Free Fall

Seventy-Four

Washington, DC

The two police officers who’d entered Robert Cole’s Metro car had moved past him without stopping.

Cole exhaled his relief but kept his face in his files until he got off at the Metro Center station, where he boarded an Orange Line train to the L’Enfant Plaza Metro station.

Anxiety surged through him during the short ride but he regained his focus on what he had to do as he stepped from the train, blending in with commuters as he made his way to NTSB headquarters. Suddenly, the enormity of his situation caught up with him, stopping him in his tracks outside the building’s entrance.

How did my life come to this? I’m wanted by the FBI. Veyda’s killed fifteen people and is planning to kill more.

He ran his fingers over his dry lips. He craved a drink. One drink.

No, you have to keep going. Cole tightened his hold on his briefcase. Stop thinking of yourself. You have to fix this and you have to do it now.

He entered the main lobby.

Streams of government workers and employees of companies in the building were using their ID badges to go through the security turnstiles. Nongovernment visitors had lined up at the security desk, where they had to show identification and provide the names of the people they were there to see. Their personal items were passed through a scanner and x-rayed.

I can’t let it end here. I’ve got to see Hooper.

Cole licked his lips and fumbled for the ID badge he’d used when he’d worked on NTSB investigations long ago. He eyed the security officers while keeping his head down. His line moved steadily.

Remain calm and act natural. Calm and natural.

“Next,” said the young female security guard, Atley, according to her nameplate.

“Robert Cole to see Jake Hooper with NTSB Major Investigations.” Cole placed his ID on the desk.

Atley looked at it carefully, deepening his fear.

“It’s urgent,” Cole added. “I’m party to an investigation.”

Atley looked at Cole, typed on her keyboard then reached for her phone.

Cole glanced at other security officers, momentarily eyeing their holstered guns. Then he looked back at Atley, not liking the way she was tapping his card on her desk while on the phone.

It telegraphed a problem.

Cole saw that one of the other security guards was taking a longer look at him. Cole looked away for several seconds, but when he looked back the guard was still looking at him-directly at him.

A collision course! Dear God, they did it. They’ve breached the system.

Jake Hooper rushed from the emergency meeting to his desk, stunned by the horror playing out over the sky, refusing to believe Robert Cole would engineer such devastation.

How can we stop it?

The nation’s best experts with the NTSB, the FAA, the military, the airlines, the planes’ makers, were all frantically searching for solutions that would release the cyber stranglehold that had locked the jets on a death course.

Nothing was working.

Jet fighters were getting into position to take whatever action the White House advised.

Impact was less than forty minutes away.

More than eleven hundred people would die.

The FBI was on-site in Colorado, minutes from moving in on Seth Hagen and Cole’s daughter.

Is there time to stop what’s been orchestrated?

Hooper racked his brain for a solution. It was futile. Whatever he’d thought of had already been conveyed to the crews by the Air Route Traffic Control Centers, and nothing was working.

Hooper glanced at the time: thirty-eight minutes to impact. His line rang and he seized it.

“Hooper.”

“Security, sir. I’ve got Robert Cole at the desk for you.”

“Who?”

“Robert Cole. He says it’s urgent.”

Hooper’s pulse rocketed.

“Don’t let him leave! I’ll be right down! Hold him there!”

“Sir,” Atley said to Cole upon hanging up, “your card’s expired.”

“Expired?”

“Yes, would you-”

“Let me take a look.” The guard who’d been staring at Cole held out his hand for Cole’s ID. He studied it, then the pages posted near the computer. His sharp blue eyes flicked to Cole, then to the pages, then to Cole.

Both men knew.

Cole’s stomach clenched and he took a step back from the desk.

The guard very subtly shifted his weight while unsnapping the button strap of his holster.

“Sir, get down on the floor, on your stomach,” the older guard said.

Cole didn’t move.

In one smooth motion the guard drew his gun from his holster and leveled it at Cole’s head.

“Get on the floor now!”

A woman screamed. People nearby backed away as Cole dropped to his knees, raising his open hands.

“Please, I have to see Jake Hooper! It’s a matter of life and death.”

“Atley, move your ass! Cuff him!” the older guard said.

“You don’t understand,” Cole said.

Atley rose from her seat and moved behind Cole, pushing his stomach flat on the floor, and handcuffed his wrists behind his back. The older guard replaced his gun in his holster and spoke quickly into the shoulder microphone of his radio. Then he helped heft Cole to his feet and moved him around the security desk toward a small office, just as Hooper emerged.

“Jake!” Cole called to him. “Jake, it’s my daughter and her boyfriend! They found a point of vulnerability! I can fix it!”

“Shut up!” the older guard said as his radio crackled a response.

“Hold on!” Hooper said. “I need to talk to this man!”

“No,” the guard said. “He’s wanted by the FBI. We’ve just alerted them.”

“Where’re you taking him?”

The guard nodded to the small office.

“Jake, please, let me help! I can fix it!”

More security people arrived, along with Reed Devlin.

“Reed,” Hooper said, “Robert says he has the solution!”

Devlin’s face tensed as he assessed the scene.

“This man’s wanted by the FBI,” the security supervisor said, “and we’re holding him here. They’re on their way.”

“Reed,” Hooper said. “Cole can help us and we’re losing time!”

“Listen to me,” Devlin told the guards. “We’ve got a crisis happening now and we need this man’s expertise immediately. Please hold him in our operations room so we can talk to him. Keep him in custody and watch over him. The NTSB will assume responsibility but we must do it now!”

As the security supervisor shook his head Devlin stepped closer to him, enabling the security man to read the fear in Devlin’s eyes.

“We have a thousand lives at stake! Do you want to be the guy history remembers as the one who stood in the way of saving them?” Devlin said.

The security supervisor’s face whitened.

“We’re in this together,” Devlin said. “Let’s do this now!”

The supervisor turned to the guards and nodded.

“Let’s go. Take him up to the sixth.”