moonlight. They stood there for five minutes while McGrath smoked.
They didn’t speak. Just gazed north into the distance and wondered.
“Go wake your boys up,” Webster said. “We’ll stand down for a
spell.”
McGrath nodded and walked down to the accommodation trailers. Roused
Milosevic and Brogan. They were fully dressed on their bunks. They
got up and yawned. Came down the ladder and found Webster standing
there with Johnson and his aide. Garber standing behind them.
The telephone line is done,” Webster said.
“Already?” Brogan said. “I thought it was being done in the
morning.”
“We figured sooner was better than later,” Webster said. He inclined
his head toward General Johnson. It was a gesture which said: he’s
worried, right?
“OK,” Milosevic said. “We’ll look after it.”
“Wake us at eight,” Webster said. “Or earlier if necessary, OK?”
Brogan nodded and walked north to the command vehicle. Milosevic
followed. They paused together for a look at the mountains in the
moonlight. As they paused, the fax machine inside the empty command
trailer started whirring. It fed its first communication face upward
into the message tray. It was ten to five in the morning, Friday the
fourth of July.
Brogan woke General Johnson an hour and ten minutes later, six o’clock
exactly. He knocked loudly on the accommodation trailer door and got
no response, so he went in and shook the old guy by the shoulder.
Teterson Air Force Base, sir,” Brogan said. They need to talk to
you.”
Johnson staggered up to the command vehicle in his shirt and pants.
Milosevic joined Brogan outside in the pre-dawn glow to give him some
privacy. Johnson was back out in five minutes.
“We need a conference,” he called.
He ducked back into the trailer. Milosevic walked down and roused the
others. They came forward, Webster and the general’s aide yawning and
stretching, Garber ramrod-straight. McGrath was dressed and smoking.
Maybe hadn’t tried to sleep at all. They filed up the ladder and took
their places around the or n table, bleak red eyes, hair fuzzed on the
back from the pillows.
Teterson called, “Johnson told them. “They’re sending a helicopter
search-and-rescue out, first light, looking for the missile unit.”
His aide nodded.
That would be standard procedure,” he said.
“Based on an assumption,” Johnson said. “They think the unit has
suffered some kind of mechanical and electrical malfunction.”
“Which is not uncommon,” his aide said. “If their radio fails, their
procedure would be to repair it. If a truck also broke down at the
same time, their procedure would be to wait as a group for
assistance.”
“Circle the wagons?” McGrath asked.
The aide nodded again.
“Exactly so,” he said. They would pull off the road and wait for a
chopper.”
“So do we tell them?” McGrath asked.
The aide sat forward.
That’s the question,” he said. Tell them what exactly? We don’t even
know for sure that these maniacs have got them at all. It’s still
possible it’s just a radio problem and a truck problem together.”
“Dream on,” Johnson said.
Webster shrugged. He knew how to deal with such issues.
“What’s the upside?” he said.
There is no upside,” Johnson said. “We tell Peterson the missiles have
been captured, the cat’s out of the bag, we lose control of the
situation, we’re seen to have disobeyed Washington by making an issue
out of it before Monday.”
“OK, so what’s the downside?” Webster asked.
Theoretical,” Johnson said. “We have to assurrje they’ve been
captured, so we also have to assume they’ve been well hidden. In which
case the air force will never find them. They’ll just fly around for a
while and then go home and wait.”
Webster nodded.
“OK,” he said. “No upside, no downside, no problem.”
There was a short silence.
“So we sit tight,” Johnson said. “We let the chopper fly.”
McGrath shook his head. Incredulous.
“Suppose they use them to shoot the chopper down?” he asked.
The general’s aide smiled an indulgent smile.
“Can’t be done,” he said. The IFF wouldn’t allow it.”
“IFF?” McGrath repeated.
“Identify Friend or Foe,” the aide said. “It’s an electronic system.
The chopper will be beaming a signal. The missile reads it as