Madeline was clearly dismayed at the thought of the unconscious woman waiting in the Agent’s hotel room and glanced at Ayala, who feigned equal disdain of the Agent’s tactics. But inside she was still noting the efficiency with which this man … this machine … had used his surroundings to his advantage. She noted this all with a mix of professional respect and equally professional detachment, her mind reflexively gathering information on the abilities of this ally, and what this told her about what she should expect from the other seven Agents that they were going to have to face.

But Madeline only saw that this man had done something her morals said was, at best, distasteful. To drug the poor girl was admittedly very effective though, and if she pressed the issue in her mind she knew she would have to acquiesce that this unknown woman’s reputation was an unfortunate but more than acceptable price for getting John Hunt here to help them.

John quickly finished his explanation, mentioning the borrowing of an unaware fellow officer’s Cessna from an airfield in southern California, an officer John knew was still in Hawaii, the brief fuel stop in Kansas, and then the flight here.

Formalities aside, they got down to business, ignoring the tensions that clearly pervaded the group. They did indeed have a lot to cover.

* * *

An hour later they were in the thick of their conversation. Enthusiasm, fascination, and the vital importance of their work kept them all focused. They had started at the beginning, discussing how to handle their single biggest threat: the satellites. First on the agenda was a review of the satellites’ defenses in detail so they could decide how best to circumvent them. It would be difficult, expensive, and very unsubtle, but hypothetically the orbiting platforms could be brought down.

They had analyzed the various options in the US arsenal for hitting an extra-atmospheric object. They had discussed the country’s large stockpile of Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) and Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs). Armed with nuclear warheads of various lethality, ranging from devastating to earth-shattering, these devices all wrought appalling destructive power.

If they could penetrate the satellites’ laser defenses to within the blast radii of one of these leviathan missiles, then John told them that there would be nothing that the satellites could do to stop them. A nuclear blast would destroy them; there was no question of that, the Mobiliei could no more build a machine capable of resisting a close proximity thermo-nuclear explosion than humanity could. Unfortunately, as they had already surmised, detonating multiple warheads in low-earth orbit would have devastating effects on the planet below too.

So Neal and Martin Sobleski had concluded that launching a volley of Ballistic Missiles at them was ‘less than ideal.’ This was where Martin’s more advanced missile work came into play. Taking the floor, he started to work through their other options, such as they were.