“Anyway, the squad leader left three men there to watch the carryall, and took off again. They spotted the guy hiking along the edge of the woods, and picked him up. He’d been armed; carried an Uzi. Illegal of course. Fortunately he’d thrown it away—trying to dispose of the evidence—but they saw him get rid of it, and found it.” Heinie realized how bad it might sound to her, but he continued. “When the big chopper picked the guy up, they’d radioed the lieutenant and told him. So when the small chopper didn’t find anyone, he decided his men hadn’t really seen five out there. They’d expected five, because that’s what the satellite reported. And he decided the fifth was the man with the carryall. That he’d probably stood with the others outside the edge of the woods, and been reported by the satellite as one of them.”
“He hadn’t trusted his own eyes? Or his men’s?” The President sounded as much disbelieving as exasperated.
Heinie blew through pursed lips. “Not after the small chopper didn’t find anyone. It should have, you know, if there was one.”
The President frowned again. “So how do we really know there was? Maybe the lieutenant’s right.”
“No, he’s not. Because the data cube shows five intruders, all the way from their carryall to the Ranch.”
“Wouldn’t the satellite have seen anyone running away?”
“I’m afraid not. Ennerby had cancelled the program as soon as the lieutenant called in that they’d bagged the targets. Cancellation’s required when a special program’s not needed anymore. Programs like that tie up onboard computer capacity, which runs all the orders and feedback, and has a lot of routine demands on it, typically complex as hell. It gets lots of special jobs requested by everyone from sheriff’s departments, Forest Service, BLM, DTF, INS . . . Hundreds of requests, for the DTF and INS especially, each requiring a customized and complex program. It gets backlogged sometimes, and can’t handle all the approved requests.”
Heinie Brock brought himself back to their problem. “Everything received by the data analysis mainframe at Carson is on cubes, of course. Not just our project. And they’ve reviewed the one from last night. But enhanced cubeage like they need, the satellite doesn’t transmit in real-time. Ordinary cubeage is, but when the data require massaging, it gets transmitted in pulses, scheduled by the onboard computer to accommodate overall demands. There can even be backlogs for transmission.
“Anyway, the sequence they needed didn’t get transmitted before Ennerby disengaged the program. The satellite doesn’t store ‘unwanted’ material.”
Brock looked unhappily at his boss. “The unenhanced material is available, but it won’t show the detail we need. It’s just not there. There’s a program that can enhance raw cubeage after the fact, and they’re working with it, but it’s not very promising.”
The President scowled. “But the satellite transmissions show they did have a fifth man. Huh! And there’s no chance that’s a mistake?”
“None at all. The cube shows five intruders all the way to where the shootout took place. What’s lacking is cubeage that showed what happened to the fifth.”
“Did anyone think to go back out on the ground and see if they could track him?”
The thought startled Brock. It hadn’t occurred to him. “I don’t know. They didn’t mention it. I’ll check.”
“Do that. Now. Muy pronto.” She fixed him with a flinty eye. “I need to do some creative swearing, and I don’t want to shock you.”
He turned and went to the door, then looked back, trying for humor. “Not in front of Andy, I hope. She’s a lady, after all.”
“So am I, but there are things you don’t know about ladies. Now git!”
She watched him leave. Hopefully the missing fifth man wouldn’t be heard of again. If he keeps his mouth shut, she thought, then God bless him.
* * *
In a log farmhouse in Blair County, Montana, two men drank coffee and watched Headline News. Watched a brief report on, and speculation about, automatic weapons fire on the Millennium Ranch. When it was over, Carl turned to Axel.
“You suppose it was Luther?”
“I expect so.”
“What do you suppose happened?”