“That’s why you think V is behind this then?” Steve asked.
“Yes,” Alex replied. “It fits.”
“But—” Steve started to say, but she immediately interrupted him.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. I have no proof; I have nothing, no hard evidence to back me up. But, to me, it feels right. I know it’s him.”
“You’re saying no one else could pull this off?” Sam asked.
She threw him an angry, disappointed glare. Sam doubted her too.
“You did ask me to keep you true, remember?” Sam added.
She cooled off a little. Sam was right to ask questions.
“Yeah, I did, didn’t I? But you know how these things are sometimes. You just have to follow your gut. Both of you taught me that,” she said, swaying her index finger from Tom to Sam and back.
“Correct,” Tom admitted. “I also taught you to keep an open mind.”
“But I am—” Alex said, in a high-pitched tone showing her growing anger.
“We all trust you, Alex,” Steve said conciliatorily, “it’s not about that.”
“Then what?” she snapped, turning toward him. He’d been the first to distrust her, to lose confidence in her reasoning. The first to betray her, to cross the line that had forever changed their relationship.
Steve remained silent for a second, visibly uncomfortable with what he was about to say.
“It’s about your determination with finding V. We don’t want you to have that determination cloud your judgment, that’s all. I guess we’re just a bunch of concerned, overprotective men, that’s all,” he ended with a shy smile.
She couldn’t contain the chuckle that dissolved all her anger in a split second.
“Are you, now? So let me get this straight, I am being sexually discriminated in my place of employment?”
“Oh, no, no, no,” Tom said, “we are so not going down that path. I would really like to retire before getting sued for any type of workplace issue,” he stated somberly, but with a smile in his eyes.
Alex looked at them, feeling a forgotten warmth take over her heart. They were on her side, all of them, despite all their questions. Smart people ask questions and want to see proof for everything.
“Look, guys, I know how this looks, especially considering how obsessed I’d become with catching V, the bastard.” She spoke in a softer voice, dropping all her defensiveness. “I am painfully aware that there’s no real evidence, and I’m even more aware that we might end up finding the plane and its passengers, yet still find no evidence of V, or who the real UNSUB mastermind behind this hijacking was. But the clock is ticking, and we only have a few hours before we need to submit our search grids to DigiWorld to deploy the satellite search patterns.”
They fidgeted a little, turning their attention to the map. Sam used the opportunity to grab another cup of coffee, and filled the small room with a strong, dark-roast aroma.
“Let’s organize the search grids for now, thinking of two satellites, not three. The third hasn’t been confirmed yet. Do we think China is worth searching? It’s in the neighborhood,” she asked.
“Why not Iran? Libya?” Sam asked. “Anyone could have taken that plane. It could have landed on a commercial airport for all we know.”
“No, definitely not on a commercial airport,” Alex replied. “Too many witnesses. As for China, Iran, or Libya? I don’t know… I honestly don’t. But it just doesn’t feel like it’s any of them. It feels like Russians. To me, this is V’s handiwork, but I am keeping my options open.”
A moment of silence followed, while they looked at one another, unsure what to say.
“We need to make a call, guys, that’s all,” she added, “I am very open-minded right now, conceding the fact that it might not have been V behind this, or not directly. What do you think?”
“It’s your call, kiddo,” Sam said.
“Agree,” Blake confirmed.
Lou saluted, his typical way of saying that he’ll follow her lead, and Steve nodded.
“Godspeed,” Tom concluded.
“Then Russia it is,” Alex decided firmly. “No China, or anyone else for now.”
She took a marker and drew a circle sector on the map, centered on Tokyo, and interrupted at Russia’s borders.
“I’d suggest one satellite scans east-to-west from the north, and the other one starts the same search pattern coming from the south. We could break this down in swatches of about 300 miles in width, before having to reposition the satellites. I think this is the fastest way to get results. It makes sense to me they’d start from the coastline, not from inland. That’s how I’d go about it.”
“Makes sense,” Lou said.
She turned on the TV and projected some images from her laptop.
“We’ve found several strips where the plane could have landed. Airfields, potentially strategic highways. There are quite a few within range, and far apart. This is not actionable info, I’m afraid. There’s no way to tell where they’d have landed just based on this.”
“Why?” Blake asked, a new wave of pallor hitting his face.
“We were hoping there would only be two or three landing strips within range, but we found more than forty. We can’t go into the field and investigate them one by one. They’re many and far apart, most of them isolated. It would take us weeks.”
“What are you saying?” Blake continued.
“I’m saying that satellites are our best bet, maybe our only one.”
She reached for the coffee cup to relieve her dry throat, but it was empty. She put it back on the table with a frustrated sigh.
They all remained silent, concern showing on their faces in different ways. Blake had resumed staring at the floor. Lou’s lips were pursed and his jaws clenched, and he was stomping his foot rhythmically, impatiently. Steve had a rarely seen frown clouding his brow, and Tom had clasped his hands together, probably struggling with this kind of powerlessness. Sam seemed unfazed, looking confident, but she knew him better than to fall for that appearance.
“What are we talking about here, in terms of time?” Sam asked.
“About 36 hours, maybe 48. That’s all it will take, and we’ll finally know. That’s all it takes for the satellites to screen that area at high resolution,” she replied, pointing at the circle drawn on the map. “If there’s a Boeing 747–400 out there, in those woods, they’ll find it.”
“How?” Steve asked, hesitantly. “What if there’s no direct visibility, how will the satellites see the plane?”
“Oh, we’ve thought of that,” she said, displaying a colorful image on the screen. “In recent years, technologies have been developed to use satellites for mining and mineral prospecting. Our satellites will use those orbital prospecting technologies, more precisely infrared scanning, advanced space-borne thermal emissions, and reflection radiometer scanning. Just like how satellites would find metal buried in the ground, they can find the plane, no matter how deep it’s buried or hidden in the forest.”
“How would infrared work, in this case?” Lou asked. “That’s more for weather applications, right?”
“Right,” Alex confirmed. “Keep in mind the specific heat of metal is lower than the heat of the forest, or any surrounding natural surface materials, like rocks, vegetation, and dirt. It would stand out simply because it’s colder.”
She looked at everyone in the room, feeling a little overwhelmed again. There were 441 lives, all depending on her judgment calls. Oh, God… please help me be right about this.
She shook her doubt away, straightening her back, and raising her head with a confidence she forced herself to feel.
“Guys, we’re almost there. One more day and we’ll know where to go.”
“Great,” Lou said, “it’s about time. I’m dying to go out there and shoot the motherfuckers who thought this shit up.”