The Planner

Chapter Fifteen: Stage B

It was late evening. At the end of a lit runway, immediately behind the E4-B, Planner and the rest of the Rainbow Team got off a bus. He texted Katherine as he walked towards the back of the plane, “Don’t go into the office tomorrow!”

The KneeCap was flying on a supposedly night time exercise. It would fly out to the coast, get refuelled and fly back inland with a spoofed IFF identifier. Timed to capitalise upon radar operator’s shift changes, no-one would pay much notice of the flight especially since its flight logs, and much other data for the hijackings, would be purposely destroyed in the morning.¹²⁸

* * * *

A short while later, at the Comfort Inn, Portland, Maine,¹²⁹ two well-dressed, burly security men, knocked at a Motel Room door and left a case at the door.

“Yes? Who is it?” came a foreign accented voice from the room.

One of the men said, “Rainbow.”

Inside the room, Atta picked up a handgun and tucked it into the back of his pyjamas. He tentatively looked outside and saw a briefcase and a letter on top. Like most motels, the bedroom doors opened out directly to the car park. Fifty yards away moving towards a black sedan, the two security men were walking backwards, showing the palm of his hands to indicate they had no weapons. Atta took the briefcase quickly inside and shut the door.

He ripped open the letter. It contained airline tickets and a key to unlock the briefcase. He opened the briefcase and it was full of dollar bills. He smiled broadly, then checked the tickets and the smile dropped. He looked at his watch. It was quarter to midnight.

“Bastards!” he exclaimed as he realised he was not going to sleep that night.

He picked up the phone and dialled furiously. “Kalid. They’ve paid up. Pack up now. It’s tomorrow. We must go. Inform the others.”¹³⁰

* * * *

Katherine was in her pyjamas in her hotel room. She looked at Planner’s text message and agonised about what she ought to do. Finally she texted a colleague at work “Sorry, can’t make it today.” She sat on the bed and held her head in her hands.

Her phone rang almost immediately.

“Hello,” she said hesitantly.

“Katherine, you can’t make it?” said her colleague on the phone.

“No. Sorry.”

“Are you sick?”

“Yeah,” she said.

“Oh crap. We need you there! If we don’t get funding, the whole team will be split up and the case against Enron goes kaput. Can I get you anything to pep-you-up so we can cover the meeting? It’s only half an hour. I can come over,” pleaded the man.

“Is the CEO going to be there?” she asked tentatively.

“Yeah. You know that. That’s the whole point of the meeting, right?” he said.

“Ok. I’ll get some cold cures and come in,” she said.

“Phew. Thanks. You nearly gave me a heart attack,” said the man in relief.

* * * *

The Rainbow Actor’s long journey to Logan Airport was not arbitrary; there was a particular reason for choosing that location. Boston’s Logan Airport security was recorded as “dismal”; it had the worst record for security at any airport in the North East USA. Tests by FAA agents were able to get 234 guns and inert hand grenades and bombs past its passenger screening checkpoints despite being fully manned and with X-ray machines. Other reports noted that perimeter doors were often left open, making it possible for anyone to gain access to planes on the ground. In summer 1999, a teenager was able to climb over the airport’s security fence, walk two miles across the tarmac, board a 747, and fly on to London. Security cameras belatedly ordered in that year had still not been installed by September 2001.¹³¹

At 6.50am, Logan International Airport, Boston, September 11th, Alshehri and Fayez nervously approach the check-in desk. Fayez looked barely awake.

“Would you like to check-in?” asked the check-in assistant politely.

Alshehri, as-if reciting, and with heavy accent, said. “We would like to buy two tickets for Flight 175.” He slapped down a wad of documents and cash.

The check-in assistant was less than impressed. “This is check-in, not ticket sales. You need to go the booth over there. They open in ten minutes.”

Alshehri looked at Fayez very confused. The check-in assistant picked up the money and papers to hand them back. Then she noticed airline tickets. “Oh wait. You have tickets.” She smiled and waved the tickets and Alshehri and Fayez look relieved.¹³²

* * * *

In a corridor at Logan Airport’s terminal building, was a short, almond-eyed woman wearing an ill-fitting, generic turquoise airport uniform. Holding the Flight 11 passenger manifest, Turq counted the number of empty seats on a plan of Flight 175. She took a “cloned” cell phone¹³³ from a bag marked “Atta” and made a call. It would be recorded the cell phone network operator as coming from Atta’s own phone.

“Make sure there are no Muggles in the area, we’re coming over,” she said to a fellow Rainbow Team colleague.

She then exited the terminal building and made her way to a bus, holding the Flight 11 passengers and drove it over to Flight 175.

As the passengers ascended the aircraft, she wrote on their boarding card a new seat number in felt-tip ink. One of the male passengers stopped and asked uncertainly, “Is this right?”

“We’re consolidating onto one aircraft,” she said unsmiling. “We’ll be taking off in twenty minutes.”

With the last passenger boarded, she then drove back to the original gate, parked the bus and walked out to the empty aircraft, which was ready to leave. Sealing up the aircraft, Turquoise then entered the co-pilot seat. A member of ground crew moved the steps from the aircraft and Flight 11 taxied to the runway.

