White Horse

1983. The shuttle Atlantia completes a classified DARPA mission, officially capturing deep-space imagery. But Mission Specialist Cyrus Aarons, a decorated pilot haunted by Cold War scars, suspects they were surveilling Soviet orbital assets. Aarons grows paranoid. Soon after, DARPA reveals photos of a space-based particle beam weapon. Alarmed, President Calloway orders the development of an American countermeasure: White Horse. NASA prepares a follow-up mission to deploy it. Aarons, however, is sidelined due to his outspoken anti-Soviet views and reassigned to NASA public relations—a calculated insult that only sharpens his suspicions. DARPA Director Chet Haynes is stonewalled at the White House by presidential aide Hugh Vellum, a KGB asset working with agent Susan Harper. Their mission was to manipulate U.S. intelligence and ensure the success of Soviet weapons' superiority. Meanwhile, a violent, unexplained storm forms rapidly over the Pacific. Aaron suspects weather warfare. He confides in his old friend, NASA meteorologist Ben Powell, who confirms the data is unlike anything natural. Together, they decide to watch and wait, fearful any official report will be buried or dismissed. Back home, Aaron's obsession with Soviet threats strains his relationship with his partner, Betty Margold. CIA intelligence confirms the weather weapon exists. Harper and Vellum orchestrate the kidnapping of Betty and Linda Powell as leverage. DARPA, monitoring the situation, allows it to play out to expose the traitors. A KGB sniper assassinates Vellum. Harper is poisoned before she can talk—clean-up, Soviet-style. As the White Horse shuttle launches, Aarons steals a jet and crash-lands near NASA's Mission Control. Injured but driven, he bursts in to warn the crew: Easter isn't who he says he is. He's Oleg Grosni, a Soviet agent planted to hijack the weapon. Aboard the shuttle, chaos unfolds. Grosni seizes control but—twisting expectations—uses White Horse to destroy the Soviet weather weapon, then declares his defection. He reveals the Soviets sacrificed him and Aarons decades ago to preserve diplomacy. With the threat neutralized, the shuttle returns safely. Aarons is vindicated. He retires, marries Betty, and starts a flight school with the Powells in Florida. Grosni quietly enters CIA service. But in the silence of space, another Russian satellite awakens—watching, waiting—proof that the Cold War never really ended.