Chapter Fourteen – The Hard Truth
Maggie Whelan sat in her car, glancing at the entrance, hoping to see the woman she'd seen in the lobby while on her way out. At first she'd thought she recognized the woman but couldn't place her but then she recalled a picture she'd seen in Doctor Harrison's office over a year ago. Although her hair color had changed there was no mistake about her identity; she was Kevin's wife.
Intrigued Maggie kept glancing in her rear-mirror and hastily jumped out of her car as Mrs. Harrison appeared to be leaving the building ten minutes later.
"Mrs. Harrison!" she said, hoping to catch her attention.
The woman turned around with a puzzled look on her face and frowned at the blonde woman who walked briskly toward her. She took in the weary appearance, the pale color of the skin, the somewhat haunted look in her eyes and the butterfly strips in the hairline next to her left temple.
"Yes," Gemma said in surprise.
"Mrs. Harrison, my name's Maggie Whelan. I'm a news anchor at the Nightly News," she said politely.
Gemma huffed and started walking. "Have they run out reporters to send?" she asked sarcastically. "I'm not interested in talking to you. Good bye Miss Whelan."
"No, please wait and hear me out," Maggie begged. "I need to know-"
Gemma turned to the new anchor. "What do you need to know?" she asked impatiently.
"Do you really believe that Kev-" she trailed off and quickly corrected herself. "-that Doctor Harrison died after a charity event in Switzerland?"
The doctor's wife narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Maggie for a moment. "What does it matter to you? The press has already fabricated a lot of lies about my husband I don't need another one, Miss Whelan," she said and tried to excuse herself.
"I'm only interested in the truth," Maggie blurted out. "I was onboard FWA flight 28 when it crashed in the Alps."
Gemma halted in mid-step and turned to look at her. "I'm sorry but I don't see how that's supposed to be connected with Kevin or Harrison Industries?"
"You don't know anything do you, Mrs. Harrison?" Maggie asked sadly.
"I don't think I like what you're implying," Gemma returned quickly as she fixed Maggie with her cold blue eyes.
Maggie chuckled mirthlessly at the statement. "No, you most likely will not, but I think you deserve to know; at least then you can decide what to do about it," she let on enigmatically.
Gemma looked uncertain for a moment, some of the chilliness was leaving her eyes.
"I –" Maggie began seriously as she leveled her eyes with the other woman's. "I'm not here as a reporter Mrs. Harrison. I'm here because I loved your husband. We had an affair."
Gemma's eyes widened in surprise. "How dare you," she whispered.
"A few days ago I was contacted by a man named Carl Parker, one of Kevin's employees. He didn't know about us, he came to me because I was a news anchor and had the power to do something he could not," she explained and paused for a moment.
The tension in the air was palpable as Maggie continued.
"He tried to tell me about the illegal business that Harrison Industries had been, and still was, involved in."
"That is outrageous!" Gemma protested fiercely. "Kevin would never do such a thing!"
"Parker was shot dead before me by a man sent from Harrison Industries and that man tried to kill me too," Maggie pressed on.
"Lies," Gemma whispered as tears glistened on her cheeks and she turned to go.
Maggie reached out to grab her arm and spun her around. "I don't need your hatred I need your help!" she said in frustration.
"You lie, you cheat on me with my husband. Now you need myhelp?" she asked in bewilderment. "I wonder what he ever saw in you!" She shouted in rage as she shook off the news anchor's hand.
When Maggie spoke again her voice was calm and cold. "Harrison Industries has performed flawlessly and brought in a lot of money on their legal business commitments but the illegal arms dealings in third world countries has made the company and Kevin rich. The documents delivered to me proves that and they are authentic."
"He would never hurt a fly," Gemma replied, her voice quivering slightly.
"Kevin was afraid that the documents would be publically known and that he would be brought before a court of justice. He sent the Buzzard drone after my plane. Do you think it was an accident?!" Maggie's voice rose with every world until she was nearly shouting in disbelief. "Do you think a drone with built in failsafe systems would suddenly veer off course and head for the Concorde all by itself? An airliner, which I might add, was well within the eastern air traffic corridors of Dulles."
Gemma chuckled nervously, unable to even consider the evil portraying of her husband that Maggie was painting for her. "Kevin was a gentle man with a conscience, he devoted many hours to charity. He gave too much of himself, that's why he died prematurely," she explained calmly before her voice took on a more malicious tone that chilled Maggie to the bone. "Kevin is not a murderer, stop disgracing my husband. Get out of my sight, I'll never want to see you again!"
Maggie sighed and hung her head as she watched her deceased lover's wife leave the premises. She cast a worried look upon the main entrance of the building and shuddered before she headed back to her car to drive off.
OOOOOO
"Yes, thank you," Henri Davis said as he ended the call.
Line glanced up at him curiously.
"My contact at the local police department," Davis explained as he sat down next to her and eyed the reports in front of her. "Finding anything in there?"
Line shook her head. "No, as FWA's chief maintenance guy said, everything is signed and controlled according to the requirements made by the manufacturer," she said and closed the file handed over to them by the airline company. "Froelich and his team worked hard to get the aircraft flight worthy, there are no discrepancies anywhere."
"Froelich," Davis echoed thoughtfully.
Line raised a curious eyebrow at him.
"Think about it, Line. FWA's leading maintenance guy at the de Gaulle booked a flight to Bahamas. A man who according to the police had money problems. Unfortunately for him he died before he could escape the country, his pockets filled to the brim with money."
