Executive

…52

He grabbed the remote, clicked to turn the wall-mount TV off, and slammed the remote on his desk.

"Aww… fuck!"

His finger pushed nervously on the intercom.

"Yes, sir?" a soft-spoken female voice answered within seconds.

"Get me Lynch and Nichols in here, on the double!"

"Yes, sir."

General Randal Hamilton II was not a patient man. Patient men rarely climb so high in the Air Force ranks, or in any ranks for that matter. Proud son of a highly decorated, three-star, Air Force general who had brought visionary innovation to air combat during the Vietnam War, Hamilton was incessantly competing with his father, long after his death. The day Hamilton had been awarded his fourth star and promoted to the office of the United Stated Air Force chief of staff was marked as a special day in his heart, one that he would commemorate with annual visits to the Arlington Cemetery. He had paid only two such commemorative visits to his father's place of eternal rest; his appointment to this office was relatively recent.

The intercom buzzed.

"They are here, sir."

"Good, send them in."

General Howard Lynch, vice chief of staff, was the first officer to walk through the open door. Following closely was Brigadier General Seth Nichols, in charge of regional affairs. They both saluted promptly.

"Sit down," Hamilton said. "It's great to have these TVs installed in our offices. Maybe by watching TV, we can find out what's going on in the goddamn Air Force!"

General Hamilton was not in a good mood. Regardless of the given situation's severity, Hamilton had gained the respect of his team by always keeping a cool head under pressure. In fact, the bigger the pressure, the cooler, more analytical and supportive the general would get.

"So I heard on the news today that the media correlates the April incident in Kandahar with the Florida incident last week," he continued. "Are we working this angle?"

"Sir, if I may," Nichols responded, "regional affairs was only looking into the Kandahar incident."

"Where are we with that one? Do we have any findings?"

"Not full findings, sir, we have partials."

Hamilton encouraged Nichols to continue.

"The drone was ours, sir. That's for sure. The Hellfire's signature was also ours. We're looking into the ground station operators and interviewing every single one of them who had anything to do with that drone. Unfortunately, one of the pilots is dead, so that leaves some questions unanswered."

"Dead? How?"

"His Humvee was hit by an IED on the way back from leave — little over a month ago, sir."

"Damn it. We need to keep a tight lid on this until we are ready to close the investigation. With the Florida incident, the media is going to get aggressive, questioning everyone — pilots, their families and friends — everyone they can reach."

"Yes, sir," both Nichols and Lynch responded simultaneously.

"Lynch?"

"Yes, sir."

"I want your team to work with Nichols on this correlation angle. Set up a task force. Bring analysts in, lab techs, everything you need. Is it possible that the same defect or error triggered both incidents? Compare behaviors, analyze the flight paths, all the data transferred to and from the drones in question, and let's figure out what went wrong."

"Yes, sir."

"One more thing. There will be a congressional hearing on this."

"Was it announced?" Lynch asked, turning pale.

"No, not a word yet. However, I don't think we can get away with blowing up a busload of people on American soil without having to attend a congressional hearing. Be prepared, assign the best resources you have to close these investigations as soon as you can, keep a lid on this, and give me rock-solid facts and plans for action. You know," Hamilton said after a brief pause, "Air Force chiefs of staff can be fired too."

"Yes, sir," both men acknowledged, after a brief hesitation.

"Good luck and keep me posted. Dismissed!"