The day was hot and the high cloud of vapour and dust just made the heat worse. Everywhere you looked you saw people with wet shirts, blouses, and dresses, fans were useless as they only moved the hot air around, and air-conditioning units were fetching ten times their retail value. Andrew McKenzie sat in a bar overlooking the Kidron Valley, the bar charged exorbitant prices for their cold beers, but then they had air-conditioning, which made it worth every Euro. Andrew was on secondment to Israel as a technical advisor on defence weapons, but not today. There were so many Americans in Israel these days that the fourth of July had been declared a national holiday, honestly, Andrew would rather have been in his cool air-conditioned office. Andrew had lived most of his life in Britain's north, in the west of Scotland, born in the small village of Mallaig, he had excelled in engineering and had won a place at Edinburgh University, where he had earned a Doctorate. His career had so far been rewarding, working exclusively for British & European Aerospace Corporation, based close to Glasgow. So Andrew was more used to cooler climates, and was starting to regret accepting this first secondment.
Some American friends had invited him to join them for the day as they celebrated their Independence Day. He either had a twenty minute walk or a battle to find a taxi, which were difficult to find in this heat. Andrew steeled himself and left the bar, determining to start the walk whilst trying to find a ride. Andrew headed out along El- Mansuriya Street,towards his friends house, as he walked he heard the distant sound of an aircraft approaching, without taking much notice he continued his walk. Ten seconds later, the aircraft grabbed his attention, as a fighter plane, one that he did not recognise, roared overhead at less than three-hundred meters. The fighter banked steeply and turned back along the valley, as two sparks of light sprang from the aircraft's under-wing and headed towards the Temple Mount. Andrew ducked in behind a wall as the air was ripped apart by the implosion and he felt his body being tugged over the wall. Andrew resisted the rush of air and as the effects subsided he looked south to see the tale-tale vortex of an anti-matter warhead, over the Temple Mount.
“Where in hell did that come from?” shouted the duty officer monitoring the microwave scanning screens, as the fighter roared overhead. “There's nothing on the screens at all, “Chuck,” he called, “run a diagnostic on the MDS, it just missed an aircraft.”
“Roger that Chief,” Chuck called back and turned to his bank of screens and detectors. Just then they heard the scream of the Implosion Bombs, “Shit,” they both shouted in unison. All at once the panels lit up in front of them and seven com-units started chiming one after the other. Ginger Levant, the senior duty officer knew which unit to answer first, and grabbed the bright orange com from his control desk.
“Yes Sir,” Ginger said immediately, followed a few seconds later with, “I have no idea Colonel, nothing showed up on our screens and no alarms were triggered until the implosion.”
“Yes Sir, we're running a diagnostic right now, it'll just be a few minutes,” continued Ginger, who stood with the unit in his hand for another two minutes. Finally Chuck came back with the results on a tablet. “Sir, I have the results, there is nothing wrong with our systems they are all green-OK,” the connection went dead, “Well thank you too Colonel.”
“Have we got satellite feed,” Ginger asked.
“No idea, I'll check the download stream, just give me a minute,” Chuck half ran up the stairs to the satellite receiving room and burst in going straight to the Multichannel Recorder that was connected to eight satellite feeds. Chuck looked at his watch and backed the recordings back eleven minutes. Within seconds he spotted a possible target and made a copy of the high definition feed, then sent the download up to the brass. Chuck returned to the monitoring centre with his recording and plugged the device into a HD display unit. Ginger joined Chuck in front of the screed and they viewed the pictures, Ginger isolated a good frame of the fighter and zoomed in onto the machine.
“What in the name of all that's holy is that,” exclaimed Ginger.
“Looks like an alien craft,” offered Chuck.
“Sorry to disappoint you Corporal, but that machine is entirely of human origin,” said Ginger, “and it's from a lot closer than another planet.”
“Where?”
“If I not mistaken, it's Iranian.”
“You're joking, their grand designs don't fly, they are just wood and nails, they have been the laughing stock of the aerospace industry for years.”
“Well Chuck, it looks like they have had the last laugh, I'd better get this upstairs, and quick,” Ginger said as he downloaded the 'still' to his com-unit.
There were no windows left in the Prime Minister's office, nor were there any left in any of the upper floors of the Knesset, in fact most of central Jerusalem had lost their windows. Most of the fatalities and injuries had been from flying debris. Heidi Goldbloom stood silently at what was once a sheet of bullet-proof plexi- glass, still not knowing what exactly had happened. She was close to tears, at the sight of her beloved city. Heidi took a tissue from her desk drawer and dabbed her cheeks, just as her desk-com buzzed.
“Yes,” she croaked, then cleared her throat and said, “What is it?”
“Minister Marks is here to see you, madam,” her PA announced.
“Well send him in,” she said much more sharply than she intended. “Ben, what is going on?”
Ben saw the open window and his first concern was for his Prime Minister's well-being. “Are you all right madam Prime Minister?”
“Yes, of course, now tell me what has happened.”
“It seems that we have been attacked by a very sophisticated stealth aircraft, which fired two anti-matter implosion rockets at the Temple Mount. All of the foundations for the new temple are gone, as is some of the Mount itself, casualties are likely to be in the thousands.”
