THE ENEMY WITHIN

THE ENEMY WITHIN Chapter 17

17.

The leader of the free world was much taller than Kitamura imagined. He towered over his staff in the Situation room.

Kitamura sat statuesque in a dim corner, waiting until the moment should come when Jasper needed something. They may as well have set up a children's table complete with coloring books to keep him and the other aides occupied while the adults talked threat levels.

Colonel Jasper stood at the round table surrounded by the Joint Chiefs. President Morgan and his cadre of advisors reached new shades of ghastly pale as they read through Jasper's report. The room was as quiet as a graveyard at dawn.

On the monitors, a satellite image showed the lab that, up until an hour ago, held the cloud seeding device. Kitamura wished he could read lips as he watched the President whisper to his Secretary of Defense. Perhaps it was better to be in the dark.

"Let me see if I have this right. You've lost one satellite, a space shuttle, and millions of dollars' worth of research equipment. You've poisoned a train to kill four teenagers and now you're looking to do what exactly?"

Kitamura cringed for Jasper. Looking at it that way, they did seem a dangerous combination of inept, anemic and trigger-happy.

"Do you have any evidence of their initial intentions before the situation escalated?" The President asked.

"I suspect their intention may not be dissimilar to ours when we encroach on a wildlife sanctuary to build condos."

"And that's how you see it? You think they're here to expand?"

"That's my take, Sir."

"Short of ordering a nuclear strike to wipe out all life there, how would you stop those four teens?"

"If we can locate where they are, we might be able to do a tactical missile strike with minimal damage. But I don't believe the UFO will let us, if it senses we're a threat to its mission. And if we fail here, we may not have an alternative aside from the unthinkable."

The faces in the room cracked as the realization that Jasper was suggesting using nuclear weapons sunk in.

"It can't come to that, Colonel," President Morgan said.

"We're doing everything we can, but from what we've seen, we should consider it a distinct possibility," Colonel Jasper replied.

"See to it we don't reach that stage," the President said.

*

The trio rode up the switchback like a band about to break up. The horizon remained grim and dark, as if the sun had no desire to come near this place. Max couldn't shake Doctor Tsang's tortured expression from his memory. Perhaps if he had done something differently, if he had taken the panic button, the man would still be alive. Just like the train, he had conjured a solution only to have it turn to smoke on him.

Jamie drove, looking back at Max from time to time as if making certain he was still there. Vincent climbed back to sit across from him. "I'm sorry about what happened back there. You have to admit, I have fair cause to be pissed. Just remember, he attacked us, just like they did on the train. They struck first again."

Max looked at the shimmering machine between them. "You don't have to spin it anymore. Just tell me the truth. Who's going to be left when this is over?"

Vincent stared at him, his affable, forgiving expression slipping away as if it were nothing more than a mask. "Pull over, Jamie, I need to talk to Max. He's at the edge and doesn't know which way to fall."