supply of fuel, rigged so that if it went out for any reason it would
automatically relight. One side was affixed with a magnetic pad. It’s
a simple but perfect way to do it. Jet fuel comes spewing out when the
tank gets penetrated. Sooner or later, it’s going to get within range
of the flame, and then boom.” He shook his head. “Pretty damn
ingenious. Carry it in your pocket; even if it’s detected, on the
surface it’s a damned cigarette lighter.” Long sifted through some more
pages as the other agents closely watched him. He ventured a further
analysis. “And they didn’t need a timer or altimeter device.
They could roughly gauge the timing by the acid’s corrosiveness.
They knew it would be up in the air when it went. Five-hour flight,
plenty of time.”
Sawyer nodded. “Kaplan and his team found the black boxes. The casing
on the flight data recorder was split open, but the tape was relatively
intact. Preliminary conclusions indicate that the starboard engine, and
the controls running through that section of the wing, were severed from
the plane seconds after the CVR recorded a strange sound. They’re doing
spectrum sound analysis on it now.
The FDR showed no drastic change in cabin pressure, so there was
definitely no explosion inside the fuselage, which makes sense, since we
now know the sabotage occurred on the wing. Before that, everything was
operating smoothly: no engine problems, level flight, ordinary control
surface movements. But once things went bad, they never had a chance.”
“The pilots’ recording on the CVR give any clues?” Long asked.
Sawyer shook his head. “Usual expletives. The Mayday they radioed in.
The FDR showed the plane was in a ninety-degree dive for almost thirty
thousand feet with the left engine going at almost full power. Who
knows if they could even have remained conscious under those
conditions?” Sawyer paused. “Let’s hope none of them were,” he said
solemnly.
Now that it was clear that sabotage had downed the plane, the FBI had
officially taken over the investigation from the NTSB. Because of the
complexities of the case and its massive organizational challenges, FBI
headquarters would be the originating office and Sawyer, his first-rate
work on the Lockerbie bombing still fresh in the minds of FBI
leadership, would be the case agent, meaning he would run the
investigation. But this bombing was a little different: It had occurred
over American airspace, had left a crater on American soil. He would
let others at the bureau handle the press inquiries and issue statements
to the public. He much preferred doing his work in the background.
The FBI devoted large resources of personnel and money to infiltrate
terrorist organizations operating in the United States, ferreting out
plans and grand schemes to wreak destruction in the name of some
political or religious cause before they had a chance to come to
fruition. The bombing of Flight 3223 had come right out of the blue.
There had been no trickles of information from the FBI’s vast network
that anything of this magnitude was on the horizon. Having been unable
to prevent the disaster, Sawyer would now devote every waking moment,
and probably suffer through many a nightmare, in his quest to bring
those responsible to justice.
“Well, we know what happened to that plane,” Sawyer said.
“Now we just have to find out why and who else is involved. Let’s start
with motive. What else did you dig up on Arthur Lieberman, Ray?”
Raymond Jackson was Sawyer’s young partner. He had played college
football at Michigan before hanging up his cleats and eschewing an NFL
career for one in law enforcement. A shade under six feet, the
thick-shouldered black man possessed intelligent eyes and a soft-spoken
manner. Jackson flipped open a three-ring notebook.
“A lot of info here. For starters, the guy was terminal. Pancreatic
cancer. It was in an advanced stage. He had, maybe, six months.
Maybe. All treatment had been discontinued. Dude was on massive
painkillers, though. Schlesinger’s Solution, a combo of morphine and a
mood elevator, probably cocaine, one of its few legit uses in this
country. Lieberman was outfitted with one of those portable units that