“General, the President is afraid to publicly announce that the emergency is over, because he feels, and I concur, that such an announcement will only attract the copycat bombers or Cazaux’s lieutenants out there to blow up a terminal or airliner,” Deputy Attorney General Lowe said. “Instead, we want to recommend to the President to quickly but quietly take down the air defense network and return the air traffic system in this country back to normal. Airport security will still be at maximum levels, and we want to implement an air marshal program again, but we want to do away with the special air cordons, the military weapons in place around the airports under Class B airspace, and all military control of access to the air traffic control system.”
“The President wants a gradual increase in the number of flights,” Mersky added. “I’ll concede that giving access to uncontrolled or VFR air traffic should be phased in over a much longer time frame, but the President’s top priority is to do everything he can to encourage the airlines to start flying again.”
“General Lowe, Secretary Mersky, if all you propose is allowed to happen, the military won’t be able to stop a Cazaux type again,” Hardcastle said. “There are just too many aircraft out there doing suspicious or even downright illegal things.”
“The only way to make sure we can pick a terrorist flight out from all the rest of the inbound flights is to increase the number of interceptors and decrease the number of flights until the two balance out,” Colonel Vincenti added.
“And we’re telling you, Colonel, that’s not what the President wants, and that’s not what the American people want,” Elizabeth Lowe said finally. “Besides, it’s not the military’s job to find and stop these terrorists — it’s my job, and the FBI’s job.
“I’ll pass along your reservations, General Skye, Admiral Hardcastle, but I’m recommending to the President that we immediately ground all fighter patrols over the United States.”
“Maybe we should go tell the President our opinions together, General Lowe,” Skye suggested.
“General, the^purpose of having this committee is so a horde of people with a horde of different opinions aren’t marching in and out of the Oval Office all day,” Lowe said, refusing to let the four-star Air Force general bully her around. “My job as chairman of the Executive Committee on Terrorism is not only to coordinate day-to-day antiterrorist operations, but to analyze the threshold of danger existing in the country, determine what are the best possible options to deal with the danger, and present my opinions to the President. -
“In my opinion and in the opinion of the majority of members of this committee, the danger has subsided to a sufficient level, and the hazards of continued military interceptor and military air traffic control have increased to such! a dangerous level, that we feel we can recommend that the military’s involvement in this emergency can be substan- daily decreased.”
“General Lowe, I caution you about using the President’s wishes to form the basis of this committee’s policy decisions,” Hardcastle interjected. “The President wants everything back to normal — we all do. But we feel the time’s not right. At least let’s wait a few more weeks until the FBI analyzes Cazaux’s financial records from Lake’s computers, sifts through the debris at the mansion in New Jersey, tracks down whoever killed Lake and Fell in Newburgh, and bags more members of Cazaux’s organization.”
“This committee is not a Presidential rubber stamp, Admiral,” Lowe snapped. “Our respective staffs have been working overtime on this problem, and we’ve all come up with the same conclusion: we don’t need the military anymore.”
“In my opinion we never did,” FBI Director Wilkes said. “All we needed was a little more cooperation, and this situation probably could’ve been solved earlier.”
“We don’t want to totally dismantle the emergency system or cut out the military,” Mersky said. He opened his staff’s summary sheet and went on: “I propose the following: we keep all military surveillance in place except for the fighter interceptors. We keep the short-range ground-based air defense systems in place, namely the mobile Avenger Stinger systems, but deactivate all Patriot and HAWK systems. Airport and aircraft security will stay at maximum levels, with security situations reevaluated daily on a case- by-case basis. We deactivate all emergency air cordons in Class B airspace, but we mandate that all aircraft in Class B airspace must be on a flight plan — no aircraft allowed in Class B airspace with pop-up clearances.”
“Any other discussion?” Lowe asked.
“Discussion seems to be pointless,” Skye said.
“Very well,” Lowe said. “I move that Secretary Mer- sky’s and the Department of Transportation’s recommendations be adopted by the committee and presented to the President immediately.” The motion was seconded and approved. The Secretary of Defense’s representative voted in the affirmative for General Skye, and, because he had been suspended from the Executive Committee on Terrorism, Hardcastle’s negative vote was counted as an abstention. “Thank you all. Our next meeting will be tomorrow morning, unless the situation changes. General Skye, I don’t think we’ll require your presence unless a member of the committee requests it.”
“Fine with me, General Lowe,” Skye said. “This little game of power politics is a total waste of my friggin’ time anyway. But I’ll tell you this, Miss Lowe: I’m sending my strongest reservations about this committee’s actions up my chain of command. I’m advising the Chief of Staff of the Air Force that your recommendations do not reflect my opinion, and I’ll ask that he present my opinions to the Secretary of the Air Force and on to the White House— frankly, I don’t trust you to give the President the word for me. It’s nothing personal, General Lowe…” Skye paused, looked at Lowe, then shrugged and said, “Okay, it is personal. In my humble and insignificant opinion, any person who lets her people, even guys like Hardcastle, hang out to dry like you did and ignores all the danger signs around her is an asshole — ma’am. And any committee who allows all of the above to happen on their watch should be publicly kicked in the ass.”
“I encourage free expression in my meetings, General Skye,” Lowe said tightly, “but now I’m giving you fair warning — get control of your tongue and your attitude before they get you into serious trouble.”
“My comments are totally on the record, ma’am — I trust they’ll stay there.”
“Count on it, General,” Lowe responded bitterly.
“Then my apologies if I’ve offended anyone — you know who you are,” Skye said, collecting his papers and rising to depart. “I hope the President knows what he’s doing, that’s all.” He got to his feet and dismissed himself from the meeting; Hardcastle, Vincenti, and Sheehan followed.
“I hope you get around to busting Skye’s nuts when you get a chance,” Wilkes said after the rest of the committee had departed.
“Skye’s already dug himself a hole he can’t crawl out of,” Lowe said. “We’ve got a bigger concern to talk about — namely, the President’s fund-raiser in California.”
“Security will be airtight,” Lani Wilkes said. “The President will be perfectly safe, especially once we get those missiles and fighters put away.”
“I agree,” Lowe said. “But I need all your best efforts on making sure that the body you got in the morgue is Cazaux, and that his organization is shut down. I’m putting the President’s security in your hands because you said you could handle it.”