An Iridescent Sky 3

  

       Marie stared intently at her IPad screen and checked the boxes next to food items she had in the pantry and fridge. Late afternoon sun filled the kitchen with pinkish alpine glow. She loved this time of day. The light made everything seem more magical, more ethereal. A momentary sense of Michael’s presence broke her concentration. A quick glance at the time and she realized he should have called by now. She shook her head a little. Her husband often got caught up in the moment. She would get a call and an explanation of how great the conditions were, or an outline of a topic that had taken his sense of time. Earlier in their marriage they fought over such things, but that was a long time ago.

Today she would answer the call with something like, “Yeah, I was just calling Civil Air Patrol to begin searching the hangers for a talkative man in his late forties.”

She would hear his smile over the phone and he would say, “Thanks. I love you too, but really, I am sorry.”

She did love him. With all his faults, his frustrations, his anger, he was a good man even though he worried her to death. He drove too fast, flew too hard, got too agitated over global issues he could do nothing about. Recent strategic global finance consolidations under the pressures of global climate change had him sulking for days. And, these days were harder than ever. The unfinished doctorate was a weight on their finances and with the worsening economy, they could well lose all they had invested in it.

Marie knew he felt lost. She hadn’t seen his rage for years, but with his size and strength, he was terrifying in that state.  He needed to fly, but she feared his adrenaline addiction. One day he’d push the envelope too hard, and she would get the worst possible phone call.  Once again, she put that thought out of her mind.

“I hate it when he forgets to call.”

The cell phone rang and she jumped.

“Hello?”

“Hi Mom.”

“Hey Sweet Stuff. How’s it going?”

“Ok. Hey Mom?”

“Yeah Jen?”

“Can I use the car?”

“When do you need it? Hey, Honey, can you hold on a second? I’ve got another call coming through.”

“Sure, but I just need it for a couple hours tonight. I need to tell Chelsea and Emily if I can drive to town after practice.”

“Honey, let me get this. Hold on. Hello?”

“Marie? This is David. Umm. Have you heard from Michael?”

“No. This means he’s not on UNICOM?”

“I can’t raise him. I even tried his cell phone.”

“How long is he overdue? What was his flight plan?”

“Marie, I’ve issued an ALNOT. Now don’t panic. He probably got caught in a sink and had to field land somewhere, or maybe he’s in Anza. As you know, the system alerts every sheriff and ranger within a hundred miles. Everybody with a badge is looking for him right now, and we’ll find him. I’ll hear from the airfields around Warner within the hour and if he is there, they’ll probably launch him tomorrow morning. Just sit tight and don’t worry. I know this hasn’t happened to him, but it does happen. Pick out a weekend getaway. He’ll owe you.”

“How long if he didn’t make it to an airfield somewhere?” Marie felt her throat tighten.   

“Well you know it’ll take longer, but not more than thirty-six hours, or so. So if he didn’t get to the Borrego or Ramona, he’ll probably hang with his plane until first light. He’s got a survival bag. He knows how to use it better than most. He’ll be fine. This ought to be worth at least San Diego.”

“When should I call you back?”

“I’ll call you as soon as I know anything, but it won’t be longer than maybe… oh, 45 minutes or so. So just sit tight, Marie and I’ll talk to you soon.”

“Ok. Thanks David.”

Marie closed her eyes and prayed and fought down the fear tightening in her chest.

She whispered to herself, “He didn’t mention how long if he’s on a mountain side or stuck in a tree. I am so gonna kill that man.”

“Mom?”    

“Oh Jen. You’re still there.”

“Duh, the car?! Mom are you ok?

“Your dad’s overdue at Warner. That was David calling in.”

“But he’s ok, right? He just came down too soon and had to land somewhere off the mountain.”

“David’s issued an alert. It’s going out to all the agencies around us. I think your dad will be fine if…”

“Mom, I’ll walk home right now. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

“Thanks, hon.”

“Bye”

“Bye, hon. O God O God O God. Please, please! Keep him safe. I need to call Trish.”

David picked up his phone receiver and punched in another phone number.

“Bill? ALNOT’s negative. We’ve gone to distress level. AFRCC will be taking this soon, but it won’t hurt to call Jim Walsh and get the local Search and Rescue activated. There’s a shit load of things to do before first light. Nope, no flight plan, not for a joy ride. Michael set his plane up for speed and aerobatics. He’d go where ever the lift was good. Weather is coming up from the South so I’m thinking he went Borrego way, but we had lift all over the place... Right! I’m getting calls from the other pilots who were up, find out where the trouble spots were. Yeah. There was also a lot of rough air. I’m putting a map together. Hey, Bill, I’m getting another call in could be the Air Force. Local command center will be here. Yep, 4 AM. See you then.”

“Hello, David speaking.”

