Chapter 47
Henry and his wife were sitting in their family room with Officer Fred Oliver and his ride along.
“So you think that my planes were stolen by terrorists?” asked Henry.
“They aren’t giving me much information, but that is what it looks like. Don’t you have insurance?”
“Of course, I have great insurance. I just hope I don’t get them back, especially if they sprayed nerve agent with them. The insurance will buy new ones. It’s the best thing that could happen to me. I just want to know what’s happening. I think I’ll check where the planes are now.”
“How can you tell where your planes are?” asked Fred surprised.
“I always want to know where we are spraying to make sure my pilots don’t say they sprayed something they didn’t. I hid a cell phone with GPS and tracking service in the planes and wired the charger into the plane battery so it is always on. I can go to the computer and follow the planes on a map.”
Henry turned on his laptop and a southern California map came up with two blinking cursors over the San Gabriel Mountains.
“There are my two planes. They are heading into the Los Angeles basin.”
“What do you think is going on?”
“If I had to guess, if they are being used by terrorists, they will shoot them down before they get to the basin.”
They kept watching the computer screen as the planes got closer to the LA basin.
“I’m surprised they are letting them get so close. They are almost to the populated area.”
After a couple minutes, Henry said,
“Is there any possibility they don’t know where they are?”
“I’m sure they have them on radar.”
“Then why are they still up? Is there any way to get in touch with the person that called you from Homeland Security?”
Officer Thomas called his dispatcher and asked if there is a phone number for the call that came from Homeland Security. His dispatcher replied that the number was on their computer.
“Give me the number. I need to give them more information.”
Officer Thomas called Homeland Security and got a recording to call back during normal business hours. He turned to the others.
“I’m getting a recording. It says they are closed and to call back during normal hours.”
“That’s ridiculous,” said the ride along. “You got through before.”
“I did. But now they are on full alert to handle the crisis and don’t want to be disturbed. They can call out but don’t want anyone calling in.”
“But they need this information. They might be having trouble tracking those planes and we know where they are.”
“Do you have any suggestions? The problem is when you get to this stage, the information flows down, not up. I don’t know how to talk to them unless they call us. I’ll keep trying to get through.”
Chapter 48
“How are the passengers doing?” asked the pilot.
“From what the flight attendants say, half of them are sick and the rest are close. No injuries. One ten year old took off his seat belt before the negative G maneuver and sprinted for the bathroom screaming he couldn’t wait and had to pee. He went for a ride around the cabin, somehow didn’t get hurt and is now back cowering in his seat. All the attorneys are passing out cards and talking about law suits.”
“As long as they have a jury trial in LA, it will be a waste of time. Did the kid make it to the bathroom?”
“Apparently not, but it doesn’t matter anymore. I think his seat cushion needs to be replaced though.”
“It won’t be the only thing that needs replaced before this is over. It looks like he’s diving again. I’m going in closer.”
Aarif headed down the last valley between him and the foothills east of Pasadena. The valley was fairly straight and he could see the lights of Pasadena ahead. The plane gradually picked up speed as Aarif hugged the valley floor. I’m almost there, he thought and started toying with the spray controls.
Flight 34 was trying to stay close to the crop duster as the valley walls closed in on the wingtips, when their concentration was interrupted by a call on the radio.
Chapter 49
“Leroy, do you see that jet at 2:00 o’clock. It’s only at about 5,000 feet. What’s it doing?”
“I’ve never seen a jet that low unless it’s landing. It’s flaps and spoilers are out, but the landing gear is up. It looks like it is flying as slow as it can without landing.”
“It keeps circling like it’s following something. I’m going to check the other radio channels to try to see what’s going on.”
Mable tried several channels and found the one that the flights used to talk to air traffic control and Homeland Security. Leroy and Mable listened to the conversations and quickly realized what was happening.
“Leroy, we need to help. We can follow that crop duster a lot easier than that 737. In this race plane we can stay right with him. I’m going to call air traffic control.”
“Air traffic control, this is N4527,” said Mable. “We have been following your conversations with SWA 65 and 34 and Jet Blue 523. We can stay right with a crop duster through the canyons. My husband is flying and he is an ex fighter pilot and we are in a full race Edge. We are offering our help to follow a plane.”
“Air traffic, this is SWA 65. I see N4527. He is right below us. I’m going to lose my plane in these canyons. I can’t fly as slow as him and he is right down in the canyons with no lights. I can’t stay with him. I can guide 527 in if I do it in the next several seconds before I have to climb and circle.”
“527 we need your help. SWA 65 can you guide him in?”
“527, the crop duster is in the canyon below you at 5 o’clock and a half mile ahead of you. He is running at about 100 knots without lights.”
