by Bryan Murray
On the TV in the background, the Newscaster was reading the current news story. ‘And with tomorrow being the anniversary of 9/11, all across the country, security forces are doubling up on their vigilance to ensure that a repeat of the deadly terrorist attack on that day years ago, is not repeated.’
Maria was watching the screen. “Amen to that, what do you say, darling?”
Roddy zeroed back in again. “What? Oh, yeah, right!”
CHAPTER 26
September 11th had started in many different ways around the world. In New York City, crowds and the nation’s media had gathered early at the previous site of the World Trade Center and various speeches had been made, including one by the current Mayor of New York.
In the Middle East, where tensions were always flaring, CNN were showing scenes of various terrorist groups, including JOD, burning the US flag in the streets with many Muslims chanting ‘Death to the USA’ and ‘USA burn in hell’!
In Washington DC, it had also been a tense morning in the White House, where the President was waiting to see what was coming in on the news cables from around the world. John Mulroney had been liaising closely with Peter Davies at the FBI and Andrew Grover at the CIA. Feedback on the security of Death Darts around the world looked very positive. Everything seemed remarkably calm, but it seemed very much like the calm before the storm.
In Tullahoma, Tennessee, the day had also started as usual and the aerospace giant was clicking on all cylinders. The morning meetings had all gone without incident and as agreed, Jake had literally become Andy’s shadow, while Sarah and Steve were also moving around with the key people in the Control Center.
Ben and Sandy were getting their next test project at the Alpha Test Site ready for later in the day. The problem they had earlier with the landing gear deployment of the four armed Death Darts had been solved by the technical team and Ben, Andy and Isaac had set out their plans for the rest of the day.
Roddy had been busy in sales meetings all morning and Doug had been escorting some senior VIP’s around the plant. It was as if everything was working normally and Jake, Sarah and Steve were more relaxed as each successive minute expired.
Over lunch with Ben, Isaac and Andy, the atmosphere was quite jovial as the trio joined them in the staff cafeteria.
“So, what’s the game plan for the rest of the day, Ben?” Jake asked.
“Well, we’ve got a QA/QC meeting after lunch and then we’ve got the firing test for the Royal Jordanian order later this afternoon.” Ben replied.
Sarah was listening. “That’s what those Jordanian Air Force guys are here for, I presume?”
“Yes indeed,” Ben replied. “The King chose them well. These are four very smart guys, believe me.”
“So, they’ll be in the Alpha test site for the final test, Ben?” Jake inquired.
Correct,” he smiled. “I think they feel a bit intimidated by me which is why Jeff Stevens, our senior training officer will be putting them through their final paces. Mind you, once I’m satisfied and the drones are in the air, I’ll be watching them closely when I get over to Alpha.”
“And what about you, Isaac?” Jake inquired.
“I’ll be over at Beta test site, Jake. I’m currently training two Brits, a Belgian and an Israeli. That’s the only action out there today. Target acquisition simulation.”
Jake turned to Ben. “So, I guess it’s okay if we sit back here in the Control Center with Andy and if anything comes up, we’ll know how to get hold of you?”
Ben nodded. “Good idea. Usually Roddy likes to sit in when we have a firing test, so perhaps he will also make it later.”
Jake was satisfied, “That’s great!”
Ben and Isaac got up to leave. “Okay, things to do,” Ben added. “I guess we’ll see you guys later.” they both left for the next meeting.
Sarah looked across at Andy, who was finishing his coffee. “One thing’s for sure, there’s never a dull moment around here!”
He smiled. “But you know what, Sarah, that way each day seems to go by in a flash!”
Jake was already whispering to himself. “Let’s hope this one does the same!” he turned to Andy. “Did you have any other thoughts about your new software, Andy?”
Andy thought for a moment. “Not really, Jake, but I did download it into my laptop first thing this morning!”
Jake nodded. “Like you said, unless something happens, well away from here, there’s no way you would even need to consider it.”
