Victor interrupted. “We have the plane information. The planes are based in El Centro and Visalia California.”
Deputy Director Collins turned to him. “Get the local police to those airports and owners’ houses. Now!
She turned to the rest of the staff. “Get in contact with the National Security Staff. They can authorize us to use military assets. We need interceptors in the air. We can’t let those planes take off. See if there are any satellites in the area that can give us any useful information. As soon as we get conformation on the location of those planes, I’m calling the president. Harris, get the Director and NSS up to speed on where we are at.”
Chapter 34
The El Centro police had two cars on the road in the middle of the night and one dispatcher. The call came in at 2:30 a.m. and the two cars were on the way to the airport and Mr. Jones house by 2:31 am. Car 5 got the call for the airport and had a 35 year old police wanna-be doing a ride along. After listening to the dispatch, he asked the officer driving,
“What do they want us to do?”
Officer Morris shook his head, “We need to verify if two crop dusting planes are tied down at the airport.”
“Do we look through the entire airport? Where are they supposed to be?”
“The airport’s not that big. Shouldn’t be a problem. The problem is I don’t have a gate key. The airports closed.”
The dispatcher came back on. “Car 8 just talked to the plane’s owner, he says they should be tied down in space 22 and 23. He was there 8 hours ago and the planes were there. Homeland Security said if you don’t have a gate key, ram the gate or shoot off the lock, whichever is faster. They need that information immediately.”
The ride along asked Officer Morris, “Is this unusual?”
Officer Morris shook his head and said, “More like unheard of and I’ve been a cop for 20 years.”
As he approached the gate he thought, I’ve always wanted to do this, and hit the gas. The police car hit the chain link gate at about 50 miles per hour, snapping the lock and throwing the two gates against the fence. Officer Morris skidded onto the taxiway and headed to the aircraft parking area. Officer Morris and his ride along checked out the space numbers with the outside spotlight and soon come to two empty spaces marked 22 and 23. Officer Morris called back on the radio. “We are at spaces 22 and 23. They are both empty and we can see the entire tie down area. There are no crop dusting planes here with those numbers.”
Chapter 35
The Visalia Police Department had a concerned call from the wife of Mr. Perkins earlier that evening. Because of his history of alcohol abuse, his wife’s history of calls when her husband didn’t come home on time and the fact that he never drove drunk, put her call at an almost zero priority. This changed when his name came up as the owner of two of the planes. Visalia had only one car on duty that night. After remembering the wife’s earlier call, heading to the airport first was an easy decision. There was no fence at the Visalia airport, but several crop dusting planes. As Officer Valdez started checking tail numbers on the planes, he noticed what looked like a bundle lying to the side of the taxiway. He had a bad feeling and decided to check it before finishing checking the tail numbers. Approaching the bundle, he pulled out his gun and flashlight. It was immediately obvious that it was a man’s body lying in pool of blood. After checking the man’s neck for a pulse and finding nothing, he quickly felt for a wallet in the back of the pants, found it, pulled in out and checked the license. It was Mr. Perkins. A quick look confirmed that the few crop dusters that were there did not have the tail numbers he was looking for.
Officer Valdez called Homeland Security as quickly as possible.
Chapter 36
“Tom Harris.”
“This is Officer Valdez from the Visalia Police Department calling back. I’m afraid I have bad news. The owner of the planes, Mr. Perkins has been shot and the planes are missing.”
“Is Mr. Perkins still alive? Did he see anything?”
“The back of his head is missing. Anything he saw died with him.”
Harris was stunned. This is really happening he thought.
“Thank you, officer, I need to go. We are getting quite busy here.”
Tom hung up the phone, turned to Deputy Director Collins, shook his head and said, “The planes are not at El Centro Airport. The owner says they were there at 6:00 p.m. last night when he left. The owner of the two in Visalia, Mr. Perkins has been killed and those planes are missing also.”
Director Collins realized, This is real. We are under attack.
“Where are we with the Director and the National Security Staff?”
“The Director is in Europe and getting a plane to come back to the US and they are convening the National Security Staff. They are giving us authority to bring in military assets. They are sending us interceptors, but they want more information before you take any action. They basically told me we can’t start shooting until they are on board.”
“This better not turn into a game of politics.”
“I don’t think it will. If it comes out that you had 4 crop dusters loaded with nerve gas in your sights and weren’t allowed to take them out, their heads would be on the block. They would rather have you go too far and too fast and then be the fall guy if anything goes wrong.”
“That’s true. There always has to be a fall guy. What about the satellites?”
“They said you can have them, but it’s a moot point. There is nothing close enough to do us any good in the time we have. Any satellites that will help are an hour away. I put priority on it to move anything we can in and start going through data that was recovered in the last few hours from that area, but it’s not an area we ever look at. They don’t think we will have anything. The best we might be able to do is track the planes if they don’t take off until the satellite is in position.”
“What about getting the interceptors in?”
