Overlord Read online

  Soon he realized he wasn’t alone. He turned and saw Anya standing beside him as she stared out over the railing. Jason walked three paces over and joined her.

  “Homesick already?” he asked.

  “Already?” She smiled and then lost it as suddenly as it had arrived. “I’ve been homesick ever since I said good-bye to Carl. He’s my home, not some barren patch of land.” She turned back to look at the sea and shivered. “So in that sense, yes, I am extremely homesick.”

  “I miss my friends. I think I may go on missing them too.” It was Ryan’s turn to look down and away from Anya’s eyes. “When we got that report that Niles was seriously injured in the Camp David attack it was like a portent of things to come, and I realized then just how close I had become to all of my people at Group.” He looked at her. “I mean friends.”

  “Mumbai has just fallen,” came a small voice from behind them. “The Indian Army was defeated in just a little over twenty minutes after they had thought they had the upper hand.”

  They turned and saw Sarah as she came from the upper decks, careful to avoid the six sailors coming off of watch. The men were in a hurry to get out of the cold air that was increased in misery by the ship’s torrid speed.

  Jason and Anya saw the worry on the young lieutenant’s features as she pulled the drawstrings of her hood tighter to fit her small head.

  “How is the colonel … I mean the general?” Jason asked.

  “Alive at the moment. He, Will, and Henri are in transit, wave hopping south.” She smiled finally. “They are wave hopping on a southern course trying to evade prying eyes. And you know how he hates flying anyway.”

  “Yeah, so does Mendenhall. I imagine he may even be frightened enough to be sitting on Farbeaux’s lap right about now, which would thrill that thief to no end.”

  The moment of tension was broken and the three laughed.

  “You know, if they are heading south, it’s possible they have the same destination as ourselves, which means you might just see Jack real soon.”

  “I know,” Sarah said. “But is that a good thing or not? I mean, where we are going might not be the safest place to be.”

  “Any word on Beijing?” Anya asked, changing the bleak subject to an even blacker one, but also one that wasn’t as personal as the current question.

  “No, satellite images are showing the city is ringed with the largest Chinese army ever to take the field. But after the Mumbai disaster they are holding. The enemy hasn’t made any move like they have in India, and the Chinese right now like it that way.”

  “Unlike India, they have a massive troop presence inside the city already. Someone over there was forward thinking enough to get about a hundred thousand men and some heavy armor into Beijing before the Grays’ arrival. Captain Lienanov said that their intelligence shows about a thousand tanks and half that in artillery pieces. But right now the commander of Chinese ground forces is satisfied that the Grays haven’t budged.”

  “How about the new president—how is he taking the news?” Ryan asked.

  Sarah turned and looked at both Anya and Ryan. “He’s talking about pulling back all American forces to protect the homeland first. Virginia is going to sit in on a meeting with the British, French, Russian, and Chinese delegates and present Matchstick’s analysis of the attacks thus far.”

  “No, they can’t expose Matchstick to that man in office, at least right now.” Ryan saw a confused look cross Anya’s face. He ignored her ignorance and stared at Sarah.

  “Camden and the others won’t know exactly who they are talking to; a few of them, like the British and Chinese, know about our asset, but all most of them will learn is that he is an asset with vast knowledge of the enemy. Most have guessed, I think, but don’t know for sure we have him in our corner. He’ll be speaking through Europa. Virginia has seen to that. As long as the president is alive she will keep Matchstick away from the Speaker of the House.”

  Ryan finally smiled. “That ought to give everyone a thrill, to have Marilyn Monroe explaining things to them. I would like to see their faces on that one.”

  “Who is this Matchstick Man?” Anya asked as she couldn’t hold the question any longer.

  “You mean that the great Mossad is actually in the dark about something the United States is doing?” Ryan laughed. “God, the world is in a tailspin.”

  “Maybe not the Mossad, but I am,” she answered.

