‘’Which shows you how they completely misunderstood the main design aim of my A-24: to produce a combat plane with Pacific-wide reach, and this at the lowest production, maintenance and operation costs possible. This myth about needing to attain or surpass a top speed of Mach 2 is making those Pentagon bosses forget how important autonomy is for an aircraft operating in the Pacific region. Right now, nearly all the American aircraft in USAF or Navy inventory need to either use multiple air refueling or multiple legs in order to get to our bases around the Pacific. Arranging and
50
coordinating such trips takes time and lots of support work, all things that are always in short supply when an unexpected crisis blows up. By contrast, our customers will be able to fly to each other’s aid at a moment’s notice, with minimal pre-combat preparation.’
‘’So, who else could be interested in buying our A-24, Ingrid? What could our participation to this airshow bring to Hiller?’
‘’Wider recognition of its expertise in designing specialized aircraft tailored to specific customers, for one. That expertise was already proven with our PELICAN and SKYTRUCK VTOL transport aircraft, which are now in high demand and have proven extremely popular with their users. In terms of potential customers, if you exclude the United States, our biggest prospect right now is India. India is a large country possessing as well a few islands around the Indian Ocean and facing two actual hostile countries, China and Pakistan. Another serious potential customer is France. While the French typically prefer to design and build themselves their combat aircraft, which are excellent in my opinion, the French have presently nothing that allows them to patrol easily all its far away and dispersed possessions around the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
Imagine how a couple of squadrons of our A-24 based in, say, French Polynesia and in The Reunion, in the Indian Ocean, could actually cover those oceans without the need for complicated and costly air refueling operations. With India and France, we could more than double the numbers of A-24 sold by Hiller, so the economic arguments for us to participate in this airshow are quite compelling.’
‘’What about your new HVSSR system? Presently, there is nothing else equivalent around the World.’
Ingrid thought over her answer to that for a couple of seconds. Her HVSSR system, which stood for ‘Hyper-Velocity, Spin-Stabilized Rocket’, which she had designed specifically for her A-24, was indeed unique around the World and was meant to provide heavy and accurate firepower from beyond ground-based small arms and automatic cannons range, and this while avoiding the high costs and complexity associated with guided missiles. It was in her mind the perfect solution for air forces which were facing the threat of ground fire from low technology opponents during patrol and strike missions.
‘’Well, the problem for us in trying to sell our HVSSR system is that only our A-24
can carry it, as it needs to be directly incorporated into the aircraft, rather than simply be hooked under a wing pylon. Of course, the best solution for us would be to sell more A-
51
24s, but we will need to keep our expectations about that to a realistic level. Aah, I see Elliot Goulding and our maintenance team standing at the ready next to our parking spot.
We will thus be able to go quickly take the rooms reserved for us at the Hôtel Izmir once out of the aircraft.’
Shirley Slade, who had been with Ingrid at the previous Le Bourget Airshow two years ago, nodded her head and smiled while looking at Hiller’s Vice-President for Marketing and Sale: she knew him well and liked him for being a competent and most decent man.
By the time that Ingrid and Shirley climbed down from their aircraft while carrying their large travel bags, using the telescopic ladder deployed down from the cockpit section, the crowd of curious onlookers had grown to well over 200, with many of them taking pictures of the A-24. Those onlookers, which were mostly airport employees or participants to the airshow, were however kept at a safe distance by French police officers assigned to the security of the airshow’s grounds. Elliot Goulding was the first to come forward and shake hands with the two aviatrixes once they set foot on the tarmac.
‘’Welcome to Paris, girls! How was your transatlantic trip?’
‘’Relatively short, thanks to the transonic capabilities of our SHARK.’ answered Ingrid. ‘’We had two French MIRAGE 4000 which came to sniff us out off the coast of Brittany but they did not cause us any problems and were most polite. I however did invite them to come and visit us here during the airshow, so if you see a bunch of French fighter pilots show up here, let them examine our aircraft from up close. With luck, they will also sniff me and Shirley from up close as well.’
