Threat Level Black

Tyler laughed. “Everybody’s got to be somewhere. I’m on a special task force. Brain work. I’m attached to the Joint Chiefs staff, but I’ve been doing tons of work for the NSC. What are you doing these days?”

“Supposed to meet Dr. Blitz.”

“Great. You going to work for him?”

Howe shrugged.

Tyler looked at him as if he expected an explanation. When Howe didn’t offer one, the major suggested they have a drink sometime. “Where you staying?”

Howe told him the hotel. Tyler nodded-it wasn’t clear to Howe whether he was truly interested in getting together or not-then ran off down the hall to catch up with the others.

If the Secret Service agent was impressed by the fact that Howe knew the President, it didn’t show in his manner. He checked the ID again before letting Howe pass.

“Would you like some coffee, Colonel?” asked Mozelle Clarke, Blitz’s administrative assistant, when he arrived in Blitz’s office a few minutes later.

“Not really, thanks. I’m kind of coffeed out this morning.”

“Mention that to Dr. Blitz,” she said.

“Mention what?” said Blitz.

“That some people drink too much coffee.”

“I give up coffee every few months,” said Blitz, meeting him at the door. Blitz looked every bit the academic he had been before coming to work with the administration: His shirt was rumpled and his tie loose at the neck, while his glasses leaned so far off the edge of his nose it seemed impossible that they didn’t fall. Books were stacked high around the office, and the titles that were visible included tomes on biblical studies, English literature, and French philosophy as well as world politics and military analysis.

“Against my better judgment,” Blitz said, as if commenting on something he had said before.

“The coffee?” asked Howe, sitting down.

“Coffee? No. The arrangements. Keeping the contract agencies on. Privatization-between you and me-it’s bullshit. Total, complete, utter bullshit. The military ought to be in control of its own fate. I don’t buy all this outsourcing crap, even if it can be expedient.”

Howe still wasn’t sure what Blitz was talking about.

“But rearranging everything, between Congress, the budget fight-God help us if we had to raise taxes,” said Blitz.

“Yes, sir,” said Howe, falling back on the old military habit: When in doubt, salute.

“So we’re stuck with it. But if someone gives you a lemon, my stepfather always said, make lemonade. And that’s what I’d like to do.”

“Excuse me, but I’m not really following,” admitted Howe.

Blitz smiled and nodded, as if finally getting some inside joke. “National Aeronautics Development and Testing. We’ve gotten rid of Bonham-for a long time, I’d say. He’s going to plead guilty. There won’t be a trial.”

Howe nodded. A retired Air Force general, Clayton Bonham had headed the National Aeronautics Development and Testing agency. Commonly abbreviated as NADT, the private company was responsible for developing and testing cutting-edge weapons for the military. Bonham had been in the middle of the conspiracy to hijack Cyclops, using it to cheat on the tests for an augmented ABM system.

Howe realized that he should feel some relief that there would be no trial, since he would undoubtedly have been a witness in the case. But he felt as if justice had been cheated. In his opinion, no jail sentence would sufficiently punish Bonham for what he had done: betraying his trust for money.

“But the company itself-its function developing and testing new weapons systems-it has too much potential in the present political and economic climate to just walk away from,” continued Blitz. “Outsourcing and private industry sharing the risks-it’s the way we’ll be doing things for the next decade at least.”

Howe detected a note of regret in Blitz’s voice. Howe, though he had worked with NADT, agreed that outside contractors were gaining too much control over military projects. Originally conceived as a way to rein them in, NADT had helped encourage the trend. Set up as a government-sponsored company like Freddie Mac-the comparison had often been made-NADT had quickly set its own course. It now controlled or had a hand in nearly a hundred projects, including large ones like Cyclops and the Velociraptor, an improved version of the F/A-22 Raptor jet aircraft. While it wouldn’t be fair to say that the agency controlled the Pentagon, it also wouldn’t be accurate to say that the Pentagon controlled NADT. The company had far more say over individual projects than traditional contractors like Boeing ever dreamed of.

“If the structure has to remain, if outsourcing is still the order of the day,” added Blitz, “then we have to make the best of it. It does present certain opportunities-advantages in terms of expediting things, making things work. Of course, there will be reforms. That’s why it’s important to get the right people-the absolutely right people-in place.”

“Right,” said Howe absently.