No Return

68

Wes had seen enough movies and worked on enough crime documentaries to know that even when a cellphone wasn’t being used, it could be tracked. As soon as he finished talking to Casey, he removed the battery, then went in search of another pay phone.

He found one in the park just east of the police station. It was a bit more exposed than the one at the 7-Eleven, but it did provide him with nearly unlimited avenues of escape.

Casey picked up on the first ring.

“Where are you now?” Wes said.

“I went down to-”

“Wait,” Wes cut him off. “I shouldn’t have asked. Don’t tell me. We can’t talk too long. And as soon as we’re done, take the battery out of your phone and go someplace else.”

Casey hesitated. “Uh, all right. But how will I know it’s okay to go back home?”

“Digger,” Wes said, using Casey’s brother’s nickname. “When things have settled down, I’ll call Digger with the all clear. Check in with … them, just not too often. Wait until at least tomorrow morning to start.”

“Jesus, Wes. What have you gotten into?”

“Don’t worry. It’ll be okay,” Wes said. “Now tell me what you found.”

“Right. Okay,” Casey said. There was the sound of paper flipping. “SCORCH first. It was developed by a company called Laredyne Industries. Apparently they have been pushing very hard for the Navy to adopt it. If I’d had more time, I could have probably dug up more details, but what I did learn is that there’s been a pretty vigorous debate about it in both the military and in Congress, with those opposed to the Laredyne system supporting a slightly different one developed by Nickerson Avionics.”

“Okay, so the SCORCH backers won. So what?”

“They didn’t exactly win,” Casey said. “Not yet, anyway. Technically it’s still in the testing phase. Funding for fleet-wide activation is part of an appropriations bill up for a vote in Congress next week. But I’m told several reps and a few senators aren’t fans of the system. So there’s a good chance that the bill won’t get passed unless SCORCH is removed.”

“Interesting,” Wes said, still unsure how it fit in with what was happening. “Anything else?”

Casey paused. “The next thing I looked into was Project Pastiche. Do you have that list of names you read off to me?”

“Hold on.” Wes found the page. “Okay. Got it.”

“Skip the personnel section; I hadn’t been able to find out much there before you told me to leave. Look at the names under ‘Pool 7B.’ ”

“Looking at them now.”

“I was able to identify Lieutenants Lemon, Briley, and, of course, Adair. What do you think they have in common?”

“I assume they were all assigned to this PP-214 division at some point.”

“They’ve all been reported as dead.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah,” Casey said. “Briley was killed while on duty in the Pacific during a training exercise near Australia. His body was never recovered.”

“When did this occur?”

“Thirteen months ago. Lemon was assigned to a ship in the Persian Gulf, but was killed while on a mission in Iraq. The report I found claimed there was little left of the body, and he had to be identified by DNA.”

“That’s odd.”

“It gets odder. The two other names on that list, Brian Faith and Cameron Bruce?”

“The ones marked ‘Available,’ ” Wes said.

“Right. As far as I can tell, neither man is serving in the military.”

“That doesn’t necessarily mean anything.”

“I realize that. So I did down-and-dirty checks on all five men. Know what I found?”

“Just tell me.”

“The three men who died? Their histories are remarkably similar. All were from small Midwest towns, but had no family living there anymore. All had similar educational backgrounds and credit histories. And, this is interesting, each had been in the service approximately the same amount of time before they died.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Oh, one more thing. None of them ever existed.”

Silence.

“I think you need to tell me that again,” Wes said.

“Lieutenants Adair, Lemon, and Briley are not real people.”

As crazy as things had gotten, what Casey had just claimed took things to a whole new level. “But I met Adair’s children. They were at Commander Forman’s house.”

“Whoever’s kids they were, they weren’t Lieutenant Adair’s.”

Could they have just been props? “How do you know about Adair for sure?”

“This is what I do, remember?” Casey said. “I look at this kind of information all the time. I know what it should look like. People’s lives are messy, even the most organized ones. These guys have backgrounds that are just too perfect. Sure, there are flaws on their records, but the flaws are perfect, too.”

“And you’re sure?” Wes asked, still finding it hard to believe.

“If it had been only one of them, I might not have picked up on it. But when I looked at all three, the patterns were obvious.”

“What about the other two? Faith and Bruce?”

“Since I didn’t have as much to go on with them, and the names are not entirely unusual, I wasn’t able to track them down. But I’d be willing to bet, given time, I could uncover a history for each man that mirrored the others.”

Wes stared at the horizon, stunned.

“Are you there?” Casey asked.

“Yes. Sorry,” Wes said. “Why would they say Adair died in the crash, then?”

“My only guess would be that it had something to do with SCORCH. Maybe there was a problem with it that caused the crash. Given the upcoming vote, maybe that commander you talked to decided it was necessary to hide what happened.” He paused. “I don’t know. It’s the best I could come up with.”

“No,” Wes said. “That’s good. There’s something there, but we’re missing pieces.”

“Like who was really flying the plane.”

“That, for sure. What about that name I gave you? Jamieson?”

“I only had a little time for that. Not the most common name in the world, but certainly not that unusual, either. There are over thirty in the Navy alone.”

“I was afraid of that,” Wes said.

“There are also three professional baseball players, several dozen doctors on the West Coast alone, the CEO of a telecom company.…” Wes could hear pages flipping. “There’s also a Senator Jamieson from somewhere back East.”

“A senator?”

“Yeah. That one definitely stands out. I could find an Internet cafe and check him out if you want.”

“No,” Wes said, not wanting to get his friend any more involved than he already was. “You’ve done plenty. Find someplace to lay low, and don’t show your head until you get my message.”

“If you’re sure.”

“I’m sure.”