Andy nodded. “Exactly!”
* * *
Two hours later, that seemed like an eternity of inactivity, during which Jake had still been following Andy around like a lap dog, Ben and Isaac had finished their QA/QC meeting and moved on to the drone testing agenda.
Ben hated QA/QC, but if there was one thing in aerospace engineering that seemed to totally outweigh regular engineering, it was the massive amount of additional attention that was given to Quality Assurance/Quality Control.
When vendors quote to supply the aerospace industry, the average price per pound for say machined parts, will increase exponentially compared to supplying similar machined parts to the general engineering industry and the difference is QA/QC.
Maybe it is because the absolute reliability of a part over long use is significantly more critical when it is included in a vehicle that flies at a high altitude, compared to one that never leaves the ground. The simple reason is that if a part fails while you are in the air, somebody is probably about to die!
CHAPTER 27
It was a humid, sunny afternoon as Isaac approached the guard gate at the Beta test site in the company SUV. He wound down the window as the armed guard Johnny approached.
“Hi, Isaac,” he looked in the back of the SUV at the pilot trainees. “Who have we here then?”
Isaac checked his sheet. “Four pilot trainees, you should have the names from flight control.”
Johnny looked at his clipboard. “I’m listening?”
Isaac read them out from his sheet. “Tom Mason and Bill Jenkins from the UK, Jan Van Nissen from Belgium and Ari Messner from Israel.”
Johnny checked them off and signalled to his colleague behind the gate. “Okay, Charlie.” the gate was opened and Isaac drove in. He looked at Johnny as he drove slowly past. “Stay alert, okay, any signs of trouble call Central Control immediately.”
Johnny nodded. “Will do.”
Inside the compound that was protected by a high electric fence, the three - four-unit mobile command modules were lined up next to each other. Isaac drove up and parked at the side of the first in line. He opened the SUV door and climbed down before ushering the four men outside towards the command module. “Okay, guys, let’s get to it.” he urged.
He climbed the retractable steps of the module, unlocked the door with his special key and they all went inside. It was an ultra-modern digital control unit with four separate work stations, a chair in front of each for the pilot, all facing an identical array of screens.
Isaac started flicking switches like he had done a hundred times and the array of screens in each work station started to glow. He turned to the four men. “Okay, get your manuals and turn to page sixty five.”
* * *
Back at the front gate, a large, black SUV pulled up and Johnny reappeared from the Gate House and approached the SUV. All the side windows were smoked glass and as Johnny approached the driver’s side, the occupant wound down the window and a smiling Al-Bikari looked out.
“Can I help you, sir?” Johnny asked, not recognizing the vehicle.
“I hope so.” Al-Bikari replied as he suddenly shot Johnny between the eyes with his silenced revolver. The back window had also been wound down and as the other guard Charlie looked on in sudden shock, another silenced shot hit him in the head.
Al-Bikari then quickly drove over to the lunch area where the other security personnel were finishing a late lunch break. The terrorists quickly exited the SUV, rushed in throu
gh the door and within seconds four more security personnel were dead!
Two of the terrorists were already spraying black paint over the CCTV cameras on the site as the rest of the terrorists rushed over to the mobile control module where Isaac and his students were busy inside.
On the signal from Al-Bikari, they busted in and before the occupants could react, they killed Isaac and the four student pilots instantly with silenced head shots. It had taken less than two minutes and the entire Beta test site was decimated!
Al-Bikari then walked back to the SUV and opened the rear door for the occupants, ushering them out. “Gentlemen!” he whispered politely.
The four occupants emerged and the four, young American Jihadist terrorists, who had earlier returned from meeting with Al-Amabakhu in the JOD camp, and who were also Winston-trained pilots, smiled malevolently at Al-Bikari before entering the mobile control module. Two of the other terrorists were already dragging the bodies of Isaac and his team onto the ground outside.