* * * *

On board the E4-B, the Rainbow Team had snatched a few hours sleep and were now assembled at their respective stations within the Command Room. There was an air of expectation; all was quiet except for the hum of the air conditioning and engines. Just before 8am, Colonel Nicholas relayed a message, received from his headset, “I can confirm change of command. Myers has taken over.¹³⁴”

Captain Ochre, turned and said, “Turquoise has confirmed consolidation of passengers onto 175.”

Captain Magenta, said “First two drones in position.”

Planner sat in the center, in his command seat, and nodded. Bates, seating opposite to him, ticked off an item from his checklist.

Captain Orange announced, “Flight 11 is away.”

* * * *

Flight 175 was crowded. Inside, some passengers look nervous, one woman was openly crying. Then it too, was aloft.

* * * *

Captain Orange noticed the change in his radar display and stated, “Flight 175 has taken off.”

Planner looked at his watch, “What’s happened to Flight 93?”

“It’s still on the tarmac,” said Orange.

“Any particular problem?” asked Planner.

“Yes, two of the Rainbow Actors got off the plane just before take off¹³⁵,” said Orange wide-eyed.

Bates turned quickly, “I’ll get someone onto that. In the meantime, can you ask someone in ATC to up 93’s priority?”

“I’ll do that,” said Ochre.

Bates looked up from his check list, “Indigo, time to make your call.”

Indigo nodded and exited the Command Room to make his futile warning call.

Planner looked at Bates with a grim smile.

Magenta stated “Drone to synchronise with Flight 11 in 10 minutes.”

Planner said to Purple, “Colonel, can you ask our pilot to confirm his rendezvous at waypoint A?”

“Yes, Sir,” replied Purple.

“There’s been a minor delay on Flight 77 at Washington too. But it’s just lining up for take off now,” said Orange.

* * * *

Flight 77 took off from Dulles Airport in Washington at 8.20pm, ten minutes late. Meanwhile at Newark Airport, Flight 93, was already 20 minutes late. The plane was sitting on the runway with 38 passengers on board.

“Sorry for the delay, Flight 93,” said the air traffic controller to the Flight 93 pilot.

“Do you have an ETD, Control?” asked the pilot.

“Another ten minutes,” said the controller.

* * * *

Indigo re-entered the command room. He said, grimly. “I made the call.”

Planner forced himself to acknowledge Indigo and said grimly, “Ok. Coordinate the Flight 11 messages, Indigo.”

Colonel Purple announced, “We’re at Waypoint A.”

Bates said, “Are we ready to make switch?”

“Flight 11 is within the radar-free zone,” said Ochre.

“Drone ready,” said Magenta.

“Right. Make the switch. Radio Turq, switch off transponder, bring the airliner down. Start spoof transmissions. Alert ground teams: that we’re at Waypoint A,” said Planner.

“Spoof transmissions started,” said Ochre

“Ground team informed,” said Bates.

“Contact team, engage!” said Ochre and he waved at the contact team. Tangerine, Mint and Mahogany waved back and start talking into their headsets.

“Turquoise reporting that she’s already on the descent,” said Orange.

Magenta said, “Drone Flight 11 taken over. Moving into new Flight Plan.”

Planner took out his cell phone and tried to send Katherine another text from his phone: “Don’t go into work!”

* * * *

On a sunny New York Street close to the World Trade Center, a van with the sign “Urban Moving Systems” pulled up. The van had a logo of plane diving towards the Twin Towers.

Katherine saw the van as she crossed the street and found the logo vaguely unsettling. She continued towards the WTC Plaza, the North Tower Lobby and entered a lift.

Meanwhile, by a waterside conference center a few hundred yards away, a couple of dozen people who had emerged from the same subway train, wandered into a small lecture theatre. One of the hosts for the conference welcome them into the room and gave them a leaflet entitled “New York Office Of Emergency Management TRIPOD” and subtitled, “A training day to response to terrorist events”. Projected on a large screen above the podium was the following: “NY Office Of Emergency Management Welcomes FEMA to TRIPOD 11th-14th September 2001 at the World Trade Center.”¹³⁶

Immediately under the World Trade Center Plaza, in the basement under WTC Building 4, men were loading gold bars into an armoured truck.

Within the 20th floor of the WTC North Tower, a young man looked at his watch next to a bank of twenty PC computers. When the second hand reached 12, he went past each machine pressing the ENTER key and then walked out the door, switching off the lights and locking the door. The computer glowed in the dark and alternatively displayed in text “Sell: ok” and “Transfer: ok”.¹³⁷

In the street a few blocks north of the WTC, two men were videoing firemen performing work in the middle of the road. The cameraman checked his bearings. He looked south towards the twin towers and then looked north straining to see something in the skies. Yes, he was in the perfect position.

Meanwhile another photographer was finding his best spot. He lay on his back, looked straight up at the South Tower. He said to his colleague, “This is it,” and winked.

Across the river, on a rooftop with perfect view of the twin towers, five men set up a tripod with another camera.

