'Now, we fill in the blanks,' Giordino continued, 'and we come up with 'Aircraft commander: Major Raymond Vylander.`
'And here's the combination.' said Pitt, pointing. 'This spells out the name and rank of the flight engineer.'
'Joseph Burns,' Giordino acknowledged. 'In the lines that follow, the missing characters are too numerous to guess their intent. Then, this.' Giordino pointed farther down on the paper.
ode n me: ix n 03
'Classified call sign,' injected Pitt. 'Every aircraft on a security flight is given one. Usually a noun followed by the last two digits of the aircraft's number.' Steiger fixed Pitt with a look of genuine respect. 'How would you know that?'
'Picked it up somewhere,' Pitt said, shrugging it off.
Giordino traced over the blank areas. 'So now we have 'Code name: something 03.' '
'What nouns have 'ix' in the middle of them?' Steiger mused.
'Chances are, the missing letter after x is e or o.'
'How about 'Nixon'?' Giordino suggested.
'I seriously doubt that a mere transport plane would be named after a vicepresident,' Pitt said. ' 'Vixen 03' seems closer to the mark.'
'Vixen 03,' Steiger repeated softly. 'That's as good a shot as any.'
'Moving right along,' said Giordino. 'Our final decipherable scrap on the fifth sheet is E-blank-A, Rongelo 060 blank.' '
' 'Estimated time of arrival, six in the morning at Rongelo,' ' Steiger translated, his expression still incredulous. 'Where in hell is that? Vixen 03 was scheduled to land in Hawaii.'
'I only calls 'em the way I sees 'em,' said Giordino.
'What about the sixth sheet?' Pitt asked.
'Pretty slim pickings. All gibberish except for a date and a security classification near the bottom. See for yourself.'
rders d te anu ry 2, 954 Aut or z d y: r ltrB s TO SERTCOD 1A
Steiger hovered over the indefinite wording. 'First line reads 'Orders dated January., sometime between the twentieth and twenty-ninth, 1954.'
Pitt said, 'The second line looks like 'Authorized by,' but the officer's name is lost. The rank of general fits, though.'
'Then comes 'Top-secret code one-A,' said Giordino. 'You can't get a classified rating any higher than that.'
'I think it's safe to assume,' said Pitt, 'that someone in the upper echelons of either the Pentagon or the White House, or both, released a misleading accident report on Vixen 03 as a cover-up.'
'In my years with the Air Force I've never heard of such an act. Why instigate a flagrant lie over an ordinary aircraft on a routine flight?'
'Face facts, Colonel. Vixen 03 was no ordinary aircraft. The report states the flight originated at Travis Air Force Base, near San Francisco, and was scheduled to land at Hickam Field, in Hawaii. We now know the crew was heading for a destination named Rongelo.'
Giordino scratched his head. 'I can't recall ever hearing of a place called Rongelo.'
'Nor U' said Pitt. 'But we can settle that mystery as soon as we lay our hands on a world atlas.'
'So what have we got?' asked Steiger.
'Not much,' admitted Pitt. 'Only that during the latter part of January, 1954, a C-ninety-seven took off from a point either in the eastern or midwestern section of the United States on a top-secret flight. But something went wrong over Colorado. A mechanical malfunction that forced the crew to ditch the plane in the worst terrain imaginable. They got lucky, or so they thought. Miraculously avoiding smashing into a mountainside, Vylander found an open clearing and lined up the Stratocruiser for an emergency landing. But what they couldn't see — remember, it was January, and the ground was undoubtedly covered with snow — was in grim reality a lake frozen over with ice. 55
'So when the aircraft's momentum slowed and its weight settled,' said Steiger vacantly, 'the ice parted and she fell through.'
'Exactly. The tidal surge of water into the broken ship and the staggering shock of the cold overwhelmed the crew before they had a chance to react, and they drowned in their seats. No one witnessed the crash, the water refroze over the grave, and all traces of the tragedy were neatly erased. The ensuing search discovered nothing and Vixen 03 was later concealed behind a phony accident report and conveniently forgotten.'
'You've written an interesting plot,' said Giordino, 'and it plays well. But where does Charlie Smith come into the story?'
'He must have hooked the oxygen tank while fishing. Possessing an inquisitive mind, he probably dragged the area and wrenched the already broken nose gear loose from the wreckage.'
'The expression on his face must have been priceless when the gear popped to the surface,' Giordino said, smiling.
'Even if I accept Smith's murder,' said Steiger, 'I fail to see a motive.'
Pitt raised his eyes and looked at Steiger. 'There is always a motive for taking a man's life.'
'The cargo,' Giordino blurted, incredulous at his own realization. 'It was a highly classified flight. It stands to reason that whatever Vixen 03 was transporting was worth a great deal to somebody. Worth enough to kill for.'
Steiger shook his head. 'If the cargo is so valuable, why wasn't it salvaged by Smith or his supposed killer? According to Pitt here, it's still down there.'
'And sealed tight.,' Pitt added. 'As near as I could tell, the canisters have never been opened.'
Giordino cleared his throat. 'Next question.'
'Shoot.'
'What's inside the canisters?'
'You had to ask,' said Pitt. 'Well, one conjecture bears consideration. Take an aircraft carrying cylindrical canisters on a secret mission somewhere in the Pacific Ocean in January of 1954 — '
'Of course,' interrupted Giordino. 'Nuclear-bomb tests were being held at Bikini at that time.'
Steiger rose to his feet and stood motionlessly. 'Are you implying that Vixen 03 was transporting nuclear warheads?'
'I am not implying anything,' Pitt said casually. 'I am merely offering a possibility, and an intriguing one at that. Why else would the Air Force put the lid on a missing plane and throw up a smoke screen of misleading information to cloud the disappearance? Why else would a flight crew risk almost certain death to ride down a crippled aircraft in the mountains instead of taking to their parachutes and allowing it to crash, perhaps in or near a populated area?'
'There's one vital point that sinks your theory: the government would have never given up searching for a lost cargo of nuclear warheads.'
'I admit you have me there. It does seem odd that enough destruction to obliterate half the country would be left to litter the environment.'
Suddenly Steiger wrinkled his nose. 'What is that godawful stench?'
Giordino hurriedly rose and moved over to the stove. 'I think the metal tag is done.'
'What are you boiling it in?'
'A combination of vinegar and baking soda. They're all I could find that would do the trick.'
'Are you sure it will bring out the etching?'
'Couldn't say. I'm not a chemist. Won't hurt it, though.'
Steiger threw up his hands in exasperation and turned to Pitt. 'I knew I should have saved this stuff for professional lab technicians.'
Giordino calmly ignored Steiger's remark and delicately lifted the plate out of the boiling water with two forks and patted it dry with a dish towel. Then he held it up to the light, turning it at different angles.
