Parkowski then described how she had gotten into the Mosu and Sangam tools and how she had found the part differences between the launch vehicle that OuterTek had launched the ILIAD probe on and the one that the Space Force and Aerospace had done their pedigree review on.
DePresti didn’t seem that surprised. “The only thing about it that sticks out is the number of parts, and the centralization of their locations,” he told his girlfriend. “OuterTek pulls this shit all of the time with almost every single customer.”
“The part swap?”
“Yeah, and normally someone in the LC-39a or SLC-40 hangars will catch them in the act, forcing a quick pedigree review of the new part,” DePresti explained. “Sometimes it’s to test out a new part or box, other times they realize they made a mistake somewhere and just don’t want to own up to it. OuterTek would like us to be like their commercial contracts, where there’s almost no mission assurance, but the Space Force and the NRO are never going to agree to it. Our payloads are too expensive and too critical to our national defense.” He cleared his throat. “On the other hand, OuterTek has a vested interest in launching successfully, so really it’s just a game.”
“Got it,” Parkowski said. She then explained the difference between the “DELIVERY” post-flight reports and the one without that modification.
This time, DePresti was stunned and a little stumped. “That makes no sense,” he told her, “absolutely none at all.”
“It’s what I saw,” she argued. “I pulled some of those files to the laptop, you can take a look in Barstow.”
He scratched his head in thought. “I remember looking at the final burn and trajectory files, and there was nothing out of the ordinary.”
She then told him about the trajectory change.
The Space Force captain sat up quickly. “There’s no way,” he said, “no fucking way.”
“Why?”
“Because we used Space Force terrestrial and space-based tracking assets to track the ILIAD probe as it left Earth’s gravitational well and went to Venus,” DePresti said. “I remember because I had to beg, borrow, and steal resources to make it happen. They gave us all of their raw, metric data and none of it was anomalous. The second stage took
Unless they were in on it too, thought Parkowski, but she left that unsaid. She wanted to share her last piece of information before she told her boyfriend her theory.
She finished with her discovery of the “executive” post-day meeting and its associated notes, and the physical location of the Bronze Knot data node at Cape Canaveral.
To her surprise, DePresti knew about the higher-level summit.
“Colonel Hawke always went and then back-briefed us afterward,” he told her. “They weren’t hiding anything, or at least I didn’t think they were.”
“Well, they talked about Bronze Knot, or at least its data center location,” Parkowski continued.
DePresti nodded, seemingly unsurprised by that revelation. “Do you think it’s still there?”
“Yes,” she confirmed. “And I think we need to go there.”
She then told DePresti her theory as to the additional payload added to the SH-21 mission.
He didn’t confirm or deny it.
“That’s the most likely thing I’ve heard all day,” her boyfriend told her. “OuterTek has been changing parts on rockets for ten years. Adding an additional satellite to the PAF — especially one blessed by the Space Force — wouldn’t hurt my brain one bit.” DePresti paused, then continued. “I was with the rocket the whole time. I was away from it maybe once, and my boss was there when it happened. It’s unlikely, but possible. We just need to figure out exactly what it is.”
“And then we do what?”
DePresti thought for half a minute.
“Then, if Andrew’s theory is correct, we will hold all of the cards,” he told her. “The government agency or private corporation that has been after us since Sunday will have to deal.”
“And then hopefully this will all be over,” Parkowski said, “and we can go back to our normal lives.”
She got a series of nods from a tired-looking DePresti in response.
They were just outside Barstow now, near the turn to the road that would take them to Chang’s compound. Parkowski noticed a couple of black Suburbans parked on the side of the road near a power line, but they looked deserted.
They looked like the same ones that had chased them just a few days ago.
She took a quick breath. “Do you see those?”
“Yes,” DePresti confirmed.
“Should we keep going?”
“Yes,” he repeated himself. “It’s probably a coincidence. Chang would have called us via sat-phone if he had been in trouble.”
Parkowski nodded and kept driving.
The sun was almost down now at the end of the short autumn day. She had to squint in what remained of its light to see the narrow, windy road out of Barstow.
When they got to Chang’s house, his lifted truck was there in the carport.
Everything appeared to be normal.
She took a deep breath of relief and pulled up behind it.
