The Project 02 - The Lance

into an uneasy sleep.
    He dreamed of Megan, his brown haired lover.
    His dead lover.

    Megan waited at the edge of the cliff, the sea wind blowing her long, brown hair out behind her.
    " Hey, Baby," she said.
    He knew he was dreaming, knew Megan was dead. Sadness overwhelmed him, an abiding sense of loss. When he was awake he could put it away where he didn't have to think about it. That wasn't possible here. But he'd rather see her here than not at all.
    " I miss you. I miss you so much." He held her tight.
    " I know."
    The dreamscape change d. A gaping chasm opened at his feet. At the bottom red and orange flames flared. Dark shapes danced in demented time with the flames. A sound like cold wind whistling through razor wire came and went at the edge of hearing.
    " You've got to find it, Nick."
    " I don't understand. Find what? Where is it?"
    The cold wind was getting stronger and Megan started shredding, bits of her flying away. He reached out to touch her, touched air.
    " You have to stop it." Megan put a transparent hand on his shoulder. She gestured at the chasm. "Find it, Nick."

    "Major Carter."
    He jolted awake. The hand on his shoulder belonged to the steward, an Air Force Sergeant. "Sir, the President would like you to come forward."
    Carter felt the dream fading. Find what? The chasm in the dream looked like someone's vision of hell. Maybe his own.
    Now and then he had a dream that warned of things to come. It was called the "sight" in Ireland. It had skipped a generation and passed to him from his Irish Grandmother. Sometimes that kind of dream gave advice. Dreams like that always had a weird, intense quality and he always remembered them. This was one of those.
    Megan, he understood dreaming about her. It happened a lot. But the dream made no sense.
    He looked out the window. The Israeli fighter escort had been replaced with the smooth, futuristic shapes of American F-22 Raptors. He'd been asleep for a while. He got up and went forward.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

    President Rice watch ed a television monitor on the bulkhead. A neat white bandage covered the cut on his forehead. He was wearing a blue sweatshirt with the Presidential Seal on it. His face was drawn. Dark shadows circled his eyes. He looked ten years older than he had the night before.
    "Take a seat, Carter."
    Nick took a seat on the couch. Sitting in the President's plane as the world slipped out of control felt like another one of his dreams, but a glance at the fighters keeping pace outside told him it was real enough.
    Whatever Rice did in the next few days might make the difference between peace and world war. Mao had said that power came from the barrel of a gun. The briefcase sitting with the army colonel aft meant Rice had his finger on the trigger of a very big gun and wielded a lot of power. But there were a few other big guns out there. It might not take much to precipitate a shootout. Then everyone would lose.
    " Take a look." Rice gestured at the screen.
    The picture was sharp, high definition living color. Thick smoke drifted over Jerusalem . The sun shone blood-red over the shattered ruins of the Mosque. Parts of the old city were on fire. The scene switched to a live shot of Israeli armor moving in columns. Trucks full of soldiers armed with assault rifles and encased in body armor were going somewhere. At reserve call up centers all over the country, Israel's armed and trained citizen army was showing up for work.
    Rice clicked his remote. Protests and riots all across the Middle East. In Tehran a mob of a hundred thousand people screamed in rage, chanting in carefully orchestrated responses. Green and white banners in Arabic and misspelled slogans in English proclaimed death to America, Israel, Zionists, Jews and Rice himself. Israeli and American flags burned in every Islamic country.
    Rice turned off the set.
    "That's only the beginning. Pakistan went to full alert and India followed. They're snarling at each other. North Korea has pledged its undying support for the 'victims of American and Jewish aggression'. Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador. Syria and Jordan have announced a joint military effort. Egypt is mobilizing. We've detected movement of Iran's mobile missile forces. They're trying to hide them."
    Rice paused.
    "The Gulf States withdrew their ambassadors. Yemen is calling for a regional conference and a mutual military pact against the enemies of Islam. That means us, Israel and the West in general. China and