Day of the Cheetah
Page 35
staff scan James' records and they're squeaky-clean as far back
as we can go. But that's the bad news. We didn't start keeping
close personal records on him until he applied for admission to
the Air Force Academy. It's hard to believe, but I think this
Maraklov was inserted then, as a cadet. He apparently worked
his way through the system and found himself in Dream-
land--
"A nd as the test pilot for our most high-tech aircraft," Ben-
son added. "A goddamned Russian spy flying our best fighter
for two years .
240 DALE BROWN
be And you take responsibility for this James, or Maraklov,
ing in your organization, General Elliott?" the President said.
Yes, sir." Elliott had rehearsed a series of explanations in
his mind-the fact that Maraklov had eluded ten years of De-
partment of Defense security investigations before coming to
Drearnland being the chief argument-but instead he said, "If I
had uncovered Maraklov's infiltration earlier, the XF-34
wouldn't be in Soviet hands now."
"I agree," the President said. "Although the problem obvi-
ously began well before Maraklov entered your organization,
Drearnland is the most sensitive research installation we have.
You have security measures and procedures available to you that
air not available to other commanders. But even with all these
measures, you failed to present this. And that resulted in the
deaths of eleven military and civilian personnel, the loss of two
fighter aircraft and one B-52 bomber, millions of dollars of dam-
age and the theft of a hugely valuable experimental fighter."
Taylor paused, made a note in his desk book. "But my pre-
decessor here held you in very high regard, General. He made
a point of recommending that I allow Dreamland to remain in
operation and under your command, even after your injury fol-
lowing that . . . mission to Russia. I took his advice because I
knew he meant it and not because he needed a favor. I kept
Dreamland open despite your enormous budget. And I kept you
in charge despite numerous calls for your mandatory retirement.
You've been doing some remarkable work and up to now have
a fine record, even though much of it can't be publicized . . .
Well, Dreamland and the Advanced Weapons Center is to stop
operations immediately until a full investigation can be con-
ducted. General Elliott, you will see to it that your unit is prop-
erly closed and secured so that any evidence is kept intact. When
the investigation is convened you will provide any and all assis-
tance asked for. When the investigation is finished . . . I'm sorry
to say I will accept your request for retirement."
Elliott said nothing.
"The Mexican government was demanding I hand over your
head on a platter for sending that F- 15 into their airspace without
permission. You can thank the Speaker here for defusing that
one. "
"Deborah O'Day did the legwork," Speaker Van Keller said.
Elliott turned to look at the fiftyish, very attractive National
DAY OF THE CHEETAH 241
Security Adviser. Deborah O'Day ... she'd had a career that
Elliott had always found amazing for a woman, even in the
eighties and nineties-a former professor at the Center for Stra-
tegic Studies in Washington, former Ambassador to the United
Nations during the previous administration, and the first woman
to hold the position as special assistant to the President on na-
tional security matters. It had been rumored that her appointment
had been made only because of political expediency-Taylor was
still a chauvinist of the fifties and figured he needed a woman
on his White House staff for show-but O'Day had surprised
him with her talent, insight and take-charge attitude. She nodded
slightly to Elliott, who was surprised to see a friendly reaction
in that place.
"I thought the Mexican government was dragging their heels
in allowing us permission to pursue the XF-34 into their air-
space," O'Day said. "I reminded the commander of Mexican
air defense forces of the times their pilots have crossed into our
airspace and even landed in our airports, supposedly by mistake. "
Chief of Staff Cesare broke in: "But it made the President
look bad, not only in their eyes but in the eyes of the world.
One hotshot Reserve fighter pilot was bad enough, and he got
himself killed. Then we send another plane, and he almost gets
killed. The whole incident makes the Air Force look like Key-
stone Kops in flight suits, and it made the White House look
like we weren't in control."
"Not to mention that relations are bad enough between us
and Mexico," Secretary of Defense Stuart said, "without us
shooting missiles all over their territory. "
General Kane, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, turned to Gen-
eral Board. "I expect to see the discharge papers on those crew-
men that violated Mexican airspace.
Board nodded unhappily.
"That would be unwise, sir," Elliott said to the President.
What the hell, he might as well speak up . . . "The first two
F-15 pilots were following orders by going along with their for-
mation leader. They're trained not to leave their leader's wing
under any circumstances, and especially if they're involved in a
hostile situation. They turned back as soon as they lost their
leader, as ordered. The crew of Cheetah, were following my
orders. After DreamStar downed the F-15s, I knew that the
advanced-technology F-15 from Drearnland was the only fighter
242 DALE BROWN
capable of going head-to-head with the XF-34, so I ordered
Cheetah armed, to pursue DreamStar at best speed."