Goulding had a chuckle at that while eyeing the two apparently very young aviatrix facing him. While both Ingrid and Shirley appeared to be in their early twenties, he knew that Ingrid was in reality 77 years-old, while Shirley’s true age was 82. The ‘Fifinellas’
patches on their flight coveralls, which marked them as ex-members of the famous all-female combat air unit which had distinguished itself during World War 2 and the Korean War, was one indication of their true age. However, Goulding knew that both women had been rejuvenated via supernatural means some three years ago, so was not fazed out by their apparent youth. If anything, that only made both girls even more appealing to him...and to most men around them. Being single and quite fun-loving, both Ingrid and Shirley didn’t mind at all that male attention, something that Goulding both understood and accepted as normal for two such beautiful women.
52
‘’Well, if those French fighter pilots don’t show interest in you, then they will go against the widespread reputation French aviators have as incorrigible womanizers.
Now that you are here, I will drive you to our hotel while our maintenance team conducts a thorough maintenance check of your aircraft. You will most probably want to go to bed early this evening in order to go over all those time zones you flew through. I already expect that a lot of attention will be directed at our aircraft during this airshow.’
‘’I certainly hope so, Elliot.’ replied Ingrid. ‘’While I did my best to keep the design and development costs of my A-24 down, Hiller sure could use as many customers for it as possible in order to recoup its expenses for the program. Well, lead on: we will be right behind you.’
18:06 (Paris Time)
Hôtel Izmir-Café du Nord restaurant, 126 Avenue du 8 Mars Le Blanc-Mesnil, Paris Northwest suburbs, near Le Bourget Airport Having taken the time to take a shower and change into a set of informal clothes, Ingrid then went down from her room to go to the ‘Café du Nord’ restaurant, situated on the ground floor of her hotel. She first collected Shirley Slade on her way down and went to sit with her at one of the tables of the small restaurant, which was used mostly by the hotel’s customers but which was also used by a number of locals. She and the Hiller team had already used that hotel and restaurant once, two years ago, when they had participated in the preceding Le Bourget Airshow, and had liked their quiet, intimate
53
touch. It also had the great virtue of being only a few hundred meters to the Le Bourget exposition area, making it a short walk away. Looking at the menu, Ingrid smiled on seeing what the ‘plat du jour’, or special of the day, was.
‘’Aaah, they have a lamb couscous as the special of the day. The last time I tried it, it was truly excellent, Shirley.’
‘’I buy that. I will have tea with it: we can’t afford to drink wine or other types of alcohol with all the flying we will be doing during the next few days.’
‘’The same here.’ said Ingrid before calling the waiter to their table and placing their orders. As they waited for their orders to be delivered, Ingrid saw that the television set next to the bar of the restaurant was showing the evening news on the F1 national channel. Both she and Shirley, who spoke perfect French thanks to her previous incarnation as a French nobleman of the 19th Century who had lived near Bordeaux, in the southwest region of France, thus listened to the latest news. Shirley got excited a bit when the newscaster started reporting on the oncoming Le Bourget Airshow.
‘’Yes! Maybe they will speak about our new plane.’
Her wish quickly came through when a video of the landing of their A-24 was shown, followed by more videos showing both aviatrix climbing down from their plane, with the newscaster commenting on that.
‘’Piloting this new and exciting prototype from Hiller was the famous Ingrid Dows, probably the most renown fighter pilot and military commander in modern history, who is often nicknamed ‘God’s General’ thanks to her supernatural powers and to her eternal youth. Believe it or not, dear viewers, but this ‘young’ woman you are now seeing on this video is in reality 77 years-old. Millions of French women must certainly be jealous about that...’
Ingrid chuckled at that little comment from the newscaster.
‘’Oh, American women are as jealous of me as French women are. I can attest to that.’
The newscaster then made a comment as the video centered for a moment on Shirley, who was standing next to Ingrid in front of their plane.
