by Dale Brown
Jed paused, sensing that he was starting to hyperventilate. He had prepared a short sidebar to his presentation outlining the origins of some of the weapons systems known or suspected to have been shipped to Somalia and southern Iran, including a dozen improved SA-2Bs that seemed to have come from Yugoslavia. But it was superfluous and his audience was anxious; he took a long breath and moved on.
“We have several options. The first, of course, is negotiation—”
President Lloyd Taylor shifted in his seat. “Cut to the chase, son. The election will be over before your report is. What are the odds of the covert action working?”
Jed literally gulped as his mind shifted gears. He had prepared long arguments for and against each option, including the Madcap Magician operation the President had just referred to. That plan—removing the surface-to-ship and surface-to-air missiles in Somalia with a “sanitized” covert-action team—was, in fact, his recommendation. But he’d come expecting to have to argue for it, and only now realized that the President might actually already have discussed and considered it in great detail with Ms. O’ Day.
He coughed, then jumped to what he had planned as the conclusion to his presentation.
“By knocking out the missiles we can demonstrate a firm hand. Resolve, I mean,” said Jed. “At the same time, the diplomatic solution can proceed. The covert, I mean, Madcap Magician, is preferable because it can move quickly and provides at least a veneer of deniability. In any event, full military intervention would take days if not weeks to pull together, by which time the price of oil will have risen catastrophically. Madcap Magician has positioned and trained units under the Ironweed contingency; they need only a few hours’ notice. As far as negatives go, we’re working without real-time satellite coverage and the intel—”
“Odds of success,” prompted Ms. O’Day in a stage whisper.
“The simulations,” he said, “have shown a seventy percent chance of success.”
“Seventy percent?” said the President’s Chief of Staff. “I think it’s worth the risk,” said O’Day.
“What does our Harvard whiz kid think?” asked the President. He said Harvard the way someone who had graduated from Yale would.
“Well, sir.” Jed fumbled with his tie. He’d spent nearly as much time choosing the tie as memorizing the speech. “I, uh—I concur with Ms. O’Day. However, we have to—”
“However, you feel that the possibility of failure is higher than the models indicate,” said the President. “But that we should proceed anyway.”
“Well, see, it depends on what you’re measuring. There’s a built-in prejudice in any such model. I mean, I tried to keep it out of this one, but you have at least a three percent coefficient.” Jed gulped—Ms. O’Day had warned him, above all else, not to use the word “coefficient.”
“But the real issue here goes beyond the computer model.”
“I agree. Computer modeling of political situations is absurd,” said Taylor’s Chief of Staff.
“Well, that’s a bit far,” snapped Jed, momentarily forgetting where he was. “I mean, the thing is, we do need tools to quantify certain factors. See, my point is, Mr. President, we have to meet this aggressively. To a certain extent, we have to be willing to risk partial military failure. And we also have to anticipate adverse reaction from the other Arab states. Saudi Arabia will feel particularly vulnerable, as will Egypt. They’ll definitely bar their bases to us. We’ll end up having to rely on Israel for the military buildup, and that will have even more consequences. But if we do nothing—if we fold—the results will be disastrous. We should be prepared for a measured but aggressive response. When Libya joins the coalition—and I say when, not if—we should attack with everything we’ve got. There are a dozen contingency plans drawn up for that. At that point, the Greater Islamic League folds. I’m certain of that.”
“Where’d you get this punk kid?” Taylor growled to O’Day. “Excuse us,” he said harshly, dismissing Jed.
Confused and impotent, Jed slipped out of the room. He felt like he had been punched in the stomach.
Worse. Maybe hit in the head with a baseball bat.
He walked down the hallway in a daze. Ms. O’Day somehow materialized behind him. With a stern look, she motioned for him to follow her downstairs. He did so, despite the searing pain of his insides. Never in his life had he screwed up so badly.
And the thing was, he wasn’t even sure precisely how he had screwed up.