“I’m going in. That canyon is nothing. I can fly rings around a crop duster. I’ll be on his 6 in less than a minute.”
“Victor, what’s this talk about 5 o’clock? What are they talking about?”
“Pilots identify directions by the hands on a clock. It something is to your right it is at 3 o’clock. If it’s on your left it’s at 9 o’clock. If he’s coming up on his 6 it means he is right behind him.”
“I’m right behind him.” Leroy announced as he slid in behind the crop duster.
Chapter 50
Jason was following the locator in the dune buggy on his computer and didn’t notice Deputy Director Collins come behind him and look over his shoulder.
“Is that the locator on the dune buggy, Jason?”
Jason jumped but recovered fast.
“Sorry, you startled me. Yes, I’m tracking the locator. I thought it might be helpful if I could program the kid’s location into one of our computers so we could track where they are. Then when the Special Forces get close we could track them also.”
“Good thinking, Jason. Put it up on one of the overheads when you get it working.”
“No problem, Director.” Especially when I can send it to Joseph at the same time he thought.
In a couple minutes the staff looked up at one of the computer screens and watched a flashing red light slowly moving across a topographic map of the desert.
“Is that them, Jason?”
“Yes, it updates every second and shows them moving over the map.”
“What’s that area they are heading for? It looks like a brushy area with small hills and a cliff on one side. I don’t think they should go there. If the terrorists come after them they could get trapped against the cliff. I wish we could communicate with them and head them off.”
“Do you think they could have spotted the terrorists and they are going into that brushy area to hide?”
“That’s possible. With all that brush and it
being still dark the Terrorists will have trouble finding them until the Special Forces arrive,” said Jason.
Unless the terrorists have their location, thought Jason.
Chapter 51
Joseph felt his phone vibrate and read Jason’s text to open his laptop and turn on the satellite receiver to a website he had never seen before. He motioned the other two jeeps to go to a location on top of the hill, stopped, set up the laptop and opened the website to view a full color topographic map with a flashing red light that was slowly moving away from the top of the hill. Beautiful he thought. The only problem is I have to stop and set up the portable dish. But it only takes a minute and I can direct the other two jeeps in. He quickly put the laptop away and headed after his other two jeeps.
At the top of the hill he caught the other jeeps and set up the laptop again. They saw the brushy area in front of them with the red light moving into the middle of it and stopping. All the terrorists smiled in anticipation.
“This will be almost too easy. I want the two jeeps to go there and there as he pointed to the map. We will trap them against the cliff. When you get in position I will come down to here in the middle and set up the computer again. Then we will move in on them.”
The kids were hiding in some heavy brush beside the dune buggy. They heard one of the jeeps go past them and stop a ways off and heard the second jeep stop before it got to their area. In a few minutes they heard the third jeep stop in a different area. Cody whispered to John, “They have us surrounded with the cliff at our back. It’s almost like they know where we are.”
“Do you think they see us with a night scope? You have been using ours. Do you see anything?”
“No. There’s too much brush. Something doesn’t seem right, John.”
“How could they know where we are?” asked Sarah frantically.
“This doesn’t make sense,” said John. “What about the locator they told us about? Could the terrorists be tracking it?”
“How could they track it? We got it from the military.”
“Do you know how it works? Maybe they know we have it and can track it. What if they have a traitor in Homeland Security?”
John and Cody looked over at the dune buggy with the locator in it and then at each other.
“Cody, we have to start up and move the dune buggy. We can’t move far enough on foot. They have us surrounded.”
“Can you outrun those jeeps in the dune buggy John?” asked Sarah.
“No way. Those jeeps are faster in the open desert. We have to stay in the brush. The other problem is as soon as we start the dune buggy they will hear us. Their engines are off.”
“What if they’re coming in on foot if they know where we are?” asked Sarah.
“We’re screwed,” said John. “We need to make a run for it.”
“I thought you said we couldn’t outrun them?” asked Sarah.
“We can’t. But if we drive fast through the brush and double back, they are going to have to start up their jeeps to follow. Then we ditch the locator and drive a little further and see where they go. At least we’ll know if they are tracing the locator. Did you say you brought the full auto AK-47’s Cody?”
“Yeah. They’re loaded and ready.”
“How many clips did you bring?”
“Seven or eight of the 30 round magazines.”
“You brought the hi-cap 30’s? Those are illegal. I thought we got rid of them.”
“They’re only illegal in California.”
“We’re in California.”
Cody looked at John and asked sarcastically, “Do you want me to take them back?”
“Shut up, Cody. Let’s go and we’ll see what they do.”
