What Chen did not know was that the DIA team had obtained two decoy bodies from the Tokyo Police Department via the Federal Bureau of Investigation and airdropped them into the intercoastal waterway in the Yellow Sea. DIA dressed them up in ragged and burned-out flight suits, and even placed a decoy wallet in one of the pockets. The bodies were found, as hoped and predicted, by a Malaysian commercial ship and picked up along with the maps.
Asian Cargo Carriers Unlimited of Kuala Lumpur owned and operated chemical tankers and offshore support vessels for oil majors operating within the Arabian Gulf and Asia Pacific region. On a routine route ferrying high-speed diesel oil to Myanmar, the Singapore-based tanker Sweet Island Breezes made the discovery. No large debris was found because the US C-130 that did the airdrop mission didn’t drop any.
This old smoke-and-mirrors ploy by Mark Savona was actually historically based. Named OPERATION MINCEMEAT, the original deception was envisioned to mask the 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily during World War II, and it was successful. Mark generated the airdrop idea, and to date, his plan worked.
Chen turned the page of the executive summary and was growing anxious as he kept reading. He wanted to know what the cause of the mishap was. Scanning, scanning. Where was it? Chen grunted to himself, alone at his desk.
He then read the first sentence out loud, his words drifting as he read more, setting off his trademark temper. “Hypoxia, caused by lack of oxygen, and additional psychological events experienced by the crew members at high altitude, most likely caused both crew members to become dizzy and confused. Both were of dangerous states of mind when flying at enormously fast speeds at high altitude. The emergency oxygen supply, most likely, was never turned on and used. The emergency oxygen supply, in most cases, may help a tired or run-down pilot, but only lasts about ten minutes. That is not enough to descend down from the Devil Dragon’s extremely high altitude and land safely. PLAAF has recorded 366 oxygen incidents for fighters from 2010 to present day, and the oxygen problems with the primary contractors are well known in the community. None of the episodes have resulted in loss or damage of an aircraft prior to Devil Dragon.”
Chen made a face that would make a baby cry. “Bullshit! No! No! Why my aircraft?” Chen yelled at the top of his lungs, throwing the binder to the other side of his office, hitting a table. His water heater for tea hit the floor, shattering the glass pot all over the office walls. Chen’s temper was boiling.
Chen rapidly got out of his chair and threw the door open into the hangar, making a loud bang of metal slamming into metal and echoing across the hangar. Facing him was Black Scorpion, tucked in the hangar with a whole host of people prepping her for flight. Engine maintainers, used to working on the Su-35 Saturn 117S engines, were tending to the advanced turbofans, while avionics folks were on top adjusting satellite navigation antennas. Others were standing looking at laptops connected to the jet and leaning on large, movable tool boxes. Most everyone in the hangar glanced at Chen standing there, obviously enraged, and then quickly looked away.
“Engineering. Maintenance. Get in here!” he barked.
The chief engineer hurriedly came in, as well as the chief of maintenance. They stepped over the glass but had to stand in a puddle of tea.
“I just read about the cause of the Devil Dragon mishap. You two read this? What are we doing to ensure this does not happen to Black Scorpion?”
The chief engineer stood there considering what words to use to explain to an angered Chen. “General, we do not know of an oxygen malfunction on board. We are not aware of a problem on these two models because the devices we normally use to monitor are not installed inside their airframes but are only for use on the ground, in computers. We don’t know if a system is giving too much oxygen, too little oxygen, perhaps a toxin, or even carbon monoxide.”
Chen stared at the chief engineer and didn’t say a word. He then looked directly at the eyes of the chief of maintenance.
“General, for us to monitor the breathing air would require us to design and install some complex monitors that are not currently available during flight. At the moment, they are only available on the ground. There is no safe or normal way to monitor the pilots’ oxygen while airborne, but we may be able to…”
“Well, how about you make it available?” Chen asked them, but it was more like he told them. Both men nodded in agreement.
Chen was fuming because what really drove his motive was his fourth star, and he did not want his life goal to slip away for some skeptical oxygen problems. He selfishly couldn’t give a crap about the loss of life but was only concerned about the aircraft itself. Chen wanted that jet staying healthy for the sake of competition against the Chinese navy, the fighter community in the Chinese air force, and the United States. Losing an aircraft like Devil Dragon was just the right amount of adverse information to sway the four-stars from promoting him. Although he was told he was clear of the blame because it was not disclosed publicly, he still took every precaution.
“What the hell are you two going to do about it?” Chen asked. “What are you going to do to ensure that we don’t have any more mishaps?” He narrowed his eyes and crunched up his face, then pointed his finger at each man. Growling now, he stared. “Don’t you realize what these jets mean to China?”
Both men were scared shitless and on the verge of peeing in their pants. The chief engineer wiped the beads of sweat off his bald forehead with his long-sleeved shirt.
“Yes, General. We have a list of measures that we are doing to improve the situation. We have an idea that might work. We can install new carbon monoxide scrubbers that can transmit live computer data back to us here in the hangar while Black Scorpion is flying. It may work. We also have molecular sieves to filter unnecessary nitrogen, in addition to new depressurization warning indicators,” replied the chief engineer.
“And General, in maintenance, we have generated a postflight checklist for our maintainers to check the oxygen generators, the pressurization systems, and a scan for contaminants, environmental control systems, and any emergency oxygen usage.” They were really covering their asses.
Chen was reassured that his team was on top of it and calmed down a bit while they gave him answers. Little did he know, though, that this new method of monitoring the carbon monoxide, this new scrubber they referred to, would be of interest to others outside of China. The maintenance department was not skilled in the art of operational security or counterintelligence, as maintenance was skilled in wrench turning and fixing aircraft that were broken. What went right over Chen’s hangover and clouded head was that this transmission of data would be active and unencrypted. It would act like a bright tracking beacon in the night sky to anyone looking and listening.
“Approved. Get out.”
The DIA team stood up and departed to head back to their cubicles so they could do some more research before their meeting with Mr. Burns. Emily and Ford stayed behind, finding a private place in a conference room to be alone and talk.
“How’s my chap?” asked Emily, putting her arms around Ford. “You OK?”
“You could tell, huh?” Ford replied.