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By Root 397 0

the On-Line Mole program had been shut down before he arrived. The ROC capacities on view were sophisticated but not revolutionary. Indeed, Rodgers would welcome a report from Seden to his superiors that TSF secrets and military data were safe. That would make it easier to bring the ROC back into Turkey and get the facility into other NATO countries. As Rodgers had told Mary Rose while they waited for Seden to arrive, being informed enabled a team leader to craft an appropriate intelligence, military, or diplomatic response. It allowed a leader to feed the party line to an enemy or even to an ally. It was being caught by surprise that was dangerous.

And now they waited for the F-4s to report back. Though Colonel Seden had been offered the relatively comfortable driver's seat up front, he graciously declined. He stood at ease and spent most of the time gazing out the front window. Only occasionally did he wander over to check the helicopter's progress. Rodgers noticed that when he did he no longer looked vaguely put out to be there. His eyes were alert and very interested.

Because he is a loyal Turk, Rodgers wondered, or because he is not?

For her part, Mary Rose clearly wished that Seden would leave. Rodgers knew that she had other programs to test-run. But Rodgers had E-mailed her from his station and told her to wait. Instead of working, she brought up one of the war simulations Mike Rodgers kept on file for relaxation. In alarmingly quick succession, the young woman lost the Battle of San Juan Hill for Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders in 1898, helped El Cid bungle the siege of Valencia during the war with the Moors in 1094, and enabled the formerly victorious George Washington to be defeated by the Hessians at Trenton in 1776.

"That's the value of simulations," Rodgers told her. "It lets you appreciate how large the shoes of those giants really are."

Seden watched Mary Rose fight the last battle during her "break," and seemed vaguely amused. Then he turned. He happened to glance at the helicopter display on Rodgers's monitor when the green screen began turning blue. The color was changing from the center out. The helicopter remained an orange silhouette in the center of the screen.

"General?" Seden said with real urgency.

Rodgers looked over. "Temp flux," he said urgently. "Something just happened out there."

Mary Rose turned around as the blue spread to the corners of the monitor. "Whoa," she said. "Something that's generating a lot of cold in a hurry. This grid is over a mile square."

Seden bent closer. "General, are you sure it's cold and not heat?" he asked. "Could the helicopter have dropped a bomb?"

"No," Rodgers said. He was bent over the keyboard, quickly punching keys. "If it had dropped a bomb, the screen would have gone red."

"But what could have chilled so much air so quickly?" Mary Rose asked. "That's gone down from seventy-eight to fifty-odd degrees. A cold air mass wouldn't move in that fast."

"No, it wouldn't," Rodgers said. He consulted his meteorological database, then looked at a computerized geophysical chart. He called up a four-mile-square view of the region and asked the satellite to give him specific heat readings.

The helicopter was a step-five AHL--average heat level. That meant it generated a heat signature where the engine was one hundred degrees, plus or minus five. Anything at that heat level showed up orange on the monitor. Above it was a step-six red or a step-seven black. Below it was a step-four green, a step-three blue, a step-two yellow, or a step-one white, which was freezing.

According to the geophysical chart, the mean ground temperature of this region around the Euphrates was sixty-three degrees. That fell within the step-four levels they had been showing. Step three started at fifty-three degrees. Whatever was happening out there was pulling the temperature down at least ten degrees at a speed of forty-seven miles an hour.

"I don't understand," Seden said. "What is it that are we seeing?"

"A massive cooling around the Euphrates," Rodgers said. "According to