"Destroyer 078 - Blue Smoke and Mirrors.pdb" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williams Remo)

"Wonderful," Remo muttered under his breath as he hoisted the big trunk across his thin shoulders. "I think all my troubles just went ballistic."
5
The Fox-4 silo could be reached from a fenced-off access hatch in the middle of an oat field. Robin Green led Remo and Chiun down this and into the underground Field Maintenance building. They had no special clearance to enter the silo itself. So while the necessary red tape was being cut, Robin left Remo and Chiun in the missile-parts storage area.
Chiun walked around the area, sniffing.
"I smell electricity," he said at last. He was puzzled.
"Sure. All this equipment," Remo pointed out.
"It is not clinging to these machine parts," Chiun said. "It hangs in the air. It is not right."
Then Robin returned to escort them to the underground launch facility through a pair of air-lock-like hatches, down a gleaming steel tunnel to the silo itself.
They gathered at the launch platform on which the big engine nozzle sat like a great silent bell. Gray-overalled AFSC maintenance teams swarmed around them. Remo was surprised at all the corrosion and water seepage. A rat scurried behind a cable. Above them, technicians worked on maintenance platforms, opening access panels and yanking umbilical cables. Far above, where daylight filtered down, the scorched jeep was being lifted free by a chain hoist.
A technician up on a high platform pulled his head from an access panel and called down:
52
53
"Everybody can relax. This bird isn't going anywhere. It's been gutted."
"What do you mean, gutted?" Robin Green called up.
"Just what I said. Gutted. Somebody pulled out all the firmware. It's just not here."
"Let me see that," she said, climbing up to the platform.
The technician handed her a flashlight. She shone it in through the hatch. The light picked out a mass of connections and mechanical devices. Tangles of flat connector cable hung slack, like detached hoses. Tooth-like prongs gleamed hungrily.
"See? All the BITE firmware has been yanked," the technician was saying.
"Just what is that? And use small words. I'm no expert."
"BITE stands for built-in test equipment. They're mostly ROM and PROM chips mounted on cards. They perform constant diagnostic tests of the bird's systems. This explains why she's been ANORS. But it doesn't explain how this stuff disappeared from a sealed missile."
"I want a list of every man who worked around this bird since it was loaded," Robin Green said angrily.
"That's four years' worth of duty rosters."
"Then you'd damn well better get started, hadn't you? And I want it by oh-six-hundred hours."
Robin joined Remo and Chiun below.
"You were pretty tough on him," Remo remarked.
"Don't let these hooters fool you," Robin snapped, cocking a thumb at her chest. "I'm all business."
An Air Force security policeman in camouflage fatigues and an olive-drab helmet emblazoned with the Strategic Air Command crest approached.
"Begging your pardon, ma'am," he said. "The launch and status officers are being held for you in the LC, as per your request."
54
"Come on, you two."
Remo picked up Chiun's trunk. He tucked it under one arm, although it was obviously very heavy.
"I'm beginning to feel like the fifth wheel on this job," he complained.
"Just do not drop my trunk," Chiun sniffed, hurrying ahead of him.
In the launch-control room the launch officers nervously waited under the steely gaze of another SP in fatigues, who stood with his hands clasped behind his back. A technician was opening up one of the dual boards.
"Look," he said.
While the technician held a light steady, Robin Green examined the console's innards.
"What am I looking for?" she asked.
"The launch-inhibit module."
"Is that the boxy thing?"
"No. The launch-inhibit module is normally connected to the boxy thing. But it's not there."
Robin Green stood up. "Not there? As in missing?"
The technician nodded grimly. "Someone stole it," he said.
"Get me the duty roster of everyone who performed maintenance on this console."
"Not necessary. I was the last one to open her up."
"Do you remember the launch-inhibit module being there?"
"It was there two days ago. And I can guarantee you that no one's opened this console until a few minutes ago."
"How can you be certain?"
"Because it was the act of disconnecting the module that triggered the launch sequence."
"That means-"
"It was lifted in the last hour. Don't ask me how. Gremlins. Martians. Blue smoke and mirrors. Take your pick."