by Jim DeFelice
“Simple interference?” asked Rubeo.
“Again — it’s theoretically possible. But if so, they’re doing it in a way that we haven’t seen before. And the NATO sensors didn’t pick up any direct interference.”
“They hardly know what to look for,” said Rubeo. Interference in this case meant some sort of radio jamming, which generally was fairly obvious but could be done very selectively. In fact, Rubeo’s companies were working on a system that jammed only select aircraft — in theory, one could confuse a single UAV in a flight, turning it against its fellows.
Only in theory, so far. The Libyans naturally would be unable to do this on their own. But there were plenty of people who might want to take the chance to test their systems in the field.
Rubeo couldn’t control his agitation. He rose. “A virus?” he asked.
“So far, no trace. And it would have to be introduced physically. Which means by someone on the team.”
“Or someone who has access to the hangar,” said Rubeo. “Or the transports. Or one of the bases where they stopped. Or—”
“Point taken.”
“I want to know exactly what happened,” he said. “We need to know.”
“We are working on it,” said Marcum, rescuing Keeler. “We haven’t been at it all that long. Barely twenty-four hours.”
“I’ve been here less than twelve,” said Keeler.
Rubeo pressed his hands together. “The government planes? What’s the connection there?”
“At best, a diversion,” said Marcum. “More likely a coincidence.”
“Did they jam?”
“No,” said Keeler. “No jamming was recorded by any of the aircraft, including the Tigershark.”
“But there were ECMs,” said Rubeo. “They might have covered it. That would explain why the government attacked in the first place.”
Marcum looked as if he had just sucked a lemon.
“We’ve mapped all of the radars in the area,” said Keeler. “It’s possible there was another one. But if it was interfered with, we can’t figure out what the interference form would have been.”
“These are early days, Ray,” said Marcum. “We will get there. We have to build up slowly.”
“How well are you sleeping?” Rubeo snapped.
Marcum didn’t answer.
“We all want to figure out what happened, Dr. Rubeo,” said Keeler gently. “We will figure it out.”
“I can’t sleep at all,” said Rubeo.
13
Sicily
Though he headed Whiplash, the high-tech Department of Defense and CIA’s covert action team, Danny Freah was not in Sicily on a Whiplash mission per se. Officially, he was only here to work with the locals and Air Force and secure the Sabres and the Tigershark, which were Office of Technology assets on temporary “loan” to the alliance. He wasn’t even supposed to provide actual security, just make sure that the people who were charged with doing that did it.
Unofficially, he was here to find out what the hell had happened and to make sure that no one associated with the Office of Technology got railroaded.
Politics was a wonderful thing, especially in the military.
Danny had brought his figurative right arm, Chief Master Sergeant Ben “Boston” Rockland, along with two troopers, John “Flash” Gordon and Chris “Shorty” Bradley. He had a pair of Ospreys as well — one had come over with him on the Whiplash M–17, and the other had been part of a demonstration that Flash and Bradley were conducting in Germany when Danny got the word to get over to Sicily in a hurry. The Ospreys were available as transportation in the unlikely event he had to go over to Libya.
He doubted he’d need them. Nor did he anticipate needing more people. Most of his team was in the States on a training mission with U.S. Special Operations Command, and he decided to let them be for the time being.
“Pretty island,” said Boston, surveying the suite they’d been assigned at the NATO base. “Piece of shit command post, though. Barely fit a desk in either of these rooms.”
Boston wasn’t exaggerating. Space at the facility was at a premium, as were simple auxiliary services like getting the floor washed — the ones in front of them were brutal.
“We’ll have to make due,” said Danny. “You sent Flash over to the security?”
“Yeah, he’s talking to the NATO people now. They have our Air Force guys, an assigned team from DoD working for OT, and Eye-tralians.” Boston had a smug grin as he mispronounced the word. “You going to call Nuri back from vay-kay?”
“I think we’ll survive without him.”
“Probably be help ordering dinner.”
“We’ll survive.”
Nuri was Nuri Abaajmed Lupo, the lead CIA officer with Whiplash. As an Italian-American who’d spent part of his childhood in Italy, Nuri spoke excellent Italian. He also had a decent amount of experience in the Middle East. But he was on his first leave in two years, and Danny saw no need to interrupt it.
“Probably knows where all the hot babes are, too,” added Boston.
“Find someone to clean the floor, Chief,” growled Danny. “I have work to do.”
14
Sicily
The high of his A–10E flight having been punctured by Ginella’s scolding, Turk took his bruised ego back to his own small office on the base. He found it locked, with a guard in front of the door.
The Italian MP did not know what was going on or even why he was there, specifically. But he did know that his orders were that no one was to enter. And Turk fit the qualifications of “no one,” even though his name was handwritten on the door.
He went over to the hangar where the team was working over the Tigershark and Sabres, but no one there seemed to know anything about it. Turk was on his way to General Talekson’s office when his satellite phone rang; it was Colonel Freah.
“Colonel, am I glad you called,” he said as the connection went through. “I’ve been locked out of my office.”
