Page 81 of Air Force One
“Okay.” Miranda tapped the next slide. “Two alterations were made to both of Roy’s and now Sarah’s VC-25A aircraft during their most recent maintenance cycle prior to the incident.”
“Presidents,” Andi whispered to her.
Miranda turned to her, “Yes, I meant the Presidents. I don’t think I know any other Roy personally and the last Sarah I knew was in horse camp the summer before my parents died and were buried in TWA 800’s crash.”
“Never mind,” Andi’s whisper barely reached her.
“You know I’m not good at that.”
Andi nodded and then did the chin tilt thing again.
“Oh, right.” There were yet more laughs, again she didn’t understand why, so she went to the next slide. “During that maintenance, this line of code was inserted into the airplane’s command-and-control stack. For those of you who can’t read even such simple computer code, it sets a number of parameters when the aircraft’s systems are booted up. If these parameters are met, it runs an infinite-loop command into the key control chips successively in each engine at thirty-second intervals. In lab tests, identical chips exhibited a mean failure time of nineteen seconds with a standard deviation of only two-point-four seconds to overheat and reach failure. On SAM 29000, the VC-25A operating that day as Air Force One, it initially appeared to be little more than a series of burned-out chips with merely a curious timing coincidence. This would indicate that there’d been a manufacturing fault in the chips.”
She put up a photo of SAM 28000 still parked in the Andrews Air Force Base hangar.
“The next time SAM 28000 was powered up for maintenance, the attack code was uncovered.”
The tech sergeant who had died shortly after Air Force One’s crash had been the first clue—at least to the others. Their attempts to explain it to her had left Miranda with a headache. She didn’t put it in the presentation because she still didn’t understand it.
“The parameters,” Andi whispered.
“Oh, right,” she selected the next slide. “They were actually quite simple. First, the aircraft had to be flying at over thirty-thousand feet; it was flying at forty. Second, it had to be doing so at least three hundred kilometers downrange from departure on an overseas route, placing it over two hundred kilometers offshore. And third, it required a true state from this section of code,” she brought up another slide. “Which is a little more complex. It is voice recognition software that had to register a back-and-forth radio call including the phrase Air Force One. The aircraft would never be called that unless the President was aboard. This was clearly a case of sabotage with intent to harm Roy or Sarah.”
When she paused this time, there was no laughter or other noise. Actually, it was an ideal environment for testing the qualitative measure of a room being so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. She almost pulled out her notebook to remind herself to bring one if she ever presented a national broadcast like this again. Then decided that she’d rather not do one again—ever.
“This concludes a verbal summary of the detailed report that I will be submitting to the Air Force Accident Investigation Board and the NTSB. I will add a strictly personal observation that will not be included in my report: whoever did this to Air Force One is a very bad person.”
This time she had no doubt that she could have heard a pin if she’d had one to drop.
“The last thing,” Andi prompted.
Miranda hadn’t forgotten, but she’d been reluctant to put up the last slide as she wasn’t the one who’d done it.
The guilty have been identified and arrested.
“This ends the national broadcast.”
She couldn’t gauge the sounds of the audience this time. It sounded like a gasp of relief from a few individuals, which didn’t make any sense.
79
“Thank you, Ms. Chase,” President Feldman stepped onto the stage. During the campaign, Sarah had learned that thinking of herself as the next President, had placed her in a presidential mindset for appearances. But some things took precedent. “You may call me Sarah at any time.”
“Then why did you just call me Ms. Chase?”
“Miranda, then.”
“But—”
Andi Wu came up, looped an arm through Miranda’s, and led her away before she could ask more questions. Miranda always had more questions. Her dog trotted along beside them.
Sarah waited until they were off stage. Then she turned to face the audience though she didn’t step to the podium. It was enough that she was here, the President visiting the Pentagon.
It was enough that she could see the two Chiefs of Staff in the first row, their initial gasp of relief returning to cautious silence as they eyed the armed sailors guarding each exit. They now suspected and would soon know. She glanced at the now-dark cameras that had been broadcasting Miranda’s analysis to the world. Soon they too would know, but not yet.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Elizabeth Gray-Nason crossed from the wings to the podium and introduced herself. After that, Elizabeth didn’t waste any words.
“Every person seated in this audience is hereby accused of one of two illegal actions. Fourteen of you are to be charged with conspiring to murder the duly elected President of the United States, Sarah Feldman. Due to his hastily planned final trip and the unanticipated use of Air Force One before his retirement, you also stand accused of being complicit in the murder of President Roy Cole, First Lady Rose Cole, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Drake Nason in addition to the other personnel on that flight. Further, you will all be charged as felony accomplices for the destruction of property, specifically the multi-billion-dollar military asset commonly called Air Force One.”
