“Yeah,” Ding said, cracking a smile. “It always is.”
16
Crash Site
12 Nautical Miles East of Bodrum Airport
Bodrum, Turkey
0810 Local Time
Katie got the usual delay to complete her encrypted connection. She waited five rings before a familiar voice picked up at ONI.
“Watch desk, Specialist Second Class Pettigrew.”
After a mental stutter, Katie checked the time, did the math. It was much earlier at the National Maritime Intelligence Center in D.C.
“Bubba? It’s me…What are you still doing there? It’s after midnight and the last time we talked, you said you were going home.”
“Yeah, well. I’ve been stayin’ late some nights.”
He sounded sleepy. No, he sounded catatonic. Then it all came together for Katie.
“Oh, wait. It’s your son.”
A freighted sigh carried up to a satellite and then back down to earth. “They tell me that’s how it is with newborns. Little Bub ain’t been sleepin’ too well. Hour here, hour there.”
“How’s Cindy holding up?”
“Okay, I guess. She says she doesn’t mind if I just stay at work. No sense in both of us being zombies. There’s a recliner in one of the big closets over in admin—pretty danged comfortable.”
Katie could easily picture him crashed out on a closeted Barcalounger.
He said, “I’ve been trying to chase down that Learjet you asked about, boss, but I’m hittin’ a wall. It’s definitely a Langley bird, but they’ve got her records sucked down like a hog in muck.”
Katie stumbled on that visual, as she tended to do with Bubba’s colorful analogies. “Okay, let’s put that aside. I’ve got something new for you to work on.”
“Shoot.”
“This crash in Bodrum—we have reason to believe it might be sabotage. In particular, some kind of meaconing attack. You familiar with that?”
“The interception and rebroadcasting or altering of radio-navigation signals.”
“Ah…yeah, that’s it. Anyway, I need you to do a deep dive on adversary capabilities and also check reconnaissance footage for the night in question. I’ve been told it would have required hardware in the vicinity of the crash—a good-sized antenna and some associated electronics.”
“Fixed site or mobile?”
“Could be either.”
“For mobile I would suggest comparing high-res overhead archives to the footage for that night.”
“Do we have much satellite coverage in this part of Turkey?”
Katie heard taps on a keyboard, and she imagined Bubba calling up a map of orbital patterns.
“That specific area, east of Bodrum…it’s not exactly a hot spot for hostile activity.”
“So no recce birds?”