“Yeah, it’s routine,” Danny told him. “Part of the investigation, Turk. Don’t worry about it. How are you holding up?”
“OK, I guess.”
“Did Colonel Ginella hook up with you?”
“Uh, yes sir. I, uh, checked out two planes for her.”
“Two? Great.”
“I didn’t think to check with you. I—”
“No, no, it’s fine.” Technically, Danny wasn’t in Turk’s chain of command anyway. “She talked to me about it, then went through channels. I think it’s a good idea for you to be, uh, useful if you can. Assuming you want to be. Do you want to fly with her?”
“Yeah, I will. Good squadron. I don’t know how short-handed they are.”
“You’re familiar with the planes?”
“Yes, sir. I flew them before they did, actually.”
“Well, good. Keep checking with the team to see if they need you for testing, but otherwise, as far as I’m concerned, you’re good to go.”
“Thanks,” Turk told him, even though he figured the odds of getting back into one of Ginella’s planes were infinitesimal now. He was thankful that she hadn’t told Danny what had happened.
Not yet, anyway.
Danny told him about his office, suggesting he stop by “once we’ve gotten some furniture and figured out where the restrooms are.”
“I will.”
“If you want time off—”
“Actually, I’d prefer to keep busy,” said Turk.
* * *
Turk eventually found his way back to the hotel, exhausted from the day and in need of a serious change of scenery. Once again he thought of Ginella’s travelogue. But arranging a trip to the mainland seemed like too much of a hassle.
He went down to the bar and bought two beers, then smuggled them back upstairs to his room, feeling more than a little like a felon, though all he was doing was cheating the self-pay refrigerator out of a sale.
He flipped through the channels for a while. Most of t
he programs were in Italian, naturally, though after a few spins he found a movie in English with Italian subtitles. It was one of the early Terminators, the first, he thought, with Arnold Schwarzenegger before he became governor material.
Turk hadn’t seen the movie in years and years. It was nice how the storylines in movies were always so clear: good versus evil. Good did good. Evil did evil.
You might have one flip around, or in a complicated movie, two or three. But in the end, you knew who was good.
Real life was always trickier. You might be a hero one second, then literally in the middle of a disaster the next.
He couldn’t help but think about the Sabre attack. He’d seen a few screwups in his time, a couple of crashes, though never with anyone getting hurt. One time he’d come close to having to bail out of an aircraft. Ironically, it was an F/A–18, not an Air Force jet — he had been taking it up for NASA on an instrument run, testing a recording device — they had a new instrument to measure vortices off the wings. He was out over the Pacific when one of the engines decided it didn’t want to work for some reason. Then the other one quit.
Fortunately, he had plenty of altitude and options. Among them was trying for a miraculous restart, as he called it now — he got the first engine to relight somehow, then hung on long enough to get into Miramar, the Marine air station in San Diego.
On final approach the engine quit again.
That caused him a little consternation. He’d been a little high and fast in his approach, perhaps unconsciously thinking the engine would blow, and that helped. Still, he barely managed to get the wheels onto the edge of the strip.
A lucky day. He might have plunged into the bay.
Or really gone off, and hit houses in the city.
He hadn’t thought about either possibility at the time. You didn’t — you just flew the plane, went down your checklist. Do this, do this; try this, now this, now this. Contemplating consequences was a luxury you didn’t have.
So much so that when people congratulated him later, Turk wasn’t even sure what the hell they were talking about. As far as he was concerned, the incident was a tremendous pain. He had to find another way back to Nellis, where he’d started the flight. And talk to a dozen scientists, most of whom were actually interested in the instrument the plane had carried, not the engine system.
For some reason, he’d never drawn a NASA assignment again. Coincidence?
The Terminator ended — or didn’t end, as it would go on to spawn a huge string of sequels. Turk went back to flipping through channels.
He stopped on the scene of a fire. He watched a row of houses burning, fascinated. They were in a small city. The sky behind them was dotted with black smoke, swirls rising like thick tree trunks in the distance.
Only gradually did he realize that he was watching an account of the Sabre accident. There were shots of ambulances coming and going. Then a close-up of a victim on a stretcher.
A woman, eyes closed, head covered with a bandage already soaked through with blood.
A small child, already dead…
He flipped the TV off and went to see what was in the minifridge.
15
Tripoli
Kharon never ceased to be amazed at the power of money. It was both corruptor and motivator, an incredible genie with almost unlimited ability. A hundred euros could influence a man to take incredible risks, like flying from the safety of Benghazi to the open city of Tripoli.
“Open” meant claimed by neither side, but not entirely neutral — it would lean to whomever had the most power nearby, which at the moment was the rebels. Nor did it mean completely without risk — gangs from both sides fought openly in the streets several nights out of the week, and occasionally at the airport as well. A portion of the terrain southwest of the city was held by government forces, which had repulsed several attempts by rebels to clear them away.
A hundred euros, plus the regular fees of fuel and airplane rental. That was all it took to enter the outer ring of hell.
