Cloud Invasion: R-D 2 (R-D #2)(79)
"Hah," Giovanni laughed. "I still make salmon pie from a recipe given to my father."
"I'm glad to hear it-I use the same recipe," Ilya chuckled.
Dinner was extraordinary; Giovanni sat at our table to share a glass of wine after we finished eating. We learned his wife was babysitting his second grandchild at home, when she usually worked beside him at the restaurant.
Ilya still attempted to pay for our meal, but his offer was waved away. We were asked to come back, too, before we left Italy.
"That was nice-I felt normal for the first time in a long time," I said as we waited for our cab to arrive.
"Normal is in short supply, cabbage," he said. The cab pulled up, we climbed in and rode back to the villa, Ilya's arm around my shoulders while I leaned contentedly against him.
*
Notes-Colonel Hunter
"We have this." Matt set his cell phone in front of me-the one Corinne had provided.
"What is it?" I asked, tapping the image to make it larger.
"Just before the plane exploded, that dropped out of the cargo hold." Matt jerked his head toward the image on the phone.
"This looks like those aid packages they drop for needy areas," I said, watching the grainy satellite image of a rather large object falling slowly after a parachute opened above it.
"I might think that, too, if it hadn't dropped out of a Russian cargo plane two minutes before it blew up."
"So this was done deliberately. Any evidence of a distress call?"
"None that I know of."
"What do you think is in that package?"
"It's too big to hold only the bodies of two insurgent leaders. It's also too well packed and secured inside that rope mesh. If they wanted to dispose of bodies, they'd just toss 'em."
"Yeah. I get that. Looks like crates beneath those tarps," I said.
"That's my opinion, too. Here's the big question-what's in those crates?"
"Do you have someone working on approximate sizes and weights?"
"I do, and the numbers worry me. What would it take, do you suppose, to mollify the insurgents, after they found out the whole shipment of miniature rockets was useless? Remember, they wanted to bomb the hell out of something or somebody."
"Or several somethings and somebodies."
"Exactly. How many nuclear warheads might those crates contain?" Matt lifted an eyebrow.
Dropping my eyes back to the images, I blinked. "Six, maybe?" I lifted my eyes to Matt's again, begging him to say I was wrong.
He didn't. "Six to eight is what my experts say. Remember, they saw floppy disks in that underground section where the small rockets were manufactured. We know they've cleared out of there-Ukraine said all the equipment was gone when they went to look."
"So that could be in those crates too-the weapons and the system to launch."
"Possibly."
"You're saying the Russians gave them nuclear weapons to make up for the rocket fiasco? Holy f*cking hell."
"My thoughts exactly."
*
"Colonel Hunter?" Maye stepped into my office, flanked by Nick and Opal.
"I need a message sent to Rafe and Corinne," I sighed.
"I'll do my best," she said.
"Have a seat," I gestured toward the chairs in front of my desk. "I have to explain things to you, first."
*
Corinne
Ilya and I were a tangle of nudity beneath a sheet that only half-covered us. Both of us were asleep when Maye's message came. Without explaining everything, the urgency in her sending forced both of us up in bed, while Ilya's arms wrapped around me in alarm.
Something was terribly wrong and Auggie was calling us back to D.C.
*
"Cori, can you tell me anything about this?" I had to squint in the sudden, bright light of Auggie's office as a tablet was shoved in my face.
My brain froze for several seconds as I stared at the video images. Yes, I knew something about that, and it terrified me. The insurgents now had warheads-plural-and the archaic computer system to launch those weapons. I almost couldn't get intelligible words out to say those things to Auggie.
"Matt says it may take a few weeks for them to build the launch site to send those things very far, and that we may or may not be able to destroy any of them in flight. All it will take is one getting through to its target and millions could die. They'll target us, but what if they target someone closer to home, too?" Auggie asked. I'd just confirmed his worst fears by telling him what I knew.
"Like Israel, perhaps?" Ilya gruffed. He took the tablet away and studied the video, replaying it twice to examine every detail.
"We're concerned about that, yes, but they could also target any number of their neighbors-Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait-you name it."
"What if they target us and the European Union?" Nick asked. "Won't there be some sort of fallout, even if we shoot those f*ckers down?"
"Auggie, has anybody had eyes on these things when they landed?" I asked.
"Matt and I are meeting in half an hour to discuss that," he said, his dark gaze filled with worry. "The President wants to be informed of possible countermeasures soon, and we have to take a viable plan to her."