‘’A short search after this video was taken revealed that Dows’ copilot, named Shirley Slade, is actually even older than her and is in reality 82 years-old, despite her youthful looks. She was apparently rejuvenated by supernatural means, possibly by Dows herself, and was a member of the famous ‘Fifinellas’, the all-female American air combat unit which distinguished itself in the Pacific Theatre during World War 2 and also
54
during a number of subsequent conflicts. More detailed information about this Shirley Slade and on Ingrid Dows will be presented at a special report tonight at ten.’
‘’Oooh, we must watch that report, Ingrid!’ said Shirley excitedly, making Ingrid smile. She was about to reply to that when a wave of mental hatred struck her, making her discretely look at a man sitting at another table and sipping on a strong Turkish coffee. That man, who appeared to be from the Indian sub-continent, was looking at her with nearly undisguised hatred. Looking away from him in order not to signal to him that she had spotted him, Ingrid then used her telepathic abilities to scan his thoughts as the man fetched a cell phone from one pocket and started composing a number on it. While still listening to his thoughts, Ingrid was also able to hear him talk on his phone: the man spoke in Urdu, a language she could recognize but not understand. She thus touched Shirley’s hand and spoke to her in a near whisper.
‘’Shirley, this man near the bar is speaking in Urdu. Try to hear what he says but don’t look at him: he seems hostile to us.’
Shirley, who had lived through countless dangers and adventures with Ingrid during the past decades, understood at once that this had to be important and concentrated on listening to the man’s conversation as he spoke on his phone. Her first incarnation on Earth had been as a young Pakistani prostitute named Aleena Umrani, who had lived a short, hard and miserable life in the 16th Century before being publicly stoned to death at the young age of 23. While she could not hear fully what the man said, what she heard was enough to alarm her and make her whisper to Ingrid.
‘’That man is signaling your presence in Paris to his interlocutor... He is now discussing how to get at you and kill you... He also speaks like a Muslim extremist.’
‘’It figures! I made a lot of enemies in Pakistan and Afghanistan during my last combat tour, when I commanded the American forces in Afghanistan and led an air bombardment campaign which threw the Pakistani military back to the Stone Age. This guy could very well be a Pakistani agent sent to report on the airshow.’
‘’What should we do about him, Ingrid?’
‘’Nothing for the moment. Just keep listening to him.’
However, Shirley didn’t have much time to listen on further, as the man terminated his call after a few more seconds, then paid for his coffee before walking out of the restaurant, studiously avoiding to look at Ingrid as he walked by her table. The moment he was out, Ingrid went to one of the windows of the restaurant and, staying
55
mostly behind the frame of that window, watched the man as he unlocked a small car and sat in it. She was able to note down the make, color and plate number of the car before the man rolled out of his parking spot and drove away. Shirley, who had watched Ingrid from their table, asked her a question as she sat back in her seat.
‘’What are you going to do about that man, Ingrid? He could turn out to be a real danger to us.’
‘’I fully realize that but this is not for me to handle: I will let the French authorities handle this. It’s their country after all. Thankfully, I have a few high-level contacts here in Paris who like me a lot for what I did while commanding the American forces.’
19:13 (Paris Time)
Headquarters of the Groupe d’Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale7
Camp of Satory, near Versailles, Greater Paris region
Lieutenant-Colonel Frédéric Gallois was still at work in his office at the headquarters of the GIGN when his telephone rang. He wished that he could have gone home to his family for the weekend, like many of his gendarmes, but a few serious cases of possible threats to the national security of France were pushing him into doing some 7 Groupe d’Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale, or GIGN: Translates into ‘Intervention Group of the National Gendarmerie’. Elite unit of the French Gendarmerie specializing in counter-terrorism, hostage taking situations and other criminal high threats against France. While officially part of the French Armed Forces, the GIGN is under the direct authority of the French Minister of the Interior.
56
extra hours this evening. Grabbing his telephone receiver, he saw on his caller I.D.
display that his commander, General Jean Labrosse, who commanded the whole of the French Gendarmerie, was calling him.
‘’Lieutenant-Colonel Gallois! What can I do for you at this hour, General?’