* * * *

Colin Scoggins was hardly ever late for work. He was that day because his daughter’s school had been turned into a voting station for local elections and he had a longer than usual commute after dropping her off at the child minder. Scoggins was the supervising Air Traffic Controller at the FAA Center close to Logan Airport. His desk was at the head of a bank computer consoles each attended by an air traffic controller; each controller managed different sectors of air space and different flights. Before taking off his jacket Scoggins noticed a worried look from one of the junior controllers, Greg Allen. Scoggins went straight over to him to review the situation.

“AA Flight 11 is only at 15,000 feet but it is diverging from flight plan,” said Allen tensely. “There was some radio interference. I can’t get hold of the pilot.”

Scoggins peered hard at the screen.

Air Traffic Controller continued, “I can’t be certain… but it sounded like a hijacking.”

“No way. Surely it is still climbing,” said Scoggins in disbelief. It was unheard of for aircraft to be hijacked at such low altitudes and so soon after take-off.¹³⁸ It would have still been climbing sharply.

“This guy said we have some planes but it was mixed with radio interference so I can’t be sure it was Flight 11,”¹³⁹ said the ATC. “I know it sounds crazy.”

“Keep trying to contact them. I’ll escalate,” Scoggins knew instinctively that something was wrong. He pounced onto a telephone and started dialling.

* * * *

Planner looked down at his Blackberry cell phone. It said, “Message not sent. No signal”. Planner looked up with some realisation and said quietly to Bates, “Cell phones don’t work in planes.¹⁴⁰”

“They don’t?” said Bates surprised.

“No. Look no signal!” said Planner showing the “no service” icon on the Blackberry handset.

Ochre overheard, “Right. Not above a certain height and speed. The base stations are designed for slow moving ground changes. That’s why we have a satellite link from the E4-B, though, remember. We’ve been through this… I can set up the KneeCap’s Base Station Transceiver…”

Bates’ eyes widen. He appreciated the problem immediately; much of the back story from flights 93 and 77 relied upon communication from air to ground from passengers using cell phones. Rather than replying to Ochre, Bates said to Planner, “Airphones! Need to change the back-story to airphones¹⁴¹. Indigo?”

Bates looked over to Indigo.

“Now?!” said Indigo incredulously. “But the airphones don’t work either, we asked the airlines to discontinue that service last year.”

“Just cut the cell phone references. We’ll manage the back story later,” said Planner.

Indigo bounced over to the Contact Team and interrupted them, “Cell phone calls are cut. Crew communications continue, right?” Indigo looked back at Planner.

Planner nodded uneasily.

Orange said, “Flight 175 reached rendezvous zone.”

Planner said, “Prepare to switch. Wait for my say-so. Bates, are basement explosives ready?”

Bates confirmed, “Yes, synchronised.”

Orange stuttered, “Sorry, I just let the Flight 11’s impact warning go off. I’ve suppressed it.¹⁴²”

“Keep Calm and Carry On,” reassured Planner. “No-one will notice.”

* * * *

Katherine entered the conference room on the ninety second floor looking worried. There were ten people in the room but not the CEO.

A smart suited male colleague greeted her, “Katherine, so glad you can make it. We’re just hooking up the video link.”

“Video link?” said Katherine aghast.

“The CEO. He’s conferencing in,” he said with a fixed smiled.

“You said he’d be here,” stammered Katherine.

“Well, he will be. By video,” continued the colleague jovially.

Katherine looked dazed and spun a look around the room and then ran for the door, “Sorry. Excuse me. I need to go. You need to go. Get out!”

The colleague turned to the others and shrugged, “Well, she did say she was sick.” The others nodded.

Katherine ran to the lift lobby, where an elevator door was closing. She had just missed it.

* * * *

At FAA Air Traffic Control, Colin Scoggins slammed a phone down. Another experienced ATC, Joseph Cooper, had recently arrived and joined the Scoggins and the worried looking junior ATC responsible for the rouge aircraft.

“These new procedures¹⁴³ don’t work,” fumed Scoggins. “We need authorisation further up the chain. We don’t have time for that.”

“Well we said they wouldn’t work,” stated Cooper sardonically.

“We need someone who can get some fighters up there. Cooper, don’t you have a direct contact in the Air Defence Sector?

“NEADS? Yes, I’ll get right on it,” said Cooper calmly.

Scoggings tossed a folder over to Cooper, “If you need them, here’s today’s code-words…”

The ATC said to Scoggins “One of the flight attendants has called Logan Airport. It’s definitely a hijacking. Flight 11 is now heading for New York!”

“Any details? Number of hijackers? Demands?” gasped Scoggins.

“Some of the flight crew have been killed. They may have a bomb,” said ATC as professionally as he could.

Cooper, on the phone, calls to Scoggins, “They’ve patched me in.”

“Keep it cool,” says Scoggins, connecting into the call via a headset.

“Hi, this is Joseph Cooper of the FAA,” said Cooper smoothly to the NEADS commander. “This is a high priority interrupt call.”

“Go on,” said the NEADS officer officiously on the end of phone.

“We have a hijacked aircraft headed towards New York, and… we need someone to scramble some F-16s or something up there, help us out,” said Cooper.

