The Stanford Singularity

By Alex Harwood

Numerous well-known figures have indicated that the greatest threat to Americans and our way of life is artificial intelligencespecifically, a software singularity that creates self-generated, self-aware AI that is thousands or millions of times greater than human intelligence.

In the early twenty-first century, for the first time ever, major software projects for the US government are being completed ahead of schedule and under budget. Millions of dollars suddenly begin appearing in the various accounts of software development executives and high-level government officials. Disadvantaged minorities started receiving monthly payments of thousands of dollars, and factories, farms, and government agencies are running more efficiently every day. The source appears to be the CIAand the software singularity they have produced.

When the young woman who was the creative force behind the software disappears along with her boss, it soon becomes clear there is also a malevolent entity at work. But is the danger from humansor something else? In this science fiction novel, as a software singularity drastically changes American life, an elite team must work to counteract a mysterious hostile force.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Jul 31, 2017
• ISBN: 9781480841086

Alex Harwood

Alex Harwood has more than thirty years of experience as an air force officer and as an engineering and sales executive, managing software development projects for the US military and intelligence community. He holds a BS from Cornell University and a master’s degree from Stanford University and completed three years of doctoral study at UCLA. He currently lives in Savannah, Georgia.

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Prologue

IN THE COURSE OF ITS MOST RECENT WARS (WHETHER THEY WERE ‘cold’ against the Soviet Union, or ‘hot’ against Vietnam, Iraq and ISIS) one of the U.S.’s principal weapons carried no guns or missiles. It was an aircraft called the U-2. It had just one engine; long, thin wings; and it flew at an altitude where there was almost no air. Its job was simple. It took photographs – razor-sharp photographs, from impossible distances and heights, of what an enemy was doing down there on the ground.

The pilots who flew the U-2 were not Air Force officers. They were civilians employed by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Because the U-2 was exceedingly difficult to fly, being unstable, temperamental, balky, and always liable to flame out – like a beautiful woman on drugs – the selection process for pilots was rigorous.

A pilot flying a mission was confined in the U-2’s tiny cockpit for up to 16 hours, unable to move, breathing pure oxygen, with his penis pushed into the top of a metal pipe.

He was highly paid for the discomfort.

chapter one

Who’s in Charge?

WHEN THE U.S. AIR FORCE AND THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY were established in 1947, missions and activities seemed clear, distinct and separate, but it soon became apparent that they both believed they were in charge of aerial search, surveillance and reconnaissance. Nowhere was this conflict more obvious than at Area 51, in the high Californian desert.

By the early 1970’s, Air Force generals were quietly fuming over the fact that the excitement and credit for the lunar landings and the space program were all given to the National Aeronautic and Space Agency. None went to the Air Force, even though most of NASA’s astronauts had come from that arm of the military.

The generals were further frustrated by the knowledge that years of bombing in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia seemed to produce nothing but tragic pictures of prisoners of war at the Hanoi Hilton.

The Air Force generals were determined to assert their control over Area 51 and its role in search, surveillance and reconnaissance.

They were pleased and surprised when The Agency (as the CIA preferred to be called) abandoned its claims on U-2 and SR-71 missions, and made no attempt to influence the Stealth programs underway at Area 51 throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s.

Four-star generals in the Pentagon and at major Command headquarters knew that The Agency had initiated several drone programs, and they were also aware that they were aggressively building a network of spy satellites in low earth orbit.

Most of the Air Force generals had started their careers as fighter jockeys. They scoffed at the idea that any unmanned airborne vehicle would ever match, much less exceed, the capabilities of manned aircraft.

After a special assignment in 1969 that remains classified to the present day, Chick Vitale returned to active duty in the Air Force as a full colonel. His initial, and his last, assignment in the early ‘70s was as the Commandant of the USAF Test Pilot School at the Air Force Flight Test Center, known as the AFFTC. The AFFTC was located at Edwards Air Force Base in California’s high desert, more than 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles and 250 miles west of Area 51.