Once inside the module, Al-Bikari screamed at the four men after checking his watch. “Okay, get the screens ready to receive the incoming launch codes. Don’t take your eyes off the screens and let me know as soon as we have target acquisition.”
“Yes, my brother.” they replied in unison.
Al-Bikari turned to the rest of his team. “Okay, let’s get out of here!” he left, followed by the other terrorists while the four pilots continued to watch their screens.
Outside the command module, one of the terrorists already had the engine of the tractor trailer running and the steps retracted as he started to move away followed by the SUV with the terrorists inside and with Al-Bikari at the wheel. They left quickly through the still open gates leaving bodies strewn behind them on the ground, all still lying where they fell in a pool of blood.
In the SUV behind the tractor/trailer, Al-Bikari was already on the phone to his team leader. “Step one complete. Mobile command module under our control, moving to location, ready to receive launch codes!”
The voice on the other end only spoke one word. “Affirmative!”
CHAPTER 28
On the tarmac outside the main assembly plant, the four armed Death Darts, without warheads, were being rolled out by the launch detail, all under the watchful eye of Ben, standing there, his laptop in his hand, his eyes scrutinizing each incredibly beautiful drone as it rolled past to the take-off position.
The thirty foot wide wingspan of the triangular shaped head of the drone, made it look like something out of a science fiction movie.
With each drone weighing just over six thousand pounds, with two DM4 missiles already loaded and capable of operating at up to forty thousand feet, the four drones looked worth every penny of the mega-millions that the King of Jordan had been happy to pay to his US allies for them.
The four Royal Jordanian Air Force Pilots had already been driven out to the Alpha test site by their instructor Trevor Stevens and after Ben walked around each drone, meticulously checking every aspect of the craft itself as well as the missiles, he then called into Central Control as he returned to his desk just inside the hangar.
“This is Ben,” he began. “All four units ready to launch. Please assign the launch codes.”
A voice on the other end answered. “Roger that, Ben, codes being sent to you now.”
Ben clicked on his laptop and the four code numbers came up in a window on the screen. “Roger that,” Ben replied. “Transmitting to pilot control now.” He clicked on a button and the window on his screen indicated ‘Launch Approved’.
He quickly closed his laptop and turned to the Launch Supervisor. “Okay, Bill, I’m on my way to Alpha. Stay alert and the drones should be back landing within the hour.”
Bill nodded. “No problem, Ben, we’ll be ready.”
Ben climbed into his SUV and drove off and as he drove out of the security gate, behind him on the runway, once again it was as if a ghost was at the controls of each of the four Death Darts as they each started to accelerate and head up into the slowly sinking sun, their ultra-secret turbofan engines taking them quickly and smoothly up to the speed of sound.
CHAPTER 29
In the Winston Flight Control Center, Jake, Steve and Sarah were watching the screen as the video of the four drones taking off could be seen. It was an impressive sight as the four Death Darts seemed to melt into the sun, heading towards a circular flight path above the Alpha test site.
Jake’s cell phone rang and he was surprised to hear Joseph on the line.
“Hi, Jake, this is Joseph, can you talk?” the young agent inquired.
“Sure, go ahead, Joseph?” Jake replied.
Joseph chose his words very carefully. “I’m about to send you a brief video to your cell phone, Jake and what you decide to do with it is up to you and Sarah!”
The hairs on the back of Jake’s neck were already standing on end for some reason. “What kind of video, Joseph?” he inquired.
“If you remember when the air show was on in Tel Aviv, you asked us to keep an eye on the two men from Winston?”
“Absolutely?” Jake was curious.
“Well, my agent who was keeping a protective eye on the Vice President, Mr. Fergamo, followed him from the hotel late one night and this was when he took the video. It may be something completely above board, Jake, but to be doing this in a strange city at dead of night was what convinced me you need to take a look at it. I’m sending it now, stay in touch, Jake, bye.” he rang off.
Jake was curious. He clicked on his incoming e-mails and there it was.