  “Let’s just say he’s a friend that would give his life for his new home,” Sarah said, warning Ryan with a look about security. “Anyway, I would like to hear what he has to say myself. We may be able to—”

  Sarah was cut short by a blaring announcement over the ship’s speakers. Anya turned to the railing once more and leaned over just as the alarms sounded abovedecks. Before they knew it sailors were rushing to stations. The speed of Pyotr Veliky increased just as she started to heel to starboard. She turned so sharply that Ryan had to reach out to keep Anya from being flung headfirst into the sea. He pulled her back and they both slammed into the steel decking. Sarah immediately saw why the giant warship made such a severe turn.

  “Oh, my God,” she said as the saucer surfaced in front of the Pyotr Veliky. Water was running off the one-hundred-foot-wide metallic vehicle and she seemed to be stationary in the calm seas. Before Sarah could say more the three were practically lifted off their feet by four burly Russian seamen and hustled to the stairs that led to the second deck. Sarah was in the rear as they rushed up the slippery steel steps but she could not take her eyes off the saucer as it remained in the path of the missile cruiser.

  “Get inside and to the evacuation stations immediately!”

  Ryan was pulled inside along with Anya by Captain Lienanov.

  As Sarah finally entered the hatch the door was sealed and dogged tight.

  “Hurry, we have just gone to general quarters. I must get to the bridge!” The captain left the three.

  As the captain made his way forward they heard the rumble of four Granit SS-N-19 “Shipwreck” antiship missiles leave their tubes. The entire cruiser shuddered under the launch of the heavy weapons. Then the deep rumble of the ship’s twin AK-130 130-millimeter/L70 gun opened fire. The ship was still leaning heavily to starboard.

  * * *

  On the bridge second captain Lienanov joined the commander of the vessel, Captain Andre Vileski, a no-nonsense and by-the-book man. He was watching the saucer take hits from the heavy-caliber 130-millimeter weapons and just as Vileski ordered the helm hard to port, they saw the four missiles strike the alien vehicle. Two of the Shipwrecks hit the uppermost, raised dome of the saucer and the next two hit the curving edge where the rounded metallic edge met the sea. They were all direct hits.

  As the Pyotr Veliky completed her turn five more of the Shipwrecks struck the saucer, and still the craft made no defensive move to save itself from the hard-punching offense of the Russian missile cruiser.

  Captain Vileski watched through the large bridge glass windows and nodded his head as the saucer was momentarily blocked from view as several missiles and 130-millimeter rounds detonated at the same moment against the enemy’s hull. The vehicle vanished under a bursting cloud of smoke and debris.

  “These bastards will soon learn the difference between battling the Indian Air Force and the Russian Navy!” he shouted. His men on the bridge started to take heart that the brand-new Pyotr Veliky would possibly survive the encounter.

  As the warship completed her turn to port and straightened her bow into the light wind, Lienanov tried to remind his commander of the tactic they had been warned about directing them to keep up concentrated fire on the enemy and to not let up. The saucer had obviously taken damage because Lienanov had seen large chunks of flying metal being torn from its upper half before the whole scene became obscured with smoke.

  “Captain, we must maintain fire and try and move off as fast as we can. We have orders to avoid a confrontation!” Lienanov knew the missile tubes had gone sil
ent as the fire control teams in the command and control section far below on deck six awaited the order to continue. Only the 130- and twenty-millimeter weapons kept up a constant fire. Lienanov had a distinct feeling they were witnessing the exact same thing that the Indian commanders had in Mumbai—the enemy was waiting for the right time to make their move. “Captain, put up a defensive screen of torpedoes in the water as a shield and allow us to digress, give the trap a chance to work. This action is not in our orders!”

  “I think you need to learn your place, Second Captain Lienanov. We are to take advantage of the situation. We will—”

  “Look!” his lookouts on the bridge wing called out as they caught sight of the ship, the last of the smoke whisked away by the winds its bulk and engines were creating.

