Chapter 4 - The Convergence at Wright-Patterson
At 11:45 AM, the Boeing 777 touched down on the sun-baked, endless concrete of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
The moment the aircraft rolled to a stop inside a massive, blacked-out hangar, the cargo doors were forced open from the outside. Dozens of heavily armed personnel wearing unmarked tactical gear descended upon the aircraft, securing the perimeter with military precision.
Elias Thorne stepped down the mobile staircase into the cool, air-conditioned interior of the hangar. Beside him walked Director Arthur Vance of the National Aviation Intelligence Division—a tall, lean man in his late fifties with iron-gray hair and a razor-thin mustache.
Behind them, two female federal officers escorted Sarah Montgomery, who was now wearing standard-issue grey prison sweats, her head bowed in complete submission.
"The cargo hold is secure, Elias," Director Vance said, leaning against the side of a black armored SUV while technicians hauled three massive, reinforced steel crates out of the plane’s lower bay using heavy forklifts. "Our technical team just scanned the interior. The DARPA drive is inside Crate Two, intact and untouched."
"And Julian Sterling?" Elias asked, taking a fresh handkerchief from his pocket and cleaning his glasses as he watched the military technicians work.
"We picked up his private jet forty miles off the coast of Maine," Vance replied with a dark, satisfied smile. "He thought he was flying into international airspace to rendezvous with a satellite uplink. Two F-35s escorted him down to a runway in Bangor fifteen minutes ago. He’s currently sitting in a windowless room with four federal prosecutors."
Elias nodded slowly, slipping his glasses back onto his nose. "And Daniel Montgomery?"
"Singing like a canary," Vance chuckled. "The moment we showed him the interceptor module you pulled out of Sarah’s bag, he turned over every encrypted server key, every offshore bank account, and every email thread dating back five years. He was so terrified of facing a treason charge that he offered to testify against Sterling before his lawyer even arrived."
Vance turned to look at Sarah, who was being loaded into the back of a black transport van.
"She really threw coffee on you, didn't she?" Vance asked, a faint smirk touching his lips as he glanced at Elias’s discarded charcoal jacket resting over the arm of a folding chair nearby. "Sarah Montgomery... the darling of the Virginia country club circuit... throwing a ten-dollar latte at a man who owns thirty percent of the airline’s parent holding company."
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"She was desperate, Arthur," Elias said, looking toward the transport van as its heavy doors slid shut. "Arrogant people who run out of options always resort to public humiliation. They believe that if they can make you look small in front of an audience, it somehow makes them big enough to escape the truth."
"Well," Vance clapped Elias on the shoulder, "her audience today is going to consist of a federal grand jury. And I don't think they’re going to be very impressed by her pearls."
