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By Root 1908 0

had an advantage and a disadvantage. Her older system allowed launches directly at the inbound missiles instead of forcing the missiles to turn in flight before they could engage. But she could not launch as fast. She had three targets and fifty seconds to destroy them. The first -802 splashed five miles out, killed by a double hit. The second was now at its terminal height of three meters, ten feet over the flat surface. The next outgoing SM-2 missed high, exploding harmless behind it. The following missile missed as well. The next ripple from the forward launchers obliterated that one three miles out, filling the air with fragments that confused the guidance of the next pair, causing both to explode in the shredded remains of a dead target. Both of the cruiser's launchers swiveled fore and aft and vertical to receive the next set of four SAMs. The last -802 passed through the spray and fragments, heading straight into the cruiser. Yorktown got off two more launches, but one faulty missile failed to guide at all, and the other missed. Then the CIWS systems located on the forward and after superstructure turned slightly, as the vampire entered their targeting envelope. Both opened up at eight hundred yards, missing, missing yet again, but then exploding the missile less than two hundred yards off the starboard beam. The five-hundred-pound warhead showered the cruiser with fragments, and parts of the missile body kept coming, striking the ship's fore-right SPY RADAR panel and ripping into the superstructure, killing six sailors and wounding twenty more.

WOW, SECRETARY BRETANO said. All the theoretical stuff he'd learned in the past weeks was suddenly real.

Not bad. They've launched fourteen aircraft at us, and they're getting two or three back, that's all, Robby said. That'll give them something to think about for the next time.

What about Yorktown? the President asked.

We have to wait and see.

THEIR HOTEL WAS only half a mile from the Russian embassy, and like good parsimonious journalists, they decided to walk, and left a few minutes before eight. Clark and Chavez had gone a scarce hundred yards when they saw that something was wrong. People were moving listlessly for so early on the start of a working day. Had the war with the Saudis been announced? John took a turn onto another market street, and there he found people listening to portable radios in their stalls instead of moving their wares onto the shelves.

Excuse me, John said in Russian-accented Farsi. Is something the matter?

We are at war with America, a fruit vendor said.

Oh, when did this happen?

The radio says they have attacked our airplanes, the fruit seller said next. Who are you? he asked.

John pulled out his passport. We are Russian journalists. Can I ask what you think of this?

Haven't we fought enough? the man asked.

TOLD YOU. THEY'RE blaming us, Arnie said, reading over the intercept report off Tehran radio. What will that do to the politics in the region?

The sides are pretty much drawn up, Ed Foley said. You're either on one side or the other. The UIR is the other. Simpler than the last time.

The President checked his watch. It was just past midnight. When do I go on the air?

Noon.

RAMAN HAD TO stop at the Maryland-Pennsylvania line. A good twenty or so trucks were waiting for clearance from the Maryland State Police, with the National Guard in close attendance, and they lined up two by two, completely blocking the road at this point. Ten angry minutes later, he showed his ID. The cop waved him through without a word. Raman turned his light back on and sped off. He turned on the radio, caught an all-news AM station, but missed the top-of-the-hour news summary and had to suffer through all the rest, largely the same thing he'd been hearing all week, until twelve-thirty, when the network news service announced a reported air battle in the Persian Gulf. Neither the White House nor the Pentagon had commented on the alleged incident. Iran claimed to have sunk two American ships and shot down four fighters.

Patriot and zealot that he was,