Harper, JT (CO)
7TH SQUADRON
Alvarez, MJ A — Frommer, SN E — Arthurs, RT C — Gale, A D — Atlock, FD B — Giggs, RE B — Baines, AW A — Golding, DK D — Bennett, B E — Goldman, WE A — Biggs, NM C — Grayson, SR E — Boland, CS B — Hughes, R A — Boyce, LW D — Ingliss, WA B — Calvert, ET E — Johnson, SW D — Carney, LE E — Jones, M D — Christian, FC A — Kincaid, R B — Coleman, GK E — Littleton, SO E — Coles, M B — Logan, (MAJ) KW A — Crick, DT D — McConnell, BA B — Criece, TW A — Messick, K E — Davis, AM E — Milbourn, SK D — Dayton, AM E — Morton, IN C — Dillan, ST D — Nance, GF D — Doheny, FG A — Nystrom,JJ D — Egan, RR B — Oliver, PK E — Fraser, MS C — Price, AL C — Fredericks, GH A — Rawson, MJ C — Sayles, MT B — Stone, JK C — Willis, IS C — Sommers, SR C — Taylor, AS B — Wolfson, HT A
CIVILIAN STAFF
Botha, GW MED — Franklin, HS MED — Shaw, DE MED
'Anybody else see a pattern here?' Fairfax said.
All of the men named in the intercepted transmission were from the unit designated 'E' — or in military parlance 'Echo.'
'The only man in 'E' who isn't mentioned,' Fairfax said, 'is this one, 'Carney, LE.' I can only assume that he's the man speaking on the tape.'
Fairfax turned to the two DIA chiefs standing beside him. 'There's a rogue unit at that base. A rogue unit that has been communicating with the Chinese government and its new space shuttle. All the men in Echo Unit.'
'…Echo Unit. Report…'
'…This is Echo leader' the voice of Captain Lee 'Cobra' Carney replied.
Cobra spoke with a slow Southern drawl — measured, icy, dangerous. 'We're in the Level 3 livin' quarters. Just swept the two underground hangar levels. Nothin' there. Workin' our way down through the complex now, coverin' the stairwell as we go.'
'…Copy that, Echo leader…'
'Sir,' another of the radio operators turned to Caesar Russell, 'Charlie Unit just arrived back from the lake. They're outside, and they have the boy.'
'Good. Losses?'
'Five.'
'Acceptable. And Botha?' Caesar asked.
'Dead.'
'Even better. Let them in through the top door.'
Gant and the others headed for the fire stairwell at the eastern end of Level 4.
'I know this isn't exactly relevant to the present situation,' Mother said as she and Gant walked side by side, 'but I've been meaning to ask you about your little date with the Scarecrow last Saturday. You haven't said anything about it.'
Gant gave Mother a crooked grin. 'Not looking for gossip, are we, Mother?'
'Why, hell yes. That's exactly what I'm looking for old married hags like me get off hearing about the sexual gymnastics of pretty young things like you. And I was just, you know… interested.'
Gant smiled sadly. 'It didn't go as well as I would have liked.'
'How do you mean?'
Gant shrugged, kept walking, gun in hand. 'He didn't kiss me. We had a great dinner at this quiet little restaurant, then we walked along the banks of the Potomac, just talking. God, we talked all evening. And then, when he dropped me home, I was hoping that he'd kiss me. But he… just… didn't. And so we stood there awkwardly and said we'd see each other later, and the date just… ended.'
Mother's eyes narrowed. 'Oooh, Scarecrow. I'll kick your ass…'
'Please don't,' Gant said as they came to the door leading to the stairwell. 'And don't tell him I told you anything.'
Mother ground her teeth. 'Mmm, okay…'
'In any case, I'd rather not think about it right now,' Gant said. 'We've got work to do.'
She opened the firedoor a crack, peered through it, her gun raised beside her face.
The stairwell was dark and silent.
Empty.
'Stairwell's clear,' she whispered.
She opened the door fully, took a few steps up the stairs.
Mother moved into position behind her, both of their eyes looking up the barrels of their guns.
They came to the Level 3 landing, saw the door leading into the complex's living quarters.
There was no one here.
That's odd, Gant thought.
There were no soldiers stationed on the landing, not even a sentry left there to block their movement up through the complex.
Very odd, she thought. If she had been in charge of the opposing forces, she would be flushing every floor for the President, and ensuring that she blocked off the stairwell while she did so.
Obviously, the 7th Squadron operated differently.
With the stairwell unguarded, Gant and her team made swift progress upwards, came to the Level 2 hangar bay.
The Level 2 hangar — untouched, so far, by the mayhem of the day — was practically identical to the one above it, the only difference being that the collection of planes inside it was far less exotic. While the Level 1 hangar contained its pair of Stealth bombers and the SR-71 Blackbird, this one only held two AWACS surveillance airplanes.
Which was exactly what Gant wanted.
Two minutes later, she was inside the lower cargo hold of one of the AWACS planes, unscrewing a heavy lead panel in the floor.
The panel came free, revealing an electronics compartment — and in the middle of that compartment, secured firmly in place, was a very sturdy-looking fluorescent orange unit, about the size of a small shoebox. The orange box appeared to be made of some superstrong material.
'What's that?' Juliet Janson asked from behind Gant.
The President answered for her. 'It's the plane's flight data recorder. The black box.'
'Doesn't look very black,' Ramrod Hagerty said sourly.
'They never are,' Gant said, extracting the small orange unit from its nook. 'It's just the name they're known by. Black boxes are nearly always painted bright orange, for better visibility in a wreck. That said, they're usually found another way…'
'Oh, very good…' the President said.
'What?' Hagerty asked. 'What?'
'Ever wondered how they find the black box so fast after an airplane crash?' Gant said. 'When a plane goes down, debris is spread all over the place, yet they always find the flight data recorder very quickly, usually within a few hours.'
'Yes…'
Gant said, 'That's because all black boxes have a battery-powered transponder inside them. That transponder emits a high-powered microwave signal, giving the box's location to crash investigators.'
'So what are you going to do with it?' Hagerty asked.
Gant called up through the hatch above her. 'Mother!'
'Yeah?' Mother's voice floated back.
'You found that signal yet?'
'I'll have it in two seconds!'
Gant gave Hagerty a look. 'I'm going to try to impersonate the signal coming from the President's heart.'
