They drove north on Arnold Avenue along the rows of hangars on the main base side. Every Air Force VIP plane in the inventory was visible — small jets to big helicopters to a huge white E-4 Airborne Command Post, a modified 747 resembling Air Force One but specially designed for the President and military leaders to run World War III from the air. They did not see an Air Force One itself. But then again, they didn’t need to — they were bringing their own.
They turned right on C Street and tried to go north on Eagle Road, the street right in front of the newer hangars, but roadblocks ahead steered them back onto Arnold Avenue — that told them that the hangars behind that section of Eagle Road had the really valuable hardware. Still, there were no patrols, only barricades. The two hangars that were accessible from the one block of Eagle Road they were allowed to drive on had a clear view of the alert fighter area across the airfield, and by using binoculars they could even see the upraised Patriot antenna array to the southwest, pointing westward toward the capital.
“Let’s remote-control everything from here — no use in risking exposure if it ain’t necessary,” Ysidro said. “We’ll use the short-range radio detonators for maximum efficiency, and we’ll station ourselves within missile range of the runways in case we’re needed.”
“May not be able to remote the Patriot stuff,” one of the other terrorists said. He pointed to a red-and-white block building at the end of the runway. “ILS transmitter. Could interfere with the radio signal, or it could activate the detonator as soon as the mine is armed.”
“Fine — we’ll do it face-to-face. I like it that way,” Ysidro said. “Security is a joke anyway — this looks like a walk in the park. If this isn’t some kind of setup, this will be the easiest job we’ve ever had to do.”
Atlantic City International Airport
Later That Evening
At precisely sunset, the formation leader radioed, “Ready, ready… now. Three, clear to depart.”
“Three,” Lieutenant Colonel A1 Vincenti acknowledged, gently pulled on the control stick and put in a notch of power. He was flying the third F-16 ADF Fighting Falcon in a V-formation of five, passing over the base headquarters building near the Air National Guard ramp at Atlantic City Airport. From the ground, — the V-formation stayed intact but with a large gap between the leader and the number-five aircraft to the right of the leader — the “Missing Man” formation, signifying that one of their comrades had died in the line of duty. Vincenti, as the main fighter representative to the Executive Committee on Terrorism in charge of the Cazaux emergency, had requested and was given the honor, of flying as the “missing man” in the 177th Fighter Group’s memorial-service flyover for Tom Humphrey, who had died in the crash of his F-16.
Vincenti climbed to two thousand feet, turned on his transponder so air traffic control could pick him up on radar, then checked in with Atlantic City Approach Controclass="underline" “Atlantic City Approach, Devil Zero-Three, overhead Atlantic City International, passing two for five thousand.”
“Devil-03, radar contact, climb and maintain five thousand, expect twenty minutes holding at NAADA intersection for arriving and departing traffic.”
The delay made sense — in fact, he was hoping for it. Air Traffic Control had shut down all traffic in and out of Atlantic City International for thirty minutes so the New Jersey Air National Guard could do this memorial, so it was only fair that all the civilian traffic be allowed to depart. “Roger, A-City,” Vincenti radioed back. “Devil-03 cancel IFR, requesting radar flight following, destination Atlantic City International via the Beltway tour, overfly if able.”
“Roger, — 03, remain this squawk and frequency, maintain VFR routes and altitudes on the Beltway tour, I’ve got your request for an overfly clearance.”
“-03, roger.”
It was far more restrictive now than when Vincenti flew F-4Es out of Atlantic City Airport a million years ago, but it’s still a pretty good ride, even at dusk, he thought — that is, if the lights are on. He knew that exterior illumination of most of the historic buildings and monuments of Washington, D.C., had been turned off during the Cazaux terrorist emergency; no announcement had been made, but rumor had it that the President was going to order the National Park Service to lift this restriction. It was pretty lucky for him to be flying at all, let alone as part of the Air National Guard unit’s memorial flight. Few guys want to fly Missing Man formations — they believe it tempts Fate to fly close formation in a high-performance bird in tribute to a fellow pilot that… well, erred. Crashing and burning in combat is one thing — getting excited and accidentally blowing away an identified civilian plane, and then committing suicide, was not cool. Everyone was sorry for Humphrey and his family, but no one wanted to get too close to his bad jujus. That’s the way fighter jocks are.
Of course, the Learjet shoot-down and Humphrey’s subsequent crash was not being called a suicide or a screwup, at least not by the Air Force or the White House. Along with the usual “the investigation is under way, I can’t comment on that,” Hardcastle and Vincenti had explained to the press all about the TV crew’s errors, about how they broke the law, stopping short of saying they deserved to get shot. A few veiled hints about mechanical or electrical failure on the F-16 because of the constant flying during the emergency, some more hints about incorrect “switchology,” mixed with more comments like “if it had been Cazaux, Atlantic City International would have been a smoking hole otherwise.” The press needed massaging. More than most military men, Hardcastle — once the leader of one of the most controversial paramilitary organizations in American history, the Hammerheads — understood that it was important not to tell the press the facts, but to meter information bit by bit, letting them form their own conclusions that, not too coincidentally, were the ones you wanted them to have. It didn’t always work, but it was an efficient way to go.
Humphrey was a victim of circumstance. Yes, he screwed up. Military jets did not have cockpit voice recorders or flight data recorders, so everything was speculative until the final accident board’s report. Hardcastle often used familiar “goofs” to explain failures in multimil- lion-dollar military hardware: like causing an accident while using a cellular phone in busy rush-hour traffic. Humphrey had wanted to film the Learjet with his gun camera during the intercept; he saw the floodlight hit his leader’s cockpit canopy, saw him go out of control temporarily, assumed that it was an attack, and launched a missile. Under the emergency situation, such a response was understandable. Of course, Hardcastle explained, the deaths of the “Whispers” TV crew were unfortunate, but it was probably avoidable — it wouldn’t have happened if the TV. and Learjet crews had been following the law and not out for a scoop. For once it looked like blame was going to be placed on the right party.
By being up in Atlantic City instead of in Washington, Vincenti was really just postponing the inevitable: the intensive debriefing that Judge Lani Wilkes was giving Hardcastle and Harley right now in Washington. Vincenti’s turn was next. These all-day, half-the-night sessions were nine-!tenths retribution and punishment and one-tenth information. Wilkes was claiming that there were tons of evidence to make everyone, including the President of the United States, believe the body of the motorcycle rider shot by the V-22 crew was Henri Cazaux. The gun camera videotape from the third V-22 of one of the two riders that escaped was inconclusive. It was a thermal image, almost useless for trying to identify someone. But in Vincenti’s opinion, any one of the two that got away could have been Henri Cazaux. Wilkes and the rest of the Justice Department disagreed. To A1 Vincenti, it was all just educated guesses and assumptions — and politics, of course. The more this air defense emergency went on, the more uneasy it made the public. The President needed this emergency over with soonest.