Too many coughs and stutters. Not enough respect. Mentioning the computer simulations, even though they were one of the reasons he was here. And above all, using that damn word “coefficient.”
Neither Jed nor his boss spoke until they were back in the NSC basement, walking toward her office.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“Sorry? For what?”
“I didn’t mean to, uh, make the President angry.”
O’Day laughed. “Jed, you may be a genius at foreign policy and computer science, but you have a lot to learn about Washington.”
“Washington?”
“There’s an election in three weeks, remember?”
“Well, yeah.”
Ms. O’Day shook her head.
“Was I supposed to check this with polls or something?” Jed asked. He had a vague notion that military action would hurt the President’s chances at getting reelected. On the other hand, rising gas prices would effectively kill them.
Wouldn’t they?
“Jed, Ironweed is proceeding,” said O’Day. “Madcap Magician has already gotten the okay to move. We’re ratcheting up for the reaction. Two carrier groups are moving into the Mediterranean for training missions. Everything you suggested is proceeding. Hopefully, it won’t be needed,” she added. The National Security Advisor pursed her lips. “But if it is, we’ll deal with it the only way possible—aggressively, but with a measured response. In the meantime, Cascade is being detailed to the Middle East to keep an eye on things.”
“Cascade?”
“My personal representative. Unofficially, of course. His assignment is to observe the routine training procedures, familiarizing himself with them.”
“But the President was angry. And he certainly didn’t authorize—”
“Keep that in mind,” she said sternly. “And forget about the election, okay?”
She glanced at her watch. “Your flight leaves from Andrews in a half hour. If you hustle, you may be able to hitch a ride on Marine One with the President’s wife.”
“The President’s wife?”
“Don’t be surprised if she doesn’t make the flight,” added O’Day, “even though she’s the only one on the passenger list. Probably just as well. She would definitely want you to change that tie. Good God, Jed. We have to go shopping when you get back.”
Dreamland
21 October, 0700 local
ORDINARILY, COLONEL BASTIAN DIDN’T HAVE MUCH USE for donuts, especially the crème-covered, choke-your-arteries kind. But Ax had insisted that they were mandatory morale boosters for early morning staff meetings, especially when the people gathering were going to hear things they didn’t like hearing. And so he’d let the sergeant go ahead and bring the damn things to the conference room, along with the coffee tankers and an oversupply of semi-hard bagels. It was a good thing too—they’d been going at this now for nearly an hour without letup.
Long enough for Dog to concede, if only to himself, that the donuts weren’t that bad an idea.
“Colonel, I’ve gone over the numbers at least ten times with the contractors,” pleaded Major Cheshire. “There’s just no way we can sustain the EB-52 project with this little money. The flight-computer system for the three new planes alone will cost ten million dollars.”
“There’s got to be a way,” said Bastian. “The budget committee is reluctant even to grant that much.”
“What’s another ten million to them?” groused Rubeo. “They probably spend more than that on lunch.”
“Each computer has to be designed specifically for the individual plane,” explained Cheshire. “The gallium-arsenic chips that control flight functions are made by the NSA plant, which sets the price. That’s where the expense comes in. It’s absurd, I know, but they’re padding their own budget.”
“Then do it another way,” said Bastian. “Can’t you use off-the-shelf parts?”
Cheshire shook her head.
“Can we make the chips ourselves?” he asked.
“Not without a fab,” said Rubeo, “which will cost billions. Colonel, you can’t nickel and dime Dreamland. It won’t work.”
“I wouldn’t call ten million dollars nickels and dimes,” said Bastian. “That’s a hell of a lot of money.”
“Colonel, wouldn’t it make more sense to tell the Congressmen these are the weapons systems that we need?” asked Cheshire.
Bastian sighed. She was right. On the other hand, that wasn’t the way this was going to work. The Air Force and DOD had already done that.
