it, it had fallen to him to restore the honor of his people and his country. As for the captain, he had been weak. The weak needed to be exterminated when they stood in the way of valiant men of strength and courage like himself.
    Exactly one minute had passed since the Joshua-I missile left the launch silo on the Tiger Shark. Sixty seconds, the longest sixty seconds in Joshua Jordan's life.
    As with all launch-based missile-defense systems, there was a narrow range of time when the weapon could effectively engage its target and deploy its defense system. This was usually within the first thirty to sixty seconds of flight. But they were at seventy-five seconds now, and the Korean missiles were still tracking steadily toward Manhattan.
    Several of his team members couldn't hold back their emotions any longer. Tears began streaming from their eyes.
    Down in the Tiger Shark, the weapons officer, eyes fixed on his radar screen, was cursing under his breath, "Stop 'em, stop 'em, do it, do it..."
    The commander standing over him was gritting his teeth hard. So hard that everyone on the weapons deck could hear the sickening, grinding sound.
    On the top floor of the Jordon Building in New York, Joshua and his team stared in stunned silence at the videophone waiting for some change, some hope, some chance.
    Nothing...
    Joshua turned away and pulled out his Allfone. He punched up Abby's cell number. At least he still had time to say good-bye to his wife and daughter. Tell them he was sorry. Try to explain he had failed them, failed everyone. Maybe he could even get through to his son. He certainly owed him an apology. Actually, he owed him several. Where would he start?
    Joshua couldn't believe he was about to say good-bye to his wife and family...forever.
    When his wife answered the phone, he could tell she had been crying.
    "Abby...," he started to say, but the words began to catch.
    He couldn't go on, there was nothing more he could say, but just knowing she was there on the other end was something at least...something to hang on to until everything exploded into a fiery hell for all of them.
    "Colonel!" the voice was the commander's coming over the videophone.
    Joshua wasn't used to being called by his former military rank. At first he didn't connect the voice to himself...that the man on the other end was talking to him.
    "Colonel Jordan!" the voice shouted again.
    Joshua spun around and stared at the monitor.
    "I think..." But the commander didn't need to finish his sentence. The radar-tracking screen clearly showed the two North Korean missiles looping around in a perfect duet and heading in the opposite direction, back toward their point of origin.
    The weapons officer couldn't control himself. "Li'l jammer got 'em!" he yelled out.
    The entire office erupted in one tremendous unified roar, the cheer carrying down the hall like wildfire until the whole top floor was celebrating...it was New Year's Eve, Mardi Gras, and the Super Bowl all rolled into one. People began hugging each other, jumping up on tables, laughing, weeping for joy, happy to be alive.
    Then Joshua remembered Abby.
    "Abby!"