“Right. And yet they chose a system that uses two pods, and although Parnell claims they only need eleven point five KVA, they appear to be lying, according to our calculations of the needs of their system. The Air Force should have been able to see that too.”

Goldman jots down these points on a pad he’s put by his dessert plate. No napkin for this stuff. “And they’ve got a radar system, you say?”

“Right. See, the RFP repeats the original request that the system be covert, that it doesn’t give itself away by its outgoing signals. Parnell has ignored that feature of the RFP and put in a radar system. So they won’t be covert, but it does mean that they’ll be able to do a blind let-down. And now the Air Force is listing that capability as a plus for Parnell, even though it’s not asked for in the RFP.” McPherson shakes his head, disgusted.

“It’s a good point. And there are other discrepancies?”

“That’s the main one, but there’s others.” They go over them, and Goldman fills out his list. The Air Force has listed Parnell’s accelerated schedule as an advantage, then given them a contract with a relaxed schedule. And the Air Force’s most probable cost estimates of the LSR and Parnell proposals consistently upped LSR’s figures, while leaving Parnell’s alone, or even lowering them. Then the lower cost of the Parnell system, as determined by the Air Force, was listed as a plus for them.

“It’s pretty clear from all this that the Air Force wanted Parnell, no matter what the proposals were like,” Goldman remarks. “Do you have any idea why that might be?”

“None.” McPherson’s anger over the matter is getting its edge back. “None whatsoever.”

“Hmm.” Goldman taps his pen against a tooth. “I’ve got some of my moles looking into the matter, actually. Don’t tell anyone that. But if we can figure out their motive for doing this, and find any way of proving it, that would be a big help to the appeal.”

“I believe it.” They order brandies and sit back as the table is cleared. “So where do we go from here?” McPherson asks.

Back to the flow chart on the napkin. “Two approaches initially, see? First, we’ve petitioned the courts in the District to make an injunction halting the award of the contract until an investigation by the General Accounting Office is made. At the same time we’ve asked the GAO to make the investigation. Results so far have been fifty-fifty. The GAO has agreed to investigate, and that’s very good. They’re an arm of Congress, you know, and one of the most impartial bodies in Washington. One of the only real watchdogs left. They’ll go after it full force, and I think we can count on a good effort from them.”