Blue Skies

by Ali Vali

  “Captain,” Berkley’s voice came over the radio.

  “Go ahead, Commander.”

  “There’s actually about twenty of them and they’ve split into an attack formation. Do I have permission to fire?”

  “Let me try to raise them one more time and if they don’t respond, blow them out of the sky,” Aidan said and nodded to Luther to try to communicate with them again. He did, and there was only silence. “Cletus, consider this a hostile action against the Jefferson. You and your team may fire at will.”

  “Ma’am, I have Naval Command on the line,” Luther said.

  “Aidan, this is Edgar Caldwell,” the man said.

  “Edgar, good to hear your voice.” Aidan kept her eyes on the horizon where the black planes spread out and tried to get past Berkley and the others. “You want to tell me who the hell’s trying to take me out so close to the U.S. shoreline?”

  “We have tight radar security sitting on top of you, but we had a temporary glitch in the system, and it’s like they came out of nowhere. They weren’t there one second, then all of a sudden the screen came to life. We count twenty-five so far.”

  “And you’ve got no idea of who they are or where they came from?”

  “We’ve got a team leaving here to take a look, so try and hang on. You do have the green light in case they actually are stupid enough to fire on you.”

  “Thanks, Edgar, I’ll keep the line open so you can hear what’s going on.”

  *

  Berkley flew into the throat of the formation headed toward them and was impressed at how they dropped and split so she couldn’t easily come back and get behind them. “Vader, spilt left and, Killer, you take the right. I’ll keep up the middle. I need the rest of you to keep close to the ship. Whoever lets a bullet land on that deck will be running laps for months.”

  “Cletus, two broke away with us,” Hattie said.

  Berkley had been joking with Junior when the alarm sounded, and had it been possible she would’ve loaded him up. He was young, but he’d proven himself enough to make Berkley miss his voice in the situation. Hattie had been waiting when Berkley made it to her jet.

  “Let’s see what they have in mind,” Berkley and the three planes that were on her team started their maneuvers to try to lose their tails.

  Berkley gained altitude and went through a series of acrobatics that made it hard for her own team to keep up. She decided to climb because she didn’t want to give whoever this was any chance to get close to the ship.

  “Captain,” Berkley radioed the Jefferson.

  “Go ahead,” Aidan responded immediately.

  “What we’re looking at is a team of jets that appear to come out of the old Eastern Bloc. They’re all of various models that were sold after the Soviet Union broke apart. They’re older but in great shape, and whoever’s flying them aren’t novices.”

  “Have they engaged?” Aidan said.

  Berkley broke left to make everyone behind her follow, and then just as quickly she went right into a loop. It wasn’t that she thought she’d lose the lot of them, but it was to draw them farther away from the ship and to see how well armed they were.

  “Not yet,” she answered when they leveled out, “but it’s not for lack of firepower.”

  “There’s backup coming from onshore,” Aidan said.

  The plane behind her accelerated and did an impressive set of rolls so it could come alongside Berkley. When she realized that was his motive, she adjusted her speed. “Commander,” a man’s voice came over the radio. “There’s no chance of surrender.”

  “Who is this asshole?” Berkley asked.

  “No need to be insulting, Cletus,” the man said and chuckled.

  “I’d like to know who I’m talking to,” Berkley said.

  “My name as far as you’re concerned is the Grim Reaper, and as I was saying, there’s no chance of surrender.”

  “Interesting thing to say when you’re in the air with some of the most elite Naval aviators serving today.” Berkley frantically tried to place the voice but came up empty. It didn’t sound familiar, but he knew her.

  “Nothing like bragging about yourself, Commander.”

  “I’m not referring to myself, Grim. The team I picked is talented, and I’m proud to have them on my side.” Berkley glanced to her left where the guy she assumed was speaking was close to her, but the cockpit was tinted so dark that she couldn’t make out any of his features. “Aside from not allowing us to surrender, is there some reason you’re here?”

