1858 Local Time
Mary Pat read the message aloud. “ ‘Landed Al-Jaghbub. Taking heavy fire from larger force. Holding position, but unable to move. One man down, critical. Any help appreciated. Advise.’ ”
“Shit!” SecDef Burgess blurted.
Ryan had the same sentiment. What he said was “John Clark does not ask for help lightly.”
“How far out is theFord?” Mary Pat asked.
Admiral Kent referenced a laptop. “She’s south of Malta, four Hornets ready on deck. If they launch now, it will take roughly an hour for them to reach the airfield.”
Ryan smacked an open palm on the conference table. “Too long! I should have put the Hornets on airborne alert.”
“Do you want them to launch?” Kent asked.
“Yes, put them in the air.” As Kent typed out the order toSixth Fleet headquarters, the President said, “I need better options. What about Cyber Cell 6?”
Mary Pat replied, “They can’t do much without data. This airfield is a digital wilderness.”
“There is one other possibility,” the SecDef said. “Although, it is a silver bullet.”
“A what?” van Damm asked.
“A one of a kind weapon.” Burgess addressed Kent once he was finished issuing the order to theFord. “You and I talked earlier about theZumwalt. Where is she?”
“Central Red Sea.”
“How far is that from our target area?”
Kent studied a map. “Looks like about…seven hundred miles to Al-Jaghbub.”
“What exactly are we talking about?” Ryan asked.
The two defense experts exchanged a glance. Burgess took the reins.
“The destroyerZumwaltis carrying a system called Hyperion.”
“Hyperion?” Ryan remarked. “I thought that was still in development.”
“It is. Three prototypes were built and two have been tested. The results were remarkably positive, and it was decided to install the final test vehicle on theZumwalt. It’s the only ship with compatible launch tubes.”
“What exactly can Hyperion do?” Mary Pat asked.
“It would take a long time to cover everything, but right now we’ve got people in the middle of a raging firefight.” Burgess gave a fifteen-second overview. Some in the room were awed, others skeptical. Ryan, who had gotten an early briefing on the program, nodded knowingly as details came back.
Burgess ended with “It’s a silver bullet because we’ve got only one missile—essentially, one shot. But it could be a difference maker for Task Force 99.”
“Could Hyperion reach the airfield faster than the Hornets?” van Damm asked.
“The baseline delivery system, Conventional Prompt Strike, is a hypersonic boost-glide missile. It flies at Mach 5–plus. Given whereZumwaltis at the moment, from the time we launch…the payload will be on target in less than fifteen minutes.”
Jaws around the room dropped. War at hypersonic speed was an adjustment for everyone.
“Launch it,” said the President without hesitation.
“Yes, sir. It’ll take a few minutes to program the mission. And I will have to upload one dataset from your section, Mary Pat.”
“What do you need?”
