Black Wolf

Absolutely hated it.

Da

Pretty much the last thing Da

“Very fu

“The system still has some kinks to be worked out,” said Da

“No—it’s my fault,” said Da

The coffee, very strong and hot, spurted through the dispenser into a fresh cup. While the automated assistant and the beverage center were a brand new addition to Room 4, their presence in the high-tech control area wasn’t a surprise. Back at Dreamland, one of the technology section’s proudest achievements was a zero-gravity coffeemaker, which could keep the crews aboard Megafortresses and other large aircraft pleasantly caffeinated no matter what the combat conditions were.

“I’ll meet you inside,” said Brea

“Gotcha.”

Da

A full-bird colonel, Freah had recently been assigned to the Office of Technology, a special direct-report agency that answered to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. On paper, he looked like just another pencil-pushing staff officer, paid for his advice and experience. In reality, he headed Whiplash, one of the most exciting commands in the military.

A joint venture with the CIA, Whiplash aimed to combine up-to-the nanosecond intelligence capabilities with a covert action team. It was modeled on the Air Force’s Dreamland program that had so much success a decade and a half earlier, under Brea

They’d had one success so far, on a mission that had stretched from Africa to Iran. For Da

He’d tapped another old Dreamland Whiplash hand—Ben “Boston” Rockland, now a chief master sergeant—as his main perso

Bucks and does; it was a coed force.

Boston was in Florida at the moment, putting their recruits through their paces. They had twenty-four newbie “shooters” or Whiplash troopers, drawn mostly from active military commands, each with different specialties and strengths. Eventually Da

Da

“Colonel, good morning,” said Jonathon Reid. Reid was the CIA director’s liaison to the project, Brea

Da

“Now that we’re all here, we can begin,” said Reid. “Screen.”

A screen appeared above the center of the table. It was another projection.

“The man on the ground in a pool of blood is the deputy defense minister of Poland,” said Reid. His voice was dry and raspy. “You may remember seeing something about it in the daily intel briefings. That’s the ministry behind him. Yes, this murder was carried out in broad daylight, inside a secure facility.”

Da

“You’ll note that the deputy minister was shot in the forehead,” continued Reid. “That wasn’t a sniper shot. It was at close range, with a very distinctive bullet. Something like this.”

Reid reached down to his briefcase and removed a manila envelope. Holding it upside down, he shook out what looked to Da

“This is a bullet?” said Nuri, picking it up.

“Carbon composite,” said Da

“Yes, Colonel,” said Reid. “There’s no metal. We imagine that it was fired from a weapon that also had no metal, as whoever fired it had to get past a metal detector.”

Nuri passed the bullet over to Da

“This killed him?”

“That’s not the actual bullet, no,” said Reid. “That’s something one of our labs was working on. The actual bullet is in Poland. This is another murder, more recent,” Reid went on, changing the slide. “Yesterday as a matter of fact.”

A new image appeared on the screen. A man lay on a sidewalk, blood around his face and mouth. This time Da

“The dead man is named Helmut Dalitz,” continued Reid. “MY-PID, please display Herr Dalitz’s professional dossier.”

The computer complied. MY-PID stood for Massively Parallel Integrated Decision Complex, and referred to the network of interco

“This one is a businessman,” said Nuri. “And he’s German. What’s the co

“The only hard co

“So they were murdered by the same man,” said Da

“Maybe not the same person,” said Reid, as Brea

Da