“How can you know this?”
“We did the math with our AI. You’ve got less than seventeen minutes.”
“Captain, bring the HERC back to base immediately.”
“You’re going to need us in this, Captain. We can help. Your HERC teams aren’t ready. You know that as well as I do.”
“You have violated our trust and stolen government property, Captain Rackham. Return to base.”
From the backseat, Patu said, “I’ve got the NZSAS switchboard.”
“I’ll call you back,” Mazer said to Shenzu, then he waved his hand through the holo to make Shenzu disappear. “Patch the switchboard to the holofield,” he shouted back to Patu.
The same frazzled buck private from hours earlier appeared in the holofield.
“Switchboard. It’s Captain Mazer Rackham. Connect me with Colonel Napatu.”
“He’s inaccessible, sir.”
“Then get me Sergeant Major Manaware. Anybody. Now!”
“One moment.” The tech busied himself, then disappeared. Manaware appeared.
“Captain Rackham—”
Mazer cut him off. “Listen to me. The landers, the discs, they’re headed to southeast China. I can’t be certain, but I think they’re coming to us.”
“We’ve calculated a huge landfall radius,” said Manaware. “They could be going to anywhere in Southeast Asia. Hell, they could stop in the middle of the sky and switch directions. There’s no telling, Captain. We can’t be sure where they’re going.”
Mazer didn’t have time to argue. “Fine. Contact Colonel Napatu. I need permission to engage the landers if they do land here and prove hostile.”
Manaware looked at someone off screen and said, “Colonel, he’s asking permission to engage.”
“Is Napatu there?” said Mazer, incredulous. “Then put him on the line!”
Manaware stepped away and Colonel Napatu appeared. “Captain Rackham, what the hell is going on? I got China on the other line saying you’ve run off with two billion credits worth of tech.”
“Colonel, they cut off all the feeds. We were without any contact to—”
“You are on a diplomatic training mission, Captain Rackham. You are representing your country. And in case you didn’t know, our government and most of the free world is trying desperately to convince China to trust us and join a coalition against this alien ship. We need the Chinese, Captain. We need their shuttles and we need their firepower. Stealing their property and angering Chinese brass is not helping our cause. We are in the middle of a global security crisis. This is bigger than you and your team. Now fly that HERC back to base and kiss the feet of their commander. That is an order.”
Napatu winked out.
They were silent inside the HERC for a moment. Finally Reinhardt said, “So what do we do?”
“You heard the colonel,” said Fatani. “We have our orders. We return to base.”
“Yes,” said Mazer. “But the colonel was a little unclear on when to return to base. Did anyone else catch that?”
Reinhardt smiled. “I don’t recall a time. Surely an order like that can wait sixteen minutes, give or take.”
Mazer looked at the others. They nodded.
“All right,” said Mazer. “Buckle up. Patu get that news feed back on the sat uplink. Reinhardt, take us up. Way up. A few thousand feet. I want us in a position to see anything. Seal the windows. Pressurize us.”
“Hold on to something,” said Reinhardt. He engaged the gravlens, and the HERC shot straight up as if yanked upward on a string. It climbed higher and higher, the altimeter numbers clicking through fast. Two thousand meters. Three thousand. Six. Seven. In a minute they were higher than they had ever taken the aircraft. Mazer’s stomach churned. His ears popped. His head swam. He blinked, kept himself focused, and ignored the queasy feeling.
Below them, the landscape was green and lush, filled with tiny, watery squares of rice paddies like a green tiled mosaic laid across the Earth.
“Computer,” said Mazer. “Follow the projectiles. Monitor their speed. Then update the landfall radius in real time as they approach. Tighten that circle as much as you can.”
“Understood,” said the computer.
They hovered there, waiting, watching the landfall radius on the map, watching the sky.
The sat feed in Mazer’s HUD showed the first projectile hit the atmosphere, a glow of orange heat encircling the front. The speed of the lander immediately slowed, and the computer instantly made modifications to the map. The giant red circle that was the landfall radius suddenly jumped inward, becoming a smaller circle, a third of its original size. The circle no longer included the Philippines or Vietnam or Cambodia or Laos. Only southeast China remained.
“Mazer,” said Reinhardt.
“I see it,” said Mazer looking at the map.
“No, not there,” said Reinhardt. “There.” He pointed east out the windshield.
Mazer looked. A distance away, almost to the edge of the horizon, a long white contrail stretched behind the alien lander, the front of it a bright hot wall of heat.