By Order of the President

A BOEING 727, REGISTERED TO LEASE-AIRE, INC., PHILADELPHIA,

Dick sending such a message violated a long list of security restrictions, and Major Miller was fully aware that it did. On the other hand, whoever had grabbed the 727 knew they had grabbed it, so what was the secret?

Furthermore, the back-channel message was a heads-up-unofficial, of course-to people who would possibly, even likely, become involved in whatever the government ultimately decided to do about the stolen airplane.

This especially applied to HALO 101-the screen name made reference to the number of High Altitude, Low Opening parachute jumps the addressee had made-who was a lieutenant colonel at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Ostensibly a member of the G-3 staff of the XVIII Airborne Corps, he was in fact the deputy commander of a unit few people had even heard about, and about which no one talked. It was officially known as the "Contingency Office" and colloquially as "Gray Fox," or "Baby D."

"D" made reference to Delta Force, about which some people actually knew something and a great many people-very few of whom knew what they were talking about-talked a great deal.

The Contingency Office-Gray Fox-was a five-officer, thirty-one-NCO unit within Delta Force that was prepared to act immediately-they trained to be wheels up in less than an hour-when ordered to do so.

BeachAggie83-the screen name made reference to the Texas Agricultural amp; Mechanical University, the year the addressee had graduated, and to the fact that he was now stationed in Florida-was a lieutenant colonel assigned to the Special Activities Section, J-5 (Special Operations), United States Central Command, MacDill Air Force Base, Florida.

If it was decided that Delta Force, Gray Fox-or any other special operations organization, such as the Air Commandos, the Navy SEALs, the Marines' Force Recon-were to be deployed in connection with the missing airplane, the orders would come from Central Command.

While his satburst message had reached Washington in literally a matter of seconds, it might not reach either Fort Bragg or MacDill for hours-or days-until the message had been evaluated at Langley, passed to the national security counselor, and evaluated again and a decision reached.

Major Miller's conscience did not bother him a bit for sending a heads-up that violated a long list of security restrictions. He'd done a tour with Delta and knew the sooner they got a heads-up, the better.

He unplugged the laptop and locked it in his desk drawer. Then he changed into his work clothes and caught a taxicab out to the Quatro de Fevereiro Aeroporto to see what else he could find out about what had happened to his airplane.