And under their scenario, Dreamland hadn’t made the cut.
O’Day wanted program figures and a new base budget so she could reinstate HAWC on a black line, with help from her Congressional allies. If Bastian had had more leverage—if he’d been a three-star general instead of a lowly lieutenant colonel—he’d be able to fight on a few other fronts and maybe get Dreamland back in the big game. But he simply didn’t have enough weight to counteract the generals who wanted Dreamland closed down because of the Ken James affair; O’Day’s strategy was the only play.
“Look, I’m recommending we proceed with the Mega-fortress program, which calls for developmental trials of several models,” Bastian told them. “But realistically, the only portion of the program that we can count on will be the tanker, because of JSF.”
“That’s the project that should be discontinued,” said Rubeo.
“Well, Professor,” Dog said, “if you want to call your local Congressman and tell him that, be my guest.”
“One Megafortress could do the job of four JSFs,” said Cheshire.
“Can it land on an aircraft carrier?” Bastian said.
“It wouldn’t have to. Its unrefueled range—”
“Look, I’m not going to argue about the JSF design. I agree with everything that’s been said. But I have to deal with reality.” Dog pushed himself back in his chair. “Now let’s get back to our agenda.”
ZEN TURNED THE CORNER INTO THE FLIGHTHAWK ground-level hangar so sharply he practically ran down Jennifer Gleason, who was making some adjustments to the on-board computer in the Hawk Two. She was bending over the front of the aircraft, her back to him; he found himself gazing at the soft, perfect curve of her hips.
“Hey, Zen,” she said, still bent over the U/MF-3. His chariot made it impossible to arrive anywhere incognito.
“Hey, yourself,” he said.
“Back from the colonel’s meeting so soon?”
“I sent Mike,” he told her.
“Poor Mike.”
“Yeah.” Mike Janlock, the resident BMI resins and airfoil-design specialist, was the senior scientist on the Flighthawk project and had been in charge of it before Bastian’s reorganization. Even if Zen hadn’t begged out of the colonel’s budget session because of the morning’s test flight, he probably would have asked Janlock to go along in his place. Jeff didn’t want to spend the time ducking the pitying glances everyone else would be throwing toward him. Besides, word was Bastian had already made his final decision on the Flighthawks—they weren’t making the cut. No amount of meetings or reports or well-reasoned arguments or even pity would change his mind about “robot” planes.
“Well, we’re not closed down yet,” said Gleason. “No, not yet.” Jeff grabbed the wheels of his chair. “You’re blowing off the preflight briefing?”
“No, sir,” said the young computer scientist. She glanced back at him. “We had the discrete-burst module reengineered last night, and I’m getting it in place. I’m almost finished.”
“You did it again?”
“The last one failed the shock test after you, uh, went home.”
“You should have called me.”
“Well, as a matter of fact, we did.”
“I was over in the visiting officers’ hall. I didn’t feel like going all the way out to Ewen,” he added lamely.
“Anyway, I’m just about done. Everybody else is inside.” Jennifer smiled at him, then went back to whatever it was she was doing. She’d tucked her long hair up under a white smock cap; a single strand draped down across her neck, hanging down over her shoulder. Her breasts pushed against her lab coat as she leaned into the machine; he could see the outline of her nipple against the fabric.
Stop, he warned himself, rolling forward to the small room they used to brief their missions.
Everyone was there—including Breanna, who was sitting at the far end of the table talking to Lee Ong. Ong was responsible for the Flighthawks’ physical systems and acted as the “mission boss,” coordinating the many details involved in the airborne tests.
So why was Bree here?
“Good morning,” said Zen, wheeling himself toward the front of the room. “Jennifer should be in shortly.”
He glanced around the room, carefully avoiding Breanna’s gaze. “Where’s Bobby?” he asked, referring to the usual pilot of the E-3 mother ship.
“Captain Fernandez has the flu,” said Breanna. “So does Kathy. I volunteered to fly Boeing in their place.” Zen snapped his head toward her.
