John could risk a direct message to Madeline’s secondary e-mail in North Dakota to warn her of the coming investigation, but with Neal under a renewed microscope, the chance of any message being sent to that house, or its neighbor, being traced back to anywhere near the HMS Dauntless was too high.

John had fourteen hours to warn Neal. He was already moving when the AI closed the meeting, setting off at a run down the corridor outside his quarters.

Chapter 44: London Calling

Like everyone else, Admiral Hamilton had taken the news of their predicament badly at first. His incredulity had soon turned to outrage as the mountain of proof they had amassed swayed him to the same inevitable conclusion they had all come to.

But unlike the rest of the team, the admiral was in a position of incredible power and influence. Here was a man who had personal experience ordering large scale attacks with potentially massive consequences. Here was a man who had commanded a carrier fleet during the first Gulf War and the first two years of the US invasion of Iraq. A fleet with three times the combined firepower of the entire Allied force that had landed at Normandy on D-day. Perhaps most importantly, here was a man who had both the authority and the necessary strategic experience to command the vast swath of the US military under his command. He was their greatest ally to date, but because of his political and military might he was also, by default, now their leader. His power and influence was simply so much larger than anyone else’s on the team.

To have approached him before they had a complete plan in place would have been to give control of the entire enterprise to him. Now that they had a clear set of tasks that that required his assistance, they had at least been able to have some influence over the direction that he took. But from here on it was a ride they could not stop. Now they had him involved they were not driving the car anymore, Admiral Hamilton had the wheel, and they had to hope he liked the route they had laid out for him.

After their initial meeting with the man, the admiral had convened a council of some key military leaders for the afternoon, including General Pickler, telling Neal and the colonel that he planned to present a carefully edited version of their plan to them. It would include details of a missile threat, and a plan to counter it. But the proposed threat would be from China, not space, and the counter would include no details of the alien-materials they would use to defend themselves against it.