Rather than open it in the Control Center, Jake caught Sarah’s eye and motioned her out into the corridor. When they were alone, he brought her up to speed. “Check this out from Joseph.”
They watched the brief video of the clandestine meeting between Roddy and the man in the car in the deserted alley in Tel Aviv. When it was over, Sarah looked at Jake, a concerned look on her face.
“What the heck was all that about?” she asked.
Jake was also concerned. “That’s what Joseph said, not exactly what you’d expect the Technical VP of an aerospace giant to be doing late at night in a Middle Eastern city!”
“Exactly, so what do we do about it, that’s the question?” she replied.
They were interrupted by a shocked Andy, beckoning them back into the Control Center. They rushed back inside.
“What is it, Andy?” Jake inquired.
Andy’s face was as white as a ghost. “Something’s wrong, Jake!”
“Why, what happened?” Jake was fully alert.
“That was the guys from the Alpha test site on the phone where the four Jordanian pilots are preparing to do their target training.”
“What’s the problem?” Sarah was already nervous.
“They called to ask what the delay was on transferring the launch codes for the drones!”
Jake was trying to get his head around the problem. “But they must have them, Andy, we just saw them take off, for heaven’s sake!”
“That’s the problem, Jake. They took off but the Alpha boys didn’t launch them!”
Now it had begun!
Jake was in total shock. “My God! So, what you’re telling me is that we have four drones in the air and we don’t know who’s controlling them or where they’re heading?”
“Exactly!”
Sarah was thinking out loud. “Maybe they were downloaded to the other test site by mistake, Andy?”
Andy quickly pulled up the screens for the Beta site, but all the CCTV screens were blacked out.
“Shit!” he screamed. “All the CCTV is blacked out!’ he picked up the phone to Dale Hanson, the Head of Security
“Dale, we have a major problem. Four rogue drones are in the air and we don’t know where they are heading or who is controlling them. CCTV is blacked out at Beta site so we need a visual fast. Scramble a chopper, we need to know like yesterday!”
Hanson was already on his other ph
one and on the helipad his crew were already sprinting to the chopper that zoomed off up the valley.
* * *
Back in the Control Center, Sarah was thinking clearly with all the chaos around her. She suddenly raised her arm and voice for attention. “Hang on a second, guys, there’s something wrong here!”
Jake was curious. “How do you mean?”
“Why would anyone go to the trouble of grabbing four unarmed drones in flight…unless?”
Jake was on the same wavelength. “Unless someone already armed them with a warhead!” he turned to Andy. “My God, Andy, if those puppies are armed, that’s eight warheads on the way to God knows where!”
Andy was already dialling his cell. A voice answered. “Ordnance control?”
“I need to speak to David Peshar, now!” Andy screamed.
“Who’s this?”
“Andy Bevins, where’s David?”
“He called in sick today, Andy.”
“Jeez!” Andy covered the phone for a second, he was thinking fast. “Okay, listen very carefully. I want an instant physical inventory check on the DM4 warheads compared to what the electronic data tells us. Call me back like yesterday, is that clear?”
“Yes, Andy.” The line went dead.
Jake, Sarah and Steve were watching anxiously. “What’s going on?” Jake inquired.
“The ordnance control guy called in sick and they’re doing an instant physical inventory check on the DM4 warheads that we should have in inventory.”
Jake looked at Andy. “This is very bad, Andy. We need to get Doug up here. And where the hell is Ben? We need his input like now!”
Andy beckoned to his assistant Sharon, a nerdish looking woman with short, dark hair and glasses, sitting at her desk nearby in the Control Center. “Try raising Ben, Sharon and don’t get off the phone until you get him. He should be almost at Alpha test site by now.”
She nodded and started dialling.
Andy’s cell phone rang and he answered it, looking across at Jake. “Hopefully this is Ben now. Yeah, this is Andy?”
He listened for a second and his mouth sagged open in shock. “My God! You’re sure about this?”
