Fly by Wire: A Novel (45 page)

^{Eight seconds later the bomb bay doors snapped opened and six JDAMs fell sequentially from their rotary launchers. Another clutch of six weapons was reserved for the second pass -- assuming there was anything identifiable left to hit. The pilot announced that his bombs were away.}

^{Halfway around the world in a Pentagon bunker, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Robert Banks, answered. "Plank 21, PORTAL. We copy. Standby for possible reattack."}

^{Banks stood watching a satellite monitor. The picture of the tent in the Empty Quarter was quite clear--until the first two-thousand pounder hit. The next five bombs were certainly overkill, all right on target. "Shack!" he said on the radio. "Nice work, Plank."}

^{Banks, a native of Austin, couldn't resist muttering under his breath, "There's a little Spirit of Texas for you, you bastards."}

^.

^{Fredericksburg, Virginia}

^{"Okay, Dad, I'm ready!"}

^{Davis was fiddling with the coffeepot in the kitchen. "All right, hang on! I'm coming!" he called. The thing finally started chugging and he went to the living room. Jen wasn't there. He looked up the stairs and saw her standing at the top. Davis had not been prepared. The view took his breath away.}

^{She was posed on the top landing. Her evening dress was stunning, her hair shimmered in the light. And then there was the smile -- the one he'd seen a thousand times before. Jen was the image of her mother.}

^{Her smile suddenly sagged. "What's wrong?" she asked. "Don't you like the dress? Aunt Laura and I spent a whole day shopping for it."}

^{Davis wiped the stupefied look off his face. "It's beautiful, baby. You can't imagine how beautiful."}

^{The glow returned, a smile that could light the world. She came down the stairs carefully, awkwardly in mid-rise heels. She stopped two steps from the bottom and stood along the banister. He wondered when she'd become a woman. Soon Jen would be driving, graduating, heading off to college. Navigating life's waypoints all on her own.}

^{Davis went closer, engaged his daughter eye-to-eye. "You're a vision, sweetheart."}

^{She checked the clock on the wall. "Bobby's going to be here any minute!"}

^{Don't remind me
, Davis thought. He said, "Great."}

^{"Dad, do you really have to stay the whole time? Can't you just drop us off and then--"}

^{"Jen!" he said. "No more! We have been over this. I talked to Bobby's mom and we agreed I'd chaperone. I drive you there, I stay. Period."}

^{"You don't trust me!"}

^{"I trust yow."}

^{"So you don't trust Bobby?"}

^{"I don't even know Bobby."}

^{He watched her face, saw the cracks begin to form.
Here it comes,
he thought.
Great going, Jammer.
When he'd first gotten home from France, there had been hugs and kisses. They lasted ten minutes. Then it was back to the usual parent-teen roller coaster -- one minute they were best friends, the next inmate and warden.}

^{Davis was saved by the doorbell.}

^{"Oh my God!" she cried. "He's here!"}

^{Davis made a move for the door.}

^{"No!" Jen whispered, horrified.}

^{Davis stopped in his tracks. Facing away from his daughter, his eyes went to the heavens. "All right," he said, "all right. Give Bobby the full treatment. I'll be in the kitchen."}

^{Davis strode away, forced himself to close the connecting door. The coffeemaker was in top gear, making a throaty gurgling noise like it was choking on whatever he'd put in the filter. So he didn't hear the front door open. Didn't hear anything until Jen called out,
"Daddy/"}

^{Something in her tone made his blood go cold.}

^{He bolted to the living room and saw Jen backing away from the door. Davis rushed to put himself in between the two. It wasn't Bobby Taylor. On the left and right of his doorstep were two clean-cut men nearly as big as he was. Between them was the president of the United States.}

^{The two bodyguards looked very alert, and Davis realized he was set in a strong stance. He eased up.}

^{The president put out a hand. "Hello, Davis. Good to meet you."}

^{Davis shook hands. "Hello, sir."}

^{Truett Townsend looked past him into the living room. "I hope I haven't come at a bad time."}

^{"No, no. Not at all."}

^{Townsend looked at him expectantly.}

^{"Oh, sorry," Davis said. "Would you like to come in?"}

^{"If you can spare a few minutes."}

^{The president stepped over the threshold, his two Secret Service men right behind. Davis looked outside and saw an armored convoy on the street in front of his house -- three limos, four Suburbans, and a half-dozen black-and-whites. The vehicles were surrounded by a platoon of Secret Service and uniformed police. Mrs. Irving across the street was standing in her driveway wearing a housedress and a priceless expression of bewilderment.}

^{Davis eased the door shut and saw Jen eyeing the president. She was positively starstruck.}

^{"Oh," Davis said, "sorry. This is my daughter, Jennifer."}

^{Townsend shook Jen s hand and said, "You look magnificent, dear. Are you going out with your father?"}

^{"Uh -- well, no. I don't dress for him -- I mean -- it's not for him. I'm going to a dance. You know. With a boy." She closed her eyes, bit her bottom lip.}

^{Townsend smiled. The president was probably used to it. "Have a seat," Davis said, sweeping the sports section up from the couch.}

