P
epper’s phone went off, and he saw it was a call coming from Hail. He answered it. “This is Pepper,” he said.
“This is Kara,” said a concerned voice.
“Great job, Kara. We just saw the warehouse blow up. Really great job!”
“If you just saw it blow up, why is your jet still headed toward North Korea?”
Pepper was confused. “There is no jet headed for North Korea. As soon as the general saw the explosion, he called Naval Operations and told them to scrub the mission.”
“Well, Hail’s radar shows an F-35 inbound and it is not turning back. If I hadn’t told Hail what it was, he may have taken it down.”
“He has the armaments to do that?” Pepper asked, truly surprised.
“That’s not the point,” Kara said angrily. “The point is you need to get this guy turned around before he wakes up all of North Korea.”
“I’m on it,” Pepper said, and he hung up. He turned toward the general, who was also on his cellphone.
The general cupped the bottom half of his phone. He told Pepper, “It looks like we have a rogue pilot on our hands.”
“Damn,” Pepper said, at a loss for words.
They both looked across the room at the president, who was shaking hands and basking in the glory of the mission. At least, for the moment, she looked very happy.