âTHE CIA BLAMES ONE OF THE NUCLEAR POWERS.â
The President ran his hand through his hair in frustration. âBut if another government had such a weapon, they could never use it. And if terrorists had a neutron cannon, the death toll would already be in the millions.â
âUnless this was a field test,â Hal Brognola stated. Taking out Air Force One in midflight would certainly make a statement. âWhat can my people do to help?â
âStopping these people is more important than getting our hands on the cannon. It has to be top priority. Kill them with extreme prejudice. No mercy.â
âWhat was that?â the pilot of the 747 demanded, leaning forward in his seat.
For a split second the man could have sworn that he saw a flock of birds tumbling out of the night sky alongside the speeding jumbo jet. In an instant they were gone, left far behind. But the image remained in his mind. Hundreds of falling bodies, wings spread wide.
âTrouble?â the copilot asked, looking up from the clipboard in his hands. He had been busy working on the fuel consumption figures.
âNot sure,â the pilot replied, looking over to check the radar. They were flying low enough for birds to reach the 747, only ten thousand feet, but the scope was clean, and the flight plan showed that no other planes should be near them for a hundred miles. Aside from the flight of F-18 fighters flying escort, the nighttime sky was clear with only a few sporadic clouds on the horizon and the infinite heavens above. Then what the hell knocked down a flight of birds? he wondered.
There was no moon. Below the speeding plane, the world twinkled with the city lights of the villages and towns of Ohio. The digital clock blinked into midnight, and the pilot saw the map on the plasma screen monitor shift position slightly. Okay, make that Pennsylvania.
Briefly the pilot considered contacting the Secret Service agents in the rear of the plane, but decided against disturbing the men. What could he say? Some dead birds fell out of the sky? How could that possibly be a threat to the armored 747 and its august passengers?
Ever since 1995, there were three Boeing jumbo jets that bore the designation VC-25. The planes only assumed the call sign Air Force One when the President was on board. The three planes were in constant service, sometimes flying empty across the continent, to make it all but impossible for an enemy of America to precisely track the whereabouts of the nationâs political leader. Thankfully, the current flight from Los Angeles to Boston was a milk run. The jumbo jet was almost empty, bearing only a couple of Homeland Security agents, a civil servant, an elderly scientist and a dozen Secret Service agents. Nothing to attract a terrorist attack.
Adjusting the trim slightly, the pilot couldnât shake the feeling of dread. Those birds had only been in sight for a moment, yet he felt certain that they had been dead and not merely knocked unconscious from the wash of the turbojets. A former combat pilot in the first Gulf War, the man had learned to trust his instincts. And there was definitely something odd about a hundred birds tumbling from the nighttime sky.
âWhatâs wrong, Chief, see a UFO?â The navigator chuckled as he poured himself a cup of coffee from an insulated carafe.