“Still working on it. After 9/11 they have procedures for airline hijackings, but not for small planes. It’s the middle of the night on a holiday weekend. Nobody is believing they are using crop dusters. No one ever expected an attack like this in a place like Barstow. There aren’t any fighters based in the Los Angeles area anymore. All the bases they used to be at are closed. The Air Force decided to bring them in from Nellis in Vegas. The planes were loaded with fuel, but weren’t on standby. There isn’t a set procedure for an attack like this, so we lost a lot of time.”
“What about Edwards Air Force base outside Los Angeles?”
“Edwards is now a test facility. There are no active fighters based there.”
“What about Miramar in San Diego?”
The answer to that was just as fast and just as clipped. “They think San Diego could be attacked, so they are leaving their fighters there. They couldn’t be in Barstow any faster than from Nellis anyway.”
Harris interrupted. “NSS wants to talk to you on line 2.”
The voice was steady but intense. “Is there any indication of other areas in the country being attacked?”
“Not at this time, but we were extremely lucky to find out about this attack at this stage. If there are similar attacks under way at other areas we won’t know for some time.”
“We are giving you the ability to use military resources, including jet fighters. We don’t know this is not happening all over the US. So we can’t send everything to the LA area until we are sure. For now you concentrate on the LA area and what you have found so far and don’t worry about any other areas.”
“How can I do my job without the assets I need?”
“You will have to get by with limited assets until we learn how widespread this is. They have released two interceptors to you from Nellis AFB in Las Vegas and are sending up an AWACS plane at this time. Two interceptors won’t have any trouble taking out four crop dusters. We will release more when we can. Keep
us posted.”
Tom Harris was still on the phone with John. He overheard Cody in the background talking to John.
“John, we can hear the planes. We think they are getting ready to take off. Do you think we should go take a look from the top of the hill?”
John said into the phone.
“Mr. Harris, my brother can hear the planes. He thinks they are getting ready to take off. What should we do?”
Tom thought I can’t believe I’m even thinking of doing this, but I don’t see any good choices.
“John, is there any way you could see what the planes are doing without getting close and having any chance of the terrorists spotting you?”
“That’s not a problem, we can ride the ATV’s to a hill overlooking the airstrip and be a half mile away. If we come up the back of the hill, there is no way they will see us, it’s dark out. But, I can’t stay in contact with you and go out there also. We do have radios though. I could send my brother out to look and he could stay in contact with me on the radio and I could stay on the phone with you.”
“John, I hate doing this, but we really need to know what those planes are doing. Could your brother do this?”
“Let me talk to him.”
John put down the phone and confronted Cody and Sarah.
“Cody, Sarah. This is getting serious. They are sure they are terrorists and are getting ready to spray nerve gas. They need to know what the planes are doing. The nearest help is a long ways away. You need to ride over to that hill, come up the back, see what the planes are doing, and call me on the radio. That’s all Cody. No adventures. Just report. We have to work as a team.”
“Okay, Okay, I get it. Sarah and I will just ride up, see what the planes are doing, and call you.”
“Cody, one more thing, take some of the antidote with you. I’m not sure what’s going to happen, but we need to be prepared.”
“John, we have to give each other shots? I’ve never done that before. How do we do it?”
Sarah said. “I have a friend that is a diabetic. It’s not hard. It’s just a muscle shot.”
Cody turned to Sarah. “OK. I’ll get the radios set up, get some antidote. Let’s go.”
John went back to the phone.
“Mr. Harris, they’re leaving. I should have a report in about five minutes.”
Tom Harris motioned Deputy Director Collins over. Several of the agents come with her and crowded around Harris’s station.
Tom said, “The kids heard the engines start up on the planes. Two of them are going over to a hill overlooking the airstrip and radioing back to the house. We should know if the planes are taking off in a couple minutes.”
Deputy Director Collins replied, “We can’t lose those planes. If they get a good head start we will never find them at night, even if we get a direction they are heading.”
Tom Harris answered, “We are working with air traffic control and military radar, but the fighters aren’t up yet. The Air Force is trying to get an AWAC’s plane up but it is at least an hour out. Air Traffic Control knows there is a problem, but don’t know the details. They have a supervisor and several controllers available and standing by. We have their radar feed on our screen and they are on the phone with us. The only thing on radar is commercial flights at 35,000 feet.”
“Tell Air Traffic Control what is going on and ask them if their radar will be able to track the crop dusters once they take off.”
Victor called back to Air Traffic Control. “This is Victor. I need to speak with the supervisor.”
A mature voice came on. “This is Sam Mullins. I’m the supervisor on duty.”
“Sam, I’m going to give you the short version. We believe we have a terrorist attack commencing very soon, probably in the Los Angeles area. We have discovered 4 stolen crop dusters fueling at an abandoned strip ten miles east of Barstow. We have a video of them with the men talking in Arabic about nerve gas, and the planes appear about ready to take off so our confidence level is high that this is a genuine attack. Our interceptors are at least a half hour away. Once these planes take off, can you track them on your radar?”
