The Rapture has occurred, America is devastated and the Islamic Messiah, the 12th Imam, is moving quickly to establish his ultimate control over the world. Soon all will be in place according to the plans of the Antichrist.
Post apocalyptic action and adventure thriller that shows a possible connection between Christian, Jewish and Islamic end time prophecies
surprise near the end of the book
Airman Hennessey was looking at the screen in front of him. He was nearing the end of his ten-hour shift, and thoughts of getting off work began to swirl around his head as he began counting the minutes until his relief showed up.
As he began contemplating the various activities he had planned for this weekend, his thoughts drifted to the stories he heard from the senior NCOs. They had told him of the days during the Cold War when incursions by Russian aircraft at the edge of US airspace were a common occurrence. Those probing flights, which were done by both sides, caused constant alerts that would frequently involve NORAD sending up interceptors to verify the target’s intentions.
He remembered veterans telling him of a time when the world nearly went to nuclear war in 1979. Right here in this very mountain in the heart of the Rockies, the computers told men such as himself that the Soviet Union had launched a massive nuclear strike against America. The launch was confirmed by two other systems at other locations. Commanders quickly met, knowing they had only minutes to make a decision on whether to retaliate for this egregious act by the Communists.
The order was given, and the large force of Minuteman missiles buried deep throughout the American West were given a preliminary warning that the country was under nuclear attack and that a launch order would be forthcoming. The entire continental interceptor force of aircraft was also placed on full alert, ready to bomb their targets deep inside of Russia.
Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed as they realized it made no
sense for the communists to choose that particular moment to attack and that there was probably another explanation. It later turned out that the entire incident had been the result of a training tape accidentally being uploaded to the computers running America’s early warning systems.
Now, with the fall of the Soviet Union, NORAD was presently keeping track of all aircraft over North America in order to be able to swiftly respond to another 9/11 type of attack by aggressors using aircraft as weapons. NORAD, operating in conjunction with Canada, also monitored the thousands of satellites and other objects in the earth's orbit.
Suddenly a klaxon went off, jarring the somewhat lethargic duty crew to an instant state of heightened awareness. Immediately Major Walters, the officer in charge, ran over to Hennessey.
“What have we got, Hennessey?”
“It looks like a missile launch, sir. I got two, no, make that three confirmed launches from Iran. Verifying heat signatures now, sir."
“What in the world are those camel jockeys thinking,” the major said as he looked at Lt. Michael Jones and barked out orders to the men and women in the room. “Jones, get a confirmation on that, and then get me the CIC.”
Within seconds, a secure dedicated line rang in General Sam Martinez’s office. Knowing that the line was only used for the direst of emergencies, he hurried over to pick it up.
“What in the blazes is going on,” Martinez answered the phone abruptly.
“It's Iran, sir,” Major Walters said, anxiety in
his voice. “We just picked up seismic readings and heat signatures. We estimate the launch of three missiles. They have not announced any scheduled tests recently. It doesn't look good.”
“Do we have a heading on these birds yet? Are they headed our way?”
"Unclear at this time; we're attempting to get a trajectory on their projected course now."
“Keep me advised of the status,” the general said. “I'm going to call and alert the president. In the meantime, get all of our forces on alert.”
The line was kept open as Martinez picked up another phone that was intended to go to an aide with direct access to the president when suddenly he remembered the commander-in-chief was at the United Nations. Realizing time was of the essence with any type of launch such as this, he made a stunning decision that he knew was violating every protocol established during the last half-century in dealing with such situations. If he was wrong, he knew he could face a possible court-martial, but if he was right…