Chapter 14 - Certain Suicide
Colonel Turner had a military laptop he used to get orders and submit situation reports, so when he saw the email icon light up with a new message, he immediately opened it to see if it had anything to do with the situation they were now involved in. The first thing he noticed was an picture attachment labeled 'warhead', so opened the picture and his eyes went wide. Turner read the email, feeling like his worse fears had come true and after he was done, he immediately called Wolowitz from the number on the email.
Howard was looking down at Penny, as Bernadette held her, he couldn't not help feeling sorry for her, he had noticed a change in her, it seemed her concern for Leonard was more than just a girlfriend, if he didn't know better it would seem like she was bonded to him. She was acting more like someone who wanted a future with Leonard and he wished Leonard knew how she felt about right now.
However, his thoughts of Penny and Leonard were interrupted when his phone rang, he had actually expected the call. "Wolowitz here."
"Mr. Wolowitz is email and picture you sent me true?"
"Yes Colonel. I ran it through a special program at the university that can determine what is on the other side of picture if there are reflections."
"How did you get the picture to analyze?"
"I hacked your email account."
Turner nodded to himself, he thought as much, "You're in trouble you know."
"I know."
"What is the confidence level on this."
"The program rates it at over 90 percent. We had a very good reflection, so I think it is pretty accurate."
"Okay, thanks, this helps a lot. Let me know immediately if you find out anything more." The information Turner now had was extremely important and he very appreciative of the engineer's dedication. "Wolowitz, you're not in that much trouble, just ask next time." Turner reassured Howard.
"Yes sir, I will….thanks."
Turner hung up, then pulled out his military phone, he needed to forward the information to the General, they needed to act fast, "Flash priority, get me General Owens at Edwards Air Force Base (AFB)."
General Owens was the situation commander, while Turner was the on scene commander, both of them had served in the Middle East, both had been in combat and both knew and trusted each other. Owens was really lucky Turner was in the area, when this happened, Turner had all clearances and experience for this kind of situation and Owens immediately put him in charge at the scene. The Edwards AFB command post sergeant handed Owens the phone, "Flash call from Colonel Turner, sir."
Owens knew this was serious. "Turner what is happening?"
"Sir, I had the picture of the bomb analyzed by one of the scientists at Cal Tech and he used some special software they had. He is cleared and does work for DoD, so I consulted him earlier in the day. The software is able to look on the back side of objects using reflections and complex software algorithms. I have sent you a picture of what they found, it is a timer set to go off at midnight."
"Damm, stand by Turner." Owens opened his email and saw the picture, his blood ran cold. "How reliable is this Turner?"
"Sir the man who did the analysis is really good and has been working successful Army projects for years. He said they had a good reflection and the confidence is over 90 percent."
Owens silently nodded his head to himself. "Turner, the president has given me authority to strike, so I am releasing the birds. They will contact you when they start their bomb run, so you have about 30 minutes, get you men in their MOPP (Mission Oriented Protective Posture) gear before that."
"Yes sir. Sir I'm going to release half my men to a fall back position, to decrease risk of exposure."
"On Site Commanders discretion Colonel." Owens trusted Turner to do what was right.
"Thank you Sir."
"Good luck Turner." They broke their connection.
-Tin Man-
Leonard had gone up to the third floor and carefully peeked through the small window in the door. There was another single guard sitting in a chair with his back to the door, just like the guard on the second floor. Leonard backed off and headed up to the fourth floor, a task that was not as easy as it sounded in the suit. His boots were too large for the stairs so he had to take each step carefully and the he actually had to exert himself to move up the steps more then if he was walking up them without the suit. By the time he reached the fourth floor he was sweating, but that was only an after thought for him, he was running out of time.
-Tin Man-
The flight line of Edwards AFB, had been busy all day, first receiving the fighters, then servicing them and loading them with weapons. They were F-15E fighter bombers, brought in specially for this mission, large two man aircraft that could easily go to Los Angeles and back with internal fuel. Now men ran around the big fighters as two of F-15Es spooled up their engines, they had been sitting there all evening, with crews in them, so they could airborne in minutes. General Owens orders for the mission changed the waiting planes and crews to soldiers with a mission and now everyone on the Edwards flight line was working their hardest to get the planes airborne as soon as possible.
The military picked these aircraft because they where the most effective aircraft for deploying smart weapons in the Air Force inventory and the only fighter aircraft capable of carrying the 5000 pound earth penetrating laser guided smart bomb. There were now two of them with engines running, a third loaded plane on standby in case one of the others planes had to abort, and as everyone on the flight line watched the aircraft were given permission to taxi.
-Tin Man-
Leonard had just peaked into the fourth floor door window, finding another guard, sitting in a chair with his back to the door. Something was now nagging at his mind, all the guards seemed relaxed and all didn't seem to be concerned with the stairwell, as a matter of fact the were all staying close to the stairwell. It would make more sense if they were on the other end of the hall or walking the hall, but they weren't doing that. "Tin Man to Base."
"Go ahead Tin Man."
"Base have you seen the last three floors, the guards are all positioned the same."
"Roger Tin Man that is curious."
"Base I was wondering how many terrorists could be here…."
"Roger Tin Man, I was doing a little calculation and I estimate they must have at least 30-40 people."
"That is a lot of people to agree to commit suicide."
Howard looked at Penny, she was now standing again but she was looking at him with extreme concern in her eyes. She hadn't been taking the last 20 minutes very well, Leonard mentioning suicide was helping any either, but of course he didn't know the girls were here and Howard couldn't risk telling him. "Roger Tin Man, that is quite a lot, however if…."
Leonard finished the sentence for Howard, "If they didn't know about the warhead, they might think they are going to escape."
"I agree Tin Man, I bet they don't know. That must be why there was a demand for their members in jail to be released, it is a bluff by the leaders to make their men think they might survive."
"Roger Base, that means they always intended to set it off, they never planned on doing anything else. Base did the military send the planes?"
"I think so Tin Man. It has been 20 minutes since I notified military commander, they should be in the air by now."
Howard looked at Penny again, tears were coming from her eyes and Bernadette had her arms around her, again. Howard was concerned, if something happened to Leonard, they might also loose Penny too, she was a complete emotional mess and he didn't know if she would be able to recover from Leonard's death.
"Okay Base, so we agree. I'm going up to the next floor, maybe I can be a little faster now, knowing what they are doing."
-Tin Man-
It was only a few minutes since both planes had lifted off the runway at Edwards, afterburners lighting up the runway, climbing into the night sky and heading west. Each plane was loaded with two of these 5000 pound bombs were packed with a new explosive, which created more damage than previous explosives. The plan was to hit the building with two bombs the first penetrating to the base of the building and the other to the middle of the building from entering the top. It would be total destruction and it would happen in about a second, the building would be almost vaporized and everything in it. The second F-15E flew with the first because he was his wingman and he was also there in case the first couldn't accomplish the mission. The military knew the destructive force of the two bombs would leave a gaping hole in the place the building once stood and it would kill everyone inside, so since there was approximately 140 hostages inside, the President had to order their use. Unfortunately the choice was both hard and logical, the bomb would kill thousands so the President gave General Owens the order to stop the detonation of the nuclear device at all costs..It was now less than 30 minutes before all hell broke loose and Leonard was still looking for the right floor.