“Victor, that depends. If they stay at normal altitudes we can track them. The planes should have transponders on, which makes them very easy to track. If they turn off the transponders and fly low, especially with the mountains and valleys between Barstow and Los Angeles, we will lose them.”
Deputy Director Collins looked over at Victor. “Where are we?”
He replied, “If the crop dusters fly low and turn off their transponders, they will lose them. If they fly normally, they can track them.”
“What are the chances of them flying normal?”
“If they don’t know they are being watched or tracked they might fly normal to avoid calling attention to themselves. However they are flying crop dusters at night which is already suspicious. But if someone sees a light plane flying overhead at normal altitude they probably won’t recognize it as a crop duster in the dark. If it was me, I would fly with lights and transponder on at normal altitude. If they get suspicious, they will go low and turn off the transponders, and we will lose them.”
“Any other ideas?”
“A lot of those commercial pilots are ex-military. What if they descended low enough to see the planes take off? Could they keep them in sight until the fighters arrived?”
Deputy Director Collins looked thoughtfully at Harris.
“That’s a good idea and could possibly work.” She turned to Victor who was watching the radar and asked, “Are any flights close enough?”
“We have two Southwest and a Jet Blue flight that could possibly get there within a few minutes. They would have to do an immediate emergency descent to have a chance of finding and following them. We would have to tell them something to get their cooperation. By going through channels we are going to lose our time window.”
Deputy Director Collins thought, This is going to unravel soon, but not quite yet. “Put me on speaker phone with Air Traffic Control.”
Ben pushed the button for speaker.
“This is Deputy Director Collins. Who am I speaking with?”
“This is Sam Mullins, Director of Air Traffic Control, Palmdale.”
“Sam, we have very little time. Have you been told what is happening with the terrorist attack?”
“Yes, Victor gave me a rundown.”
“The fighters we called out are a half hour away and we are afraid we are going to lose those crop dusters. We want the Southwest and Jet Blue flights over Barstow to do an emergency descent and try to keep the crop dusters in sight until the fighters arrive. We don’t have any good options here.”
“It could work. We can clear out any traffic and let them try to find and keep the planes in sight. It’s not going to be easy to follow a small plane at night in an airliner. How do you want to do this? Do you want to talk to all of them at once to save time? I can clear traffic in front of them, but I can’t require the pilots to do this.”
“Is there a way to not have anyone else hear?”
“We will have them switch to a different frequency, so it will help some. But if anyone else is on that frequency they could hear everything.”
“We have to do it. This will get out soon anyway.”
Sam motioned to the controllers and they had the three flights switch frequencies.
“Southwest flight 34 and 65 and Jet Blue flight 523, can all of you hear me?”
All the flights acknowledged.
“This is Supervisor Sam Mullins. We have an emergency and don’t have time to go through the normal airline channels. We are on a conference call with Homeland Security. They are at condition red. There are four crop dusting planes, loaded with a nerve agent, getting ready to take off from a dirt airstrip outside Barstow. There are fighters coming, but they are still a half hour away. We need to track these planes until the fighters get t
here. We’re asking you to do an emergency descent and try to get eyes on those planes and follow them until the fighters arrive. You will each have an air traffic controller assigned to you to clear out any traffic. We are trying to get permission from your respective headquarters, but seconds count at this time. If we lose these planes the fighters will probably not be able to find them before they start spraying.”
“Palmdale this is SWA flight 65. You want us to chase crop dusters in a commercial airliner at low altitude at night?”
“Not chase them. We want to follow them so we know where they are. We think they will keep their lights on and fly normally. Hopefully they will do this until the fighters arrive. If they turn off their lights and drop below radar, you might be able to still follow them until the fighters arrive.”
“Palmdale, this is SWA flight 34. I have SWA flight 65 and JetBlue 523 on my radar. I’m the closest. Commencing emergency descent. Give me a location.”
“SWA flight 34, the dirt strip is 10 miles due east of Barstow. The report we are getting is the staging area for the planes is lit up. Stay high enough so they won’t see you and turn off all your lights. We will keep any traffic away from you. If they run with lights on, you can track them from several miles away. Our concern is if they fly without lights at a low altitude we can’t follow them on radar and you won’t be able to see them unless you’re close. If you leave your lights off we are hoping they will never know you’re there.
Chapter 37
Leroy Hudson and his wife Mable were avid pilots who enjoyed racing airplanes. They had set the alarm to wake up at 3:00 a.m. to get an early start to fly to California while it was still cool as their race plane did not have air conditioning. Leroy was an ex-military fighter pilot who had talked his wife into trying racing and found she liked flying even better than he did. It was a constant battle to see who got to fly when they traveled to the next air race. On this trip they were flying into Southern California in their two seat Edge to visit their children and grandchildren in Azusa for the Fourth of July holiday before heading to Reno Nevada for their next race. Leroy won this time and he was planning to fly the leg to California.