The mission of the AFFTC was to test new or modified aircraft for the U.S. Air Force. In the ‘70s the F-15, F-16, F-17, A-10 and C-5 were all undergoing test. Shortly after World War II, Chuck Yeager, a young captain, was the first man to break the sound barrier in the skies above Edwards AFB. Years later, Col. Yeager would be the first Commander of the USAF Test Pilot School.

It was the most visible and glamorous aspect of the center, but there were other missions. NASA’s Dryden Test Facility was located at Edwards, along with the Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory located on a distant desert ridge miles away from the Center commander’s office, the numerous joint test force offices along the flight-line and the hangars and shops nearby. The Army’s Aviation Systems Command had an office and flight-line space for its aircraft at Edwards.

Of all the activities at Edwards, the most closely guarded were the classified programs initiated, managed and deployed by the CIA. Chief among these were the activities involving the most successful spy plane of its era, the U-2. Everyone who spent a significant amount of time at Edwards eventually saw a U-2 rising into the sky almost as if it were being lifted by a giant fishing rod, or had seen one coming down, struggling to overcome the enormous lift provided by its huge wings. Most observers had heard that the U-2’s regularly took off and landed at night at a distant site called North Base. Only those with the required clearances knew where the spy planes, affectionately called Dragon Ladies, were going or where they had been. It was unlikely that they had been to Russia, China or Southeast Asia, because U-2’s based in England or Thailand would cover that part of the globe. Almost everyone suspected the Edwards U-2’s flew over Cuba and Central America.

Edwards was also home to an RB-57 and an YF-12 Blackbird. Pilots who flew the RB-57 said they were collecting weather data: nobody believed them. And no-one ever said where the Blackbird flew. At a cruising speed in excess of Mach 3, it could fly halfway around the world in half the time that a Boeing 707 took to fly from New York to Paris.

In addition to its small fleet of reconnaissance aircraft, the AFFTC had a Lifting Body flight test program and a Manned Orbiting Laboratory program, both of which were managed by the Test Pilot School.

Air Force generals placed their hopes and plans for a place in space in Colonel Chick Vitale’s hands. Unfortunately for all involved, this officer’s blunt competence and his Ph.D. in Aeronautical Engineering and Astronautics from MIT had stripped him of the obsequious and respectful manner that general officers expected from their subordinates: Vitale called a spade a spade, whoever happened to be listening.

In his first one-on-one meeting with Major General Paul Pruett, the Center Commander, in 1971, Colonel Vitale established a shaky foundation for their future relationship. In that first meeting, in General Pruett’s office, the Colonel said, I know this sounds disrespectful, and it’s not what you want to hear, but I’m absolutely certain that the Lifting Body Program and the Manned Orbiting Laboratory Program are both a complete and utter waste of time and money.

Chick, General Pruett responded, You know I respect you and I admire your many accomplishments, but some of the fame and acclaim you’ve experienced has gone to your head. It seems to have increased your tendency to be arrogant and decreased your tact and good judgment.

Oh, come on now, Paul, Vitale countered, You can’t really believe these programs are a constructive use of taxpayer dollars. It pains me to say this, he continued, but the geeks at the CIA have outsmarted and outmaneuvered us. The resolution of their LEO satellites is far better than we thought possible just a few years ago. Very soon they’ll be able to read license plates from outer space, and analysts at Langley will be able to recognize individual faces in Moscow, Hanoi, Havana or almost any place on earth.

I could end this argument very quickly by just pulling rank on you, General Pruett said, but I don’t want to do that unless you’re going to make any other way impossible.

You’ve got stars on your collar and I’ve got eagles on mine. It’s very clear that you can pull rank on me, said Vitale belligerently.

Pruett swallowed his anger. We don’t need to debate who can pull rank here, he continued, or who has the most impressive resume, but there is room for debate over the value of manned reconnaissance aircraft as compared to spy satellites. You do know that these spy satellites are hugely expensive, and they have very limited maneuverability. Their place in the future search, surveillance and reconnaissance operations is open to debate.