‘’Aah, I knew that I would find you still at work, even on a Friday evening, my dear Gallois. Look, you know who Ingrid Dows, the American ex-fighter pilot and ex-general, is, right?’
‘’Of course I do, General: who doesn’t? What about her?’
‘’Well, she arrived in Paris this afternoon at the commands of the prototype of a new combat aircraft she designed for the Hiller Corporation and is intent on participating to the Le Bourget Airshow due to start this Sunday. As you must know, she made a lot of enemies, criminals and foreign governments alike, during her decades of service and, if I can believe her, it seems that one of those enemies of hers has spotted her in Paris and may be planning to try to assassinate her. We are talking here about the Pakistani government, which got a first class beating from Dows’ American forces air units while she was in command of the Afghanistan Theatre two years ago. She just contacted me and told me about her reasons to feel threatened here by the Pakistanis. What she told me convinced me that this could be serious and I would like your GIGN to check out that possible threat and, if that threat is confirmed, to neutralize it. Here are the few details she gave me over the phone.’
Gallois hurried to grab a pen and a notepad, then scribbled down the information given to him by his general.
‘’Got that, General. I will have this checked out at once and I will call you back if I find anything about it... Good evening, General.’
Gallois then hung up and looked at his notes for a few seconds before getting up from his chair and leaving his office. He walked down the main hallway of his floor and entered a guarded and secure room which was used as the operations center of his command, then went to one of the intelligence analysts on duty this evening. The pretty female gendarmerie junior officer straightened up in her chair as Gallois stopped next to her computer station.
‘’Yes sir?’
‘’Lieutenant Marchand, I received some information about an individual who could be a foreign agent and who is presently in Paris. Could you please check quickly this info about the car he was seen in?’
57
‘’Right away, sir!’
Gallois then patiently waited as the female analyst worked her computer, entering data in it. She spoke less than a minute later, sounding triumphant.
‘’Bingo! That car officially belongs to an Imran Gurmani, who is listed as an attaché at the Pakistani embassy in Paris, with the official post of assistant commercial attaché. This Gurmani is however suspected to be in reality an agent of the ISI, the Pakistani intelligence services.’
‘’Do you have a file picture of this Gurmani, Lieutenant?’ asked Galois, now taking very seriously that reported possible threat.
‘’We should have one, sir. One moment please!’
Another twenty seconds and a color, passport style picture of a man with brown skin and short black hair appeared on the analyst’s computer screen.
‘’Here you go, sir. I have to say that this man corresponds pretty much to the description you noted down, sir.’
‘’I would say the same here, Lieutenant. Can you print out this biographical page and the car registration info? I believe that we will need to start a surveillance and counter-terrorism operation concerning that Imran Gurmani.’
He soon got the requested printouts in his hands and then walked quickly to the desk of the captain in charge of the evening shift at the operations center: his officers and field operators were going to have to act quickly to face this new situation before something regrettable could happen.
08:26 (Paris Time)
Saturday, June 14, 2003 ‘C’
Hôtel Izmir – Café du Nord, near the Le Bourget Airport Ingrid, with Shirley walking next to her, had just walked out of their hotel and was about to go down the Avenue du 8 Mars and walk to the nearby airshow’s grounds when she hesitated and slowed down her pace while eyeing a sedan car parked along the avenue, its nose pointed towards the entrance gate to the Le Bourget Airport: there were four men sitting in that parked car and all of them were looking at her. Ingrid understood at once that something smelled very bad here and touched Shirley’s right arm.
‘’Shirley, get ready to take cover behind that beige sedan parked ahead of us: we may have trouble in sight.’
58
At that exact moment, she saw two gun barrels appear at the opened windows of the parked sedan.
‘’TAKE COVER, SHIRLEY!’
