Matthew Reilly - Temple

‘What about Lauren and Copeland?’ he asked Van Lewen. “Are they with Army Special Projects too?”

‘Yes,’ Van Lewen said solemnly.

Son of a bitch.

‘All right then,’ Race said, changing tack. ‘What do you know about the Supernova project?’

‘I swear I don’t know anything about it,’ Van Lewen said.

Race frowned, bit his lip. He turned to Renée.

‘What do you know about the American Supernova project?’

‘A little.’

Race raised his eyebrows expectantly.

Renée sighed. ‘Project approved by the Congressional Armaments Committee in closed session: January 1992. Budget of $1.8 billion approved by Senate Appropriations Committee, again in closed session: March 1992. Project was intended to be a co operative joint venture between the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency and the United States Navy. Project leader’s name is—’

‘Wait a second,’ Race said, cutting her off. ‘The Super nova is a Navy project?’

“That’s right.’

So Frank Nash had told more than one lie to get him to come along on the mission. The Supernova wasn’t even an Army project at all. It was a Navy project. And then, suddenly, Race found himself recalling something he had heard the previous night, when he had been imprisoned inside the Humvee, before the cats had attacked the BKA team. He recalled hearing a woman’s voice Renée’s maybe saying something in German over the radio, a sentence that he had found quite incongruous at the time, a sentence which he hadn’t translated for Nash and the others. Was ist mit dem anderen amerikanischen Team? We sind die jetzt?

‘What about the other American team? Where are they now?’

The other American team…

‘I’m sorry, Renée,’ he said, ‘who did you say was the Supernova’s project leader?’

“His name is Romano. Doctor Julius Michael Romano.’

And there it was. The mysterious Romano, revealed at last. Romano’s team was the other American team. A Navy team. Christ…

‘So let me just get this straight,’ Race said. ‘The Supernova is a Navy project led by a guy named Julius Romano, right?’

‘That’s right,’ Renée said.

‘And Romano and his team are in Peru right now, searching for the thyrium idol?’

‘That’s right.’

“But Frank Nash has an Army team down here as well, also going after the idol.’

‘That’s correct,’ Renée said.

‘So why? Why is a team led by a colonel from the U.S. Army’s Special Projects Division trying to beat a team of U.S. Navy people to an idol that is the key to a weapon that the Navy owns?’

Renée said, ‘The answer to that question is a little more complex than it would at first appear, Professor Race.’

‘Try me.”

‘All right,’ Renée said, taking a deep breath. ‘For the last six years, German intelligence has been looking on silently as the three branches of the United States armed forces— the Army, the Navy and the Air Force have engaged in a very bitter but very secret power struggle. ‘What they fight for is survival. They fight to be the pre eminent armed service in the United States, so that when the U.S. Congress finally removes one of them—as it intends to do in the year 2010—it will not be their branch that takes the bullet. They fight to make themselves indispensable.’

‘Congress intends to remove one of the armed services by 2010?’ Race said.

‘By a secret Department of Defence minute dated 6 September 1993 and signed by both the Secretary of Defence and the President himself, the Department of Defence recommended to the President that by the year 2010, one branch of the United States military be made redundant.’

‘Okay…’ Race said, doubtfully. ‘And how is it that you know all this?’

Renée offered him a crooked smile. ‘Come on, Professor. The U.S. Navy isn’t the only navy in the world which secretly taps into other countries’ undersea communications cables.’

‘Oh,’ Race said.

‘The basis of the Department’s decision was that war has changed. The old land sea air division of a country’s armed forces no longer applies to the modem world. It’s an anachronism from two world wars and a thousand years of hand to hand combat. The decision then becomes which service goes? ‘Ever since that time,’ Renée went on, ‘each branch of the armed services has attempted to prove its worth, at the expense of the other two.’

‘For example?’ Race said sceptically.

‘For example, the Air Force claims it has the Stealth Bomber and a unique expertise in air superiority fighting. But the Navy counters by saying that it has Carrier Battle Groups. On top of that, it claims that not only are its regular fighters and bombers as stealthy as the B3 anyway, but also that they have the added advantage of a transportable land ing strip. With a dozen Carrier Battle Groups, the Navy says, who needs an Air Force? ‘The Army, on the other hand, claims it has specialised ground troops and mechanised infantry forces. But both the Navy and the Air Force counter this by saying that modem warfare takes place in the skies and on the world’s oceans, not on land. They say to look at the Gulf War and the Kosovo conflict—battles that were fought from the sky, not the ground. ‘Add to that the Navy’s close affiliation with the United States Marine Corps. Since the Marines Corps’ existence is guaranteed by the American Constitution, they cannot be eliminated. And they have both ground and mechanised infantry capabilities, thus putting even more pressure on the Army to justify its existence. ‘Hell, look at ICBMs. All three armed services maintain missile launch facilities: the Navy has submarine launched systems; the Air Force air and land launched systems; and the Army land and mobile systems. Does a nation seriously need three separate nuclear missile systems when really only two—or even one—would do?’

‘So who looks like being the loser?’ Race asked, cutting to the chase.

‘The Army,’ Renée said simply. ‘Without a doubt. Especially when the Constitutional guarantee for the Marine Corps is taken into account. In every analysis I’ve seen so far, the Army has always come in third place.“

‘So they need to prove their worth,’ Race said.

‘They desperately need to prove their worth. Or diminish one of the other service’s worth.’

‘What do you mean, “diminish one of the other service’s worth”?’

‘Professor,“ Renée said, ‘did you know that late last year there was a breakin at Vandenberg Air Force base?’

‘No.’

‘Some top secret plans for the newW88 nuclear war head were stolen. The W88 is a miniaturised warhead, state of the art. Six security staff were killed during the theft. The official investigative report into the breakin—and the sub sequent media coverage of it claimed that it was the work of Chinese agents. The unofficial report into the breakin, however, says that upon examination of the kill and entry techniques used, only one unit could have executed the crime. An Army SpecialForces unit. Green Berets.’

Race shot a look at Van Lewen. The Green Beret sergeant just shrugged helplessly back at him. This was news to him. ‘The Army broke into an Air Force base?’ Race said in disbelief.

Renée said, ‘You see, Professor, the Army are working on a new miniaturised warhead of their own. The successful completion of the W88 would have seriously undermined their own project—and provided one less reason to keep them around in 2010.’

Race frowned. ‘So how do we apply this to the Supernova project?’

‘Simple,’ Renée said. ‘The Supernova is the ultimate weapon. Whichever armed service controls its use will ensure its survival in 2010. Quite obviously, although the Supernova is officially a Navy project, the Army has taken it upon itself to build its own device in all likelihood using information that they have managed to obtain from a source inside the Navy project.’