Even with 1000 or more satellites in low earth orbit, Colonel Vitale said, there would still be significant gaps in coverage, but, in time, perhaps twenty or even ten years, The Agency’s drone programs will have search, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities greater than U-2’s or SR-71’s. Our view of combat from a cockpit will be superseded by a view from a computer console. Even more threatening to our Air Force mission and the egos of our pilots is the prospect of The Agency conducting combat strikes with their drones. The politicians will embrace a deadly strike capability that poses no risk of death, injury or capture to any American.

Are you done yet? General Pruett asked.

No. There’s more, much more, and some of it is hard to believe, but I’ve heard and seen enough to know that it’s much more than smoke and mirrors.

Okay. I’m ready to be amazed, said the General, resigning himself to another polemic from the Colonel.

chapter two

Advice

"S OME OF THE THINGS I’M GOING TO SAY, VITALE SAID, SLOWLY, may not amaze you at all, but they may make you think I’m crazy. When I first heard about The Agency’s new initiatives in Area 51, and at the Stanford Research Institute in Palo Alto, I thought they were on drugs, but I’ve talked to experts at both MIT and Stanford, and they have convinced me that The Agency’s view of the future is not only possible, it is inevitable."

Before you tell me enough to think you’re out of your mind, General Pruett interjected, give me just a few minutes to offer a bit of career counseling. Chick, all you’ve got to do to get promoted to Brigadier General is be publicly prudent. Save your controversial views for friends in private settings. Stay away from the press, and don’t get falling down drunk in public. I’m not going to talk to you about money or prestige, Chick. You’re already famous, and I know that you could sign up with a speaker’s bureau, write a book or sign a consulting contract with Lockheed or dozens of other high-tech firms and you could make more money in a year than you’ve been paid by the Air Force and NASA in the last twenty. We need you. We all admire and respect you, and your prestige gives you the power and influence which can move this organization we love into the future. It won’t be easy, and we may still end up a service without a mission, but we can’t just give the future to the CIA. They’re an organization committed to deception and deceit. Their ultimate goal is to recruit others into their web of lies.

I like a good fight, Colonel Vitale responded, but this isn’t a fair fight. We need to make really radical changes in our strategies, and as I become more and more anxious and frustrated, I can already picture the endless well-intentioned counseling sessions telling me to be more patient and letting me know that I won’t get a second star if I’m not more tactful. No, it’s time for me to move on. I really believe I can be more effective if I’m working to help the Air Force from the sidelines. Let’s not talk about me anymore. Let me tell you what The Agency is working on besides drones and spy satellites.

I’m all ears, General Pruett said.

The common thread in all of the things I’m going to talk about is that they are weird and hard to understand, Colonel Vitale began. I suspect that some of The Agency geeks are perplexed and embarrassed by a few of their activities. I’ve heard people speculate that they’re dabbling in the occult and the black arts because they believe the Russians are doing it, and it’s quite likely that the Russkies are doing it because they know that we are. The much better reason is that most of the technology that’s in use today was viewed as impossible by experts fifty or a hundred years ago. They really can’t know which improbable capabilities today will be commonplace in the future, so they’ve decided to work on almost all of them.

Come on, Chick, General Pruett said testily. Give me some specifics.

Okay. Here goes. The Agency has more than a dozen Ph.D.’s at the Stanford Research Institute, designing and conducting experiments on extrasensory perception, telekinesis, robotics, teleportation, time travel and much more. As part of their research, they’ve been giving subjects powerful drugs such as LSD. One of these subjects had what they call ‘a bad trip’ and he jumped out of a window and fell to his death. They’ve had an Israeli named Uri Geller come to Palo Alto and bend spoons for them. You know about that, General?

Hey, Chick, General Pruett scoffed. how could you complain about the Air Force’s use of taxpayer dollars on the Manned Orbiting Laboratory and the Lifting Body, when you knew about The Agency’s programs at the Stanford Research Institute? I don’t want to be dismissive, but so far you’re making me feel better about the future of the U.S. Air Force.

Then let me give you a little more background and tell you about another major Agency initiative. The transistors that were invented by William Shockley in the late ‘40s, and earned Shockley a Nobel Prize, have a far more impressive future than the small transistor radios and hand-held calculators they enabled. At this point in time Shockley is an old man whose racist rantings have damaged his reputation with young members of the Stanford faculty and most of its student body. Nonetheless, The Agency has been paying Shockley to speculate on how transistors will enable new technologies in the future. His predictions are truly astounding.

Well, General Pruett said. Don’t keep me in suspense. What did Shockley predict, and how has The Agency validated his predictions?

Shockley, Col. Vitale said, told the geeks at The Agency that the ultimate applications of transistors, or solid state devices, will be their application to computing. Transistors have been shrinking in size and bulk at an astonishing rate and they have been combined as complete circuits on a small silicon chip. They’re called integrated circuits or IC’s, and Shockley predicts that in another ten years many thousands of transistors will fit on a single chip about the size of your thumbnail. This integration and miniaturization will enable computers that now take up a large room, to fit comfortably on a desk top. Shockley has predicted that further reductions in the size of devices on a chip will continue for many years to come and he forecasts – now get this, General -- in less than fifty years there will be billions of transistors on that thumbnail-sized chip. Not millions, General, billions.

Wait a minute, Chick, General Pruett interrupted. there were quite a few integrated circuits in the Lunar Lander Module, and I believe the Air Force was one of the first purchasers of IC’s for use in ICBM nose cone guidance sections. It was the Air Force that enabled Fairchild Semiconductor to become financially viable.

Of course, Vitale said. You’re right about all of that, but I’m telling you that The Agency has teamed up with IBM and a new firm called Intel to buy millions of dollars of processing power, tie it together in a network and try to build an artificial intelligence greater than our own. They’ve created acres and acres of underground computer ‘farms’ at Area 51, and they’ve got more all over Northern Virginia.

What do you mean by intelligence greater than our own?

The speculation is that non-human intelligence has been growing at an exponential rate, and will continue to do so. Right now it’s primitive and weak, but if the trend continues at the current rate, somewhere fifty or sixty years in the future it will far exceed our abilities to control. This will not just be a quantitative advance; there will be a qualitative transformation. It’s highly likely that we will continue to view the computers serving us now as unimaginative, sterile machines, capable of ever-increasing processing speeds, but no threat or competition to our individual or collective human intelligence. Shockley and others, on the other hand, have speculated that computers will likely develop some form of true intelligence as their processing speeds exceed ours by multiples of a thousand, or a million, or more. This new intelligence, Colonel Vitale continued, will likely be sentient, self-aware, self-directed, unpredictable and very dangerous.

Vitale stared at Pruett. "Our friends at The Agency have decided that they will facilitate and support this breakthrough so they can control it for their own gain -- and to ensure that our competitors in Russia, China, Europe and the Middle East don’t control it before we do.

Do you see what I mean, General?

chapter three

Research

ALL OF THIS SOUNDS LIKE SCIENCE FICTION, GENERAL PRUETT said. And before you tell me, I know yesterday’s science fiction is today’s reality, and today’s science fiction is tomorrow’s reality. But we all know of new technologies that seemed inevitable years ago, but they just didn’t materialize. What’s really significant here is not which technologies have profound impacts on mankind, or where they are created. The most significant factor is the rate or speed of change. You know, he went on, there are many prominent scientists and engineers who claim that the rate of innovation and technical advancements has been rapidly slowing, and in some cases has gone into reverse.

Yes, I’ve seen that claim; it’s been building for the past thirty years or more, but it’s not a sustainable trend, Vitale replied. "With the end of World War II, our military industrial complex has taken a few decades to collectively pause and take a deep breath. We’ve been actively working to assess the many scientific advances made during the war and finding out how to adapt them and integrate them into our peacetime society -- and our Cold War struggle with the USSR. It’s no secret that our space program – and the Russians’ too – has been built on the remains of the Germans’ V-2 program. Some people think Von Braun should have been tried as a war criminal at Nuremburg, but instead, he’s the head of our space program.

