“But this way there’s no record?” Gracie said.
“Right. The court’s still in recess, Gracie. You can go back there and push ahead and win, and your country will lose. But if you go back in there and move for a dismissal, we can ask them to seal what little record there is and the program stays secure. That’s the choice you’ve got to make.”
Gracie nodded slowly, her eyes huge. “Mr. Hendee, as I said, it’s a deal.”
“Then I’ll make the call,” he said, standing, “as well as find out whether someone under our control threatened your father. Dr. Cole? I’m going to send these two folks back to court. Would you stay with us a few more minutes?”
Gracie got to her feet and raised her hand for Hendee’s attention. “Part of the agreement, sir, is that Dr. Cole’s career will not be damaged.”
Jamison Hendee laughed. “Don’t worry. You have my word that no software engineers will be harmed in the making of this deal.”
When April and Gracie had been escorted out of the Cabinet Room, Jamison Hendee motioned Ben to follow him through a series of doors ending in a startlingly familiar office.
“Have a seat,” Hendee offered, gesturing to a pair of facing couches. Ben gingerly lowered himself into one of them, popping back to his feet as the President of the United States came into the room, shook his hand, and sat in a chair by the fireplace, regarding Ben skeptically. “Sit, please, Dr. Cole,” the President said, motioning him back down. “You’ve been both a bad-boy thorn in our side and a hero, Ben. But now you’re going to tackle a higher duty.”
“Sir?”
“The true aim of Skyhook, Ben, is so secret that even the Secretary of Defense doesn’t know its full scope. Everyone else but General MacAdams and a few staffers have been told that Skyhook concerns only military aircraft. Well, I launched it to cover more than that. I launched this project as the last line of defense to forever prevent a repeat of September Eleventh. Fact is, the Boomerang Box you’ve helped to design is scheduled to be installed on every civilian airliner as well.”
Ben Cole came forward on the couch, his eyes wide. “Really?”
“All of them,” the President replied. “My goal was simple. With every U.S.-registered airliner secretly equipped, if one ever gets hijacked by two-legged animals wanting a cruise missile, we literally take control from the ground and fly it someplace safe. We may lose people aboard in some sort of bloodbath, but the plane won’t have to be shot down over American cities, and we may end up saving everyone on board. The plan includes pilots standing by twenty-four-seven in a newly designed facility at Offit Air Force Base in the old Strategic Air Command headquarters bunker.”
“This… wasn’t an Air Force project, then?”
“We’ll equip our major Air Force assets, like the B-1 and B-2 bombers and C-17 transports, too, just as you were told. But the civil fleet is included as well. We’ve installed eight remote-control cockpits down there and trained a cadre of Air Force pilots to operate them. Three of those cockpits match Air Force aircraft. Five of them match airliners like the Boeing 757 and 747, the MD-80s, and Airbus products.” The President paused, watching recognition grow on the faces of the people before him.
“I had no idea!” Ben said. “I… I found some strange reference information in the code about the civilian fleet and was afraid it might be evidence of an attack.”
The President smiled. “No, just evidence of our secret intentions. And you almost blew our cover with your dedication to finding out why that extra code was there.”
“And the airlines… don’t know?” Ben asked.
The President shook his head. “No. They know we’ve got a rack already built into the equipment bay of every airliner in America. All FAA-licensed maintenance people have been trained that to disturb that rack or the black box installed there is now a federal felony offense. But they think it’s only an emergency communications device that lets air traffic controllers see and hear what’s happening in the cockpit of a hijacked airliner. Well, that’s right, it will. But that’s not the whole story. Once the new boxes are in place, we’ll have full standby recovery control.”
The look on Ben Cole’s face was ashen, and the President noticed.
“Ah… Mr. President… if we’re talking about using this on commercial airliners, I have to tell you I have grave doubts about the reliability of this system.” He described the problems with the tests, and the fact that even though the Gulfstream’s loss of control was due to a bad autopilot, the Boomerang Box had been unable to seize control each time.
“You’re saying it’s not ready for prime time?” the President asked.
“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying, with apologies to the general,” Ben added, glancing toward MacAdams.
Mac nodded.
“So happens,” the President said, “General MacAdams over there has already briefed me on the level of risk we’d be taking putting these boxes in place right now in the civil fleet, and how rushed the tests have been.
“Mr. President, I… I just don’t see how we can be sure an airliner can be recovered with enough assurance. We need more time, and the pressure has been far too great.”
The President had his hand up. “I have a radical idea about how to handle this, but I’ve also decided that you’re such a tenacious guy, if I didn’t bring you in on my plan, you’re liable to louse it up and get yourself thrown in the pokey by going public.”
“Sir, that problem with Captain Rosen is solved, so I…”
The President was shaking his head. “No, this is different. If you truly believe that this system is too unreliable to be installed in the civilian fleet and somehow the project leaked, you could, with the best of intentions, do great harm by telling the world we had a dangerous system on every airliner.”
“I guess I’m confused, sir.”
The President chuckled. “So was Mac at first. Okay. We agree the system isn’t ready to install in airliners, right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“All right, and I’ve decided that the system, if delayed in secret, will leave an exposure to terrorism I don’t want after spending billions to develop this fix. But I’ve also come to believe that the deterrent factor is greater than the actual operational value. Ben, ever see those little signs in people’s yards that say they’re protected by such and such security company?”
Ben nodded.
“If you’re a burglar, you can’t be sure if they really do have a system or not, so maybe it’s best not to chance it. Deterrence. So with Skyhook we let it leak that we’re installing it, we confirm that we have it on every airliner, we let the pilot unions and the airlines howl with fury, and we stand firm. Anyone planning a hijacking will be on notice that their best efforts can be thwarted by a turn of a switch. So instead of having to seize control someday of an airplane already full of dead and injured people with hijackers in the cockpit, we’ll stand a good chance of not having the hijacking attempt in the first place. In the meantime, we’ll go ahead with the Air Force system when you’re sure it’s ready.”
“I don’t have the authority to make that determination, Mr. President.”
“Yes, you do. Joe Davis is retiring as of now. You’re taking over.”
“I am?”
“Provided you agree with all this.”
“And, Uniwave gets enough money to survive?”
“The check’s in the mail. We’ll keep them afloat, because I may actually decide to put them in later on.”
“So, we leak information that the Skyhook system — the Boomerang Boxes — are deployed, but we secretly leave them out?”
“When the media breaks the story we leaked, we announce openly that yes, in fact, the Boomerang system does exist and is operational, and that no future hijacker will ever be successful taking over an airliner. We put on a show and demonstrate the system for the world’s media. The deterrent effect is nearly one hundred percent, we’ve saved billions, and we don’t run the risk of losing an airliner to an electronic glitch, which, if I understand your worries, is your greatest nightmare.”