Free Fall

Eighty-Four

Washington, DC

A live radar tracking map filled the big screen at one end of the NTSB meeting room where security had brought Robert Cole.

In the screen’s bottom-right quarter, a live video feed showed Jill LaRose and Chet Meyer working on Seth and Veyda’s laptops in Colorado.

They were linked in real time to Reed Devlin, Jake Hooper and other top NTSB investigators, along with national security experts and air industry engineers, on teleconference. They’d been feeding calculations to Colorado in a frantic bid to unlock the cyber grip on the two flights.

One by one, each attempt had failed.

Robert Cole was handcuffed and under guard in a corner chair, but he was indicating that he needed his briefcase.

At that moment, four men in FBI Windbreakers entered the large room. One of the building’s security people approached them.

At the same time, the joy over the miracle that the two airliners had not collided died as NORAD’s situational update was patched to the group. While Flight 118 and its escort were intact, one of Flight 2230’s escorts had sustained damage in the crossover maneuver, forcing the pilot to eject.

And more alarmingly, in the wake of the near collision, Flight 2230 had begun to experience excessive pitching and banking before entering into an uncontrolled vertical descent.

“With this angle of descent, terminal impact is in three minutes!” a voice warned through the teleconference speakers.

“Jake!” Cole called out. “The codes you need to regain control of the planes are in my briefcase!”

Hooper seized the case from one of the guards.

The FBI, while being briefed by the security supervisor, watched coldly.

“The blue pages will undo the hack, Jake,” Cole guided him.

“I’ve got them!”

“Tell your people in Colorado to submit my codes into-into my-” Cole choked on his emotion. “Did they find my daughter? Is Veyda okay?”

“Robert, I don’t know-please, how do we submit the codes?”

“Focus on the decision logic of the Omega Protection system and mind the variables. Veyda found a back door into the kill switch network.”

“Jill-” Hooper turned to the big screen “-did you get that?”

“Yes, we’ll do it! Give us the coding!”

Hooper began entering the lines of code.

“Stop!” The lead FBI agent pointed at Cole. “That man’s wanted for threatening national security! The two planes missed each other, but he could be giving you information to sabotage your rescue! Everyone take your hands off your computers and end your calls, now!”

Hooper kept going, entering the last line of code before hitting Send. He lifted his hands from the keyboard when Jill LaRose in Colorado said, “Got them, Jake!”