"General Elliott," Secretary Stuart said, "do you think you
have your own private air force out there? You don't order an
attack on an enemy airfield, the President of the United states
does that. You don't authorize military forces to cross a foreign
border, the President does
"There wasn't time to get permission, Mr. Secretary. If we
wanted DreamStar back, Cheetah was our best hope. There
wasn't time to debate the question-"
'Wasn't time'? That's bullshit, General. You don't ignore
the military chain of command because you think you don t have
the time. What was next-bomb Mexico for letting that plane
get away? Nuke Mexico City?"
Deborah O'Day spoke up. "I'm familiar with General El-
liott's record and I think he acted at least understandably. If his
crewmen could have stopped DreamStar they and he would have
been called heroes. He took a risk, it almost paid off . . . The
question is, what do we do about DreamStar now?"
"Do we even know precisely where this DreamStar is right
now?" the President asked.
"We tracked it almost its entire flight," General Board said,
-via the Reserve 707 AWACS at first, then by an advanced 767
AWACS launched from Oklahoma and patrolling off-shore over
the Gulf. The XF-34 successfully evade
d attack by Mexican and
Honduran fighter patrols, with a little help from Nicaraguan in-
terceptors, and it landed in Nicaragua."
Board nodded to an assistant who put a mounted chart of
Central America up on an easel in the center of the Oval Office.
"The fighter was last seen on radar somewhere north of Mana-
gua. We believe it's being kept at a small, isolated valley airbase
fifty miles north of Managua called Sebaco. The base is run by
the Soviet military-more specifically, by the KGB.-
He turned to the President. "Sir, I've ordered satellite recon-
naissance of the area. Photo observation by aircraft would be a
good idea too, perhaps by the old SR-71 Blackbird still operated
by the CIA, but Managua is heavily defended by anti-aircraft
artillery and missiles and is a riskier operation. A soft probe is
also recommended. "
"A 'soft probe.' You mean agents?"
DAY OF THE CHEETAH 243
"CIA has assets in Managua that can possibly get close
enough to verify that the XF-34 is at Sebaco," Board said.
"And if they do? Let's say they have it at Sebaco, or in
Managua. We're sure as hell not going to go in with the Eighty-
second Airborne or the Atlantic Second Fleet and start a war to
retrieve a jet fighter .
"Excuse me, sir," Elliott said, "but it's not just another jet
fighter.
"Hold it. Hold on one minute, General," the President said.
"I was waiting for you to say that. Let me tell you fight now,
General, and all of you in this room-that XF-34 is just another
jet fighter in the large scheme of things. It's not some magical
war machine, no matter how advanced it is. It's very important,
damn fight, but the United States won't start a shooting war with
the Soviets or anybody else over this aircraft. Sure, the sonofa-
bitches infiltrated our base, stole that plane, killed our people.
We'll lodge protests, we'll demand the plane back, we'll coerce
and threaten as much as possible. I'm betting they'll deny havi ing
it. They can stall forever by denying everything we say. Even
if we have pictures, they can say the photos were faked. And if
we do produce irrefutable evidence, they'll have a propaganda
field day 'Soviet agent infiltrates top-secret American mili-
I
tary base, steals top-secret experimental aircraft.' The condem-
nation of them will be more than drowned out by the laughing
aimed at us. "
Elliott hoped he never needed to look at that much of the so-
called big picture. God "We can't let them get away with
it," he persisted.
"They have gotten away with it, General Elliott," the Pres-
ident said. "For all we know they could be taking it apart right
now and shipping it off to Moscow. What would you have us
do? Intercept every ship, every aircraft, every submarine that
leaves Nicaragua, board and search for a component to a fighter
plane? Face it, Elliott-you lost it. We lost it,
The President glared at Elliott's taut face, shook his head.
"I'll ask Dennis Danahall at State to lodge a stiff protest with
the Soviets. We do have that tape of that agent-what's his name?
Maraklov . . . ? admitting he was a KGB agent."
"The KGB will say he was just a nut-case American soldier,"
General Kane said, "claiming to be a Russian spy. We've had
our share .
244 DALE BROWN
"I'm still going to order Dennis to protest this incident in the
strongest language. I'll ask for the return of the aircraft and
compensation to the families of the crew on that B-52 and the
fighters that were shot down during the chase. I want some op-
tions we can use in case, when they give us the runaround. We
can threaten to cancel our participation in that joint trip to Mars
in 1998 . . . I was never in favor of that cockeyed idea anyway.
