35
Orders Countermanded
NSA Command Center.
Knuckles ran to Uncle Bill, who was nose-first in a laptop monitor. Bill looked at the boy. “What?” Bill said.
“DEA Special Ops, sir. Something’s wrong.”
“The flight? What happened?”
“They went wheels up sixteen minutes ago, but they just turned back.”
“Turned back? What for? Mechanical? Get me the commander.”
Knuckles scrambled to put on a headset. He pecked away at his laptop, then said, “Commander Brigham? Stand by for NSA, William Tarleton.”
Bill took the headset. “Special Agent Brigham, radar track shows you’ve turned due west.”
A crackle across the headset initiated the reply from the DEA commander. The plane’s engines roared in the background. “Sir, just received the abort command. We are standing down.”
“Abort command? I didn’t
