Nighthawk (NUMA Files 14)

Kurt nodded to indicate he understood and Gowdy leaned toward the camera like a TV reporter on the evening news. “Before I begin, you have to understand that this project is of the utmost importance and is compartmentally classified on a highly restricted basis.”

Kurt had heard this speech before. “There’s not much in the NSA that isn’t. But I understand.”

Gunn cracked a smile, but Gowdy didn’t seem to get the joke.

“We’ve had our project go off the wire at the last moment,” Gowdy continued. “An experimental craft on a reentry profile over the South Pacific.”

Kurt knew something about the NSA’s space operations. “X-37,” he said, referring to the well-known NSA craft that was launched on a rocket and returned to Earth by gliding back down similar to the space shuttle.

“No,” Gowdy said. “A vehicle we call the Nighthawk. Its official designation is VXA-01. It’s the first of its kind. In a way, the X-37B was a prototype, a test bed used to develop certain technologies. The new craft is twice the size of the X-37 and far more capable.”

“I’m impressed,” Kurt said. “I’ve never heard of it. Not even a rumor.”

“We’ve done our work keeping it quiet,” Gowdy admitted. “By flying the X-37 under mysterious circumstances, we’ve been able to occupy the public’s attention and give them something to be suspicious about. In the meantime, we’ve built Nighthawk and had it up in space for over three years. Unfortunately, it went off course on reentry and failed to answer commands.”

“So . . . are we worried about losing the warp technology to the Klingons?” Kurt asked.

Gowdy sat in stony silence before answering. “There are no warp drives,” Gowdy said without a trace of humor, “but the Nighthawk is the most advanced aircraft ever built. It was constructed with materials and technology that are two generations beyond anything the European, Chinese or Russian space agencies are using. It’s a revolutionary aircraft. I say aircraft because it looks like a plane, but, make no mistake, it is a spacecraft, capable of maneuvering in orbit, acting autonomously and completing missions the shuttle never dreamed of. And while it doesn’t have a warp drive, it does possess a revolutionary ion propulsion system that could be used for Earth–Moon travel and cut our transit time to Mars in half.”

Kurt nodded. “And you want us to look for it.”

“You’ll be part of a team responsible for a specific sector in the search zone. Naval assets from Pearl and San Diego will be working close by.”

As Gowdy spoke, Rudi Gunn unlocked a briefcase, pulled out a file and passed it to Kurt.

Using the edge of his palm, Kurt broke the imprinted seal. Inside, he found information about the Nighthawk: trajectory data, time sequencing and a map.

“As you can see,” Gowdy continued, “we lost track of it halfway between French Polynesia and the South American coastline. Based on the last telemetry response, and the vehicle’s speed and altitude, we believe it came down somewhere east of the Galápagos Islands.”

Kurt studied a satellite photo with red lines overlaid upon it. The lines showed a widening cone of probability that began just east of the Galápagos. It stretched and widened in a sideways V toward Ecuador and Peru. A scale suggested the calculated odds of the Nighthawk coming down in any particular section.

“Does it have an emergency beacon?” Kurt asked, still studying the map.

“Yes,” Gowdy replied, “but we’re not receiving a signal.”

“So we’ll be looking for debris,” Kurt concluded.

“No,” Gowdy said firmly.

Kurt looked up.

“We have reason to believe the Nighthawk landed intact,” Gowdy said.

Gowdy went on to explain the autoland system and how the internal processors would take over the flight controls once commands from the base at Vandenberg were cut off. He mentioned the word confidence at least three times but never gave a reason why the autoland system should be working when so many other systems on board had failed.

Kurt let it go. “What resources do we have for the job?”

At this point, Gunn took over the conversation. “Everything we could get our hands on,” he said. “NUMA has three vessels in the area. One coming up from the Chilean coast and two coming through the Panama Canal from the Gulf of Mexico.”

Another sheet of paper came Kurt’s way. It listed the various ships.

“Paul and Gamay Trout are already on the Catalina,” Gunn said, referring to two of the most trusted members of NUMA’s Special Projects team. “They were down off the coast of Chile doing an ecological study. They’ll be within range in about fifteen hours.”

“That’s fortunate,” Kurt said.

Rudi nodded. “The Jonestown and the Condor will transit the canal and arrive thirty-six hours later.”

“Thirty-six hours sounds a little optimistic,” Kurt said, looking at the relative positions of the ships. “It’s nearly thirty hours’ sailing time and the canal looks like a freeway at rush hour this time of year. Ships can wait as long as two days to transit.”