But that option was gone now. Three minutes later they were taxiing into the still warm jet wash of the B-2 in front of them, watching the white burn of his four turbojet engines as they propelled him down the runway. This was no civilian airport; as the plane in front was just lifting off they were already in place and gunning their engines to catch it. Martin was thrown back in his seat as Jack fired the plane’s great engines and the powerful beasts catapulted them forward toward whatever fate the night had in store for them.

Chapter 52: Flash Exposure

The earth below passed by like a wooden globe spun by a child. Hub Satellite Number 3 orbited high above southern China, flying westward as it overtook the sun.

The four AIs that circled the earth operated as one mind. Their systems were thoroughly integrated, the instantaneous communication made possible by the subspace tweeters each satellite was built around making fluid operation a possibility. Therefore the unified artificial intelligence that was the four satellites watched the planet they were orbiting as one mind, its four acute eyes scanning the globe and creating a composite image from all the data that flowed up to them. As one satellite’s orbit took it away from Middle East, to soar out over the Mediterranean toward the Atlantic, another was already coming around behind it, bringing its eye to bear on the object of their attention. The focus of the AIs’ combined mind shifted seamlessly to the next satellite’s eye as it took in the six missiles soaring up out of the atmosphere ahead of it.

As the AI watched the six errant missiles streak across the Middle Eastern dawn, it broadcast the image to its eight Agents on the surface below. The AIs’ eyes also watched eagerly as various nations responded across the planet’s surface. They watched as the US, China, and Russia deployed their long-range bomber fleets. They saw the F-35 strike bombers being fueled and prepped with long-range cruise missiles on French, English, and US aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean.