A re ft omm nd r: Ma ay on VI nde

“Now, we fill in the blanks,” Giordino continued, “and we come up with ‘Aircraft commander: Major Raymond Vylander.’ “

“And here’s the combination,” said Pitt, pointing. “This spells out the name and rank of the flight engineer.”

“Joseph Burns,” Giordino acknowledged. “In the lines that follow, the missing characters are too numerous to guess their intent. Then, this.” Giordino pointed farther down on the paper.

ode n me: ix n 03

50 VIXEN 03p>

“Classified call sign,” injected Pitt. “Every aircraft on a security flight is given one. Usually a noun followed by the last two digits of the aircraft’s number.”

Steiger fixed Pitt with a look of genuine respect. “How would you know that?”

“Picked it up somewhere,” Pitt said, shrugging it off.

Giordino traced over the blank areas. “So now we have ‘Code name: something 03.’ “

“What nouns have ‘ix’ in the middle of them?” Steiger mused.

“Chances are, the missing letter after* is e or o.”

“How about ‘Nixon’?” Giordino suggested.

“I seriously doubt that a mere transport plane would be named after a vice-president,” Pitt said. ” ‘Vixen 03’ seems closer to the mark.”

“Vixen 03,” Steiger repeated softly. “That’s as good a shot as any.”

“Moving right along,” said Giordino. “Our final decipherable scrap on the fifth sheet is ‘E-blank-A, Rongelo 060 blank.’ “

” ‘Estimated time of arrival, six in the morning at Rongelo,’ ” Steiger translated, his expression still incredulous. “Where in hell is that? Vixen 03 was scheduled to land in Hawaii.”

“I only calls ‘em the way I sees ‘em,” said Giordino.

“What about the sixth sheet?” Pitt asked.

“Pretty slim pickings. All gibberish except for a date and a security classification near the bottom. See for yourself.”

rders d te anu ry 2 , 954 Aut or z d y: r It r B s TO SE R T COD 1A

Steiger hovered over the indefinite wording. “First line reads ‘Orders dated January, sometime between the twentieth and twenty-ninth, 1954.’ “

Pitt said, “The second line looks like ‘Authorized by,’ but the officer’s name is lost. The rank of general fits, though.”

“Then comes ‘Top-secret code one-A,’ ” said Giordino. “You can’t get a classified rating any higher than that.”

“I think it safe to assume,” said Pitt, “that someone in the upper echelons of either the Pentagon or the White House, or both, released a misleading accident report on Vixen 03 as a cover-up.”

“In my years with the Air Force I’ve never heard of such an act. Why instigate a flagrant lie over an ordinary aircraft on a routine flight?”

Vixen 03 I 51

“Face facts, Colonel. Vixen 03 was no ordinary aircraft. The report states the flight originated at Travis Air Force Base, near San Francisco and was scheduled to land at Hickam Field, in Hawaii. We now know the crew was heading for a destination named Rongelo.”

Giordino scratched his head. “I can’t recall ever hearing of a place ; called Rongelo.”