  The hearts of the men on the bridge froze momentarily. Instead of seeing the saucer in pieces, it was slowly starting to rise completely from the sea. The water beneath the enemy ship was being pushed aside as her engines whipped the freezing ocean into frenzied white caps. But the one thing they all saw at once was the last of the holes created by the Shipwreck missiles fast closing, healing over like a wound forming a scab. The metal that replaced the damaged areas was lighter in color, but it was metal just the same. The saucer was now undamaged from the massive strike of the missile cruiser.

  “Lock on missiles and continue fire!” the captain yelled, and ordered another hard maneuver to starboard.

  Too late the mighty ship heeled over, exposing her waterline completely toward the enemy. A straight line of light shot from the upper dome as the saucer made a course correction to match the turn of the Pyotr Veliky. The intense beam struck the bridge section and then sliced through with blinding quickness downward toward the water line and then hissed as it struck the sea. The great warship shuddered and large plates of hull simply fell off as if it had been sliced by a large knife. Water cascaded into decks five, six, and seven. The bridge burst into flame as the laser sliced cleanly through Vileski and his helmsman. The bridge wing with the lookouts came apart and the men fell into the freezing sea, yet still the missile cruiser continued her heel to starboard.

  After hitting the deck Lienanov felt the heat as the thick laser beam passed over his prone body. His uniform jacket began to burn and he rolled over in an attempt to smother the flames. All around him men were being fried as the enemy weapon continued to pummel the Pyotr Veliky.

  On deck five Ryan rolled on top of the two women and they angrily pushed him off. They felt the electricity produced by the laser as it came into contact with steel and aluminum. Sarah was screaming that she didn’t want to die in the belly of the ship if she started to go down.

  “Come on, if we get hit again we’ll lose the ship and the power plant!”

  “You want to go out there?” Ryan struggled to regain his feet under the shuddering deck.

  “We have to cut the retaining ropes on the power plant or she’ll go down with the ship. She’ll float, Jason. We have to give it a chance to be picked up by another ship!”

  “Okay, but it’s going to be a mess outside.”

  “I agree, I don’t want to die in here,” Anya chimed in as they heard one of the missile tubes abovedeck cook off as another laser strike hit the launcher. The cruiser shuddered again as she was starting to feel every hard blow of the enemy. The great ship rocked and actually left the water as her aft missile mount and loader exploded in a blinding flash of light and power.

  The three started to fight their way against the tide of sailors running to and from their posts as the lights flickered. If the ship lost power from her nuclear power plant the vessel didn’t have a chance in hell of making it out alive.

  Jason ran into a roadblock of dead and dying men as they made it to the outer hatch that would take them to the ship’s fantail. He struggled trying to move the sliced and burning bodies of men that blocked the hatch. It was too much. Every time he tried to move one of the poor boys the body would simply separate into pieces.

  “Back, go back!” he shouted just as a large explosion rocked the fire and control stations on the deck one. The Pyotr Veliky shook as if it had been grabbed by a rabid dog. As the three tried to run back the way they had come they all felt the temperature rising around them. The steel bulkheads started to heat up from being struck with the laser weaponry of the saucer.

  Jason knew the Pyotr Veliky was done for.

  * * *

  The saucer completed its maneuver, successfully blocking the path of the ship that was three times the size and weight of itself. The waters were being churned in a froth of green sea as her engines provided the power to keep it in the air and produce the energy needed to attack. The missile batteries had gone silent but the brave Russian sailors kept up the 130- and twenty-millimeter assault. Even the torpedo tubes lining the lower deck came to life as the weapons officers for each harangued their men to fight. Whatever happened to their ship they would fight until they had nothing to fight with.

