Black wind

Badger and pointed a finger past the rocket.
    “Look, up there.”
    Dahlgren peered past the rocket but just saw the roof of the hangar and an empty helipad. Squinting harder, he gazed down slightly. Then it struck him. The large digital launch clock that read 00:52:00, fifty-two minutes.
    “That thing is going to fire off in less than an hour!” he exclaimed, watching the seconds tick down lower.
    “We’ve got to stop it,” Dirk said, a tinge of anger in his voice.
    “We’ll have to get aboard and quick. Though I don’t know about you, pardner, but I don’t know a thing about missiles or platform launches.”
    “Can’t be anything more than a little rocket science,” Dirk replied with a grimace, then jammed the submersible’s throttles forward, surging the Badger toward the platform.
    The metallic red submersible surfaced again near the stern of the platform almost directly beneath the launch tower and Zenit rocket. Dirk and Dahlgren peered up at a large set of panels that protruded from the underside of the platform just below the base of the rocket. The flame deflector was designed to divert and dampen the rocket’s fiery thrust, directing the launch tempest through the platform to the ocean below. Thousands of gallons of fresh water were released seconds before launch into the trench to help cool the exposed portions of the platform during the blazing inferno during the rocket’s slow rise off the pad.
    “Remind me not to park here when that torch goes off,” Dahlgren said, trying to visualize the conflagration that would surround them if the rocket was ignited.
    “You don’t have to ask twice,” Dirk replied.
    Their attention turned to the platform’s thick support columns,
    searching for a way up to the main deck. Dahlgren was the first to spot the Koguryo’s tender, tied up at the opposite side of the platform.
    “I think I see a stairwell on that forward column where the boat’s tied up,” he said.
    Dirk took a quick bearing, then submerged the Badger and quickly ran her between the Odyssey’s sunken pontoons to the bow end of the platform. Bobbing to the surface, they rose just astern of the white tender, where they floated cautiously eyeing the other craft.
    “I don’t think anyone is home,” Dirk said, satisfied the boat was empty. “Care to tie us off?”
    Before he could get an answer, Dahlgren had already opened the submersible’s top hatch and climbed out. Dirk purged the Badger’s tanks of all seawater to attain maximum buoyancy, then nudged the submersible forward till he tapped the stern of the tender. Dahlgren immediately hopped from the sub to the boat, then from the boat to the platform, tightly clutching a mooring line while he moved. Dirk quickly shut down the submersible’s power systems and climbed onto the platform as Dahlgren tied off the mooring line.
    “This way to the penthouse,” Dahlgren said in a gentlemanly tone as he motioned an arm toward the adjacent stairwell. Climbing onto the metal stairs, the two men moved rapidly, racing up the steps in a measured pace, while careful to minimize the clamor of their movements. Reaching the top flight of steps, they stopped for a moment and caught their breath, then stepped onto the exterior deck of the platform.
    Standing on the forward corner of the platform, they came eye to eye with two enormous cigar-shaped fuel tanks that were encompassed by a maze of pipes and tubing. The massive white tanks stored the Zenit’s flammable diet of kerosene and liquid oxygen. Beyond the tanks, at the rear of the platform, they saw the Zenit itself standing like a lonely monolith surrounded by open deck. They stood for a moment, mesmerized by the size and sheer power of the rocket with
    out even considering the lethality of its payload. Dirk then looked up at the hangar towering beside them, capped by a helipad at its forward edge.
    “I’m pretty sure the bridge sits above the hangar. That’s where we need to get to.”
    Dahlgren studied the structure methodically. “Looks like we’ll have to go through the hangar to get there.”
    Without another word, the two men took off at a fast jog, wary of being observed as they dashed to the end of the five-story-high hangar. Reaching the deck side with its open barn doors, Dirk carefully peered around the edge to look inside. The long narrow hangar looked like a huge empty cavern without the Zenit lying prone inside. With Dahlgren on his heels, Dirk slipped around the door