“Is this real-world or exercise?” said the officer, knowing that they were running five major aerial exercises that day.

“No, this is not an exercise, not a test,” said Cooper.

* * * *

The cameraman on the street filming the firemen’s activities looked at his watch. “Action!” he joked.

The firemen laughed back and continued their activities. The cameraman then pans north and appeared to pick out something in the sky and trace it all the way to his clear view of the WTC towers.

* * * *

In the basement of the north tower, WTC Supervising Janitor, William Rodriguez, was shocked by a massive explosion in an adjoining room.¹⁴⁴ Several of his staff were killed instantly; some horrifically injured, skin ripped from their flesh.

Eigthy floors above, Katherine’s colleagues were focused on the face of Lewis Paul “Jerry” Bremer III¹⁴⁵, their CEO, on a video link. That was the last thing they ever saw. A fireball exploded at that point, the northern face, and through several floors above and to the east side of the building.¹⁴⁶

The explosion blew down elevator shafts: cables snapped and some elevators fall.

Jerry, a mid-forties office worker, had just entered an elevator, when the plane hit. He felt the elevator shake and start to give way. He dived out of the open doors as the elevator fell; the top of the elevator just missing his legs as he did so.

Safety devices halted most elevators with the consequence of trapping the occupants inside. Some elevators inexplicably did not stop but fell, crashing downwards into the sky lobby¹⁴⁷. In one lift, flames blasted through the elevator door burning the occupant badly.¹⁴⁸

Knowing the building well, when she left the meeting, Katherine knew she was not far from the sky lobby and had elected to use the stairs. She had descended several flights before the explosion. She was knocked down, bruised and cut. The stair case two floors immediately above her were wrecked. She was covered by a rocky debris and a thick layer of dust.

* * * *

“Impact,” Orange stated.

“Terminate Flight 11 transmissions,” said Planner sadly.

“175 Drone ready,” said Magenta.

Planner responded deadpan, “Black out the airliner. Tag as Old-175. Start spoof 175 transmissions. Inform ground team.”

Magenta gave a thumbs up.

“Spoof 11 terminated, 175 transmissions started,” said Orange.

Bates asked, “What’s happened to 93?”

Ochre reported, “Flight 93 has just taken off!”

Bates sighed. Bad news travels fast and Flight 93 could have been grounded.

“Old-175 to follow behind Flight 93,” commanded Planner.

“We’re getting visual confirmation from Flight 93’s chase plane,” said Magenta.

“Yes, Closet Point of Approach is one mile in 5 minutes,” said Orange.

“Ok, Make it so.” Said Planner.

“Vectors passed to Old-175, it is now following 93 to Cleveland,” said Orange.

“Very good. The only way anyone could spot that on radar would be if they had AWACS,” winked Purple.

* * * *

An elevator arrived at the North Tower 78th floor sky lobby with a ding, the door opened and a burnt occupant crawls out. A helpful man rushes to his aid. He could still walk and they started towards a stairway. They hear another person banging on another elevator door. After a few minutes trying, the helpful man calls out, “I can’t… I can’t get these doors open, Buddy. You’ll have to hang on for a bit longer, ok. I’ll bring help. I won’t forget you.”¹⁴⁹

* * * *

Over in the South Tower on the 97th floor, a group of workers at the Fiduciary Trust Company looked in horror at the fire in the North Tower.

“What was that?” exclaimed one. “It must have been a bomb!”

A loudspeaker voice announced over the tannoy, “The office is secure. Please return to your offices.”

Another worker said, “Secure? No, I don’t like this. We ought to evacuate.”

Another one said, “They’ll be busy enough down there without us getting in the way.”

The insecure worker said, “I’m getting out of here. Suppose there’s another bomb?”

A loudspeaker voice repeated its message, “The office is secure. Please return to your offices.”

Continuing on, he said, “Aren’t you worried you’ll be trapped?”

“From here?” said the first. “I’d get out onto the observation deck! Get picked up by helicopter. Just like Ninety-Three!¹⁵⁰”

* * * *

There was smoke swirling around the ceiling, the air was acrid; it was difficult to breath. At the stairway leading up to fire escape onto the roof, a queue of people, all covering their mouths with cloth, found the exit door was locked.

“It’s blocked! Somebody go get a fire axe,” said the man by the door.

“I thought you said you had a key,” said the man behind him.

“I do have a key. But there must be a second lock,” said the first man.

“Who the hell would lock a fire exit?” shouted someone further below.

The women behind the first two started to panic, “This smoke is going to kill us, we have to get some air!”

“Smash a window,” someone called.

A black man at the bottom of the stairs, “If you’re smashing a window then I’m getting myself a table-cloth and parachute out.”

“You’ll kill yourself,” said the man next to him.

“Break a leg, for sure. Still better than this,” he retorted.

“Someone get me an axe!” yelled the first man.

Another man said, “Or climb onto the roof? It’s been done before…”¹⁵¹

* * * *

Orange looked up from his radar screen, “Chase plane reports that Flight 77 has missed the rendezvous point.”

Planner shot a look over to Magenta, who looked embarrassed. “Slow down 77 and get the drone to circle around.”