  “To fight for my country and rid her of the cancer that’s weakening her enough that she’s lost her dignity.”

  “Vader.” Berkley changed frequency momentarily while keeping the line open with her shadow. She muted the transmission so he wouldn’t hear her orders.

  “Go ahead, Cletus.”

  “Get everyone in position to take all these idiots out.” As she gave directions Grim kept pace with her. “A country free to give everyone a chance is worthy of fighting for, but that’s not your problem with the situation, is it?” she asked going back to her conversation with Grim.

  “Everyone does need to serve, but this isn’t your place,” Grim said.

  “What? I’m supposed to be barefoot and pregnant, or better yet, in the secretarial pool?”

  “You can laugh, Cletus, but I’m no different than Paul Revere. I’m warning my people that it’s time to take back what’s ours.”

  “Cletus,” Hattie broke in. “The plane behind us is trying to lock.”

  “Shots fired,” Killer said.

  Berkley flew right into Grim’s airspace, and he had no choice but to get out of the way. It was a gamble on her part because if he was that fanatical it’d be like playing chicken with a kamikaze pilot, but Berkley guessed right. Grim was a fanatic but he didn’t want to commit outright suicide.

  “Let’s see what we can do about lighting your lantern, Paul Revere,” she said for her own benefit.

  The move toward Grim made the plane behind her break his pattern and got her closer to Grim, but Berkley kept driving Grim to her left in an effort to break him from his pack. “What’s going on back there, Hattie?” The force of keeping up with Grim was making the bullet wound in her shoulder throb.

  “They broke with us, but they haven’t tried to take a shot.”

  “Hang on.” Berkley accelerated like she was trying to catch up to Grim to hit him. She was playing the odds again and trying to make him do what most people with fighter pilot training would do. The problem was, she didn’t know if he’d had as complete an education as hers from people like her father and Will.

  As she got closer he wobbled a bit, then put on a burst of speed to get away from her. She wouldn’t do this for the rest of his group, but this one she wanted to down so he’d survive.

  She opened her guns when he got in front of her and made a line of puncture marks from his right wing through the tail section. He tried to bank again to get away from her, and she opened fire again, shredding the left wing as well. It didn’t take long for the black smoke to color the sky, and he started losing altitude.

  “Jefferson, radar mark where this plane goes down,” Berkley radioed the ship. “As soon as the situation is controlled, send rescue out.”

  “Roger that, Cletus.”

  Berkley started another set of rolls to lessen her chances at becoming a target since she figured the rest of the hostiles would come after them now that their leader was going down. Grim was trying to head inland, but he was losing too much altitude to make it back to the U.S. coastline if that’s where he’d come from.

  For someone used to the unexpected in combat situations, the plane behind her changing directions and blowing Grim out of the sky came as a surprise. They had come to engage, but not let themselves be captured. Since the target had become Grim, it put the pack flying with him at a disadvantage and Berkley took out Grim’s killer first.

  When Berkley doubled back, her team was engag
ed with the few remaining planes they hadn’t downed yet, but the Jefferson pilots hadn’t sustained any causalities. From what Berkley could see of the remaining force, Grim had been their best pilot, and he had led his people to slaughter.

  “Team leaders,” Berkley said, this time not bothering to try to keep her orders from the idiots who’d come to take on her men. “Finish them off, but cut at least three loose.”

  “Independence force, break away,” another pilot said when Berkley was finished. “I repeat, break away.” At that, the six remaining planes retreated.

  “We need one alive,” Berkley said as she turned to give chase. She opened fire on the first plane she came to, trying her best not to hit his fuel tanks. “Target going down, radar mark, please.”

  The force from the Jefferson targeted the other five and fired in the same way—to bring them down but not totally destroy them. As soon as the sky was clear, Berkley flew close to the water in the area the planes went down. She was able to spot three of the six and was disgusted to see not one of them had exited their aircraft.

