Brown, Dale - Independent 04 (30 page)

 
          
“But...
but I can’t do that,”
Lake
protested. “I’ve got to cover thirty
different trust and escrow accounts. The four million is just enough to hold
off any legal action for—” “You will agree to these terms or die,” Cazaux said.
“That is your only concern right now.”

 
          
“Henri,
I can’t step on the floor of any exchange or even talk to a broker unless I—”
Cazaux pulled the hammer back on the .45. The sound of the hammer locking into
place was as loud as a church bell in
Lake
’s
ears. “All right, all right!”
Lake
shouted. “Fifteen million for you. I agree. Five million now, ten in your
accounts.” He paused, looking to Cazaux and Townsend, afraid to look at Ysidro,
and added, “To be used for Operation Storming Heaven, yes?”

           
“What the hell is Operation Storming
Heaven?” Townsend asked.

 
          
“It’s
an appropriate name for this project,”
Lake
said. “Comes from a quote by the Roman
tribune Quintus Hor- atius Flaccus: ‘Nothing is too high for the daring of
mortals; they storm heaven in their folly.’ Quite good, don’t you think?”

 
          
Ysidro
looked disgusted and angry enough to chew nails, but Cazaux nodded his
approval. It was one of those touches that
Lake
knew that Cazaux appreciated—having a title
for any operation he was about to undertake was important to him. Cazaux
decocked the pistol and stuck it back in his belt.
Lake
had to look behind him to see what would
have gotten ruined had he pulled the trigger. A nineteenth-century oil painting
of Abraham Lincoln, once appraised at over a hundred thousand dollars, would
have needed extensive cleaning and repairs to remove Lake’s brains and bone
fragments if his explanation of Operation Storming Heaven did not convince
Henri Cazaux.

 
          
Cazaux
put the question to a vote of the members of his general staff—merely a
formality, because almost no one ever voted against Henri Cazaux. Tomas Ysidro
was the only one to vote against the plan, asking again that
Lake
be executed for what he’d done with the
organization’s funds. “I’ll be on you like stink on shit, Drip,” Ysidro told
Lake
as the staff members were given their
instructions to begin planning the three attacks. “You get out of line once,
just once, and I’ll blow your fuckin’ ass off. Cazaux will bitch, and he might
even throw me out on the street, but you’ll still be dead like you fuckin’
deserve.”

 
          
Ysidro
then pulled up a chair and sat right beside Lake, staring at him and taking in
every last word as Lake pulled out his cellular telephone and Apple Newton PDA
and made the first calls and satellite E-mail messages, first to his office to
verify the receipt of the loan money, then to Leonardo Fraga, the vice
president and general manager of the Win Millions Hotel and Casino in Atlantic
City. Under Ysidro’s murderous stare, it was hard to keep his fingers from
shaking as he began the first few steps of Operation Storming Heaven.

 
          
Beale Air Force Base,
Yuba
City
,
California
Two Days Later

 
          
“The
board has reached an initial evaluation,” Colonel Emerson Starr began. He was
the operations group commander from McClellan Air Force Base appointed as the
chief of the accident investigation board dealing with the crash of the F-16 at
McClellan two days earlier. “The scope of the accident investigation has been
greatly reduced because of the involvement of the FBI, Marshals Service, and
the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms—in essence, this board can’t come
up with a ruling on the cause of the crash because we haven’t been granted
access to the data now in the hands of the FBI. We know there was an explosion,
and we know the F-16 was in close proximity to the explosion, but we don’t know
anything about the explosion itself. Therefore we can’t absolutely conclude
that the explosion caused the damage on the F-16. However, based on radio
transmissions, ground observers, and a cursory examination of the wreckage, the
board determines that the probable cause of the accident was due to the F-16’s
uncontrolled collision with the ground following sustaining engine and
hydraulic damage due to proximity of a large ground explosion at Mather
Jetport.”

 
          
Starr
shifted uncomfortably in his seat and continued. “The preliminary report of
this accident board in the matter of the death of the pilot Major Linda McKenzie
is incomplete; however, we are prepared to issue the following statement to Air
Combat Command, the chief of staff of the Air Force, and the adjutant general
of the state of California: the death of Major McKenzie was due to violation of
Air Combat Command regulation 55-16, ‘F-16 Aircrew Procedures,’ paragraph 5-53,
and Technical Order 1F-16A- 1, section three, paragraph—”

 
          
“That’s
bullshit!” Colonel Al Vincenti snapped, jumping to his feet. “Don’t pull this
crap, Colonel. This was not a
pilot error
accident, damn you.”

 
          
“Sit
down,
Colonel Vincenti,” Starr said
firmly.

 
          
“I
want to address the board, sir.”

 
          
“The
board has already heard your testimony, Colonel,” Starr replied. “Sit down or
I’ll have you removed.”

 
          
“You
can try, Starr.”

 
          
Colonel
Gaspar was now on his feet in front of Vincenti. “Better sit down, Rattler,” he
said. “You’re skating on real thin ice.”

 
          
“I
assure you, Colonel, I have full authority to hold you in contempt if you don’t
shut up,”
Starr said. “Now, are you
going to be quiet and let me finish, or will I have to ask you to leave?”

 
          
Vincenti
riveted Starr with his angry stare.

 
          
“Colonel
Gaspar, can you please escort Colonel Vincenti outside?”

 
          
“He’ll
be fine, Colonel,” Gaspar said, pulling Vincenti back into his seat.

