9

Dalton slapped Sergeant Barnes on the back as he entered the bunkroom. “Welcome back.”

Barnes had just pulled on the black one-piece suit that they wore when they went into the isolation tanks. “Sergeant Major, how they hanging?”

“Low, real low,” Dalton replied as he opened his locker and pulled out his suit. “Ready to go back in?”

“What’s the mission? I just got told by one of those agency dinks to get my stuff on and be ready to go.”

Dalton quickly briefed him on the current situation. Barnes’s next question was a bit unexpected.

“That Feteror dude is really gone, right? We aren’t going to run into him on the virtual plane, are we?”

“The Russians shut down SD- 8,” Dalton assured him.

“And Feteror?”

“The Russians say they turned off the life support to his brain. So Feteror’s dead.”

“What about Chyort? His avatar?”

“If Feteror’s brain is dead, we have to assume his avatar is gone also.”

“That means we’re the only ones out there, right?”

“Are you worried?”

“Hell, yes,” Barnes said. “We got our butts kicked last time. And the other guys-our teammates…” His voice trailed off.

Dalton paused in his dressing. “We’re not giving up on them.” He looked toward the door, then leaned toward Barnes. “When we go over, I want you to search for the team. Go back to the site of the battle in Russia. Jackson and I will take care of the recon.”

“Won’t Hammond know through Sybyl that we’re separated?” Barnes asked.

“What are they going to do?” Dalton asked. “Kick us out of here? Besides, Hammond ’s not as sure of herself as she used to be.”

Professor Souris had the complete attention of the surviving members of the Ring. Alarico’s body had been removed, and after a short break, Souris had returned to finish her briefing.

“Right now with our current configuration we can generate an Aura field about a mile in distance from the computer/transmitter. We have three working computers. One is fitted on board Señor Cesar’s yacht. One is located here in our operations center. And one, the latest generation and the smallest, is transportable.

“Along with making the transmitter smaller, we are working on increasing the distance transmitted and the size of the field. We have also been doing simulations considering the possibility of generating a virtual field by retransmitting from orbital satellites. This was something my comrades at HAARP were working on when I left. I have continued that work here.”

“Satellites?” Naldo said. “And how would we launch a satellite?”

“We already have launched one,” Cesar said. “From Kouro, in French Guinea. It’s the launch site for the European Space Authority and they were willing to launch because we were willing to pay. We’ve put up a small prototype with an Aura retransmitter and power booster on board.”

“We’ve launched a satellite?” Naldo was shaking his head.

“Last week,” Souris confirmed. “We have contact with it, but we haven’t attempted to retransmit yet. We’re saving that test until other elements are in place.”

“So we will be able to use this weapon from space?” Naldo asked.

“Our prototype is rather basic,” Souris said. “We can use it once, maybe twice before depleting the onboard power supply.”

“I don’t understand,” Naldo said. “What good is it then?”

“Our satellite is simply there for us to test whether our uplink can generate a tight enough, and powerful enough, beam,” Souris said. “Once we have confirmed that, we have a plan for the next stage. The Americans have already done us the courtesy of launching a worldwide network of satellites called MIL STAR that they have been upgrading with appropriate virtual retransmit technology that we can appropriate for our own use if our test works and we can develop a sufficiently powerful transmitter field.”

“What are the Americans planning to do with their satellites?” one of the other Ring members asked.

“They are trying to develop a weapon system similar to Aura called HAARP,” Cesar said. “This is another reason why we must be successful. If the Americans are successful with their HAARP before we are with Aura, I have no doubt that they will use this weapon against us. They will be able to attack us from space with complete immunity.”

“Aura is a better version of what I was working on for the Americans,” Souris said. “HAARP is based in Alaska, at a fixed site. They’ve been experimenting for several years now with it, but they haven’t been able to get their transmitter as compact as Aura, and since it’s line of sight it’s pretty useless unless they can uplink to their MIL STAR satellites, which they haven’t attempted yet. However, once the HAARP-MILSTAR system is operational, they can cover the world with their weapon.”

“How close are they to achieving that?” Naldo asked.

“We think they are very close to their first test of the system,” Souris said.

“We plan to beat them to it,” Cesar said. “Once the test using our satellite is successful, we’ll know we can transmit Aura on their MILSTAR. The Americans are launching the last piece of their MILSTAR network in two days, which means the satellite system will be in place for us to use and we’ll be ahead of them, already having tested our transmitter. Then we have them in a difficult position. If they shut down the satellites, they lose their worldwide secure military net and billions of dollars of equipment becomes useless. If they don’t shut them down, anything we do will be tracked back to the Americans and not us.”

“You plan on blackmailing the American government?” Naldo asked.

“Yes,” Cesar said. “What we have to do next is acquire a more powerful transmitter to make the uplink, and we will be ready.”

“And I assume you have a plan for that?” Naldo asked.

“We are in negotiations for a solution to that problem,” Cesar said. He opened a file folder and pulled out a photo, which he passed to Naldo. It showed a large ship, the most striking feature of which were the four massive dishes on the deck.

“The Yuri Gagarin,” Cesar said. “A Russian research vessel. In fact the largest research vessel ever built. Forty-five thousand tons displacement. Seven hundred and seventy-three feet long. Two large dishes amidships and two smaller ones forward. Souris assures me we can readily convert them to transmit Aura. The ship is available for purchase, as the Russians need hard currency more than they need research. The ship’s primary purpose had been to maintain contact with their space station, Mir, but since that was shut down, they have little use for it. The cost, however, is not insignificant.”

Naldo passed the picture on to the next man. “How much?”

“Eight hundred million in U.S. dollars.”

There was an exchange of glances around the table.

“We are rich,” Naldo began, “but-”

Cesar interrupted him. “Do not concern yourselves about the cost. We have another way to get the money, which we will discuss later. Aura has many uses.”

“You just said the Americans are working on HAARP,” Naldo said. “What about the Russians?”

Valika knew the answer to that. “The GRU and the KGB both have experimented extensively with psychic weapons and reconnaissance. I don’t know what the KGB has done, but the GRU developed a generator similar to Aura which they used against the American embassy in Moscow for many years.”

“The GRU’s generator is very inferior to Aura,” Souris said. “It is more a directional microwave antenna, and its effects are mainly headaches and nausea among those it is targeted against.”

Valika spoke up. “Recently the Russians used a different type of psychic weapon but were defeated by the Americans. The details of what happened have been kept very secret, but all the world knows about the nuclear detonation in Moscow that destroyed GRU headquarters.”