“I understand that. I’m going to share something with you. For the moment, keep it between us.”
Michelle nodded her head up and down excessively, like a young girl.
“The undersecretary of the air force has just resigned. Will go public in a bit. I’m going to be acting undersecretary. I need your help working the Senate Armed Services Committee, ensuring that I’m going to be able to lead the Air Staff and air force successfully. Need to know landmines over there, what’s hot, who doesn’t like who or what, and my chances of getting confirmed. The new administration hasn’t asked yet, but they are going through some issues with the new cabinet members coming up for noms.”
“I had no… idea. Wait, you have an entire staff here and over at Pentagon’s Air Staff for this. Led by a senior executive. I don’t get it. What… wait… was the under fired or did he resign?”
“Resigned.”
“Huh. Does the committee chairman know? He’d want to know soonest. He’ll be pissed off if he hears about it from the news, or even worse, an outside channel. A disaster if it were, say, casually mentioned at the gym. My cousin can tell him if you wanted him to know ASAP.”
“See. That’s why I’m seeking your help. Its connections and creative thought just like that. A senior executive is too far up the pole. I need a scout with talent, like you. Listen. I’m going to read you into a very time-sensitive op we are running against China, named Operation SANDY BEACH. Very, very sensitive. My biggest potential issue that would cause major problems if disclosed. Have you heard of it?”
Calvin was hoping she hadn’t because it was highly compartmentalized and only a few people knew in the world. Her answer had better be no.
“No, I haven’t heard of that, sir.”
“Good, good. I’ll read you in right now. This is between us only. I’m telling you so in the event it leaks, you need to be prepared to brief the Hill members on the SASC and intelligence committees in a closed session. So, SANDY BEACH is an op we are running against China. They have developed long-range stealth bombers after stealing our stealth plans using cyber means. We then stole one of their newly built aircraft a few months ago. Looks like we may steal another one from them. We are pretty sure they do not know it is us. And that’s it, bottom line. Clear?”
“That’s pretty cool. Also, a pretty big deal. Yes, sir. Clear,” Michelle answered.
“So, closing this up, I need your help on the Hill. I need your help plowing the way as acting under, prep for confirmation as needed, and prep on SANDY BEACH as required.”
Michelle understood everything but needed to know something before she could continue — something the chairman would hunt day and night for, and her cousin would certainly ask. “Yes, sir, I got it,” Michelle acknowledged. Her Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, attitude was stirring, and she had to blurt it out, figuring it was now or never. “I gotta ask this. Chairman’s gonna ask his people to dig… dig for dirt. I need to know, right now, and you need to tell me so I can do damage control, as needed.”
“Go ahead. What?”
“I need to know if you’re dirty, and I’m serious. You got any skeletons in the closet?”
Jason’s announcement about Calvin Burns took a moment to sink in. The entire team all looked at each other and smiled, and Mark put his hands up in the air like a touchdown symbol. “Well, hot shit! Good for him.”
Ford had a disappointed look on his face. “Crap. Will this change our plans, Mark?”
Mark thought for a second, then shook his head. “Maybe yes. Maybe no. This shouldn’t at all. Still a national security issue, and it needs to be solved.”
Ford was satisfied with the answer and turned to work with the rest of the team on a timeline. Mark picked up the phone and arranged to go up and talk with the China Military Team to brief Mr. Burns in their conference room. The China team thought that was strange, but they agreed.
Ford was up at the board with a red marker in his hand and drew out a straight line from one end of the white board to the other. It was horizontal, and he made some hash marks. On the far right, he wrote TOT in large capital letters, meaning time on target. He also wrote OBJ Area, or object area.
“Let’s backtrack off the object area. We’d want their jet to be airborne, of course, and we know they only fly at night. Patterns have ranged from 9:00 p.m. to about 3:00 a.m., based upon history. Is that accurate, Robert?”
“Yup. Matches what the acoustics have picked up at the US consulate at Chengdu. Chris Sans’s work. Also matches what we know from Wu Lee and Devil Dragon.”
“OK, thanks, Robert. So, we would need to ask US Strategic Command and Indo-Pacific Command for a B-2 to be positioned in Guam, or Diego Garcia, to come pick me up, and then get airborne again to do the intercept. Jeanie, is that right?”
“Ford, that’s pretty much it. I can take over the avionics bus in a few minutes or less, take over the controls to fly her, and electronically pass them to you for you to fly. We’d then do the ejection at a location of the team’s choosing, and then you, Ford, fly her from the laptop inside the B-2 to a landing,” Jeanie offered.
Emily pulled down a wall map that was on a scroll. She studied it for a moment, with her fit arms folded. “Bloody hell! Got it!”
“What?” asked Mark.
“Chances are, Black Scorpion will take off again in the next few days over here in mid-China. She goes west, then east as recently shown, to shoot on these ranges here. If you have the B-2 fly in northern Burma, they can do the air-to-air intercept around there. Take her into India!” Emily said, with some excitement.
The Indian government was a true friend of the United States, especially after the secretary of defense just visited for the sixth time in less than a year. Discussions ranged from their newly proposed statue to rupee manipulation to joint military training and agreements. But their government was definitely dysfunctional, as was some of their military. The horizontal chain of command in India meant that certain leaders in specific places owned certain capabilities, like aircraft, bases, and ships. Because the communication was not as solid as it was in other countries, powerful people could make things happen at the local level, without asking for permission to do things. They just… did them.
“India will be a friend of the United States on this one. I’ll personally call in a favor to New Delhi for the landing rights at, let me look at the map for a moment. Here, in the south. Bangalore.” Emily put her fingers up in quotes when she said “landing rights” and nodded. Both jets, depending on fuel state, can make it to Bangalore, fuel up, and then ferry home. Ford, that’s doable? Those flight legs?”
Ford looked at the paper map, looking at distances from the key, rubbing his chin. “Maybe. We’d burn a lot of fuel from Diego Garcia, waiting for an intercept, then ferrying all the way home. No issues on the B-2, as she can take on fuel in the air. It’s Black Scorpion that doesn’t have air-to-air refueling capability that I am aware of.”
“So it’s a no-go?” asked Mark.
“No, no, not necessarily. Let’s lean forward here for a moment. After landing in Bangalore, let the B-2 return home to Diego solo. I’ll take Black Scorpion out, fully refueled from Bangalore, and we land in the far northeast of the US. We’d have to wait it out a day in Bangalore until night came again, rest, then fly and maybe land in Greenland, or St. John’s, Newfoundland. If the timing works, continue to, say, Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire. They have large hangars there for their Air National Guard KC-135s, and we could hide in them until final destination,” Ford explained. “I’ll also need a copilot.”