 
          
“Thank
you, sir,” Starr said. “As I was saying, Major McKenzie violated several
aircrew regulations that specifically directed her to eject if she was below
two thousand feet above ground level in case of hydraulic failure, catastrophic
engine failure, uncontrollability, low airspeed, inability to maintain
altitude, unsafe gear indications, flight control transients or failure,
inability to fly an approach pattern, electrical failure, center of gravity
problems—the list goes on. By every account, and by the testimony of her fellow
pilots and technical representatives of the aircraft manufacturer, Major
McKenzie should have ejected much sooner and should not have attempted a
landing.

 
          
“However,
the board doubts whether Major McKenzie had full knowledge of exactly what was
wrong with her aircraft, since it was dark and she had minimal cockpit indications,”
Starr continued. “Colonel Vincenti on her wing also could not know the exact
condition of her aircraft. The board concludes that it was reasonable for Major
McKenzie to attempt a flameout landing with the indications she had.
Considering the densely populated areas where the unmanned F-16 would have
landed had she ejected, the board also finds that Major McKenzie’s and Colonel
Vincenti’s actions in bringing the damaged aircraft to McClellan Air Force Base
saved dozens and perhaps hundreds of lives.

 
          
“The
board is therefore concluding that the actions of Major McKenzie and Colonel
Vincenti were in keeping with the directives and tenets of the United States
Air Force regarding safe operation over populated areas, and we conclude that
Major Linda McKenzie did indeed risk and eventually sacrifice her own life to
save others; although she would have been following prescribed directives by
ejecting, and she is indeed guilty of not following those regulations which
would have saved her life, failing to do so saved many other lives and much
property damage, and Major McKenzie should be commended for her actions.”

 
          
Colonel
Starr then looked over at Vincenti, affixing him with his own angry glare, and
added, “The board further finds that damage sustained to Colonel Vincenti’s
F-16 could have caused the malfunctions in the radios and videotape gun camera
being questioned by the Air Combat Command flight evaluation board. Of course,
these conclusions are preliminary, since we do not have access to information
about the explosion, but it is reasonable for this board to conclude that
Colonel Vincenti’s aircraft sustained much the same damage as Major McKenzie’s
plane, and the malfunctions that Colonel Vincenti said were the cause of him
disregarding instructions to land could have existed. Given that Colonel
Vincenti’s last acknowledged instructions were to pursue the suspect aircraft,
in our opinion his actions were consistent with his orders as he could have
known them at the time. These preliminary findings will be passed along to the
flight evaluation board convened to examine Colonel Vincenti’s actions
subsequent to the crash at McClellan.

 
          
“I
remind everyone present that the findings of this board are classified
confidential, and you are instructed not to reveal any of them or discuss this
matter with the press, which I understand is waiting outside. If you are
questioned by the press, refer them to Air Force Public Affairs. Until such
time as this board is allowed access to data about the explosion at Mather,
this board stands in recess.”

 
          
Everyone
in the room rose and departed—everyone except Vincenti and Gaspar, who returned
to their seats after the board members had departed. Vincenti, weary and
haggard, looked as if he had just been beat up. “Your mouth is going to get you
in big trouble one of these days, my friend,” Gaspar said to his
second-in-command. “You need to make friends with guys like Starr, not shout
him down.” “I thought he was going to continue the press’s and the government’s
feeding frenzy and trash Linda, like they’ve been trashing me and the unit,”
Vincenti said. “I’m getting tired of this shit, Chuck. I feel so fucking
isolated, like it’s our fault about
San Francisco
.”

 
          
“Since
when do you care what anyone else thinks, Rattler?”

 
          
“Since
I see and hear this stuff ten times a day in the papers, on the radio and TV,”
Vincenti said. “Everywhere I go, I hear the same thing: I’m the guy that missed
Cazaux, I’m the guy who let Cazaux go, I’m the one that screwed up. I’m
starting to
believe
all this shit.”

 
          
“It’s
all going to continue, Colonel,” a voice behind them said. They turned and
found Admiral Ian Hardcastle standing in the center aisle listening to them,
with his aide guarding the door to the room to keep anyone else out. “The
government needs a fall guy, and you’re it. McKenzie’s name will be
cleared—yours won’t. In fact, with Major McKenzie’s name cleared, you’ll appear
doubly at fault.” “You know what I think, Hardcastle? I think you’re whipping
the press up with all this talk of beefing up air defense,” Vincenti said
angrily, getting to his feet to confront the retired officer. “I’ve seen
disasters like this die away after a day or two, but you’re not letting this
one die away. Where the hell do you get off?”

 
          
“Cazaux
will strike again, Colonel,” Hardcastle said. “I’m convinced of it.”

 
          
“So
now you’re fuckin’ Kamac the Magnificent, huh?” Vincenti retorted. “What you’re
doing here is screwing with people’s lives and careers just for your own
political bullshit plans.”

 
          
“That
was true two days ago when we showed up here, Colonel,” Hardcastle said.
“That’s why Vice President Martindale and the rest of them are here.”

 
          
“But
you’re not?” Gaspar asked.

 
          
“Not
since I talked to you the first time,” Hardcastle replied. “Not after getting
the FBI briefing on Cazaux. He’s deadly and very dangerous. Yes, I believe
he’ll strike again. But the government is trying to calm people down by telling
them that Cazaux is too crazy to organize another attack, that it was a fluke,
that the manhunt will track him down before he can strike again. The FBI’s own
profile on him says otherwise. The government is also saying that Air National
Guard units will be restrained in their overland operations and that no other
military precautions are necessary—there’s even talk of doing away with all
continental air defense units completely. We’re giving Cazaux the perfect
opportunity to strike.”