We’ve got a multi-billion dollar nuclear weapons program and a budding nuclear power program which have been built on the dramatic successes of the Manhattan Project, Vitale continued. Our American advances in the design and development of solid-state electronics will have more impact on our lives than all of the World War II advances combined. Let me try to create a better picture of the relative time frames required to exploit new capabilities. Modern science appears settled on the fact that it took billions of years for a soup of water and amino acids to transition from a random assortment of chemicals into single-celled life forms. It took hundreds of millions of years for single-celled life forms to evolve into multi-celled plants and animals, and hundreds of millions more to evolve into our rodent-like, mammalian ancestors. It then took tens of millions of years for those first mammals to evolve into a variety of ape-like creatures which include our distant descendants. More than ten million years ago they walked upright and grunted and gestured enough to create and execute plans for killing large prey. Hundreds of thousands of years ago they created tools and language. About 35,000 years ago the last Neanderthal died. We may not have killed our humanoid cousins, but they couldn’t compete with us for food and prime real estate ……

Come on, Chick, Pruett interrupted, this is Anthropology one-ought-one you’re spouting at me. Where are you going with this?

I’ll try to speed it up. It took millions of years for our intelligence to dramatically exceed that of all other life forms on Earth. It looks like machine intelligence will have become thousands of times faster and more powerful in less than 100 years from now, perhaps even as soon as fifty years.

You know, Chick, in less than fifty years you and I will both be in our nineties.

"That estimate of 100 years assumes no human assistance, but our friends at The Agency, and others around the world, are working night and day to speed this up. I wouldn’t be shocked if early breakthroughs didn’t come in thirty-five or forty years. If I could stop this from happening I would, but if I could find a way to delay The Agency’s efforts, someone even more unpleasant than them might just beat them to it -- or perhaps the computers would just get to it on their own with no supervision.

I hate to say it, Vitale continued, but we both know that eventually there will be second and third-rate nations with their own nuclear arsenals. I suspect we have more to fear from our fellow humans than we do from an intelligence greater than our own.

Pruett looked at him bleakly. Well, you’ve certainly painted a scary picture for the future. Anything else?

Chick got to his feet and stretched. Yes, there’s more. Our friends at The Agency aren’t content to limit their project to real science. They have been aggressively working to become wizards and magicians. They’ve had far more than Uri Geller visiting with them in Palo Alto, and back at headquarters at Langley. They’ve had an extensive array of makeup artists from Hollywood, plastic surgeons, psychologists, psychiatrists from major universities and hospitals, magicians from Las Vegas and the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus School in Sarasota, Florida. They lump a lot of the makeup and magic tricks under their favorite word, ‘tradecraft’. Some of the magicians can make lions and tigers and even elephants disappear at will. For God and country and large consulting fees they teach CIA wizards how to quickly and seamlessly appear and disappear and so completely alter their appearances that close friends and family don’t recognize them. Their dabbling in magic and the black arts are even more devious and nefarious than most of us can imagine, as they are particularly adept at combining scientific and magical capabilities.

Why would they be doing that? Pruett asked.

They call it ‘research’. He sighed and got out of his chair. Anyway, thanks for listening; I hope you’ll remember what I’ve said when the shit hits the fan.

This meeting is adjourned, General Pruett said as he stood up and extended his hand to Colonel Vitale. The two men shook hands and smiled at each other, although the General’s smile was not as wide as Vitale’s. As General Pruett released his grip, Colonel Vitale snapped to attention and saluted. The General returned the salute, and Chick Vitale walked out of the office.

chapter four

A Faustian Deal

THAT EVENING COLONEL VITALE WENT TO THE OFFICER’S CLUB BAR at 1700 hours. He ordered a vodka martini, straight up, with a lemon twist. Only a few hours had passed since his meeting with General Pruett, but the rumor mill had already let everyone in the club know that Colonel Chick Vitale was turning his back on the Air Force.

As usual, the work day had started early at Edwards. From 04.30 to 06.30 officers, airmen and civilians were readying aircraft for launch. By 07.00 most of the work had shifted to the hangars, shops and offices adjacent to the flight line; by 16.00 the buzz of activity along the flight line had retreated to base housing areas, the commissary, exchanges, and the NCO’s and Officers’ Clubs.

Happy hour at the Officers’ Club was in full swing by 17.00 hours.

When Vitale came into the club, there were forty to fifty officers milling about, most of them carrying drinks. There was a kind of concerted withdrawal as he walked to the bar. He sat down on a bar stool, and the empty stools on either side of him were an awkward testimonial to the disappointment felt by his fellow officers.

Although it seemed a lot longer, Vitale was alone only a minute or two. Captain Albert Holmes walked up to Colonel Vitale with his hand extended. The colonel swiveled off the stool, shook the proffered hand and said, Hi there, Holmes: what’ll you have?

Almost everyone in the club recognized Captain Holmes. For the few that didn’t, the lanyard looped over his left shoulder identified him as an aide to General Pruett. Tall, thin, with a narrow mustache modeled after one of the current screen idols of the day, Albert Holmes clearly had at least one foot on the ladder of success.

That his father happened to be Air Commodore Reginald Holmes, a senior officer of Britain’s Royal Air Force and a veteran (and ace) of the Battle of Britain, was not going to harm his career chances either. After WW2 was over, Air Commodore Holmes and his family had emigrated to California in 1952. He was hired almost immediately by the Lockheed Aircraft Company to work as a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base, living in base housing until 1959. Albert was caught up in the aura and mystique of test flying, and dreamed of following in his father’s footsteps as an Air Force pilot. To this end, in 1959 he became a naturalized U.S. citizen – at which moment he was diagnosed, to his intense disappointment, with chronic nearsightedness. An Air Force flying career was permanently denied to Albert Holmes, although there was a welcome for him among the non-flying officer cadre. In 1964, he graduated from Stanford with a BSc in Electrical Engineering, and a few months later was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force.

His first assignment was to the Foreign Technology Division, a posting that required high level security clearances. He worked under the supervision of a civilian engineer, Steve Stolicker, and his military supervisor was Colonel Bob Black. It was Black, a former test pilot and Vietnam veteran, who met him at the Officers’ Club.

Well now, said Black – who was short and stocky, with penetrating blue eyes and a slow smile -- after they had settled down with a couple of beers, you’ve been at FTD for almost two years, and it’s time to start thinking about your next assignment: you got any ideas? You’ve done well here, and as long as you don’t have an affair with a general officer’s wife or get drunk in public, you’ll probably make bird-colonel before you’ve done twenty years. You could retire at age 40 with a pension, and with your security rating plus the experience you’ve had here you could get a great job with a defense contractor of your choice; and there you’d be, old and rich. How does that sound to you? He took a pull at his beer and looked to see if Albert was listening, then went on, If on the other hand you want to go on up in the Air Force and become a general, you’ll need some leadership assignments, grunt stuff, get noticed. What’s in your mind, Holmes?

I understand, Sir. I want to seek out the most difficult assignments the Air Force can give me, and I’ll salute smartly and go to work. But there’s one problem in the way.

Yes? I’m listening. Is it your eyesight?

No, it’s not that, Colonel. My problem’s a personal one. I met someone three years ago, and now I’m beginning to think that leaving the Air Force may be the only way of dealing with the consequence. He stopped, fiddling with the beer mug.

You got girl trouble? You and the rest of the Air Force, Black grunted.

Albert flushed. My senior year at Stanford I fell in love with a girl, she’s everything I ever imagined and I want to marry her.

You’re a bit young, but hell, marry her and get over it.

Her name is Leslie Lemay.

The colonel put his beer mug down on the counter with a bang and dropped his voice. What, he said, you mean General Curtis Lemay’s grand-daughter? Well, well, that’d put your career into afterburner, you’re talking about Air Force royalty: wouldn’t do the Air Force any harm, pictures in the glossy magazines; all the damn media prints these days is shots of bombed out rice paddies and dead peasants and miles of jungle in ‘Nam and Cambodia and Laos. He signaled for more beer and scowled at Albert. You think you got a problem with that?

