Operation Hail Storm

Washington, D.C. ― The White House Situation Room

Pepper’s phone went off and he saw it was a call coming from Hail’s phone and he answered it.

“This is Pepper,” he said.

“This is Kara,” a concerned voice said.

“Great job, Kara. We just saw the warehouse blow. A really great job.”

“If you just saw it blow, then why is our jet still headed toward North Korea?”

Pepper was confused.

“There is no jet headed for North Korea. As soon as the General saw the explosion, he called Naval Operations and told them to scrub the mission.”

“Well, Hail’s radar shows an F-35 inbound and it is not turning back. If I hadn’t told Hail what it was, he may have taken it down.”

“He has the armaments to do that?” Pepper asked, truly surprised.

“That’s not the point,” Kara said angrily. “The point is you need to get this guy turned back around before he wakes up all of North Korea.”

“I’m on it,” Pepper said and hung up the phone.

He turned toward the General, who was also on his cell phone.

The General cupped the bottom half of his phone and told Pepper, “It looks like we might have a rogue pilot on our hands.”

“Shit,” was all Pepper could think to say.

They both looked across the room at the President, who was shaking hands and basking in the glory of the mission. At least for the moment, she looked very happy.