Bates said “Er… what’s happening with the 175 drone? Look at the screen.”

The radar display showed Flight 175 closing towards Delta 2315. A collision detection warning was flashing on the display.

* * * *

Scoggins and Cooper were having an animated debate concerning the loss of radar contact with Flight 11 and other anomalies such as ghost tracks appearing on their screens. Within the bank of radar screens at the FAA Air Traffic Control Center, a controller was monitoring Flight 175. Mildly distracted by the commotion at the other end of the office, he noticed the potential for in-flight collision.

He waved his hand to attract his supervisor’s attention, saying “We’ve got another one”. He turned to bark into his headset microphone, “Delta 2315, Take evasive action. Aircraft heading for you on starboard side. Take evasive action.”

The pilot’s voice was calm but concerned, “Control, I can see nothing. What evasive action is recommended?”

The controller was frantic, “Aircraft descending from starboard to your altitude. On collision path! Go port”

The Pilot snapped back, “Understood! diving to port!”

* * * *

Orange looked grimly at his radar screen showing the two tracks touching and then move away. He checked the data returns from both aircraft, they were both still flying. Through gritted teeth, he said, “We just had a near miss.”

Planner said, “175? How near?”

“About as close as you can get¹⁵²,” said Orange.

Planner winced, “Keep the number of fake hijackings and simulated tracks down until the drone hits.¹⁵³ Let the FAA steer other craft away. What’s happened with Flight 93? 175 is supposed to be following that to Cleveland!”

Magenta called out, “77 drone swap complete.”

Ochre reported, “Completing Flight 77 swap. Indigo, how’s the contact group transmissions going?”

Indigo trembled, “Slight delay on that. Deleting references to cell phones in the scripts and losing some tapes. Doing the best I can. I may need to keep in some key conversations. With Cell phones. They are pre-recorded, we can’t mimic them.”

Planner and Bates looked towards Indigo grimly.

“Ok, do it! Do the best you can,” said Planner. “We’ll sort out the loose ends later.”

* * * *

Katherine, covered in fine concrete dust, clothes ripped, limped into the lift lobby via a stair well. The air was full of smoke. Jerry who was directing other survivors down another stairway, came up to her.

“Are you ok?” he said.

Katherine stared back at him blankly.

Jerry said, “I thought that stairway had collapsed.”

Katherine nods and coughs, “It has.”

“Come this way,” he said. “Stairway C seems to be clear. Can you make it? We’ve got everybody alive from this floor.”

* * * *

On several TV channels, news started to trickle through. One newsreader stated, “We have just heard that an aircraft has hit one of the towers at the World Trade Center. Witnesses state that a small single engine aircraft crashed into the north tower. We hope to bring you live pictures shortly.”

* * * *

At the FAA, Cooper dejectedly hands a phone to Scoggins. “It’s Washington.”

“What’s all this about calling up fighter aircraft outside of protocol?” shouted a managerial voice.

“We’ve had one hijack and we believe we have a second,” said Scoggins.

“Stop going around protocol. We’ll mobilise the Hijack Negotiators. Can you get them on the radio? Where are they headed?”

Scoggins sighed, “I said we had one hijack. That one has crashed. The other suspect has changed course. For New York. We won’t need negotiators for this.”

The manager’s voice changed instantly as if someone had hit him in the stomach, “I’ll call NORAD. Let me know how we can help.”

“Can you set up some phone bridges? And a few prayers wouldn’t come amiss,” said Scoggins.

* * * *

Orange looks up, “USAF interceptor has taken off. An F-15. Just calculating a diversion course.”

Colonel Nicholas sighed, “NEADS are starting to make independent decisions. I’ll call the Commander in Chief and make him re-take control.”

Orange gasped, “Oh… shit… another near miss! Just 30 seconds to impact!”

* * * *

At the base of the World Trade Center South Tower, a man was listening on a military style radio while his friend, the cameraman, lay on the ground angled his lens upwards.

The cameraman said, “Just keep listening to the radio. I want to get a reaction shot.¹⁵⁴”

The radioman said “Ok. Get rolling, though, it’s coming in fast. Four, three, two… oh my god! Oh my god!”

There was an explosion on the South Tower directly above them.

The workers on the 97th floor of the south tower were watching as they felt the impact and saw the explosion below them.

“Oh Shit!” said the first worker.

A jet engine component fell into the street and crashed into an empty taxi. A young woman was hit by the debris in the leg and was slammed back into a wall.

“These are live-pictures coming from the World Trade Center,” said a TV newsreader discussing the fire in the north tower. Then the World Trade Center South Tower exploded on the TV. “Oh… my Gawd! There’s… a major explosion from the South Tower.” The newsreader falls silent as he swears with the microphone switched off. Multiple TV cameras surrounding the tower record the explosion and the smoke plume rising from both towers.

The channel 5 helicopter was flying some distance away over New Jersey, the cameraman onboard zoomed in onto the Twin Towers where a single plume of smoke was emanating. He zoomed in again tightly framing the Twin Tower dead center within the picture. At that point, mysteriously a fast jet appeared on the right hand side of the screen and apparently ploughed into the South Tower. A fireball exploded. The camera inexplicably went to black.

