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on the couch. Hadash and the secretary of defense, Art Blanders, entered belatedly. Both
     remained standing as the president leaned toward Rubens.
    “How’s your boss?” asked Marcke.
    “Admiral Brown is still traveling, sir.”
    Vice Admiral Devlin Brown was a recent appointee to head the agency; he’d only been on the job for a few weeks. Rubens didn’t
     know Brown very well yet and, frankly, didn’t feel he’d be much of a force. It would take considerable ability to outperform
     the previous head of the NSA, in Rubens’ opinion—though if the opportunity presented itself, he certainly would be willing
     to try.
    “All right, Billy,” said the president with the air of a favored uncle. “Tell us what happened to your airplane.”
    “The Ilyushin carrying the Wave Three magnetic data reader was targeted and shot down for reasons that remain unclear,” said
     Rubens. “We haven’t been able to identify where the MiG came from, which has complicated matters.”
    “How is that possible?” asked Blanders.
    “We’re not omniscient,” said Rubens, managing a smile to keep his tone mild. The secretary had come to the administration
     after serving as CEO of a bank; it was difficult to take him seriously. “More than likely, it was a renegade PVO unit working
     out some sort of dispute over ‘fees.’ But the possibility that both the program and Wave Three itself have been compromised
     cannot be ruled out.”
    “The lasers,” prompted Hadash.
    Rubens launched into a quick but detailed summary of the Wave Three target, a data center related to the Russian-directed
     energy program.
    “The Russian president denied there was a laser program in an interview with the BBC two weeks ago,” said Blanders.
    The defense secretary was obviously interested in pushing DoD’s own laser program, but that wasn’t what motivated his comment.
     Rubens noted for future reference not only Blanders’ disdain for Alexsandr Kurakin, the Russian president, but also the hint
     that Blanders believed Marcke trusted Kurakin too much.
    “Perhaps you should bring it up with President Kurakin when you speak with him tomorrow,” added Blanders, alluding to the
     president’s biweekly telephone conference with the Russian president.
    Doing that would inadvertently reveal quite a bit about the agency’s capabilities. But before Rubens could find a way to point
     this out semitactfully, Marcke cut him off.
    “Of course we’re not going to do that,” said the president. “Why show him our hand? The question is, will he ask about our
     aircraft?”
    “I don’t believe so,” said Rubens.
    The Wave Three compartment was rigged to self-destruct. According to protocol, none of the crew carried parachutes, though
     there was always a possibility that some had been carried anyway. Still, transmissions from the plane indicated that there
     had been no survivors.
    “How can you be sure?” asked Blanders.
    “The plane went down in a fairly remote area,” said Rubens. “We have one possible site that we’re keeping track of, and I
     have a team en route to survey it.”
    “You didn’t see it on satellite?” Blanders asked.
    Was that a criticism or a play for the comprehensive optical survey satellites, which would give the U.S. worldwide around-the-clock
     coverage? Rubens decided to interpret it as the latter.
    “At the moment, we don’t have the resources for complete coverage,” said Rubens. “That would be very desirable. We did, however,
     pick up the explosion. We have data on the possible wreckage. Now we send someone there to look at it and make sure it was
     destroyed. Routine.”
    Hadash cleared his throat and began speaking in the slightly loud, slightly rushed tone that indicated he’d been rehearsing
     what he was to say for some time. “Given the controversy—”
    “What controversy?” asked Rubens.
    “Given the controversy, I—we—feel there should be someone outside of Desk Three