Shadow Tyrants (Oregon Files 13)

The sub/boat hybrid had been easier to modify than the Oregon. They’d used the high-speed surface mode for most of the journey from the Oregon and then dived the boat when they got close enough to be seen.

Thanks to the files stolen from Mallik, Juan and his team had a detailed layout of the ship. Although the mission control room was buried deep in the superstructure, there was a direct path to get there. It could be easily defended, assuming they could take it in the first place.

Juan led the way. It looked like their ruse had worked because they didn’t encounter any armed security before they reached mission control. On the count of three, Juan and his team rushed in, shouting for everyone to get down. Juan was ready to take down at least a couple of security forces, but there weren’t any, and everyone followed his command and hit the deck.

There was someone else missing, too.

“Who’s in charge here?” Juan demanded.

A man with graying hair and a headset raised his hand.

“Get up,” Juan said. “Who are you?”

“Kapoor, the flight director.”

“Where’s Mallik?”

“When he heard the gunshots, he took his security men and went back to his yacht.”

Juan looked up and saw the timer counting down from twenty-three seconds. They’d made it in time.

“Abort the launch,” he said to Kapoor.

“I can’t.”

Juan raised his weapon. “Do it! Now!”

“I can’t! Mallik has locked the system. We can’t make any changes to the launch.”

“Murph?”

Murph took a seat at the nearest workstation. He typed on the screen and shook his head.

“He’s right. It requires Mallik’s retinal scan to unlock. Five seconds.”

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The clock ticked down . . . three . . . two . . . one . . .

Smoke billowed at the launchpad. Then a spear of flame knifed down as the rocket lifted off.

By the time they heard the thunderclap of its powerful engines igniting, it was already five hundred feet in the air and accelerating.

SIXTY-SIX

Juan advanced on Kapoor. “How long until the satellite is in position for the Vajra system to go active?”

He pointed to a large screen above the picture window showing the status of all nineteen satellites already in orbit. They were displayed in green, while the one currently on its way into space was depicted in gray.

Kapoor shrank back and said, “You know about that?”

“How long?”

“Eight minutes from launch.”

“If we can’t abort the launch, can we stop Vajra from activating?”

Kapoor nodded and pointed at the screen nearest to him. Juan waved Murph over to take a seat in front of it. He didn’t trust Kapoor at the controls.