Anton’s aircraft carrier career was an excellent breeding ground for flying her because the landing phase required intense concentration and just the right amount of skill to land safely, as it did on a moving carrier at sea. In fact, the combination of these skills was already used when pilots used to land U-2s on aircraft carriers! A controlled crash might better describe what he had to do to get her back on the ground. The two landing gear tires were under her main fuselage body, which was not that unusual. What was unusual to the eye were her removable wheeled sticks on the tip of each wing for takeoff, called pogoes which dropped from the aircraft upon leaving the ground. No other aircraft had this outlandish configuration. It was a sight to see on takeoff, as, when the jet lifted off the ground, the pogoes tumbled down the runway like a train wreck.
Anton had to delicately make his landing approach at 140 knots while listening intently on the radios, as he was focused like a laser with limited cockpit visibility to the front and sides. His ears were listening for a certain voice, and it wasn’t for fellow aircraft and air-traffic controllers, but to his brother squadron pilot chasing behind him on the runway driving a Detroit muscle car. The pilot driving and racing behind him in a new Ford Mustang would give callouts, giving altitude calls— “five feet… four feet… three feet”—until touchdown landing. Anton would just yank it back to idle on the throttle, and smoothly stall her at only a foot above the runway or less. “Landing.” That’s old-school flying.
Today’s mission required Anton to transmit live camera and video feeds to a variety of military and civilian organizations. The feeds, certainly encrypted, would hit the air force intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance squadrons for analysis. Osan Air Base in South Korea was closest. Sometimes Bobby had no clue as to the exact reason he was flying in location A or taking photos of location B, and this morning’s mission in taking a peek in Asia was no different. This was built-in security, as the United States learned after the May 1, 1960 U-2 shoot-down of Francis Gary Powers over Soviet airspace. The historic incident was still fresh in the minds of the interagency, as this episode resulted in the cancellation of the Paris Summit. The less the pilot knew, the better off he and the United States were, especially if there was a mishap due to enemy fire or an onboard emergency.
The customers for today’s mission included everyone from the DIA to the US Indo-Pacific Command to the US Air Force. One man’s junk photo was another man’s photo treasure. And this morning, this flight was no junk flight, as Bobby’s images discovered something incredible.
“Hey, Em! Guess who?” said Ford, as he called over to Emily from across the office.
Ford was full of ego and humble pie at the same time, wrapped into a pilot’s pilot, completely dedicated to flying for his country. Growing up all over the world and dreaming about becoming a pilot since his teenage years, he was one of those guys who did what he said he was going to do and accomplished his childhood dream.
With short brown hair and a big smile, and in excellent physical shape at five foot ten and 190 pounds, he was full of life. He was sensitive to others, all business when the time came, and dedicated to family, Emily, and his work. Ford loved the flying, the teamwork, and the pride of accomplishment.
A shriek echoed across the office as Ford grabbed Emily from behind. “Whoooo! Ford! Hello, love,” Emily said excitedly, wrapping her arms about his tough, Notre Dame NCAA college football body.
He was dressed in his olive-green flight suit, sporting zippers for pockets all over the place, and colored, embroidered patches that covered his chest and shoulders. His maroon and gray patch said “Blackhills” along with a silhouette of a B-1, which was his largest and brightest patch. Emily also noticed he stunk of alcohol again and figured he must have had some drinks on the way in from the airport.
“Hmmm. I’ve missed you,” Ford told her as he picked her up and twirled her about a bit. He spoke quietly so he could whisper in her ear. “You smell wonderful, Emmy.” Ford gave her a kiss. They were a couple in love, and any stranger who was to glance at this reuniting would see the look they gave each other. The love was in both of their eyes.
Robert stood up from his cubicle to say hello to Ford, as they knew each other well from the recent Devil Dragon mission. Robert handled the delicate task of ensuring a Gulfstream 650ER that they had borrowed for a mission was modified with a special exit ramp. The ramp, lowering and raising like the back door on a C-130 Hercules, allowed Ford to parachute out over China to steal Devil Dragon. This custom ramp was designed and fabricated by Gulfstream Airspace of Savannah, Georgia, and the airplane was borrowed from Corning, Incorporated, of Corning, New York. To say that both companies were a friend of the DIA was putting it lightly.
“What’s up, brother?” Ford said to Robert, hugging him. “You doing OK, man?”
“Awesome to see you again, Ford,” replied Robert. “Welcome back. Yeah, all good here. All good.”
“Thanks. Great to be back,” Ford said, glancing around the office space. “Where is our good, uncanny, eccentric friend, Mark Savona? Is he out doing a yoga class or parkour somewhere?”
Ford certainly knew Mark from Devil Dragon, too, as he was their leader on the operation. He and Ford had a terrific relationship, and they were both fond of each other. Mark, being a bit older, routinely called Ford “kid.”
Robert smiled. “Ha! Ford! Well, he was on a cruise with some new girlfriend down in the Caribbean. Burns called him back. Sent a military jet out of Andrews to get him. Jason arranged for both of you to get back here.”
“No joke? All I got was a notice from headquarters air force reserve to show up here as soon as possible. Wait, Mark was vacationing with a girl?” Ford said jokingly, as if it was a surprise he had a girlfriend.
From across the room came a loud voice familiar to all in the China Desk area. It was Mark Savona. “Anything else you fuckers want to say while I’m standing right here? Yes, with a girl! Well? What the hell is going on? I got called back to the office… only to see your ugly mugs?” He was smiling, making his presence known as he walked in.
“Mark!” they all said, welcoming him back from his short trip. He was, of course, kidding with the bitter attitude, and gave hugs to everyone. In signature fashion, he was wearing a Hawaiian print shirt, nonmatching patterned cargo shorts, and tan sandals, all in a professional office environment. In many ways, Mark did not give a crap about the Washington bureaucracy, with their starched white shirts and blue suits, which was what made him so unique. Wearing the opposite of what was expected was Mark’s way of rebelling. This, along with disagreeing with senior leaders and sharing his opinion no matter who it was in the chain of command, was his calling card.
Mark continued to smile. “Thanks everyone. Yeah, I’m back, too. Painful to leave early, believe me. So, Old Man Burns and I had a short call. Got up here as quick as I could. He said we had more satellite indications? That’s the reason I am back here,” Mark told them. “What the hell is going on? What are the details?”
“Understand, Boss, Emily and I have been looking into it on our own without official tasking from Burns just yet. We found a whole host of interesting things coming in over the past few hours. We need to show you before we see Mr. Burns at eleven thirty.” Robert rotated in his seat to glance at the wall clocks. “That’s only in an hour and a half or so. Why don’t we hit our conference room, and Emily and I will show you what we’ve got?” Robert asked.
Robert and Emily had been digging around on the computer all morning, reading and reviewing data to see what they could find. They compared and searched as much as they could from 6:30 a.m., ranging from the China Daily newspaper to the flight feedback from surveillance aircraft. They even dug up some State Department cable traffic from the Asia region, just to see if there was some nugget that would help piece together a story. Now that they had a historical pattern from Devil Dragon, and owned her now, they knew to look for a few specific items.