On the Brooklyn side of New York, across the river from the WTC, five men next to camera tripod leapt for joy; They high-fived each other. One of them caught sight of a woman watching them from a balcony. They quickly packed up the camera and bundled into a van with an “Urban Moving Systems” logo.¹⁵⁵

* * * *

Karl Rove taps Whitehouse official, Andrew Card, on the shoulder and nods at him. Card realised it was his job to interrupt the President. Cameras were trained on the POTUS as he was being read “The Pet Goat” at Emma E. Booker Elementary School, Saratosa, Florida. He goes up to President George W Bush and whispers into his ear, “Another plane has hit the World Trade Center. America is under attack!”

The President nods and continued to listen to the school children reading with a far away look in his eyes.¹⁵⁶

* * * *

Planner, Orange, Ochre, Purple and Bates gathered to watch the TV news on one of the displays. Indigo, Magenta and others stayed at their stations. Planner watched the live newsfeed and noticed it went black for a second before live broadcasts resumed. Planner returned to his seat rather miserably rubbing his chin. He slumped into his seat. Bates turned and his eyes narrowed as he noticed Planner’s body language.

* * * *

In the North Tower, Katherine and Jerry joined a group of ten people descending the stairs.

“What’s up?” said Jerry.

A woman below turned and stammered, “There’s a locked door. Why would there be a locked door on an emergency exit?”

“So what are we doing? Is there another way down?” said Jerry.

Somebody else called up to him. “There’s firemen on the other side. We just have to wait until they bust through.”

Katherine sat down on the steps and rocked gently back and forth.

* * * *

Within Office of the Vice Chief Of Naval Operations, at the Pentagon, Chief Lafleur¹⁵⁷ was walking past an office open area which featured a wall mounted TV displaying the news channel and replaying the impact on the South Tower. “Holy shit,” he exclaimed. “Look at that!”

Captain Toti and Commander Radi sprung out of their offices and looked agog at the TV screen. Lafleur repeated the Holy Shit mantra a few more times while holding his head.

“A daylight attack?! This must be terrorists!” said Toti.

“Two planes?” said Radi. “That’s unreal!”

“This is organised!” said Toti. “If they can do two then they can do three… The next target to hit after WTC… is here. Washington, for sure. We’re next.”

“The White House?” said Radi.

“No. Too small,” mused Toti. “Here. The Pentagon is dead easy to spot from the air.”

“They’d never get through our air defences. Our missiles,” said Radi.

Lafleur turned and said bitterly, “I wouldn’t be so sure of that. The defences are mobile I doubt whether they’ll be available.”

* * * *

Scoggins was surrounded by animated FAA staff. Someone called out to Scoggins waving a phone, “It’s NORAD”.

“Scoggins here,” he said taking the phone.

A NORAD Intelligence Officer blasted down the phone, “What’s the fuck’s going on?”

“Two hijacked aircraft. Both crashed!” said Scoggins bitterly.

“I know that!” continued the angry man. “Why weren’t we told? We could have done something!”

Scoggins said, summoning as much patience he could muster, “We called you 40 minutes ago. And before you say anything else, note that we have four other potential hijackings, that we can’t accurately track.”

“Shit!” said the NORAD guy, stunned.

“We’ve set up a phone bridge with NEADS. We’re trying to share data but having some issues with track correlation. Perhaps you’d like to sort that out your end? The hijackers have switched off their transponders. We’re getting spurious ghost tracks from NORAD. We’re not getting primary returns.”

“Ghost tracks?”

“Yeah. Fake information. Simulated tracks¹⁵⁸ maybe?”

“I’ll get onto it,” said the contrite NORAD officer. He signed off with another, albeit apologetic, expletive.

* * * *

Planner leaned over towards Indigo, “How’s it coming along, Indigo?”

Indigo was typing furiously into his computer keyboard, “I need more time!” he croaked.

Planner said, “Magenta, slow down the drones. Switch off drone-77’s transponder. Delay the 93 switch.”

Nicholas piped up, “Two F-16s were just about to take off. I’ve managed to delay them but only by returning them to affix missiles.”

Planner replied, “We need more widespread delays. Have you any ideas?”

“Yes, I have a back-up plan,” said Nicholas.

“JFDI,” said Planner.

Bates said, “Starting phase 1 of north tower demolition.”

Planner looked at Bates with some alarm.

* * * *

Janitor William Rodriguez unlocked emergency doors within stairways, in the North Tower, to allow firemen, entry further into the building and also free people descending the stairs. They reach the 30th floor where Katherine and a dozen others were held up. But just as the door was being unlocked, they heard loud bbuh-der, bbuh-der, bbuh-der of synchronised explosions from the four corners of the central elevator area.

“What the hell was that?” said one of firemen.

“Bombs in the building! They’re trying to bring it down!” said another.

Several people, leaning out the window to avoid the smoke, were ejected from the North Tower by the explosions, to fall 90 stories to their death on the WTC plaza pavement.¹⁵⁹

* * * *

“Bates,” Planner said. “The demolition phasing needs to be delayed.”

