Free Fallen Angel by Jeff Struecker

sir. I didn't mean to imply you were."
    Huffington faced Mac. "At the moment, only five people know about this; six if you count Captain Masters. That will change by the end of the day. Thirty minutes from now, I'll brief the speaker of the house and the Senate's president pro tem. I will bring in the chairman of the JCS. I will ask him to keep the information to himself. The other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff don't need to know, at least not at the moment. The fewer people who know about this, the better." The president drummed his fingers on the arm of the chair. "While what I'm about to say isn't mission crucial, I'm going to bring you in on this. I do so because I want you and your team focused on the mission. Clear?"
    "Clear, sir."
    "Brownie here will be our new VP. I know she can pass a Senate review. She has something on everyone in Congress. No one's going to give her grief. We have too many things going on to miss a beat. Appointing Brownie VP will make sure things flow smoothly."
    "If only I can get him to stop calling me Brownie." The woman smiled, and for a moment Tess thought she saw skin crack. The group gave a polite laugh; everyone except Bacliff.
    Mac said, "You said there were three items, Mr. President."
    "All I can say about the second item is this: There is more to that satellite than you know or can imagine. I can't tell you more. Not yet."
    "Does it impact my team's mission?"
    "No, their task remains the same. Just know that it is extremely important that your team succeeds."
    "Yes, sir."
    Tess wanted to pump the man for more information. Information was her specialty, being deprived of it made her uncomfortable, especially since her husband was one of the men tasked with finding and destroying Angel-12. She reined in her curiosity. Such protocol existed for a reason.
    "Third and final item for this meeting: We've received intel that confirms one of our fears. Your team is racing three enemy factors. First is the Russian government. They monitor our satellites just as we monitor theirs. That isn't new. This is: We know a Chinese Spec Ops team is headed to the same area."
    "Chinese?" Tess let her surprise slip.
    "As you know, it was a defunct Chinese satellite that started all this, except our intel groups believe the satellite wasn't defunct at all: it was a sleeper."
    "A sleeper?" Tess raised an eyebrow.
    "A satellite in orbit that appears to be nonoperational but can be reactivated for a purpose. In this case, to knock our bird out of the sky."
    "Has this happened before?"
    "There have been collisions, but this seems to have a different purpose. We now suspect the Chinese waited until just the right time to knock down Angel-12. If our space warriors hadn't tried to move the bird before impact, it would have landed in the heart of China. The last-minute maneuver changed its impact area. Which means—"
    "The Chinese targeted that particular bird." Mac rubbed the back of his neck, the closest the man ever came to showing emotion. "But why?"
    "They couldn't know." Helen Brown looked at the president. "Could they?"

CHAPTER 7
    CAPTAIN SCOTT MASTERS FOUGHT the urge to writhe. Throughout his life he had experienced pain: a broken leg acquired on a ski slope, cracked ribs from a fall during basic training, and scorching agony from an abscess in his jaw. The moment made all of those events seem like mere annoyances.
    Tears leaked from the corners of his eyes and wetted the side of his face. On his back and strapped to his bed, he could do little more than shift from side to side. He was being observed and his captors would consider every groan a victory.
    Behind him he could hear the gentle beep of the IV stand and, if he turned his head enough, he could see the still-full bags of antibiotics and the limp, clear line that should be connected to his arm. Bags of life hanging just out of reach, just close enough to provide mental torture.
    The pain in his side seemed to be expanding. The skin around his