She’s told me she hates her grandfather, hates the Vietnam War and hates the U.S. Air Force, and she has no intention of being an Air Force wife. And three years ago she walked into my life, and then out of it. Unfortunately, I’m still in love with her.

Well, Albert, what d’you want me to put in my report of this little talk we’re having, Black said. Are you going to leave the Air Force and run to Miss Lemay, or are you going to make a career of it? And before you answer that question, you need to know that what you’ve told me about your dilemma is no surprise to me. We know about you and Miss Lemay, and the top brass wants that problem solved. He muttered something that Albert didn’t catch except for a few words that included ‘nanny’ and ‘psychoanalysis’, and continued, so it’s either ‘stay in and lose the girl’ or ‘get the girl and become a shoe salesman.

No, Sir, it’s a lot more complicated than that, I . .. …

I’m going to outline another option, so don’t interrupt, said Black, and I’m talking high-level policy: listen carefully, Lieutenant.

Black took a deep breath and a long pull at his beer. The Air Force and the Central Intelligence Agency are frequently competitors for missions and money. We, the Air Force, don’t run human spy networks, and they don’t fly bombers and fighter jets. Recently they have given up their claim to U-2 and SR71 missions, but The Agency’s Directorate of Science & Technology competes for dominance and control of spheres of influence and technologies. Now listen to me very carefully, Albert. We are very concerned that the CIA has launched a series of technology initiatives that may make the research and development programs of the Air Force and other government agencies obsolete, irrelevant. We need to determine if there is any substance to the Agency’s claims: frankly, some of the projects they have launched at Stanford sound like smoke and mirrors, and . . …

Excuse me for interrupting, Colonel, but I’ve gotten the strong impression that you’re going to suggest a career move that will have me leaving the Air Force, connecting with Leslie Lemay and spying for The CIA. If that’s so . …

Top marks, mister, said Colonel Black drily. You’re due for a promotion to Captain in less than three months. We’re cutting orders for you to be reassigned from FTD to AFFTC immediately after that promotion. You’ll be aide to General Pruett, the Center Commander at Edwards. In addition to taking and picking up the General’s uniforms to and from the cleaners, and making sure his wife’s car is full of gas, you’ll have supervisory responsibilities on several drone projects, and development of sensor payloads for drones and U-2’s. You’ll find yourself in contact with CIA employees and their contractors, but they will not openly identify themselves as such; in fact if you, or anyone else, suggest it; they will strongly deny it.

Oh, said Albert. And where does my relationship with Leslie fit into all of this?

Leslie is back at Stanford, Col. Black continued. I guess you must know she’s working on a Ph.D. in electrical engineering. Your assignments at Edwards and the contractors and senior NCO’s supporting you will be structured to allow you the flexibility to spend a significant amount of time at Stanford.

What do I tell all of those contractors and senior NCO’s about why I’m spending so much time on the road and at Stanford?

Tell them you’re thinking about returning to Stanford to get a graduate degree, Colonel Black answered, and that General Pruett has told you to look into it. I don’t think it would hurt anything if you let drop that you’re also meeting General Curtis Lemay’s granddaughter, who’s a graduate student there. You can tell them that the Air Force has several classified projects underway at Stanford University and at the Stanford Research Institute and you’re being briefed on them. Black looked hard at Albert. What you don’t want to tell them, he continued, is that you’re trying to identify and learn about CIA research projects in Palo Alto.

I understand, Colonel. What else am I supposed to do?

chapter five

Maneuvers

BLACK OPENED A THIN LEATHER-COVERED PORTFOLIO. HE TOOK OUT a single page resume, a single page transmittal letter and an envelope addressed to:

Personnel Recruiting

CIA Headquarters

Langley, Virginia

The resume summarized Lt. Holmes’ assignments, his clearances and his education. The transmittal letter said that his Air Force prospects were limited by the fact that he was a non-rated Air Force officer and that he believed he could best serve his country and have an interesting career by joining the CIA.

