Three dark shadows levitate out of the light and straight up through the eye of the maelstrom.

“What in the fuck is that,” Loos swears. A dozen stunned scientists yell out to their colleagues and assistants to verify that all sensory data is being collected.

The objects continue rising out of the whirlpool. Hovering above the sea, they approach the lowest of the two UAVs.

The Predator’s picture becomes fuzzy with static, then goes blank.

The second Predator continues transmitting.

“I want both Seahawks airborne now,” Captain Loos orders. “Reconnaissance only. Chief, keep the remaining Predator at a safe distance. Don’t lose that signal.”

“Aye, sir. Sir, what’s a safe distance?”

“Captain, Seahawks are airborne—”

“Keep them away from that light,” Chaney barks.

The three alien objects rise to an altitude of two thousand feet. With robotic precision, they execute a pirouette, rotating their enormous wings into full horizontal extension, and accelerate, disappearing instantly from view.

Captain Loos rushes over to the Mk. 23 Target Acquisition System. Second Lieutenant Linda Muraresku is already tracking the objects using the Boone’s fast-rotating radar dish.

“I’ve got them, sir—barely. I’ve never seen anything like this before. No heat signatures, no sound, just some faint electromagnetic static. No wonder our satellites missed them.”

“How fast?”

“Mach 4 and still accelerating. All three targets heading west. Better contact NORAD, Captain. At this speed, they’ll be off my screen any minute.”

North American Aerospace Defense Command, NORAD
Colorado

The 9,565-foot towering mound of jagged granite known as Cheyenne Mountain is located four miles southwest of Colorado Springs. Two heavily guarded access tunnels at its base run a third of a mile below the surface, serving as the sole entrances into the four-and-a-half-acre subterranean compound known as the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD.

NORAD provides the military with a unified command center linking every branch of the armed forces, Combined Intelligence Centers, systems, and weather stations. The facility’s primary function, however, is to detect missile launches anywhere in the world, be it land, sea, or in the air. Such events fall into two basic categories.

Strategic warnings are issued when an ICBM is launched against North America, an event originating from a distance exceeding 2,100 nautical miles, carrying an impact time of approximately thirty minutes. A four-minute chain-of-command sequence quickly disseminates information to the president and all US Defense Command Centers.

Theater warnings involve missiles fired upon US and Allied Forces in the field. Because a Scud or Cruise missile can strike within minutes, NORAD relays warnings directly to field commanders via satellite.

Cheyenne Mountain’s most important early-warning missile-detection system originates 22,300 miles in space. It is here that NORAD’s Defense Support Program (DSP) satellites circle Earth in a geostationary orbit, providing continuous, overlapping coverage of the entire planet. Aboard these two-and-a-half-ton satellites are high-tech infrared sensors that instantly detect heat signatures created during a missile’s booster stage.