“You don’t have a problem with that, do you?” she said defensively. “Pete Brinks is coming over to copilot.”
“No, of course not, Captain,” he said. He turned to the others. “Captain Stockard flew Rivet intercept flights in RC-135’s when she was a teenager,” he told them. “Maybe she’ll entertain us with stories about eavesdropping on Russian air defenses if things get boring.”
“Maybe I’ll just roll Boeing through an invert if things get boring,” she said.
Zen felt his face starting to flush as the others laughed. He turned the floor over to Ong, then rolled along the far side of the room toward the coffeepot at the back. Coffee was one of the things he’d all but given up since the accident, but he didn’t want to sit out at the front where Breanna could stare at him.
It was possible that the two pilots assigned to fly Boeing were actually sick. And Breanna was at least arguably the next best choice on the base to take the mission: she had a lot of experience in the large jets. But it seemed to him like a hell of a coincidence.
Not to mention the fact that he should have been consulted about who would replace the other pilots. He hadn’t seen Mike this morning, nor had he talked to Ong. One of them must have made the call.
If Zen asked—when Zen asked—undoubtedly they’d give him the same line Jennifer had used. They’d tried calling him at home, blah-blah-blah.
And maybe they had. They could have called and gotten Bree. She would have instantly volunteered. That was Bree.
So maybe they weren’t conspiring against him. Even if it seemed that way.
He hadn’t gone home last night, and in fact hadn’t gone home for the past few nights. He was, in fact, avoiding her, trying to figure out what to do—or rather, how to do it.
Ong laid out the mission succinctly, setting the overall objective. They were going to put the Flighthawk through a series of low-altitude maneuvers to simulate a low-level penetration during an attack mission. The mother ship would follow behind it, first at five miles, then ten miles, then fifteen, and finally twenty. The extended distances were the point of the exercise; the Flighthawks had never been successfully controlled beyond seven miles while operating in Combat One, the secure communications mode.
Breanna then stood and reviewed her flight plan. Ordinarily this was, at best, a perfunctory part of the session. But Rap gave a precise, detailed briefing that covered everything from expected wind to fuel burn to radio rescue frequenc
ies. She even included information about simulating an airdrop launch for the U/MFs, which the Boeing could not in fact handle. Jeff could tell the others were impressed that she’d done her homework.
Tough act to follow. He put down his coffee and began wheeling himself toward the front as she finished. With all the details already presented, his job was basically to ask if there were any questions and then give them a rah-rah to hit the door with.
He didn’t feel very rah-rah, though.
“We’ve gone over the courses and the distances,” he told them, faltering. “We, uh, we have complete satellite clearance through the morning. The Devil Canyon portion at the end of the flight is trickiest, because at twenty miles we have physical obstructions between the Boeing and the Flighthawk, assuming we’re at proper altitude—which of course we will be,” he added quickly, glancing toward Bree.
She was looking at him attentively, not glaring, not accusing, just watching.
“Look, I know it’s likely the project is going to be cut,” he said, looking back at the others. “There’s no reason to bullshit you guys. You’re too damn smart. There’s no political backing for the Flighthawks. You guys have been dealing with it for a hell of a lot longer than I have.”
He noticed one or two heads going up and down, saw a few frowns. Jennifer put her hands in front of her face as if she were going to cry.
“The thing is, we’re right. I know we’re right. The Flighthawks, UM/Fs, are the way of the future,” Jeff said. “There’s a lot of work to be done, as we all know, but somewhere down the line, these guys are going to be saving a hell of a lot of lives. They’re going to keep pilots from getting their butts blown off.” He laughed. “Not every pilot. But a lot of them. And this is what’s going to happen. They’ll mothball us, close us down. We’ll all go on to better jobs. Me, I’m thinking McDonald’s. Can I supersize that for you, sir?” he mocked.