“Who the hell has the capabilities to launch such an attack,” asked the PM, as much to herself as to her minister.
“There, we can make a very good guess, our monitoring and detection unit downloaded some video from one of the American satellites, they seem to think that it was an Iranian plane,” explained Ben Marks.
“What!” blurted the PM, “how have they managed that, I thought they just produced mock-ups.”
“Yes, they did, but it seems they were a subterfuge, they have actually built something that we cannot track, except visually.”
“Visually?”
“Yes we can see it optically, from satellites, visual observation, etcetera, but none of our early warning systems can detect it, it seems.”
Ben's com-unit chimed and he answered it, “Marks,” he said, then listened intently for over a minute, “are you sure,” another silence, “Thank you General, please keep me informed.” Ben Marks closed his com and placed it on the PM's desk, “It seems that we managed to track the craft back to Iran, despite it making a detour via Libya, Ethiopia, and then across the Gulf into Iran. The machine is extremely fast and our targeting systems are useless, one naval ship fired off two of the old heat seeking missiles, they both went wild and had to be destroyed.”
“This is a threat to the whole western world Ben,” the PM said as she seated herself at her desk, activated her desk-com and jabbed her finger on a button. Within seconds Ben heard the voice of President Orwell.
“Heidi!” Orwell said, “I have just been roused from bed and told that you have a little trouble, what can we do for you?”
“Mr. President, I think we all have some trouble ahead,” answered the PM.
“How so, Madam Prime Minister,” asked Orwell.
Heidi Goldbloom and Benjamin Marks both filled the President in on what they knew about the Iranian fighter plane and the President listened in silence, with a facial expression that grew more serious by the minute. Before they had finished briefing President Orwell, more information came through about the flying machine. The air speed was in excess of Mk 10, over seven-thousand six-hundred miles an hour.
President Orwell was silent for some seconds after Heidi and Ben had finished, then leaned forward toward the com-unit and said, “Be assured, the United States will back you up, as commander in chief I propose to activate a task force immediately, it will take a little time, but the full might of the US Forces will be made available to protect the world against the Iranian state plans. Leave it to me now, I will contact the other heads of state, I can rely on most of the European states and the UK will be the first to help. Keep me informed and I will get back to you later today.”
“Good evening, this is the news at six,” said the newsreader with a serious expression on her otherwise attractive face. “Earlier today Jerusalem suffered and unprovoked attack by an as yet, unknown aeroplane. The flying machine fired two anti-matter implosion devices at the site of the third temple on the Temple Mount, much of the Mount and the foundations for the third temple were destroyed. The death toll has been estimated to be over three thousand souls. Sources indicate that the aircraft is an entirely new concept with advanced capabilities that exceed any known aircraft. The craft was, it seems, followed back to its base in Iran.”
“The US President addressed the American people just an hour ago and pledged the full force of the US military in protection of the western world and our allies.” The picture cut to a clip of President Orwell.
“America has always stood for freedom and free speech,” said the President, “and although we have our own issues here at home, this threat from an ancient enemy, far outweighs that domestic threat form a lunatic fringe. The FBI will continue to hunt down those of the US-Atheists organisation, whilst our military together with our allies in Europe and now Russia, join together to stand against this aggressor.”
The transmission reverted to the studio and the newsreader continued, “Prime Minister Matthews has just confirmed that a general call-up has been activated for both regular servicemen and the reserve.” The image of the British PM replaced the newsreader's, transmitting directly from the House of Commons.
“I have just spoken to my opposite numbers in four other European states, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, who have all agreed to be our partners in this operation. The Royal Navy already has three fleets in the Middle-east and these will be directed to the Mediterranean and Gulf areas. The Air Force are as I speak, making preparations to re-station in several undisclosed strategic bases, within the week, the British Army will mobilise as soon as possible to join the Air Force and Navy. May God bless our troops.”
The beaches had been cleared four days previously and both military and civil police had guarded a fifty kilometre stretch of some of Israel's best coastline. As daylight faded, it became obvious that this night would see the open fissure meet with the dry-land. The orange glow could be seen now, within the cloud of vapour some fifty meters from the beach and moving inexorably towards the shore-line. Outside of the police cordon the public had started to gather, whilst above, the media hovered in LIMO's, while camera drones buzzed about like mosquitoes above a swamp. As the fissure approached the shore the cordon had been reduced to forty, then thirty and finally to five kilometres each side of the point where the fissure would encounter the beach.
Inland, a corridor was being hastily cleared, buildings evacuated, and people moved to hotels that had been cleared of tourists for the past week. The corridor was now being patrolled by Israeli and UN troops flying in rescue LIMO's and helicopters; ready to pluck the straggler or obstinate resident from the danger zone. The Israeli Prime Minister was at this moment in one of the military LIMO's, and whilst her eyes were glued to the steaming head of the fissure, her mind was intent on prayer, for her people and her country. Now the fissure was just twenty meters from the beach, and every breath was held, as the sand in the shallows glowed and turned to glass. Then came the expected event, the beach split and there was smoke in place of the steam and the progress visibly accelerated as the cooling effects of the seawater were lost. The orange gash mounted the beach and proceeded through the sand-dunes to the more solid land beyond. The land opened up like a giant zip-fastener, it was clear that the fissure would reach Jerusalem the following day.