Kharon was taking the same risks, flying through a war zone, in an area where theoretically anything flying could be shot down. The fact that the allied air forces had not yet fired on civilian planes did not necessarily mean they would continue to hold their fire.
But the risk was nothing for him, a necessary part of his plan: twenty minutes along the water, a beautiful flight in the dusk.
* * *
Kharon knew he would be followed from the airport — everyone was — and so he went straight to a hotel, using the alias he had established two weeks before. The room he’d rented had been bugged by two different agencies. He gave it a quick look and saw that the bugs were still in place before changing and heading back downstairs.
Things were going well, but hubris was a killer. Kharon reminded himself of this as he walked down the steps to the Western-style lounge. He was a little early for his appointment, but this was as planned — he always liked to survey the environment at leisure.
It was a swamp. Besides the mixture of journalists — Kharon was masquerading as one himself — there was a thick mix of foreign agents and men who euphemistically referred to themselves as “businessmen.” Most were arms dealers, eager to strike an arrangement with the rebels who did business in the open city, or arrange transport south to the government-held territory.
There were women businesspeople, too. Their business was older than war.
“There is my friend!” declared Foma Mitreski as he approached the long bar. “Tired from his long journey and in need of scotch.”
“Foma.”
Kharon was not particularly surprised to see the Russian spy; while this was not Foma’s normal hangout, he often made the rounds of the hotel bars in the city. His presence was inconvenient, but Kharon knew he could not afford to alienate him. The Russians were important partners, and Foma personally oversaw much of the relationship.
“How is the reporting going?” asked Foma. He knew of course that Kharon was not a reporter, but then Kharon knew that Foma was something more than the lower level embassy employee Foma pretended to be.
“The usual pronouncements of victory from both sides.” Kharon spoke just loud enough to be overheard. He pushed away the stool that was next to the Russian and leaned against the bar. He liked to move around easily, something that wasn’t possible while perched on the stools here.
A few inches shorter than Kharon, the Russian was nearly twice as wide. He was a good decade and a half older, with hair so black, Kharon assumed it must have been dyed. He had a very red face, the sort associated with heavy drinking.
As always, Foma was dressed a little formally for Tripoli, with well-tailored trousers and a collared pullover shirt. His hands seemed too stubby for his body, thick, as if pumped with air or fluid. He had a small signet ring on his left pinky, and a larger black opal inset in gold on his ring finger.
A wedding ring as well. On the right hand, in the Eastern Orthodox tradition. But in the two years they had known each other, Foma had never spoken of his wife, or of any children. He did his best to present a blank slate to Kharon and the rest of the world.
“Scotch?” asked Foma. His English had a double accent — southern Russia and London, where according to his classified résumé he had both gone to school and served as a spy at the embassy. “They have some very old Glencadam,” he said. “Here, we will share a few sips.”
A few sips typically meant half a bottle. Kharon nodded indulgently, then waited as the bartender came over with a decanter of 1978 Sherry Cask Glencadam — a rarity even outside the Muslim world.
Foma took the glass after the whiskey was poured and held it to the light.
“Amber,” he said in English. Then he said a few words in Russian that further defined the color. Though adequate, Kharon’s Russian was not quite good enough to capture the nuances of the words.
“It never fails to surprise me that I am drinking scotch with a Russian,” said Kharon, holding up the
glass.
“Za vas!” said Foma, offering a toast.
“Your health as well.”
Kharon drained the tumbler and returned it to the bar. Foma immediately asked for a refill. Kharon knew his own limits; he would sip from now on.
“So, a good scotch, yes?” asked Foma as they waited for the bartender.
“Good, yes,” agreed Kharon. “Very good.”
“It is complex.” He took the refilled glass and held it up, knowing from experience that Kharon would not have another. “Someday they will have good vodka in Tripoli. Until then…”
He drank.
“So, you have had a successful trip?” asked the Russian after he drained his drink.
“It was interesting.”
“Benghazi is peaceful?”
“More or less.”
“The princess? She is back from Sicily?”
“Yes.”
“I hope you gave her my regards.”
Kharon hadn’t told Foma that he was seeing the princess, but he merely shrugged.
“You see, my friend, I am always gathering little details,” said Foma.
“I wouldn’t worry too much about anything,” said Kharon. “Eventually, you will get what you wanted.”
“What has been paid for.”
“Not in full. And you already have quite a lot of information, thanks to me.”
Foma pushed his glass forward, silently requesting a refill from the bartender. “When will the delivery be made?”
“I’m working on it,” said Kharon. “Soon.”
“A man such as yourself with many contacts, back and forth—”
“I know where my best interests are,” said Kharon.
“I heard that a Chinese man was looking for you.”
Kharon didn’t bother to answer. He would never do business with the Chinese — they were too apt to turn on their helpers. Say whatever else you wanted about the Russians, they honored their commitments.
“You’re not drinking.” Foma gestured at Kharon’s glass, still half full, as his own glass was refilled once more. “You are going to have a way to catch up.”
