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Guardian Program Ch 17
A novel by R.C.PeterGabriel, all rights reserved.
Thursday, 09:05 AM Eastern Standard Time, the office of the Secretary of Defense.
"Jack Henderson on the line for you Mr. Secretary."
"Put him through." The phone on his desk rang less than two seconds later. "Mr. Henderson, tell me you've received a response, and that we have nothing to worry about."
"I'd like to Sir, but I can't. The individual we discussed has not been seen or heard from since the time of our last meeting."
"Are you sure they didn't just turn their phone off for a few days R&R?" asked Lieber.
"Highly unlikely Sir. When I failed to reach the individual at the time you requested, I had assumed the same thing, but only for the evening, because the person had never failed to check in before. So, after I couldn't reach them the next morning, I started checking. I even attempted to get information from inside the white wall, and I've continued to attempt contact at least every hour since our last meeting."
"Tell me what you know."
"The last check-in was made from Bangor Maine, the morning of our last meeting. The hotel was vacated that evening at about the same time as our meeting. The rental car was returned to the airport shortly thereafter.
"Airport security cameras show our person waiting for almost an hour, then exiting the terminal towards the private planes.
"At that point, I only had long-range cameras to watch from and since we have several refueling tankers stationed there, the images were a bit sketchy. I believe you can figure out why. Regardless, I was able to get an image of the plane. It was a Citation X, which is the type of plane flown by Mr. S. However, the color and tail numbers were inconsistent with his.
"I don't know if it was meant as a joke or not, but the tail numbers matched those of the Chinese ambassador to Iraq. I assumed Mr. S had something to do with it when the airport denied having any foreign aircraft other than Canadian that day.
"That's when I sought answers inside the white wall. That particular plane went stealth before landing, and because I didn't know where it came from, I didn't know where to look before it had gone stealth.
"Basically, I found nothing along that avenue, so I did a search of all Citation Xs in service, and was able to locate all of them except for Mr. S's. He did register a flight plan from LaGuardia to Cork, Ireland, for fueling then to continue to Helsinki, Finland. His plane never arrived at either location nor did either his or the plane I saw on the ground in Bangor show up at any airport in a radius of five hundred miles beyond the maximum range of a Citation X.
Given Mr. S's ability to manipulate things, I have to believe the plane in Bangor was his, that he has the party I was attempting to contact, and beyond that, I have to say we know nothing."
"I told you to tell me we had nothing to worry about, Mr. Henderson. Keep trying and keep me updated," ordered the SECDEF, then disconnected without a valediction.
**********
At precisely that same moment ... "Yes, Sir. I couldn't be happier. You treat me like ... an enslaved princess," Sam replied with a smirk. "I have a great job, and ..." Sam gasped and sat up straighter in her seat. "Oh, my God."
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"I'm in so much trouble. I haven't checked in since Monday, and I'm sure my phone is dead by now."
I raised an eyebrow, "Hmm, trouble for sure. Maybe I've kidnapped you and you have no access to a phone. If you'd like, I can tie you up in some underground lair, and keep you there." I was pleasantly rewarded with a blush and a bitten lower lip. I grinned.
"I would like that, Sir," Sam managed, as her blush increased with each syllable.
"Well then, I'll have to see if I can find one, but right now you need to land the plane."
"Me?" Sam squeaked. "I can't land the plane!" She had let go of the controls as if they had burned her. "Maybe after more than one lesson!" She shook her head and looked at me before quickly realizing I had been teasing her. I took the controls while she blushed again.
We landed and were escorted to a waiting limousine. Once inside, Sam leaned close to me and whispered. "Where are we, and was that Russian you were speaking?"
I smiled, "Yes, and we're in Kazakhstan about 150 miles north of Almaty," I informed her as I plugged my phone into a power jack and activated the Black Knight app.
Her mouth dropped open and she stared at me for several moments. "Kazakhstan? As in ... former Soviet, Kazakhstan? Why are we here?"
"I told you, we're here to watch a launch."
"Okay, and you couldn't watch one in Florida? And since when do you speak Russian? And how come we didn't need to clear customs?"
"Julie, you are an inquisitive sort," I responded.
Looking confused momentarily, Sam shook her head saying, "Robert, Julie doesn't live here anymore. Unless you're going to spank her, which by the way, she keeps wondering when you're going to do just that. She asks me at least ten times a day. Anyway, I Sam, your Sam, want to know."
"I've spoken Russian for about six years now. We're here for a launch, instead of Florida, because I don't want the US government to know I have more than fifteen satellites. We didn't clear customs, because we were being escorted by the government, to and from the launch site, and because we aren't officially here.
"And you can tell Julie that I'll spank her tomorrow. I promise."
Sam gave me her full-on electric smile making her eyes sparkle. "Tomorrow?" She squirmed in her seat like a six-year-old on her way to Disney World. I couldn't help but smile in response. After a few minutes, she pulled herself as close to me as she could and hugged my arm.
We drove into the dusk for about twenty minutes, both of us content to just simply touch each other, before she broke the silence.
"How can you have fifteen satellites that the government knows about, but only have three listed as owned by you?"