Sadly you have waxed yourself into a corner that you are going to have to rewrite to get out of.
The ONLY Air Force aircraft that were on alert status were Air Defense Command fighters, that does not exist.
At this time Air National Guard bases are the only ones performing that function.
The last Contiguous Air Force base flying F-15s in a mode that could have filled in was Mountain Home in Idaho and they disbanded several years ago.
There are ZERO Air Force compounds that have quick alert aircraft beyond the Air National Guard flying F-16s.
The time for get a B-1 ready, that is not on alert status would be hours, not minutes and there are NO B-1s on alert status at Edawards.
About the only thing that, maybe and that is a big maybe, would be if ATAC had aircraft at Edwards for Red Flag type exercises and then you would have a civilian pilot as Air Force pilots are not familiar with the aircraft ATAC flys and even then you have the problem of multiple air to air refuelings plus ATAC would have to be flying their two-seat Viggen which they have now retired.
You are going to have rewrite in some form or push plausibility to fantasy levels.
One possibility would be that a European Air Force still flying F-4s was at Edwards for war games, or another base near by, and an exercise was about to start so the aircraft were already running ready to launch.
Why F4??? Gripen, Typhoon trainer or Rafale B or insian sukhoi 30 MkI (afterall they participated to Red Flag) would fit perfectly. F4 aren’t in service anymore in Germany and i dont know if any ally participating to Red Flag still use it. Of course geopolitics consideration of you book should be taken into account.
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