The White House
Washington, D.C.
1955 Local Time
“Now what?” Secretary of Defense Burgess asked, framing the words that were in everyone’s head.
Footage from the Hyperion drones had been streaming into the Situation Room. The camera had settled on the most disconcerting sight in the hangar: a large concrete pad where the Shahed-151s had presumably been parked. It was now empty save for a few oil stains.
Mary Pat tried to fit the puzzle pieces together. “Klaus told us the launch had to be soon, and it makes sense that it would be at night. But I got the impression we still had a few hours.”
Ryan said. “Maybe the schedule was moved up for this oncoming storm.”
“Or maybe they learned that we got Klaus out of Tangier,” van Damm speculated.
“Either way,” said Mary Pat, “we’re too late. The drones have launched.”
“Is there any way we can stop them?” asked van Damm.
“That depends on how big their head start is.”
“Bring up the big map,” said the President, the urgency in his tone lost on no one. “I want possible routes to the Suez Canal from Al-Jaghbub. Also, let’s figure out how long it would take these drones to fly that far.”
Admiral Kent went to work.
A line soon appeared on the map joining Al-Jaghbub to Port Said, the western entrance of the canal.
Kent said, “Straight line distance is roughly four hundred and fifty nautical miles. But that would put this package over Egyptian territory the entire time. There would be far less chance of detection if they flew north first and headed out over the Med, then turned right. That would keep them in international airspace until the endgame.”
“But it would also add distance,” Ryan said.
“As to the time factor…” Kent referenced his laptop, “looks like the top cruise speed of a Shahed-151 is around one hundred and sixty knots.”
Ryan did the math. “That gives us between three and four hours from the time they launched…whenever that was.”
“What about the Egyptians?” said van Damm. “They have F-16s. They might see these drones coming with air defense radar and launch interceptors.”
“I wouldn’t count on that,” Burgess argued. “The Egyptian leadership lives in Cairo. That’s where the majority of their air defenses are concentrated, and they’re oriented to look in the other direction, toward Israel. There’s a good chance they won’t see these drones coming…not unless we bring it to their attention. It’s also the middle of the night there, and last I heard, the Egyptians don’t keep fighters on continuous alert.”
Ryan said, “We have to keep in mind what these drones are carrying. Shooting them down with air-to-air missiles means explosions that would unleash clouds of radioactive vapor. If these drones are cruising anywhere near the coastline, that could be disastrous—it’s solid with towns and villages.”
Burgess added, “And if we explain to the Egyptians what’s going on, there’s a chance they’ll nix the idea ofanyoneshooting them down, including us.”
“Even at the cost of shutting down the canal they control and greatly profit from?” Mary Pat argued.
The President interjected, “Look, these are all good thoughts, but we can’t know how the Egyptians would react and there’s no time for diplomacy. We have to control what we can, which means stopping this strike and asking for forgiveness later. That said, we have to do everything in our power to avoid shooting these things down over populated areas. The least risk is to put them down over open water.” Ryan lasered in on Kent. “Where exactly are our F-18s?”
Kent gestured to the lieutenant colonel working comms. A new symbol was added to the map. The Hornets were north of Benghazi, almost in Libyan airspace.
Kent said, “The Hornets can pick up a tail chase, but we don’t know exactly where these drones are. Thankfully, the F-18s are a hell of a lot faster. If they haul ass, they should be able to pick up this strike package using their onboard radar.”
“Let’s do it,” Ryan said, convinced it was the best near-term option. “Order the Hornets to abort their close air support tasking. I want them to chase down these drones, max speed.”
The message was sent.
Kent said, “I do see one hitch in this plan.”
Ryan looked at the JCS chairman with something near exasperation.