"You suspect he's got something to do with it? That approach would clear the factory and the software developers and instead cast a shadow over the airline company," Line deduced. "But why would they bring down their own aircraft – insurance?"
Davis shook his head. "No, Federation World Airlines are not involved. Their VP was onboard the aircraft as well. It's about something else – or someone else," he explained. "The FWA are just as clueless as we are at the moment. I just hope that the police can come up with something about the mechanic."
"He wasn't involved in the incident with the Buzzard drone," she mused.
Davis turned to his colleague. "You think it's even more intricate," he stated with a cocked eyebrow.
"Think about it Henri," she returned. "Why would the drone deviate from its course and target FWA's flight 28 specifically? Of all the aircraft's taking off from Dulles that day why the Concorde?"
He looked at her for a moment, contemplating her question and, although he'd found it outrageous at first, he couldn't seem to get rid of the idea that had formed in his head, that Harrison Industries was somehow connected to this mess. "Do you realize what you're implying?" he asked carefully.
"Did you watch the news yesterday?" she countered. "That news anchor at Nightly News, Maggie Whelan, apparently received some secret documents about Harrison Industries a while ago. She was onboard flight 28 when the incident with the Buzzard occurred. Some people do every kind of crazy things in order to protect their companies' interests. Then, not long after, she was involved in an explosion at Park Hotel."
"Okay, let's play with the thought for a second," Henri said. "If Doctor Harrison felt threatened by the woman he could have a motive but you just don't reprogram a drone like that."
"Harrison Industries have partners and associates in France. Doctor Harrison had the money to bribe Manuel Froelich," Line reasoned.
"That doesn't explain where the fighter plane came from or why the pilot tried to bring the airliner out of the sky," Henri mused.
"Another bribe," Line suggested casually with a shrug of her shoulders.
"You describe Doctor Harrison as a cold and calculating maniac when media usually describe him as a rich gentleman that likes to spend money on charity," the senior investigator said.
Line gave him a faint smile. "To quote Captain Metrand," she said. 'People change.'
Henri appeared thoughtful.
"Let's take another look at the cockpit voice recorder and hear what he said during the Buzzard incident," she suggested.
Henri shook his head sadly. "The CVR is a magnetic recorder and can only record a loop of 30 minutes before it starts all over again, erasing previous entries," he explained. "However, the flight data recorder would have recorded data for 25 hours, meaning that we can see what the aircraft did during the incident."
"Evasive maneuvers?" she stated sarcastically. "I don't see what good that would do."
"I guess you're right," he admitted. "It's up to the police to piece it together. Let's concentrate on our own reports about the accident."
OOOOOO
Technical engineer and design manager Willie Halpern looked gloomily down the straight and narrow corridor of level minus one at the Harrison Industries testing facility. The basement was painted in a light grey color that reminded him of a prison cell block. His expensive and brightly polished leather shoes created an eerie echo as he began to walk toward a group of highly decorated military officers who waited for him at the end of the long row of doors leading to various labs. He unconsciously swallowed and felt the urge to loosen his tie as he neared the group.
"Thank you for coming gentlemen," he said politely. "Welcome to subzero. This is where most of our advanced computerized tests are performed. I will not bore you with details you're not interested in nor will I discuss exactly what is going on behind closed doors."
"What went wrong?" One of the officers, a colonel, asked impatiently.
"We were under the impression that your drone was fool proof," added another man, this one dressed in a tailored suit sent from the Department of Defense.
"Even the most advanced things can fail," Willie said humbly with a fake smile.
"Them especially," muttered a third man.
"I'm glad this disaster happened on the trail run. Imagine what would have happened if it had been our drone," the colonel said.
"Imagine that aircraft had been a Russian," the man from the Department of Defense added sourly. "Damn thing could have started world war three."
"You have our written conclusions in the report that was sent to you early yesterday afternoon," Willie replied curtly as he led them into a large and spacious conference room.
"The ministry has decided against further conclusive tests by the military," the colonel said sternly. "We are to take your word of expertise that everything has been performed accurately. Surely you have too much to lose on this deal to falsify your conclusions about the incident?"
Willie looked offended as he turned squarely to the colonel and looked him straight in the eye. "Our engineers are proud people, the best there is to find when it comes to expertise," he said coldly. "Not to mention the fact that Harrison Industries would lose a considerable amount of money if the deal is to be called off."
"According to your report the Buzzard's guiding system was damaged and not accurately realigned. It caused a cascade of malfunctions in the onboard computer and lost the signal of its intended target. When contact was restored with the drone and the auxiliary systems were brought online the Buzzard locked on to the Concorde's engines," the DOD representative recited from the report. "Now, what I want to know is what kind of guarantee we have that the same thing won't happen again."
"I cannot give you any guarantees gentlemen," Willie let on. "I cannot give you more than a new perfectly flawless drone, an upgraded guiding system and three built in failsafe's. Also, I'd recommend that you stay clear of any crowded air corridors to avoid the risk of hitting a commercial airliner."
The colonel snorted.
"Officially, this deal ends right here," the Department of Defense representative said in a low voice as he stabbed a finger at Halpern's chest. "Unofficially, we are interested in version 2.0. We want you to present to us a new stable version of the attack drone and after that we'll make a stand whether to buy it or not."
"I see," Willie returned deadpan. "The development might take up to a year."
"We can wait if you can build a drone that follows the proper command it's given. We don't want to start a war, Mr. Halpern," the colonel said in a cold voice.
"Thank you, sir," the engineer replied with a faint nod.
OOOOOO