  Eight VA-111 Shkval supercavitating torpedos were the fastest in the world and carried a punch like no other western or NATO weapon. It was designed to be fast and unstoppable. Its design was made for antisubmarine warfare, but could be detonated electronically by sight if need be. Each of the torpedo tube weapons officers now had direct control of the weapons they launched from tubes that had been angled out from the lower deck of the missile cruiser. As the eight torpedoes traveled under the now hovering saucer they entered the choppy sea directly underneath. The weapons control officer and their tube captains detonated each of the eight. They exploded with the power of a ton of high explosive force, bringing the sea up to meet the saucer’s underbelly. Again the enemy disappeared from view, only this time by seawater.

  Sarah, Anya, and Ryan finally cleared the last obstacle to the fresh air outside. Just as they opened the hatchway at the stern they felt the sea rise up around them as the ocean erupted. They were thrown to the wet deck as the water was so churned up by the detonations of the eight torpedoes they thought the final death blow to the missile cruiser had been dealt.

  Jason gained his feet and assisted the women to theirs. They saw a horrible sight as the wave of water washed many of the Russian and Ukrainian nuclear scientists over and under the stern railings as the fantail became a hell of green seas. The explosive wash of water had cleaned the deck as efficiently as a fire hose cleaning a parking lot.

  “They had the same idea,” Ryan shouted as he ran toward the strapped-down power plant. Several of the ropes had already been cut away and the large engine was held in place by only six of the thick straps that held her to the deck and railings.

  “We have to cut the rest!” Sarah yelled as seawater cascaded from every direction.

  * * *

  Captain Lienanov finally staggered to his feet inside of the smashed bridge. Bodies and parts of bodies of the bridge crew lay on and over their consoles and equipment. He struggled to get an assistant helmsman to his feet.

  “Get this ship moving!” he ordered the young and very frightened seaman.

  The man struggled to his feet and swiped at the scorched area of his forehead and then struggled to the damaged helm station.

  “Course?” He screamed to be heard over the din of dying men asking, praying for help.

  “Ram that son of a bitch!” the captain shouted. He never realized that the first and only command he had ever given inside the bridge in the midst of battle would be to destroy his ship and everyone onboard. He would ignite the thirty remaining Shipwreck missiles in their launch tubes directly under the saucer, creating the force of a nuclear weapon. Lienanov could not allow his ship to go down with their precious cargo without taking the enemy with him.

  The new captain of the Pyotr Veliky fought his way to the 1MC microphone and hit the switch as he unceremoniously kicked out at a young man who had grabbed his legs begging for help.

  “Weapons, set your safeties to zero, set your warhead to automatic. I will detonate from here,�
� he screamed into the mic. “Helm, all ahead, flank speed, direct line of sight, ram her.” His eyes blazed with angry fire at the imminent death of the proud missile cruiser. “We’ll see if this fucker can play the Russian way!”

  The Pyotr Veliky, with her engines pushed to their limit, started forward, her bow digging deeply into the sea as her large bronze propellers bit the water. She was heading directly for the saucer sitting in her path at two miles.

  The saucer waited and readied for the final death blow her weapons would bestow on the Pyotr Veliky.

  The world exploded around the saucer. A naval warhead, the likes of which had never been used before in an act of war, penetrated the saucer’s hull at over Mach 7.5, almost 7,000 miles per hour. The warhead burst open like a morning flower meeting the sun. Its petals spread wide as it pushed through the saucer, ripping a massive hole in her side. It tore through and continued to rip the insides of the enemy warship. It passed completely through the unknown metal and exploded out of the opposite side. The saucer wobbled, then straightened, and the hull began healing itself once again. But this time it didn’t have a chance as four more of the strange warheads erupted inside her. Again she shook and struck the sea with a loud hissing noise. More of the rose petals opened and began forcing themselves into the interior and began breaking the saucer apart. Naval rounds struck the silverish skin and began ripping the guts out of the enemy.

  Unable to heal itself fast enough, the power systems of the saucer started to melt down and her ability to reatomize the hull ceased. Internal explosions ripped her apart and in one blinding flash it vanished in a large mist of expanding metal. The remains of the enemy saucer rained down upon the hard-charging Pyotr Veliky.