  “Fuck me,” she said. “They’re choosing to sink.” By the time she flew past again, the jets had disappeared into the waters of the Pacific. “Captain, release the boats. The divers might have some luck.”

  “They’re being launched now, Cletus,” Aidan said.

  “Alpha team on patrol,” Berkley said to the planes assigned to her.

  “Hour sessions, boss?” Vader asked.

  “Sounds good,” Berkley said and headed back to the Jefferson to make sure it was covered from all sides.

  When she landed an hour later the rescue boats were being loaded back on board, and the divers appeared frustrated. Aidan was waiting on deck with her hands on her hips as she stared in her direction.

  “You do realize you’re wounded, right?” Aidan asked.

  “I wouldn’t have gone if I didn’t think I could do my job. The doctor checked it out while I was visiting Junior.”

  “He cleared you to fly this much?” Aidan asked and closed her eyes slightly as if daring Berkley to lie. “Because if he did, I didn’t get that memo, and I’m not forgetting that yesterday I cut you some slack because of the circumstances.”

  “I’m back and I’m fine, so don’t chew the poor bastard out.” Berkley smiled, but judging by Aidan’s posture it would take more than charm to cajole her out of her anger. “Any luck on finding anyone so we can figure out where they came from?”

  “They picked a good spot to scuttle those things. It’s too deep around here for the salvage capabilities we’ve got on board. A half day closer and I’d put down anchor and let the dive team work.”

  Berkley nodded her thanks to Hattie and pointed Aiden inside. “I’m sure they realized that.” When they were in the corridor she whispered, “Get pissed at me when we get back to shore, but for now I’m not going to let some lowlifes put a blemish on your record. They can send all they want and I’m going to give them a Stinger enema.”

  “A girl can’t ask for a better knight, baby, but get your ass back to the infirmary if you really don’t want me to be pissed.” The area had too many people around for Berkley to touch Aidan, but she did look at her like she wanted to lick her from her head on down. “If you don’t get down there and stop looking at me that way, you’re going to have to break a promise to my father.”

  “I’ll do that, then we need to finish talking to all the crazy people we’ve got on this boat.” Berkley tried to stretch her shoulder without wincing and came close. “It’s like they stacked the deck against you to see how well you’d perform under pressure.”

  “That’s why I’m glad you’re here, Cletus, if only to let me blow off a little steam.” Aidan ran her nail up the zipper of Berkley’s flight suit.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Washington, DC

  “I want to know what the hell happened, and I want to know who’s responsible for this.” Peter Khalid stood in the situation room surrounded by his military advisers and Olivia Michaels. “How is it possible for a pack of planes to suddenly appear on the radar and try to destroy an American carrier? I want someone to explain that to me.”

  “Sir.” Sawyer Garner, the man Peter had tapped to take Rodney’s place, stood and spoke. “We are looking into that now. With the type of aircraft Commander Levine reported seeing, we’ve calculated the range of where they could’ve come from.”

  “And you’ve narrowed it down to where exactly?”

  “It has to be somewhere close to the west coast. Our best guess for now they came from either the Oregon or Washington coast. Some of those areas are sparsely populated, so it wouldn’t be hard to get them in the air with only a few fishermen seeing a force that large flying low enough to evade radar.”

  “After 9-11 I would think you’d have every area off our coast covered from a hundred feet underwater to infinity, Admiral.” Peter glared at the other commanders in the room. “I realize I didn’t choose the military route to get here, but I would think one of you would’ve thought that might’ve been a good idea.”

  “We did, sir, and those measures were in place.”

  “Then I repeat my question of how this happened. Is it that you saw them and thought it would be a good exercise for Commander Levine and the pilots of the Jefferson?” Peter closed his eyes briefly. He was trying to rein in his temper, but listening to the exchange between Berkley and the others had as they brought down the hostile planes had driven up his blood pressure.

