“Are the old man and the boy secured?” General Karmali asked. Ramazan had rushed back to the NIU HQ as soon as the two from the village had finished their story about the arrival of the ‘War Rock’.
“Yes, Sir,” Ramazan answered, “They’re being relocated to a nearby outpost as we speak.”
“Good, good… Make sure there’s a close guard kept over them too. The fewer people that know about this, the better.”
“Of course.”
“And nothing we discuss about this matter leaves this room, understood?”
Ramadan nodded. Karmali was wrenching his hands together behind his back and pacing furiously around the command tent. Ramazan had never seen her commander so nervous about anything before, even at times when he’d had a gun pressed to his head.
“Sir,” she began, “what is this War Rock, exactly?”
Karmali paused.
“It’s something President Zaripov and many other world powers have been seeking for a long time,” he said, choosing his words carefully, “a weapon powerful enough to not only change this war, but all war as we know it. If the military has found what they think they’ve found, then…”
He trailed off again, lost in thought.
“Get your Dogs together, Captain, a small strike force - the best you’ve got. You’re leaving at dawn. Find that meteor and bring it back here. If you can’t capture it, destroy it, by any means necessary. Understood?”
Frustrated and confused, Ramazan bit her lip and nodded. Her cigars would have to wait.