“You killed both my brothers-in-law?”
“To be fair, they did try to kill me first.” By the sound of amusement in his voice, the man was clearly enjoying himself.
Mallik smiled when he saw that the twentieth satellite had reached orbit. Its indicator went green. Vajra would wipe out electronics worldwide in sixty seconds.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said into the radio, mirroring his antagonist’s glee. “You’re too late to stop me.”
“Are you sure about that?”
Mallik heard the roar of a rocket engine. It had to be the booster firing its retrorockets, but it was too loud. Then the view of the launch platform began to shimmer as if it were a mirage, and he felt heat bake the air.
With a horrible realization, Mallik finally understood what was happening.
“Do you realize what you’ve done?” Mallik screamed into his radio. “You people have doomed the human race!”
“I hope not,” the voice said, “but you won’t be around to find out.”
* * *
—
In mission control, Murph watched the screen showing the feed from the camera on the booster stage that was pointed down at the engine. He could see crew members on the yacht looking up in terror as they scrambled to jump overboard.
When he had it centered over the portion of the yacht where Kapoor said Mallik’s stateroom was, he switched off the retrorockets, and the booster plunged to the deck.
The camera went black, and a second later they heard an ear-rattling boom from the explosion of the booster.
Suddenly, Murph had complete control of Vajra. There were thirty seconds left before it went active.
“The system will activate automatically,” Kapoor said. “There’s no way to turn off the satellites now.”
“I’m not trying to turn them off,” Murph said as he tapped on the touchscreen.
“What are you trying to do?” Raven asked.
“I’m turning them around.”
Kapoor gaped at the screen as he saw first one satellite, then another, and another, rotate one hundred and eighty degrees.
At the count of zero, all of the satellites initiated their EMP beams. But now they were harmlessly aimed out into space.
Murph let out a sigh of relief.
“That was close,” Raven said.
“I have one more thing to do,” he said. “While I’m busy, maybe you should call the Oregon.”
* * *
—
Max was still on the fake bridge, watching the onrushing Kalinga with dread. The frigate had just launched two more torpedoes. This time, they wouldn’t miss.
His radio squawked. “Max, this is Hali. Raven just called. Murph took down the Vajra satellites. We should be getting our systems back any second.”
As Hali finished speaking, Max felt a hum beneath his feet as generators and equipment on the Oregon came back to life.
“Eric, what do you have working?” Max asked.