“Hello David Smith, this is Colonel Gerald McKay from Air Force Rescue Coordination Center. You issued the alert for a missing sailplane and one Mr. Michael Hayden.

“I did.”

“Is this aircraft still in distress and if so, where do you set your level of alert?”

“This situation is critical. The glider is equipped with an emergency locator transmitter. We heard from it briefly. We are assuming he made a hard landing.”

“Ok. Is the ELT still transmitting?”

“No, and I don’t know what the hell that means.”

“Any reason Mr. Hayden would turn it off?”

“None.”

“When was your last radio contact?”

“Just after tow release. He doesn’t talk on the radio much.”

“As you know, we will assume federal search and rescue responsibilities. Will you remain our point man for local SAR agencies?”

“I will.”

“We will scramble assets from Mira Mar. Civil Air Patrol has been alerted and will have search planes in the air at first light.  I assume you are coordinating local search and rescue out of Warner Springs?”

”We are. I have our local SAR crews meeting here at 0400 hours. I have other glider pilots calling in with info on possible trouble spots and I’m creating a map of possible sinks and upset points. I have an approximate last-known-position. He can’t be far. He was up doing acrobatics, no triangle plotted.”

“Good info. Yours will be one of four command centers: L08 - Borrego Valley Airport 18 nautical miles east of your location, KRNM - Ramona Airport 19 nautical miles southwest of your location, F70 - French Valley Airport 29 nautical miles northwest of  your location, and of course, Warner Springs. You have the contact numbers?”

“Affirmative. Why such a wide search grid? We have rough terrain in this region. It would be best to use all our available manpower here.”

“There was an anomaly in the ELT signal that SARSAT captured. I am going to tell you things that will probably become classified. You’re a retired Marine Corps officer. You know the drill. You will become aware that some of the actions we are taking on this mission are somewhat out of the ordinary. Now we don’t have the full intel on this, but I can tell you the ELT stopped working when the sailplane was at 28,000 feet.”

“Not possible.”

“We had a good lock on his last transmission and the Search and Rescue Satellite system doesn’t lie. Strange as it seems, your boy was nearly the highest non-commercial thing in the air for a hundred miles. We would like to know how he got there, and if he came down hard, we have maybe 24 hours to find him. So give me your search plan, but understand this. If he flew out of whatever took him to that altitude, he could be in Mexico.”

“I don’t know how thermals work in Florida, but here in Warner Springs, California a glider can’t get to that altitude without being tied to a rocket. Your data must be skewed. You can’t set your search parameters based on that. I’m looking to get my pilot back alive.”

“One of the other planes higher than your pilot was one of ours. We got a good mark on him, and we have his ELT signal plotted. I’ll send you Mr. Hayden’s last known position.”

“I know something about Air Force capabilities and if you had your ears on him, you should have an exact coordinate of a crash site. This isn’t adding up Colonel.”

“A lot of things don’t add up. What we have is strange as hell, but the data sources are solid. And we should have a crash site located and save a shit load of taxpayer’s money. There is no ground level coordinate. What we do have is a LKP at 28,000 feet and then it disappeared.”

“Disappeared.”

“Oh it gets better. Our assets picked up a brief signal from Mr. Hayden’s ELT over Palm Springs. Same digital signal. The data reads like a wack job’s UFO report. But, according to the data we have, in fractions of second, he went from over Ranchita to over Palm Springs….”

“Some 30 nautical miles.”

“Both points have been verified. So the search grid is large, and we are committing adequate resources. I can’t tell you much more than that. But, I’ll tell you this. Solving these phenomena has a very high priority. Now, I’ll need a full description of the glider, performance parameters, extra equipment on board, modifications and then all you can tell me about the pilot.” 

“I’ll email all the glider information and Michael’s log of previous flight plans. This guy is an experienced pilot and as close to a survival expert as you’ll find. He’s run a survival class for the other pilots here. As an ex ops guy I can tell you it’s impressive what he knows.”

“He was a SEAL.”

“A Snake Eater? Never mentioned it, but it makes sense. Sounds like you know more about him than me.”

David considered for a moment all that wasn’t being said. The good colonel wanted his trust, but not because the good colonel was trustworthy. Larger agendas were in play and whatever the game, those agenda holders wanted an informant, and that could be useful.

As a brothers-in-arms do, David waxed appropriately friendly and said, “Well this is all very mysterious, but I’ll keep what you tell me I need know to myself. I’m a simple man, Colonel. If it goes up, it comes down, and we just got to find out where. Damn good to know Michael has this kind of priority. He’s a good man. Got a good family. Really try not to screw this up. So give me the real estate you want us to start with.”

“Mr. Smith, if Mr. Hayden is still alive, we will find him alive. Now, Jim Baur is your Sheriff. Starting with him, let’s confirm contact numbers, radio frequencies and key personnel. Here is my email.”