  “Sir, the measures we had put in place were changed this morning,” Sawyer said and waited a beat before going on. “The order came from Secretary Orr’s office and was verified by Deputy Secretary Lucas Rhodes. It brought the radar down momentarily, then someone changed the radar floor to ten thousand feet.”

  “That’s impossible,” Peter said.

  “I know that, and Secretary Orr would be the first to tell you that. What we’re trying to find now is who hacked into his personal files to figure out his passwords to carry something like this out. It was caught immediately when the men assigned as watchers called in with the change in the system. It took less than half an hour to find the mistake, but it was enough time to get the hostile birds in the air.”

  “What’s your best guess on how that happened, Drew?” Peter asked.

  “From what the geek squad I have going through the system said, it was a backdoor left from the previous administration. It gave someone access to not only my password but to everything that’s on our network at the Pentagon.” Drew sighed after he delivered the news. “The other development is that Jerry Teague died this morning.”

  “I thought he was under twenty-four hour surveillance?” Peter asked.

  “He was, but like Adam Morris he was able to poison himself, only this time the capsule was implanted under the skin of his forearm. We have him on video when he pressed into the spot as if trying to relieve a cramp or something and a few minutes later he was dead.”

  “Mr. President, we are, in my opinion, under attack, but not from foreign terrorists, but homegrown nuts who must think we are the Antichrist.” Olivia pointed to Peter and herself. “If you want my input, until we can prove otherwise, this is the work of Jerry Teague, Adam Morris, and a few of the crew members of the Jefferson who are all a part of this New Horizon that Drew and Rooster found. I’m not naïve enough though to believe that they’re the masterminds behind this.”

  “No Joe Blow off the street, no matter how good a hacker they are, could’ve broken the security firewalls at the Pentagon unless they were working from the inside, with the help of someone high enough to let them into the secure areas to put in the worm they used to change the protocol orders today,” Drew said.

  “Olivia, I need you on Capitol Hill today to meet with the leadership of the defense committees of both houses and give them a brief report of what’s happened,” Peter said. “Don’t go into great detail yet, and if they bitch tell them we don’t know who to trust yet. The m
embers of New Horizon are still a mystery and I hope to God once we do find the key that none of their names are on it.”

  “I’ll be happy to do that,” Olivia said.

  “What about Rodney?” Peter asked Drew.

  “We have him in custody, but he refuses to talk, and in view of what happened with Jerry this morning we’ve had him scanned for any implants. The prison doctor removed a device like Jerry’s from his forearm.” Drew put a picture of the item on the screen. “Whoever they were working for, there can be no room for betrayal of their cause even if it means death.”

  “Starting today, I want everyone working at the Pentagon to undergo a polygraph. I realize they’re not reliable, but get it done, and give no one the option of opting out of it. Before something like this happens again I want to know who these people are, who they have as moles, and I want to know where those planes took off from.” Peter stared out at nodding heads, but he took the time to look them all in the eye.

  “Consider it done, sir,” Sawyer said.

  “That order also applies to everyone in this room,” Peter said and waited for a reaction. “What happened today is treason, plain and simple. If you know of or are a part of this, my suggestion is to turn yourself in. I’ve said this many times, but I mean it. I might not have been your choice for this job, but I take the oath I swore to very seriously. Do not test my resolve on how swiftly or decisively I’ll act when I find who is responsible.”

  The people in uniform in the room stood immediately and snapped to attention.

  “Thank you, and you’re dismissed until twenty hundred tonight. We’ll reconvene to go over what new information we find.”

  Everyone left except for Drew and Olivia, and they moved closer to Peter. “Did you find what I asked?” Peter asked Drew.

  “In the last two years of your predecessor’s term, he replaced Don Rogers as Secretary of Defense with someone who would be a pawn for the real power brokers in the administration, but would appease the public’s thirst for Rogers’s blood,” Drew said.