^{Townsend did.}

^{"Can I offer you some coffee?" "Yes, actually. Black would be great." "Jen," Davis said, "would you mind?"}

^{His daughter collected herself enough to take the cue. "Okay, Dad. Sure." She headed for the kitchen, but not without a few bobble-headed glances over her shoulder to make sure this was happening.}

^{Townsend said, "I'm sorry you weren't able to make the ceremony yesterday, Davis. We --" "Jammer." "Sorry?"}

^{"Everybody calls me Jammer."}

^{"Oh, right. Well, Jammer, we quietly honored a handful of people who helped keep the damage from this disaster to a minimum."}

^{"Please don't think I wasn't honored by the invitation. I had some important things to take care of here at home."}

^{Townsend nodded. "I can see that. You made the right choice. But you really saved our butts. If those airplanes had done what they were programmed to do, a lot of people would have died. Not to mention the economic impact -- it would have been a disaster all around."}

^{"If you ask me, Earl Moore was the real hero. And I wouldn't be standing here today if it wasn't for Miss Sorensen."}

^{"Yes, Miss Sorensen. She's still over in France, tying up loose ends. I'm going to make a point of seeing her when she gets back." "So am I," said Davis.}

^{The president's eyes narrowed and the hint of a smile creased his lips.}

^{Jen came in with a tray holding two cups of Davis' special brew She gave one to the president and he immediately took a sip. Didn't spit it out. Davis took the second cup as one of the Secret Service men leaned over to Townsend and whispered something in his ear.}

^{The president addressed Jen, "I think your escort has arrived. A young man by the name of Bobby Taylor?"}

^{Jen nodded excitedly.}

^{Davis had a vision -- the Taylor kid outside getting frisked by the president's Secret Service detail. He kind of liked the idea. Maybe the kid would figure that's what you got when you made a move on Jammer Davis' daughter.}

^{Townsend signaled to his man. The door opened and a wide-eyed Bobby Taylor came in under escort. He was dressed in an ill-fitting suit and had a plastic box with a corsage dangling forgotten at his side. To his credit, he seemed to recognize the president of the United States. Jen took social flight and issued proper introductions to her overwhelmed date -- first the president, followed by her father. Davis didn't take offense.}

^{Having given Jen her moment, Davis said, "Sweetheart, can you give the president and me a few minutes?" He gave a nod toward the stairs and Jen led Bobby up to her room. Davis checked to make sure the door was left open.}

^{He turned to Townsend. "You have kids, right?"}

^{"Two, both grown. But I can remember. Tough, isn't it?"}

^"Yep."

^{Townsend sipped
again.
"Anyway, Jammer, I just wanted to tell you in person how much I appreciate everything you did. Not a single airplane was lost. We've determined that they were set to strike the biggest refineries across the world."}

^{"Jaber programmed it like I thought?"}

^{"Yes, his software had the flight computers taking over at the exact time you said they would. It also instructed the flight data recorders to blank out when the clock kicked everything off."}

^{"For insurance," Davis reckoned, "in case of a malfunction. Like World Express 801."}

^{"Yes. Jaber was a clever man. I guess he wanted to prove it to the world before he died. The postmortem showed he had advanced stage cancer -- the primary site couldn't even be determined, but he wouldn't have lasted more than a few weeks."}

^{"Fatima got to him first. She was a real piece of work."}

^{"That, she was," Townsend agreed. "She brought it all together. She took over Caliph's system, a potent network of suicide warriors. Then she sold their services to the highest bidder."}

^{"Profiteering disguised as holy war."}

^{"Yes. We believe the entire CargoAir consortium was created with this plot in mind. A handful of sovereign wealth fund managers put the company together--roughly five billion dollars that they hoped to turn into fifty times as much."}

^{"So you know who they are," Davis surmised.}

^"Yes."

^{Nothing more came, and Davis had to ask, "Do you know
where
they are?"}

^{The president took a long look at his watch. "I have a pretty good idea." Instead of expanding on this, he said, "In the end, CargoAir was to aviation what Chernobyl was to clean energy. Our intel people estimate that at least half of those airplanes would have made it to their targets. If you hadn't figured things out, we'd be facing a damned global economic catastrophe."}

^{"I just paid six bucks a gallon for regular yesterday. I'd say there's been some damage done."}

^{"Yes, no doubt. But I got briefed a few hours ago -- the refinery repairs are running well ahead of schedule. Worldwide, we should be back to ninety percent production within three months. It's a big hit, but nothing like it could have been."}

^{"And what about Caliph?"}

^{"We messed up there. All those pictures of him on the Web -- taunting, just daring us to find him. It was all misdirection, a ploy to throw us off."}

^{"So he wasn't even involved?"}

^{"No. But I
can
tell you that Caliph will never harm us again."}

^{Davis wasn't sure what that meant, but he took it for fact.}

^{Townsend smacked a palm on his thigh. "You know what? I forgot the medal. I brought a little token of our appreciation, but it's out in the limo. "The president paused long enough to look around the room. Davis' own I-love-me wall hadn't made it out of the moving boxes yet -- even though they'd been living here for three years. Townsend added, "But I know that kind of thing doesn't mean much to some people."}

^{Davis caught his drift. "I'll find a spot for it, sir."}