STERLING

 

Tuesday January 14 - 2355 MST

Three hours and thirty-five minutes until Turbocharger activates

 

The phone calls were growing in number, just like the nervousness of the people making them. When I should have been spending my finite time getting my people organized and into some semblance of a fighting force I was instead forced to answer to an endless stream of bureaucratic busy bodies in Washington who all wanted an update on the situation. However, this particular phone call was welcome.

"Thank you, Colonel." I told the commander of the 75th Ranger Regiment. "I appreciate the fast turnaround. We can really use the extra firepower."

He'd mobilized the entire First Battalion of the Rangers to respond to our emergency. That was good news in that we would be getting several hundred highly trained soldiers to retake the Underground. Like all worthwhile good news it came with a healthy dose of bad news—it would be at least twelve hours before they arrived. In terms of military movements that was lightning quick, but for us it meant the party would be long over by the time they arrived. Still, I wouldn't turn down the offer of an entire Ranger battalion.

As soon as I thanked the Colonel I had C.J. cupping the handset of a phone to her shoulder and explaining I had another caller. "Sir, it's Sergeant Morgan. He says they have a man in custody that was trying to get past the airfield gate."

That was the final gate before leaving the relative safety of the main Dugway installation and passing on into the desert where the Underground lay. Only those read into the Slipstream program were allowed through. Everyone else was turned away, including regular military who had normal jobs on the base. It wasn't unusual for someone to take a wrong turn though and in those cases they were detained until it could be determined that it was a simple mistake. Usually with a quick check to several federal databases. But that sort of thing was routine and well below the level where it needed my personal attention. "Tell Morgan he doesn't need to bother me with that sort of stuff."

Morgan had been tossed into the unenviable position of being the highest ranking SF left after his boss, Captain Hamilton, ran off on a hasty rescue mission with most of his senior people. While I respected Hamilton's devotion to duty, courage, and willingness to risk it all to save his fellow Airmen, what I needed now was his leadership.

I took the handset and tried not to growl when I answered. "Sterling here. What've you got—"

There was no point in continuing the question because the line was dead. But as I handed it back to C.J. one of our desert tan humvees rolled right up to the hangar and Morgan came running out. "Sir, you gotta come right away."

That ruffled more than a few of my feathers. Not only was he pulling me away from my work for something he could have told me about over the phone, but he was doing it over something trivial. "Morgan, I got a lot going on right now. Can you just tell me what it is?"

He was huffing like he was out of breath. Whatever it was it had him excited. "This guy we picked up…he knows about the Underground. He knows everything. I think he used to work here. Sir…I think he can help us."

And I suddenly felt like a big heel for doubting him. This definitely needed my attention. Because if he even knew half of what was going on in the Underground right now it was more than me. "Take me to him."

Larry called after me when I was about halfway to Morgan's humvee. "Sir, I found it."

At this point I had already forgotten what I had asked him to find. I'd been running him and C.J. ragged tracking down answers for me.

"Sir, it was in an old email. They'd asked me to task a Predator on an old nuke testing site in Nevada. I didn't think anything of it at the time but now it makes sense."

I looked at him like I didn't know what he was talking about, because frankly I didn't.

"I think I found the location of the Turbocharger site. It's in Nevada, sir."

And that was good news unburdened by bad news. We still weren't one hundred percent sure what exactly Turbocharger was, other than what we were told about it was a lie. But now we knew where it was and we still had a plane left to go after it with.

This was still a huge crisis, but bite by bite we were chewing through it.