“I skunked them?” Gracie repeated.
“Damn right. I don’t know word for word what you said in there, but Riggs had the authority to call a halt to it if for some strange reason he felt you might win, and that’s why we’re here. I know you don’t understand what the hell I’m talking about, so let me explain. Any details I give you are top secret. This is about a major military research and development project called Skyhook. Dr. Cole knows the details very well, since he’s the chief software engineer. And you three were about to blow the whole project wide open.”
April was nodding. “Were we right? Did my dad hit a government aircraft?”
“We believe he did. And if you kept pressing for information on that military aircraft, you’d eventually get the press interested and destroy a billion dollars of effort to maintain secrecy.”
“Then, my father has been falsely accused,” April said.
“Perhaps. But my first concern, and the President’s concern, is the fate of Operation Skyhook, and that fate now rests in your hands. All three of you. In fact, poor General MacAdams over here has been sweating bullets trying to find a way to help your father and you, April, without compromising the project, but when you two turned out to be such excellent sleuths hot on the trail of the truth, Mac was forced to bring this back to where it all began, in the Oval Office.”
“Mr. Hendee,” Gracie began, “with all due respect, there was no justification for the FAA revoking Captain Rosen’s license.”
The chief of staff smiled thinly. “Well, that’s not entirely true, Gracie. As I understand it, the FAA has substantial reason and hard evidence to suspect that he was drinking and flying, as well as a substantial case against him for potential violation of the air regulations governing visual flight. And there’s another charge I can’t recall. But I do believe that the FAA’s shameful rush to revoke Captain Rosen’s pilot’s license was uncalled for, and that’s the mistake that’s brought us together.”
“So,” Gracie replied, leaning forward, her hands open in a questioning gesture, her words careful and calm, “why are we here, sir? What do you want us to do, and what is the government willing to do in return to correct this injustice? Because regardless of what the FAA’s out-of-control inspector says, Captain Rosen was not drinking and did not violate the rules.”
Hendee looked at April and nodded. “Maybe. Okay, Gracie. Let’s deal. We have a project of great national interest to protect, and if that takes reinstating a single pilot’s license before we’re sure of the facts, thus overruling and embarrassing the FAA for the greater good, then we’re prepared to do it.”
“You mean,” Gracie said, leaning back slightly and trying to restrain herself from smiling, “if we drop our lawsuits, you’ll reinstate Captain Rosen’s full license?”
“In a nutshell, yes.”
“And… with no record of any of this?”
“As if it never happened.”
“And, what else do we have to do?”
“Just return to the court and withdraw all your actions with prejudice and give me your solemn word as American citizens that you will take the classified details I’m about to give you to your graves. Not even Captain Rosen can know.”
Gracie looked at April, who glanced at Ben Cole, who looked at Gracie, and all three began nodding simultaneously.
Jamison Hendee nodded in response. “What I’m going to tell you now is top secret. Dr. Cole knows all of it, but you two ladies have signed no secrecy agreements and are not subject to military law, so if you want to walk out of here and call Sam Donaldson or Ted Koppel, we can’t stop you. But, your country is relying on you to understand this very delicate situation. May I have your solemn agreement to maintain secrecy?”
Gracie raised her hand before April could reply. “Sir, what about the wreckage of the Albatross? We need it returned intact. That wreckage has the proof—”
“We don’t have it, Ms. O’Brien.”
Gracie shook her head. “That’s not true, sir. It was removed from the ocean bottom.”
“Indeed. But we didn’t take it. No arm of the U.S. government or military took it.”
“With all due respect, sir, someone isn’t telling you the truth.”
Hendee was shaking his head. “Yes, they are. Take this to the bank, Gracie. We don’t have the wreckage, and if you make the return of what we don’t have a condition, Captain Rosen will remain unlicensed until he can disprove the charges.”
Gracie and Jamison Hendee locked eyes for what seemed an interminable period before she looked down and nodded. “Okay.”
“Absolutely, okay,” April echoed. “But, there’s something else that needs resolution.” She described Arlie Rosen’s panicked escape from Sequim and the report that someone had rifled their house. “I’m terribly worried about him.”
Jamison Hendee’s expression grew dark. “I can assure you, April, that no one has been authorized to break into your house, or even surveil your father.”
“My dad’s scared to death and running.”
“We categorically did nothing to cause that, but we’re sure as hell going to look into it.” He scribbled a note and looked at the three of them in turn. “Do we have a deal? I have to know before I tell you what Skyhook is all about.”
“We have a deal,” Gracie said, echoed by April and Ben Cole.
“Very well. Several years ago, after the attack on America, the World Trade Center destruction and the hit on the Pentagon, a defensive idea to protect military aircraft was hatched, which started very badly. At first, there were those who thought that we could install automatic systems that would allow air traffic controllers to land hijacked Air Force and Navy craft remotely. We quickly realized that air traffic controllers are not pilots and have a very different skill set. If we tried to use them for such recoveries, we’d end up killing just about everyone involved and probably take out a few cities in the process. The plan grew more sophisticated very quickly, and by the start of the next year, we launched a deep black project, which, April, your dad unfortunately stumbled across when his airplane apparently struck, or was struck by, a converted business jet being used in the tests.”
“The Gulfstream.”
“Yes. The system we were testing will allow a special command post somewhere in the U.S. to take over control from any U.S. military aircraft and have qualified pilots fly it back safely to any airport on earth, whether the pilots are incapacitated, hijacked, or whatever.”
“So, the Gulfstream my dad hit, that was in the wrong place?”
“Yes. The damage that proves both aircraft touched was illicitly repaired on the Gulfstream and this fact was hidden from General MacAdams at Elmendorf Air Base until just a few days ago.” He briefly explained the sudden loss of control of the Gulfstream and the fact that it had left the restricted area, which had been improperly reserved in the first place, so Arlie Rosen would not have had any way of knowing about it.
“I knew he wasn’t being reckless.”
“You know the FAA administrator is somewhat independent of presidential control, but she’s not an idiot, and when I got her in a hammerlock a few minutes ago by phone, I got her to agree to reinstate your dad’s license.”
“Thank you, sir!” April said, but Hendee held up his hand.
“Gracie, here, was about to accomplish the same thing through the judicial route. She wins, the court orders the files opened on Skyhook, and the project is massively compromised. We don’t want the bad guys to know our Air Force jets can be taken over by remote control.”