Thankfully, her friend and old comrade reacted instantly and dived for the cover of the beige car parked a mere four paces ahead, imitated by Ingrid. As they crouched behind the rear bumper of that car, careful to also use its rear tyres as extra protection against bullet ricocheting on the pavement, bursts of automatic fire shattered the peace of the morning and made bullets whiz past the two women’s heads, shattering windshields and piercing car bodies. To Ingrid and Shirley’s amazement, that incoming automatic fire was then abruptly interrupted when
a dark blue SUV left its parking spot
on the other side of the street and,
engine roaring, violently rammed
the sedan in a noise of crumpling
metal. Three men dressed in black
commando outfits, bullet-proof vests
and helmets then jumped out of the
SUV, submachine guns pointed at the men in the sedan. GIGN officers in action.
One of the four men in that car started pointing his rifle at the black-clad commandos but was instantly peppered with bursts of 9 mm fire. Another one of the four men also tried to point a pistol at the commandos but was promptly gunned down and slumped forward over the front dash. The dumbstruck Ingrid and Shirley then saw more black-clad commandos run out of a delivery van parked some fifty meters from the sedan and run to the smashed vehicle, their submachine guns pointed. Ingrid then understood what had just happened and grinned to Shirley.
‘’Well, you just saw the French Gendarmerie in action, Shirley. These guys are real pros.’
‘’I’d say! They would make our own S.W.AT. teams look geriatric in comparison.’
‘’As the French themselves would say, ‘on ne fait pas dans la dentelle’, which translates into ‘we don’t do lace’. Alright, stay behind cover, Shirley, and let’s wait for these gendarmes to declare the scene secured before we approach them.’
59
Maybe one minute later, one of the commandos ran towards the two aviatrixes, prompting Ingrid in straightening up to face him, soon imitated by Shirley. The man looked them over quickly before speaking to Ingrid.
‘’Are you alright, ladies?’
‘’We are, mister, thanks to you and your comrades. The speed and effectiveness with which the Gendarmerie reacted to my warning about possible Pakistani killers is truly impressive, I must say.’
Her compliment made the man smile.
‘’We thrive to do our best to protect innocent persons, miss.’
‘’Are those gunmen all dead? Are all your men okay?’
‘’One of those gunmen is alive but seriously wounded. We are presently administering first aid to him and an ambulance is on its way. As for my team, we are all unhurt.’
‘’Can I and my friend go to the airport now, mister? We have lots of things to do in order to prepare for the opening of the airshow tomorrow morning.’
‘’That is no problem, miss, now that those men have been neutralized. However, stay on your guards while in Paris: more of those foreign agents could try again to get at you.’
‘’I am very conscious of that, mister, and will certainly heed your advice. I would appreciate if someone from your service could contact me later in order to inform me about what was found about those wannabe killers.’
‘’I will pass the word to my superior, miss. You may go now.’
‘’Thank you, mister. Let’s go, Shirley.’
The commando watched both women walk away for a moment, admiring their calm and composure after such a traumatic event, then returned to his team, which was now busy searching the four gunmen, both the dead and the live one.
09:06 (Paris Time)
Monday, June 16, 2003 ‘C’
Hiller exposition stand, Le Bourget Airshow exposition park
‘’Aah, here comes our first visitors of the airshow.’ said Elliot Goulding, satisfaction in his voice. ‘’Let’s see how much true interest they will show for our A-24.’
60
‘’I wouldn’t expect much of that today, Elliot.’ replied Ingrid, a sarcastic smile on her face. ‘’Most of these reporters will probably be more interested about yesterday’s shootout rather than about our plane.’
That made the marketing and sales executive roll his eyes.
‘’You’re unfortunately probably right about that, Ingrid. Mayhem and chaos seem to stick to you like glue.’
That made both Ingrid and Shirley chuckle briefly at that remark. Then, the first reporters and photographers got to their stand at a near run and started shouting questions at Ingrid.
‘’MISS DOWS, CAN YOU TELL US WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY NEAR
YOUR HOTEL?’
‘’DO YOU KNOW WHO TRIED TO ASSASSINATE YOU, MISS DOWS?’
Ingrid smirked at those questions and spoke in a low voice to Goulding, who was rolling his eyes again.
‘’You see? I should have placed a bet with you on that.’
13:50 (Paris Time)
