After one aerial refueling three hours ago, Kestrel’s crew had been on station now for eight hours, with four more hours to go before another plane would launch from Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City to take their place. Under normal circumstances, this might be boring work. Air traffic had subsided to a fraction of its normal levels after the government ordered that all aircraft flying within the United States had to take off and land at airports with control towers, had to file an IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) flight plan, and had to be under positive radar control at all times — and of course, the prospect of having several tons of high explosives dropped on your head inside an airport terminal kept a lot of people from flying as well.
But a lot of civilian and commercial aircraft that stayed on the ground were replaced by other aircraft: military fighters, escorting airliners all over the United States. The best estimate said that over two hundred F-16 ADF and F- 15 fighters of the Air National Guard’s total inventory of three hundred air defense fighters were airborne at any one time, shadowing any aircraft, big or small, that violated any of the new flight rules or did or said something suspicious. Every airport in the United States with a five-thousand-foot concrete runway and jet fuel available probably had a fighter land there at one time or another in the past twelve hours.
On Major Kestrel’s radarscope, it appeared that he had, every one of the military planes in his airspace — and he needed them all, because it also seemed that all the flakeoid pilots, bad radios, garbled transmissions, incorrect assumptions, and lost flight plans were rattling around in his assigned sector. Last night, the first full night of the new emergency flight rules, was the worst — but now it was dawn and the wrong decisions, rule violations, confusion, and just plain dumb-shit moves still showed no signs of letting up.
“All Tiger units, all Tiger units, this is Tiger Control with a poll of the air defense units,” Kestrel began. Satellite communications downlinks allowed him to speak with units many miles away as if he were orbiting right over them. “Tiger 100.”
“Tiger 100, all units in the green, all units acknowledge HOLD FIRE command,” Colonel Witt at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport responded.
“Tiger 200.”
“Tiger 200, all units in the green, all units acknowledge HOLD FIRE,” the battalion commander at Houston-Hobby International reported, which also secured Houston-Intercontinental Airport. The poll continued with all of Kestrel’s assigned units at New Orleans, Memphis, Little Rock, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Jackson, and Springfield. Not all of these locations had Patriot missiles stationed there, but all had at least two Avenger-Stinger units and one HAWK missile unit, all controlled by Kestrel in the E-3C AWACS.
“Well, everybody’s in place, and it looks like we survived the night all in one piece,” Major Bill Kestrel told Admiral Ian Hardcastle and Lieutenant Colonel A1 Vincenti, as they observed the progress of the emergency operation. Since Dallas-Fort Worth was one of the busiest in the nation, and since Cazaux’s last attack in Memphis was not far away, it was a logical target, and a lot of planning, personnel, and hardware had gone into defending it. It was the perfect place to watch how the system was running— and the perfect place to watch potential problems occur. “But I’m seeing signs of pilots testing the system already.”
“What do you mean, Kid?” Hardcastle asked.
“It’s a pilot thing, I believe,” Kestrel replied, giving veteran F-16 pilot Vincenti a mischievous smile. “Airline pilots need to be on time — their jobs depend on it — so they stretch the rules, probe the boundaries of the new authority. See* here’s a good example.” Kestrel reduced the range on his scope to show better detail. “This USAir flight from Little Rock is a 757 and he thinks he owns the sky. He’s an hour late, but so what? — everybody in the system is at least an hour late. But he’s real cranky. First, he won’t stay on the Blue Ridge Four Arrival — he wants vectors to runway 35 Left final. We closed 36 Right and 35 Left, the runways closest to the terminal, so naturally that’s what this bozo asks for. ATC says no, we want him out to GACHO intersection, fifteen miles out, and we want him on the ILS glideslope.
“Now he’s really pissed, and he’s making mistakes. He’s screaming onto the localizer, going like a bat out of hell. He’s cutting the corner, see? — he’s never going to reach GACHO intersection. He’s still going 250 knots, which is legal but not very smart since he’s got about a ninety-degree turn coming up in a few seconds. Ninety-nine-percent chance he’s a good guy, but he’s doing bad-guy stuff. I got no choice.” He hit the intercom button to his Senior Director — although the Senior Director was sitting right beside him, the intercom call alerted the entire crew to what he was doing — and said, “Active scramble on target ID uniform-seven-one-one-three, two F-16s. Continue the hold- fire on all batteries but tell Tiger 124, 125, 146, and 148 that ID number U7113 is a possible hostile. Tell Tiger 112 that a 757 will be flying real close from the east. I want all units to hold fire — don’t get excited to see that idiot barreling in.”
Kestrel pointed to his scope. “See that? He’s blown through the localizer inbound course, still going like a bat out of hell — good thing he’s not running up someone’s ass. Now watch.” Kestrel pointed to a spot at the top of his scope, and sure enough, a white rectangle with the words EMER appeared and began blinking. “They all do that — they argue, get excited, make a mistake, then realize what they’ve done and squawk emergency. Look, he’s practically into Naval Air Station Dallas’ airspace, overflying the Patriot missile site. Jesus…”
“So what can you do?” Hardcastle asked.
“I’ve got no choice, Admiral,” Kestrel said. “But it ain’t gonna fly. Listen…” He pressed another button on his communications paneclass="underline" “Dallas East Approach, this is Tiger Control, that USAir Flight, ID U7113, is in violation. I need him kicked out to Scurry VOR until we can get a fighter visual ID… affirmative, U7113… deviated more than two miles off assigned course within twenty miles of Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.” Hardcastle and Vincenti could hear the approach controller, and he did not sound happy at all. “I’ve got two F-16s airborne from NAS Dallas now, and I’ll declare him MARSA with the USAir flight at this time… I know he’s declared an emergency, Approach, but he’s in violation, he still hasn’t gotten back on the localizer… what’s your controller number, ma’am?… fine, my commander will call your supervisor. Request you advise that flight that he is an air defense item of interest and that if he violates the flight parameters again, he will be fired upon without further warning… yes, damn it, I’m serious. Tiger out.”
He clicked over to another channel with an angry stab on the button: “All Tiger units, this is Tiger control, ID U7113 has declared an emergency and is being cleared to land on runway 31 Right at Dallas-Fort Worth. Interceptor units are airborne from NAS Dallas. At DIVVR intersection, repeat, at DIVVR intersection, all Hawk and Avenger batteries are released tight, repeat, at five miles out, all Hawk and Avenger batteries are released tight.” He switched channels again, this time to the VHF GUARD emergency frequency, which was linked to a repeater station near Dallas-Fort Worth Airport: “Attention all aircraft, attention all aircraft, this is the United States Air Force airborne defense controller Tiger, we have an air defense item of interest landing on runway 31 Right, Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, warning, do not violate your flight clearances or you may be fired upon in the interest of national security. Repeat, all aircraft, do not violate your flight clearances or you may be fired upon without warning. Tiger out.”