“No, we need to accelerate the demolition,” retorted Bates forcefully.

“That’s a change of plan,” said Planner with an edge.

“A delay or a change? Which is it?” replied Bates with more edge.

Purple noted this exchange with some concern.

Then all eyes were drawn to Nicholas when he announced, “Otis National Guard have just gone onto war footing. They’ll be launching two interceptors shortly.”

* * * *

Katherine and Jerry continued to follow a slow moving queue down the stairs, with some fireman walking up them.

“Damn radios aren’t working,” said one fireman to another.

Another round of extreme-disco sounding explosions were heard and felt. One of the firemen twisted his body around following the progression of the explosions around the building.

“Holly Cow!” he exclaimed. “Synchronised explosions? We’re in shit creek!”

The other fire fighter nodded sternly and kept walking upwards.

* * * *

About this time, a rotund black man ran into the Mayor’s Emergency Management Office inside WTC7. Barry Jennings¹⁶⁰ was a civil servant responding as expected by his training, burst into the WTC7 Emergency Management Office but found no one there. Although there was a steaming cup of coffee and papers on the desks; obviously people had just left.

He did not take long to decide that he too would evacuate. Barry took the emergency stairs down from the 20th floor. About half way down, a bomb marked “WTC7-7-1” strapped to a pillar inside the elevator shaft, started to vibrate as it received its computer controlled signal to explode. The cell phone device took just a few microseconds to identify the security code it had received to activate the detonator. The Komatsu-Dresser termite bomb efficiently fulfilled its mission; the stairs two floors below Barry were blown to pieces. He fell back, amazingly unharmed by the blast, but tumbled down the stairs and nearly fell into the gapping hole created by the explosion.

* * * *

Captain Ochre’s eyes widen, “Now there are cell phone calls going out from the aircraft! From 77!”

“How can that happen?” gasped Nicholas.

“It’s from us. I switched on the internal CDMA Transceiver. We’re now acting as a base-station transceiver. The calls are hopping from the planes following us over to our satellite link.”

“Talk English!” snapped Bates.

“The calls are connecting up through our network link!” retorted Ochre. Various jaws were dropping in the Command Room. Ochre punched a few keys. “Ok, I’ve blotted out the calls from 77 and suppressing them. Hopefully there’s no reaction from the ground.” Softly to Planner he added, “After our previous chat about cell phones, I switched it on. Sorry I wasn’t thinking.”

Bates snarled, “I’ll alert the crew management team.”

Planner said quietly with edge, “Crew management? This isn’t part of the plan either…”

Indigo was also indignant, “There shouldn’t be any calls from 77… except my pre-arranged calls. There shouldn’t be anybody onboard!”

Bates sarcastically replied, “Well, we all know that some of you are delicate little flowers… firewalled off from some of life’s harsher realities.”

Planner said cautiously, “So… you’ve loaded some ordinary Joes onto the aircraft?”

Bates said, “Fake stories and legends always unravel; we needed real victims. You should know that. Hey, you wanted better legends…”

Planner said, “And he flight crews?”

“Being managed, yes,” said Bates in a superior tone. This meant that the crew had no idea of the mission they were involved in; a CIA team would have exclusive communication with the flight crew and were following their instructions through an encrypted communication channel.

Planner looked over to Purple, when he responded to Bates, “And tidied up back at base?”

Purple nodded uncertainly.

Indigo interrupted softly but shaking to contain his anger, “Not only more collateral damage but this could upset everything; the manifests, back-story. This is completely reckless.”

Planner reassured him, “Spin it out, Indigo. In the meantime, Bates, I need a word. Colonel Nicholas, can you delay the air force further?”

“Sure,” said Nicholas, cracking his knuckles.

“How?” asked Planner.

“The Commander in Chief will er… be in his car,¹⁶¹” said Nicholas airily.

Planner and Bates walked out of the control room watched intently by Purple.

* * * *

In Montanna, the state governor, Judy Martz, was on a podium at the start of FEMA State Emergency Managers meeting in Montana where there are about 200 attendees.

“It’s my pleasure to welcome FEMA Director, Joseph Allbaugh, and senior representatives from the emergency management agencies of 47 states, to Montana. For this conference organised by the National Emergency Management Association,” said Martz.

A cell phone started to ring. She peered at the person with offending phone. “The subject for today,” she continued as a pager went off, “is the issue of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.” Four more cell phone started ringing and along with several pagers. Martz continued genially over the noise, “Not something we know too much about in my State…”

At that point there was a cacophony of cell phones and pagers. A young man raced onto the stage and alerted Martz to the news, who looked shocked. She later declared a state of emergency and an exclusion zone around the conference center, fearing for the lives of the FEMA State Emergency Managers.¹⁶²

* * * *

Planner and Bates entered the E4-B’s Small Conference Room.

“So, Bates. Are you going to explain the flight crew management?” said Planner trying, but failing, to achieve a pleasant tone of voice.

“Just a little improvement since we were rather short of flight crew we could trust. The job was delegated to me, if you remember,” said Bates innocently.