The kids got in the dunebuggy, John started it up and drove as fast as he could toward the far end of the brush area. As they passed the area where they heard the jeep stop, Cody emptied a 30 round clip toward the area they thought the jeep stopped. When they got close to the far end John turned around and sped back to the middle of the brush as Sarah threw out the locator. John drove a little further, turned off the dune buggy and coasted into another brush area. They heard the jeeps racing around.
Joseph heard the dune buggy start up and watched the red light move on the map. He was startled to hear the AK-47 fire as they passed the far jeep. He threw the laptop into his jeep and said to Abdul,
“That was an AK-47 on full auto. Did Uday shoot at them? Get him on the radio.”
Abdul called Uday.
“Did you shoot at the kids?”
“No, they shot at us.”
“What! They’re armed? Did they hit anything?”
“No, we were in the brush. They just shot in our direction. We’re chasing them now.”
“Stop. We can’t hear with all the jeeps running. I’m going to set up the computer and see where they are now. Keep to the outside of the brush area. We need to keep them surrounded,” yelled Joseph.
Joseph set up the computer and noticed the locator stopped again. He said to Abdul,
“We still have them surrounded and they’re stopped. I’m going to leave the jeeps where they are with one person in each jeep and we are going in to the area they’ve stopped on foot with the night scopes. If they try to drive out again, shoot them. Leave the laptop running. I’m going in on foot.”
Joseph called Uday and the other jeep.
“Send one person in with a night scope and an assault rifle. I’ll meet them and we’ll go in on foot. One person stays in the jeep. If they take off driving past you, shoot them.”
Joseph met up with Uday and a terrorist from the other jeep and they slowly converged on the location shown on the computer.
Cody and John had crawled out away from the dune buggy and were watching the area where Sarah threw the locator with their night scope. They watched Joseph, Uday and the other terrorist closing in on the spot where the locator was lying in the brush where Sarah threw it. John whispered to Cody,
“They are tracking the locator. Let’s get back to the girls in the dune buggy.”
When John and Cody got back they huddled with Ellen and Sarah and talked in whispers.
“Are they tracking the locator?” asked Sarah.
“Yeah, they’re going right for it.” John replied.
“What does that mean?” asked Ellen
“Either they figured out how to track it or there is a traitor in Homeland Security feeding them information. Either way we’re screwed.”
“Can we outrun them?”
“No, there are three of them and they’re faster than us.”
“Can we fight them? Cody brought the assault rifles.”
“We have two rifles and one night scope. They have three men on foot with night scopes and assault rifles, plus the ones in the three jeeps, and they are trained terrorists. We would lose a fight real fast.”
“What other options do we have?” whined Ellen.
“I don’t know.” Replied John solemnly.
Cody was intently studying the path they were on.
“John, do you recognize this path?”
“No, what about it?”
“Do you remember that jump over the ravine we always dreamed of making with the motorcycles?”
“The one Mom said she’d castrate us if we ever even thought about trying it.”
“Yeah, that one. It’s coming up in about a mile on this trail.”
“You’re thinking about doing it a dune buggy with four people in it at night? We didn’t even dare try in on motorcycles in daylight!” John exclaimed.
“Do you have any better ideas? We’re running out of options fast.”
“What do you think our chances are of landing it without getting hurt?”
“Landing it 100%. Without getting hurt, about 20%. If the terrorists catch us, 0%.”
“Twenty percents good.”
“If you run down the trail and fi
gure out the line for the jump, Sarah and I can take the night scope and the AK-47’s and cover your back. When you get ready, shoot the Glock three times and we’ll come running.”
“Why don’t I take the assault rifles and you line up the jump?”
“Do you want me driving the dune buggy? Don’t you want to line up the route you are going to take for the jump?”
John thought for a minute. “You're right, I need to drive the dune buggy and line it up. Just don’t get hurt.”
Cody and Sarah crept closer to the open area and started looking with the night scope as John lined up the jump. Cody and Sarah were lying together behind a dirt mound peering out through the brush. Sarah whispered,
“Tell me about this jump we’re doing.”
“There is a ravine about a hundred feet deep and 75 feet across, just down that trail. This side has a natural slope to jump from and the other side has some soft sand to land on. John and I have always dreamed of jumping it on motorcycles.”
“Did you ever try?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Cody stared off in space for a minute before replying,
“Beside the fact that my mom would kill me, if everything doesn’t go perfectly, the right speed and hitting the ramp just right you will crash into the other side of the ravine at about 65 miles per hour.”
“I see. So you think our chances are about 20%?”
“I think we can get the right speed and John can hit the ramp right, the landing is what I worry about. It’s hard enough on a motorcycle that you can control somewhat in the air. In a dunebuggy once you take off, there is almost no control and we have to land on all four wheels. We will be going 65 miles per hour when we land.”
“Twenty percent sounds optimistic.”