“Captain Humphrey killed himself, plain and simple,” Lieutenant Colonel A1 Vincenti said to the Deputy Attorney General. “He was overcome with grief because of the accidental shoot-down, and he flew out over the ocean and crashed his plane where he wouldn’t hurt anyone else.”
The room got very quiet at that point — but not for very long. “Jesus, what a damned mess,” someone muttered. Vincenti angrily searched for whoever it was that spoke, but all he saw were averted eyes. Finally one of the Assistant Secretaries of Defense that Vincenti did not recognize said, “Did he have a family? A wife and kids?”
“Tom Humphrey was a newlywed,” Vincenti replied. ‘They’re — she’s — expecting her first.”
“How the hell could this happen, Admiral Hardcastle?” Ralph Mersky, the Secretary of Transportation, asked. “This was a tragic but avoidable accident, in my opinion. The Air Force has very specific procedures to follow during an intercept — and they weren’t followed.”
“It was an accidental missile launch. Secretary Mersky,” Admiral Ian Hardcastle responded. “He made a mistake, that’s all. They were chasing a hostile aircraft.”
“It was a TV news plane, for God’s sake! They identified themselves.”
“It was violating the law and flying like a hostile aircraft, with its transponder and lights off,” Hardcastle said. “The fighter leader got disorientated.”
“Screwed the pooch, you mean.”
“I mean, got disorientated, ” Hardcastle snapped. “You should know about spatial disorientation, Mr. Mersky— you”re a licensed pilot. Mundy lost control of his plane due to the sudden flash of light from the TV crew on board the Learjet and because of spatial disorientation, and Humphrey reacted as if his leader had just gotten hit by hostile fire. It was a mistake.”
“A damned costly mistake,” Lowe interjected. “Admiral, we’ve received word that Congress is going to begin an investigation of the shoot-down incident, and you’ve been subpoenaed to appear.” She nodded to one of her aides, who handed a document to Hardcastle. He did not open it, but handed it to Sheehan — he was so furious, he thought he would tear it up into tiny pieces if he even touched it. “Until the matter has been resolved, your duties and responsibilities with the Executive Committee on Terrorism have been suspended, effective immediately.”
“What?” Hardcastle retorted. “You’ve suspended me? Why?”.,
“We’ve been heavily criticized for your approach to solving this problem, Admiral,” Lowe said. “Your tactics regarding the air defense setup simply havn’t worked — the accident tonight near Atlantic City was a good example. In addition, your actions concerning the raid on that mansion in New Jersey, although probably successful, were beyond your authority.”
“Secretary Lowe, I did what I had to do.”
“As we all knew you would, Admiral,” Lowe said, averting her eyes so Hardcastle could not see the contempt in them. Yes, we all knew you’d come in with guns blazing and the Bill of Rights be damned, the Deputy Attorney General thought. I just wished we made a stronger connection between you and Martindale. There was still time to build that, Lowe reminded herself. “I’m sorry, Admiral. The Congressional investigation will commence shortly; we can assist you in obtaining legal counsel.” Lowe turned to Vincenti and said, “Colonel Vincenti, you’re under similar subpoena, as an expert witness, so like Admiral Hardcastle, you’re prevented from talking with the media'about the incident.
“The President has directed that the Air Force will make a statement about the accidental shoot-down,” Lowe told the rest of her advisers seated around her, “expressing our condolences to all the families of that TV crew who suffered a loss.” It was obvious that the President wanted to distance himself from that situation as well, Lowe thought — yes, the crew on that Lear screwed up, but if there was some political hay to be made out of his sorrow for the deaths suffered, the President wanted to do it. “General Skye…?”
“First of all, ma’am, if I may, we should offer condolences to the family of Captain Humphrey, the F-16 pilot lost after the accident,” General Charles Skye replied. Skye was the fifty-eight-year-old “triple-hat” commander of U.S. Space Command, U.S. Aerospace Defense Command, and the North American Air Defense Command, charged with the air defense of the continental United States, North America, and all U.S. assets in space. Tall, distinguished, and completely no-nonsense, Skye showed his exasperation at these endless meetings for the entire world to see. “It was obvious that the remorse and guilt he felt caused him to crash his aircraft into the sea.”
“General…”
“If you only offer condolences to the TV crew that violated the law and caused the accident to occur in the first place, ma’am, you and the President will lose a lot of faith from your military supporters,” Skye said. “Captain Humphrey, his wife and kid, and his unit deserve better.”
“I didn’t forget, General,” Lowe shot back angrily. “We weren’t only going to offer our condolences just to the TV crew. Thank you for reminding me.”
But there was not much chance of General Skye’s taking the hint. “I’ll go to Atlantic City and meet with the unit commander myself.”
“I’d like to accompany you, General,” Hardcastle said immediately.
“Same here, General,” Vincenti echoed.
“Permission granted, gents,” Skye said, “if the Justice Department or the Senate or whoever wants a piece of your ass lets you come out and pay your respects. Thank you. We’ll arrange to talk with the TV people later.”
“I’m so glad we got that settled,” Lowe said, rolling her eyes. “Now, about dismantling the air defense stuff…” “What?” Hardcastle retorted. “I think that’s a bit premature, Miss Lowe.”
“That’s a real stupid idea,” Skye said, not bothering to use polite words in this meeting. “Real big mistake. The fighters are the first line of defense — you’ve gotta have eyes up there to see who’s coming down on you.”
“General, perhaps you didn’t understand — we got Henri Cazaux,” FBI Director Lani Wilkes said. “The emergency is over.”
“Tell that to Lake, Fell, and that Gulfstream crew up in Newburgh,” Hardcastle said. “It was a summary execution all the way — maybe it wasn’t Cazaux, but it was probably one of his men.”
“Cazaux’s operation has been blown away, Admiral,” Wilkes said. “We got his mansion, several of his soldiers, his bimbo, and his banker. We’ve got a line on several million dollars belonging to Cazaux’s organization — he’s frozen, bankrupt.”
“We can’t account for several aircraft that Lake purchased,” Hardcastle said, “and several of the weapons stolen from Naval Air Station Fallon that have been linked to Cazaux. He’s still got to be considered dangerous.”
“Cazaux or not, Judge Wilkes, if the Commander in Chief orders me to take the air defense stuff down, I’ll do it,” Skye said. “I haven’t received such an order, so they stay. It’s that simple.”
“I’m concerned that there will be more accidents if we have all these missiles and fighters in the air, especially with air traffic controls lifted,” Transportation Secretary Mersky said. “Besides, the fighters didn’t help over Atlantic City or over Fort Worth, did they?”.
“You don’t turn these boys loose to do their jobs, Mr. Mersky, and the job won’t get done,” Skye said. “You set up an air cordon and tell civilians they can operate inside the cordon, they better understand that if they play games and dick around, they’ll get their asses shot off, pure and simple.”