0800
Killeen-Ft Hood Airport
Jamie and Jesse finished their coffee in relative silence. The discovery of the explanation for Jesse's borderline insomnia cowed the apparent gypsy girl into relative silence for the rest of their coffee time. Jesse had never thought about it, but in the back of her mind she knew she'd read somewhere about the irish gypsy community of Galveston, they were a constant source of headaches for the law enforcement community there.
The Killeen-Fort Hood Regional airport is a modest affair compared to the one in Houston, a mere puddle jumper by comparison, but that doesn't matter for what Jesse wants to find out. Stepping up to the desk, she promptly shows her badge and requests the airport director. Fifteen minutes later, the two are in the back meeting with a tiny asian man named Ho Gui Chan.
"So you need radar information from three days ago? I'm afraid that's a rather tall order. Is there something specific, such as a time reference?" asks the impeccable Mr Chan. Even his black hair is perfectly ordered.
Jesse runs her thumb along her brow as she calls to mind the specific information she's looking for while Jamie takes notes with pen and notepad in hand,"Yes, 2000 to 2100 hours Central Standard Time three days ago. If you captured what we are looking for, it will be in the range of 2030 hours, but we could still use reference data."
Mr Chan mouths 'ah' silently, then hits them with the dreaded request,"I hate to seem impertinent, but...do you have a warrant for this information? Especially in light of so much possible data, I simply cannot comply without one but I would be very happy to divulge otherwise."
Jesse frowns, not sure if she could procure one though it did seem feasible to argue the necessity of ruling out Jamie's possibility of a downed sattelite."Of course, Mr Chan. I'll see about having it faxed directly if you could provide me a number."
Ho Gui Chan smiles magnanimously then provides them with the number for his fax machine. The two of them leave and Jesse calls the field office. Arguing for nearly five minutes, she manages to persuade their Lieutenant to draw up a search warrant for the radar intercepts for a thirty minute window as he felt the full hour would run roughshod of privacy.
Fifteen minutes later, time enough for Jesse to smoke one and Jamie to aquire a sprite, the prudish asian director steps out with his glowing smile as the search warrant has been delivered. "Yes, Sergeant Lafferty, Ranger O'Connelly, please follow me I take you to get the information you requested."
The duo are led to the actual control tower. Inside are radar feeds and communications stations and all manner of computers, the duo are struck by how similar it looks to what they've seen in movies and how little has changed since the nineties. Ho Gui Chan talks to the tower chief, who in turn gets a very puzzled look on his face as he replies.
They're waved over and Mr Chan explains with a puzzled expression of his own,"I'm afraid we can't honor this search warrant. You see..." He gets very concerned when he sees the angry knitting of Jesse's brows,"Some gentlemen came here yesterday and they downloaded the data you are looking for and had it deleted, they were from the Department of Defense and said National Security."
Jamie is stunned by this, but Jesse is just irritated. She wasn't surprised in the least, but what frustrates her is being a day late and a dollar short in the ordeal. "Would you mind elaborating on these people?" She directs this to the tower chief, whose nametag said Mcmahan.
The tower chief replies, visibly nervous,"It was very odd, but these men wore black business suits and shades. They had wide brimmed fedora hats and...do I really have to describe them?"
Jesse seems somewhat nonplussed while Jamie just blinks, not liking where her mind is going. Jesse answers,"Please continue, I don't need a description of them just of the encounter."
Mcmahan exhales, seemingly relieved to not be describing them,"I..they spoke sort of like Ben Stein. You know, they never raised or lowered their voices. I can't quite describe it, but I felt like I wanted to go t'sleep just listening to them."
She hrms then tells Mr Chan,"Thank you for your cooperation." To which he gives an embarrassed smile before escorting them back to the front terminal. Halfway there, a technician stops them.
The technician, whose nametag said Hearne, says,"They deleted it from the terminal, but we keep backups. Every fifteen minutes the data is backed up to a server in Read Only format. You don't get the visual display or weather read, but you get a textual recording of all intercepts."
Jamie seems a little lost and blurts out,"A sexual what?"
Jesse elbows her in the side as the technician busts into a snicker fit. Jesse's patient stare eventually cures him of it and he spells it out,"A text based document of all radar intercepts with their speed, altitude, and headings minute by minute. It's our security against a cataclysmic data loss, like from terrorist hackers or the like."
Jesse nods curtly, inquiring,"Can you get us a CD or a memory stick with this on it?"
Hearne nods promptly and heads over a terminal where he keys it up right away, slipping a memory stick from his pocket into it. Jamie whispers aside to Jesse,"Hopefully they didn't think to wipe this too."
Jesse whispers back,"Hate that we'll have to read all this instead of just looking at flickering green lines." Jamie groans at the notion, dreading it as well.
Hearne comes back, handing Jesse the memory stick that she promptly slips onto her keyring for safe keeping. Ho Gui Chan smiles winningly as he says,"Very good, now that this has been sorted out, is there anything else we can do for you?"
Jesse and Jamie both shakes their heads, with Jesse replying,"No thank you. Again, we appreciate your cooperation. If there's anything else, we'll call."
With that, he escorted them out in earnest.
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