And we can-"
"We've already made a substantial commitment to the Mars
project, Lloyd," Richard Benson said.
"Well, State has got to think of something to back up our
protest. Kick out some of their embassy staff, raid one of their
consulates . . . "
"Sir, those are all positive steps Elliott began, steam-
ing. "But-"
"Glad you think so, General." The President motioned to his
chief of staff, Cesare, who quickly rose and moved across to
open the inner door to the Oval Office; to the generals in the
room, opening a door was a cue to stop talking, part of their
fear of being overheard outside. To the others it was word that
the meeting was over.'Both messages were lost on Elliott.
"Mr. President, none of these actions will help us get
DreamStar back. We could use some very low-level activities
that can send a clear message that we mean business. I have
some suggestions-"
"You have your orders, General. Good morning. " Cesare, a
large, ex-football player, stepped casually in front of Elliott,
physically shutting off the conversation.
Elliott turned and left the Oval Office. He was heading for the
main hallway to the rear portico when he spotted Deborah O'Day
ahead and called out to her.
She turned and waited as he walked up to her. She was a bit
younger than Elliott, with long dark hair flecked with gray, bright
blue eyes, and an athletic figure. Interesting about her eyes,
Elliott thought-there were men and women he had worked with
for years but still had no idea what color their eyes were. Now
he met this woman for the first time and noticed her eyes right
away.
"Mrs. O'Day
"Miss O'Day, General," she said, taking his hand and re-
DAY OF THE CHEETAH 245
turning a firm grip. "But that's the Oval Office name. In the
halls it's Debbie."
Elliott smiled. He hadn't done this kind of byplay maneuver-
ing in years. "And I'm Brad."
They walked along the corridor until they came to an open
doorway with a female Marine Corps officer behind a computer
terminal and a male secretary leafing through some files inside
the office. The secretaries' desks flanked a pair of closed oaken
doors.
The Marine moved quickly to her feet when O'Day entered
the office, but her eyes were on Elliott. "Good morning," she
said. "Intelligence digest is on your terminal, ma'am. Coffee's
fresh. Good morning, General Elliott."
"Thank you, Major. General Bradley Elliott, Major Marcia
Preston, my operations officer. General Elliott is the director
of-"
"The High-Technolo ' Advanced Weapons Center. I've
gy
heard a lot about you, sir. "
"Nice to meet you, Major."
The male secretary stood, ignored Elliott and handed O'Day
a folder full of papers. "For your signature. I need them ASAP. "
"General Elliott, Matt Conkle, my secretary." Preston hit the
remote door unlock switch, and Elliott followed O'Day into her
office and immediately heard the door lock behind him.
"Your secretary isn't exactly a friendly type," Elliott said.
"He hates the idea of being a secretary to a woman, even if
she's the National Security Adviser. He's fine in his job, though.
Marcia Preston is a rising star. Was the Marine Corps' first fe-
male F/A-18 fighter pilot. She was good. Very good. But she
got so. much heat from being a female pilot that she was bounced
out for allegedly trying to seduce her squadron commander. Some
things never change. I discovered her filing memos in San Di-
ego, still wearing her flight suit, and brought her to Washington.
She'd rather be in the cockpit-she flies my helicopter and jet-
and deserves whatever she wants. She just might be giving you
a call some time."
"I'm probably not going to be around-and maybe Drearriland
won't be there."
"Don't be so pessimistic," O'Day said, pouring a cup of
coffee for herself and Elliott and seating herself behind her desk.
246 DALE BROWN
Elliott eased himself into a leather-covered armchair and rebent
i
his right leg under the chair.
O'Day noticed. "That's from your mysterious mission into
the Soviet Union eight years ago?" Elliott nodded. "You know,
I can't find any real information on that mission in our records.
It's like it never happened.
"It's better that way. It also took the lives of some fine men."
"That was the B-52 that the Russian spy shot down, wasn't
it?
"Yes. We called it the Old Dog. We had rebuilt and upgraded
it after the mission over Russia. It was the prototype of a new
escort aircraft for strategic bombers. It was on its first opera-
tional flight . . . Did you know that two crewmen from my Old
Dog mission died in that crash yesterday?"
"My God." She sat silent for a long moment.
"The nav on that flight was one of the Great Experiment
female combat flyers, in the same group as Marcia Preston-the
first female B-52 navigator. There was one other female on that
B-52," Elliott continued. "A civilian. She was also on my Old
Dog crew back in 1988. She's in critical condition at Brooks
Medical Center in San Antonio. Her husband was on my Old
Dog crew too. He was one of the F- 15 crew that went into