Albert stared at the letter. You want me to sign this letter proposing that I leave the Air Force and join the CIA so I can spy on them?

That’s right, Albert, Black said, and as to Leslie, I’d tell her that you’re looking into opportunities outside the Air Force -- but I would NOT recommend that you tell her you’re pursuing employment at the CIA.

Look here, Colonel, I hadn’t expected anything like this – I can see how it could all come crashing down around me in the future. I’m damn sure the CIA wouldn’t be pleased to learn I was spying ON them, as opposed to FOR them. He got off the stool and gripped the edge of the bar. And what d’you think Leslie’s reaction is going to be, if we’re all so concerned about her and her grandfather – she’d never speak to me again!

You’re being a bit more thin-skinned than I expected, Lieutenant, Black said. Stop and consider how our Air Force pilots felt when they were approached years ago and offered the opportunity to fly U-2’s over Russia for the CIA. What do you think they felt when they were told to resign their Air Force commissions, and that they would be spying and not protected by the Geneva Conventions or the U.S. Government? Plus, they were forbidden to tell anyone, including their wives. The Agency appealed to their sense of duty, patriotism and adventure, and offered them the opportunity to earn more than five times as much as they had in the Air Force. Or if you like, consider the stress and risk our pilots encounter every time they fly a combat mission. Black studied the young Lieutenant from under his bushy eyebrows.

Sir, there’s a critical difference, Holmes said, between the experiences of U-2 pilots or combat pilots in Southeast Asia, and what you’re proposing for me. Their exposure to danger is bounded -- there’s a beginning and an end, and there’s a safe, welcoming point of return. What you’re suggesting to me is a sort of Faustian deal where I get to be with a beautiful girl, but I owe you loyalty at the expense of my employer, and I’ll for sure lose the young lady when she finds out the deal I’ve made to reconnect with her.

Oh, come now! Black exclaimed. We’re offering you an opportunity to experience excitement, tension, fear, satisfaction and an incredible sense of accomplishment. We know that there are CIA agents in the Air Force and we know that they regularly pass along information about our programs, priorities, budget requests and the comments that senior Air Force officers make about The Agency and its agents. He lit a cigarette. Let me add a little more information that may make you more enthusiastic.

Stanford has a reputation for producing sophisticated, talented electrical engineers with entrepreneurial drives, he continued. "Ever since William Hewlett and David Packard created Hewlett Packard in a Palo Alto garage with the help of their Stanford professors, there has been a growing wave of high-tech startups. Of course you know that SUN Microsystems was launched using the Stanford University Network. Their perception -- that a single processor or central processing unit is not, and cannot be. the computer of the future, but that instead it will be a networked array of processors -- may be even more profound than the development of the integrated circuit. And take note that Fairchild Semiconductors has recently added to the high-tech start-ups in the area surrounding Stanford. I can tell you, Albert, with your education and background, it’s almost certain that The Agency would have you undercover as a graduate student at Stanford. They might have you get an MBA in the Business School or an MSEE or Ph.D. from the engineering school. In addition to your studies, your CIA assignment would be to build relationships with talented students, faculty and local high-tech entrepreneurs. You’d be discharged from the active duty Air Force and join the Palo Alto Air Force Reserve Unit. The Agency would pay your Stanford tuition, provide you an allowance for books and expenses, and they’d pay you a salary. You would draw the GI bill allowance you earned as an active duty Air Force officer, and you’d receive monthly checks from the Air Force for your attendance at monthly reserve officer meetings and two weeks of active duty assignment each summer.

What happens between you and Leslie Lemay while you’re students at Stanford is your business, no one else’s, Col. Black said. "But you should be pleased that you’ll have enough income to live well and woo Ms. Lemay if you desire, and she allows. I recommend you be up front about your Air Force Reserve connection.

"The Agency will almost certainly brief you into their research projects at the university, at