Bocks said, ‘What do you think they’ll do? What any one of us would do in the same spot. They’re going to try to land. They’re going to try to dodge their fighter escorts, fruitless as that’ll be.’
Land… of course they’ll try to land, Monty thought. What else would they do?
Land.
At an airbase.
Lots of airbases he’d been at over the years, busy ones like Offut and Eglin and Wright-Patterson. And, of course, lots of empty and quiet ones like—
Shit.
Empty ones.
Lots of empty ones.
‘Doc!’
‘Yes, Monty?’
‘The anthrax — how long does it stay in the atmosphere?’
‘A few hours — maybe four or five.’
‘And where does it go after that?’
Victor said, ‘Then it comes to rest on the ground.’
‘Still dangerous on the ground?’
‘Sure,’ the doctor said. ‘But in the air is where it’s most dangerous. When it’s on the ground you can protect yourself through normal decontamination efforts.’
‘How far can the anthrax spores travel when it’s airborne?’
‘All depends on the wind. Several miles…less, if there’s no breeze.’
Monty felt a little flicker of excitement kindle inside him. Maybe. Just fucking maybe.
‘C’mon,’ he said. ‘We’re going for a quick walk.’
He stood up and opened the conference-room door, stepped outside to the Operations Center. There was a low roar made up of phones ringing, people talking, keyboards being tapped, men and women, delivering and picking up messages as they moved back and forth. Monty gestured to the large display screen, depicting North America and parts of the Caribbean. Up on the screen, the triangular icons marking the orbiting AirBox flights were highlighted.
‘Look, I see at least two AirBox flights out in northern Texas. Am I right.’
The General said, ‘Yeah, you’re right. So what?’
‘General, the so-what is where those two aircraft can go. They fly an hour west, they can hit a base I’ve trained at when I was detached to Air Force Special Ops. Tyler, used to be an Army Air Corps base back in the 1940s. Nothing there now except tumbleweed, coyotes, and a runway.’
In the span of those few seconds, Victor’s color improved and it looked like he was standing taller.
‘Good Christ — they could land there, let the anthrax get released…’
Monty slapped the sweating doctor on the back. ‘Sure as hell, and there’s nobody out there. Nobody.’
Victor turned to him, eyes bright. ‘There must be other bases. Am I right?’
‘Shit yes, if there’s something this country is full of it’s military bases. Get me a phone and I’ll starting making calls to that Northern Command general. If we’re lucky, doc, we’ll start getting these aircraft on the ground, no fuss, no muss, and no civilian casualties.’
Randy and Brian and the General looked like they were family members at an ER ward, suddenly being told that the body in the morgue wasn’t their dad but somebody else.
Monty looked back up at the screen, looked at the icons, and then saw one little triangular light that was orbiting over a part of Georgia.
His hands seemed frozen. In front of him a serious-looking young man was tapping at a terminal that had a miniature display of the wall screen. Monty bent down to him and said, ‘Son?’
‘Yeah?’
‘You know where those jets are, the ones shown up on the screen?’
‘Sure.’
‘The one in Georgia. Can you tell me — is it anywhere near a town called Miller’s Crossing?’ Where his aunt lived. Where Charlene and the two girls were staying.
The guy worked the keyboard, shook his head. ‘Nope, it’s not near it.’
‘Oh.’ The relief going through him made Monty feel giddy.
And the feeling lasted only a moment.
The guy said, ‘The damn jet’s nearly orbiting on top of it.’
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
General McKenna of Northern Command hung up the phone and looked across to his adjutant, Colonel Madeline Anson. ‘We might have a solution.’
‘Sir?’
‘Cross-check with the information we’re getting from Air Traffic Control and AirBox. Get the locations of those aircraft, their fuel states, and see what airbases we have within flight range of the aircraft. I want a listing of airbases in abandoned areas, old airstrips, anything and everything that can handle those aircraft types. Hell, even if it’s a stretch of highway in a remote part of Texas or Oklahoma or South Dakota…’
Colonel Anson got up. ‘I see. If we can land those aircraft in unpopulated areas…’
‘Then we’re good to go. The anthrax gets sprayed out and nobody gets hurt.’
‘Some of these places, our personnel might have to get into MOP suits. And the decontamination process afterwards…’
McKenna said, ‘A hell of a challenge, I know. But a better challenge than trying to explain to NBC or CBS or ABC how we came to shoot down civilian aircraft when we had a better option. Get to it, colonel.’
‘Yes, sir.’
Victor Palmer pulled General Bocks aside and said, ‘Your crews. To protect themselves, they need to wear their oxygen masks as they land.’
‘Got it.’
‘Oh. One more thing. How good are your pilots?’
‘Most of them are ex-military. Lot of hours flying fighters or transport aircraft. Why?’
‘I’m not familiar with the language of the flying… but it’s important that they land in a way that minimizes the release of the anthrax.’
‘In what way?’
Victor said, ‘I’m not the flying expert, General. All I know is that if you can get them to land… well, in a way that they wouldn’t normally do. I mean, they usually land straight on, right? That means the anthrax is spread out in a wide stream. But if they can land… well, tight, like a corkscrew… it means the footprint of the anthrax contamination will be that much smaller.’
Bocks said, ‘It’s tough flying. Most of them haven’t maneuvered a jet like that in years. And never in a transport aircraft.’
Victor said, ‘I know, General. But it could mean a better chance of reducing the area of contamination. Can it be done?’
The General rubbed at his face, and Victor felt a sudden burst of sympathy for the poor man, whose aircraft and entire company had been hijacked by a cruel fate.
‘Yes, it can be done,’ he said.
Aboard AirBox 101, which had been orbiting south of Imperial, Texas, Pete Renzi, a former Navy pilot, saw that his co-pilot, Jack Shaefer, already had his oxygen mask on. Pete said, ‘Ready to land?’
Jack was sweating. ‘Shit, yes, let’s put this damn piece of metal on the ground.’
Pete donned his own oxygen mask and glanced once more at the ACARS message that had come across a
