The countdown had already begun and was down to two minutes before liftoff. Mallik had developed the mobile sea-based launch system not only so they could avoid bad weather and achieve a more efficient orbital insertion but also to keep prying eyes away during launches. A Nilgiri-class Indian frigate brought out of mothballs by Mallik circled them to provide security in case any unauthorized ships got too close to the operations.
“What’s our status?” Mallik asked the flight director, a trim man in his fifties with graying hair named Kapoor.
“No problems detected,” the gruff former Indian Air Force officer replied. “All systems are showing green. We are good to go.”
Mallik exchanged smiles with Torkan and nodded to Kapoor.
When the countdown reached ten seconds, Mallik walked toward the window. He didn’t want to see the sterile camera views of the rocket. He had to watch the launch with his own eyes.
“Five . . . four . . . main engine ignition . . .” White-hot flames shot from the liquid-fueled engines of the reusable booster, sending a huge plume of smoke into the air.
“. . . two . . . one . . . liftoff!”
The rocket slowly rose from the launchpad, its support scaffolding retracting as it ascended. The control room erupted with applause and cheers.
But it took only a second for Mallik to see that something was wrong. He’d attended every launch of the nineteen previous rockets and he could tell right away that this one was different.
“Flight,” one of the technicians said, “I’m detecting a cascading malfunction in the fuel pump system.” Mallik knew that was potentially disastrous. The pumps controlled the fuel flow to the engines.
“Can you compensate?” the flight director asked.
“I’m trying!”
The rocket didn’t accelerate as the others had. Instead, the blazing jet power coming out of the engines sputtered, and the rocket slowed until it hovered only three hundred feet above the launchpad.
Then it began to come back down.
The flight director frantically called out for information about the engines, but it was too late. The tail of the rocket collided with the launch tower and mushroomed into a gigantic fireball. If anyone had been on the launch platform, they would have been killed instantly.
Mallik turned and stared at Kapoor, whose jaw was clenched in a grim expression. The control room was deathly silent. They locked eyes until the command ship was jolted by the delayed blast concussion.
“Find out what went wrong,” Mallik growled.
Kapoor cleared his throat before replying with a muted, “Yes, sir.”
Torkan, who gaped at the burning rocket and satellite, came over to Mallik and, lowering his voice, said, “What happens now?”
“Fortunately, I always anticipate setbacks,” Mallik said, fuming at getting so close to his goal and having it literally blow up in his face. “Therefore, I have a backup.”
Torkan looked at him with surprise. “You have another satellite?”
Mallik nodded. “The rocket on our second platform will be ready for launch within ten days. But we can’t take any chances that the Nine will repair the Colossus 5 sooner than that. We are convening in three days, so I’ll find out then what its status is. I thought they didn’t suspect what I was up to, but I doubt this explosion was an accident.” He looked at each person in the control room. Someone here might be a saboteur.
“You think one of the other Nine Unknown is responsible for this?” Torkan asked, looking toward the smoking launch platform.
“He or she must suspect what I am planning, so we need to cast suspicion on someone else. It will make the other members of the Nine think I’m innocent. To do that, I’m sending you on assignment to Sydney. But first, I need to set the other part of my backup plan in motion.”
“The Triton Star?”
“Correct.” Mallik took out his phone. As he texted Rasul to go ahead with the operation, he said to the flight director, “Prepare the Vajra system for activation.”
Kapoor looked confused. “But sir, the launch failure means we can’t get a global—”
Mallik cut him off. “Isolated location only. This will be a good opportunity to test the effectiveness of the system on a hardened site.”
“Yes, sir. The target?”
“The U.S. military base on Diego Garcia.”