Marie sat in her well-worn living room sipping tea with Trisha. Jen had gone upstairs to her room and was texting friends. The phone hadn’t been quiet since David had called. And when he did call back, he qualified everything he said with a “don’t worry” she could tell he didn’t believe, which did nothing to ease Marie’s sense of panic.

Rita Walsh had heard the news from her husband Jim, and she was on her way over. Marie was keenly aware how everybody’s actions contradicted their calm reassurances. And, there was good cause. David told her the locator signal sent out by Michael’s Emergency Locator Transmitter had been picked up. So the thing did work, but now it wasn’t working. David couldn’t tell her what that meant for Michael’s safety.

The Precomm alert had not located him on runways, or in hangers, or at airports, or any other location. An ALNOT had then been issued. This alerted the Air Force, Civil Air Patrol, Federal Service Station and every local police agency in the area that the sailplane was missing. Michael’s status had then increased to “Distressed”, which meant that Search and Rescue teams, David had called them SAR teams, had been called up, and Civil Air Patrol was coordinating with the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center who would act as the hub for all actions to find Michael.

Rita’s husband had heard of Michael’s disappearance from the local Sheriff and from Highway Patrol shortly after she had talked with David the first time. Rita had called Marie ten minutes before David’s second call to her, which meant David had moved the alert to “Distress” and assessed Michael’s situation as critical before that first phone call. David was talking calm and assurance to her, but he was launching emergency response as fast as humanly possible. So, there was reason to worry. Marie had just finished explaining all this to Trisha and in the intervening silence, the phone rang again.

“Hi Mom. It’s AJ. I heard about Dad. What’s going on?”

“AJ, you got my message?”

“No, I got a text from Jen, and I heard about it from Casey. His team is on the ground looking for Dad. Has David told you why SEAL teams have been deployed on a search and rescue mission?

“AJ, I’m sorry. I don’t know what any of that means. David didn’t mention it, maybe he didn’t know. Should I be panicked?”

AJ didn’t speak for a moment and Marie could here the sounds of music and chatter behind the silence.

AJ responded in guarded tones, “They have a training base near Warner. Probably just a coincidence. But it means Dad is getting the best help possible and that’s a good thing. Look, Mom, I have to pack. I have a 6 AM flight out of San Fran. I’ll be into S.D. by 7:30. I have a rental arranged so don’t come to get me. I should be with you by nine. I’ll call to find out where you are. Who is with you now?”

Marie thought, “He is so his dad’s son. Doesn’t lie, but doesn’t tell the whole truth either. Just not as good at it.”

Aloud, she said, “Trisha’s here and Rita’s coming.”

“Good. I’ll see you tomorrow morning. I love you, Mom. Bye.”

“Bye, hon. I love you too.”

“Trish, AJ’s coming, but he says Casey’s SEAL team has been deployed to find Mike. What does that mean?”

“It just means we’ll get Mike found sooner. It’s probably normal for this area. There are military reservations all around us. You could ask Santos when you see him tomorrow. Marie, we can’t let every bit of news freak us out. They obviously think Mike had to land in the desert or in an upland valley somewhere. It’s gonna be a while before Mike could possibly contact anyone.”

“He has a cell phone. If he’s ok, why doesn’t he call or why doesn’t he radio in? I know cell phone reception is spotty up here, but what about the radio? If he’s dead, I’ll go out of my mind. I can’t stand this.”

“But Marie, you’ve got to really screw up to die in a sailplane, and you’ve said yourself Mike’s a really good pilot. What can happen? He’s not going to pull the wings off; he’s too smart for that. He loses lift and he drops into a meadow at 35 mph. He’s fallen off a dirt bike going faster than that. He’ll be ok, Marie.”

Marie shook her head, “Trish I have to tell you. I had the impression Mike was in the kitchen with me this afternoon. It was so strong, I almost turned and spoke to him, but of course he wasn’t there, was he? The memory just isn’t going away. You’ve told me I have an uncanny sense for the spiritual, and I do….  I just need to get this out. When my dad died, I could feel him around me at times. I mean that lasted for weeks.”

Tears stated in Marie’s brown eyes, “This has never happened. I just feel like something is really wrong.”

Jen was midway down the stairs and saw her mom crying when the doorbell rang and diverted her to the front door. Rita rushed in and immediately went to Marie who stood up from Trisha’s arms.

Hugging Marie and then holding her by the shoulders at arm’s length, Rita said, “Hey girlfriend, now none of that. My Jim said he’d have him back by tomorrow night. Your boy’s tough as nails. You call him the bear, right? He’s probably dragging that glider of his to a road right now, cursing his dead cell phone and the company that made it.”

It was a comic mental image and so like Michael it made Marie smile through her tears.

“That’s right. You know it’s true. Jen, you get your mom’s coat. I’m taking you to my house for dinner, some wine and some girl talk. You too Trisha. Come on. Car’s outside.”