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Miranda was last off the runway and up into the first light of morning. The long salt bed of Groom Lake fell rapidly astern. She flew over the remains of the C-130’s wreckage, observing a moment of silence. No accident report would ever be filed. Holly and Jeremy had given over all of their data and it had been destroyed.
General Drake Nason flew east in the government Gulfstream along with the two CIA directors. General Harrington had been removed from command and was aboard as well. A Colonel Helen Thomas had been given temporary command. She, too, had known about the devastating effect of the program on the pilots, but had only been following a superior’s orders.
Miranda wasn’t sure about the meaning of that; the military operated by rules she’d never thought to learn. Perhaps it