“How many other improvements do you have? Faster tower collapses, real victims, your own escape?” needled Planner.

Bates paused momentarily, “You know, that is quite insightful, Robert. But really I wasn’t expecting these improvements to change the plans.”

“Because you’ve run them past the COG?” said Planner in a mocking tone.

“Right… Hey, you’re not forgetting the big picture here, Planner? The time for worrying about collateral damage has long gone,” Bates said expansively.

Colonel Purple burst into the room, angrily, “If you two ladies have finished, we have some unfinished business to attend to.”

Bates smiled and left the room, walking past Purple.

When Planner was close, Purple whispered angrily, “The president is about to do a TV address! He’s a sitting duck! I just heard through security channels that a foriegn TV crew tried to see him earlier; an unscheduled visit! They were let in, nearly got through. They may have been assassins!¹⁶³”

“Maybe someone has a plan for a Coup D’etat. Let’s hope we’re not part of it,” sighed Planner.

Purple’s eyes widened!

* * * *

In his impromptu television address from the Emma E. Booker Elementary School, Sarasota, surrounded by kids and teachers, President Bush called for two minutes silence for the dead. However the vast majority of the people that were to die that day were at that time, still alive within in the burning World Trade Center towers.

In the North Tower, a woman stood and waved from the impact point hole. Below her were dozens of faces pressed against the windows on the North Tower.

Meanwhile, evacuation of the South Tower was going smoothly. Thousands of office workers were streaming out of the building including the workers from the 97th floor. They had found a staircase that took them past the impact zone floors. Some in the South Tower also tried to exit onto the roof but, just like the North Tower, found the roof exit doors locked. On the ground floor, fire fighters continued to arrive, strapping on equipment to walk up the 70 floors to the impact zone.

One fire fighter shouted to another above the screech of the fire alarm, “There’s secondary explosions in the north tower.”

The other fire fighter shouted back, “Explosions? You’re sure?”

“That’s what they say,” replied the first. “They’re professionals, aren’t they?”

The second fire fighter shrugged “Right.” He looked up with a grim expression, “Shit.” He tightened up a belt and announced grimly, “Let’s get going, I suppose.”

The fire fighters started on their final journey.

* * * *

Ed Balinger was the air traffic controller handling Flight 93. He was sending out the warning to all aircraft in flight in his patch. The warning read “Hijackings! Beware of cockpit intrusion” to all of the pilots in his domain. Pilots responded via the ACARS messaging system to acknowledge the message. Flight 93 responded with “Hi, Ed. Confirmed.”

* * * *

Purple and Planner re-entered the Command Room.

Bates had already sat down and had a smirk on his face, barely looking at his checklist, he said genially, “Time for the 93 switch?”

Orange responded, “93 is at Cleveland with old-175 following behind. All ready to go. Just waiting for your say-so.”

Planner said, “Ok, switch. Old-175 needs to stay in a holding pattern for 20 minutes before switching its transponder back on and requesting to land. So are you going to manage 93 down, Bates?”

Bates returned a sarcastic smile. Orange turned back to his console.

Indigo muttered, “This is the big one. It’ll take about 30 minutes to unfold the storyline.”

Magenta said, “Synchronising with crash point. Note that we’ve slipped about 15 minutes. Drone 93 taken over. Old-93 will be vectored to our position.”

Orange stated, “Old-77 and chase plane vectored to our position.”

Nicholas stated, “Delaying inceptors off the coast, but the E.T.A. in Washington is 0-8-40; I’ve instructed them to chase a phantom.¹⁶⁴ But we have another problem! Another E4-B is due to take off. They’ll be up in half an hour, flying from Washington. Once that goes up, we’ll be spotted for sure as they link into the AWACS radar feed. They may have already connected up.”

“Were we aware of that? A second E-4B?” asked Planner concerned.

“It’s news to me. Frankly I hadn’t considered two KneeCaps to be operational and certainly not one flying out of Washington,” said Nicholas clearly bemused.

“Thanks,” said Planner. Planner looked over to Bates who was looking intently at his computer monitor. Planner was sure that Bates would have heard that exchange. He tapped his forehead just for a second before hesitantly issuing a new order, “Captain Ochre, er… send this message to Air Force One…”

“Yes, Sir,” said Ochre in good military style.

Planner said, “Message to read Angel is Next¹⁶⁵. Supply today’s code reference for authentication.”

“Yes, Sir. Which set of codes; Secret, Top Secret?” said Ochre, puzzled.

“Use Top Secret Atomic¹⁶⁶. Also, Bates, tell the ground crews to generate some rumors too that Camp David has been hit and the White House is in flames. Make sure it’s untraceable,” Planner added.

Bates turned towards to Planner wide eyed. “Ok,” he said after a momentary pause.

“That’s a warning, right?” said Indigo to Planner. “Angel is Air Force One.”

“There seems to be… er… some alternative scenarios, that we just need to nip in the bud,” replied Planner cautiously.

Purple nodded firmly.

Bates said sarcastically, “This all seems rather superfluous, Planner.”

Planner replied to Bates testily, “I’m just making sure this Big Event¹⁶⁷ isn’t like the last one.”