Mirage was a complicated and sophisticated body of electronics, that
required firstly a high degree of manual dexterity. The mechanism was
operated entirely by the left hand, and the fingers of that hand had to
move like those of a concert pianist. However, more important was the
feel for the instrument, a lover's touch to draw the optimum results
from it. Joe had the feel, David did not.
They flew training interceptions, day and night, against high-flying and
low-altitude practice targets.
They flew low-level training strikes, and at other times they went out
high over the Mediterranean and engaged each other in plane-to-plane
dogfights.
However, Desert Flower steered them tactfully away from any actual or
potential combat situation. They were watching David.
At the end of the period, David's service dossier passed over
Major-General Mordecai's desk. Personnel was the Brig's special
responsibility and although each officer's dossier was reviewed by him
regularly, he had asked particularly to see David's.
The dossier was still slim, compared to the bulky tomes of some of the
old salts and the Brig flicked quickly over his own initial
recommendation and the documents of David's acting commission. Then he
stopped to read the later reports and results. He grinned wolfishly as
he saw the gunnery report. He could pick them out of a crowd, he
thought with satisfaction.
At last he came to le Dauphin's personal appraisal: Morgan is a pilot of
exceptional ability. Recommended that acting rank be confirmed and that
he be placed on fully operational basis forthwith. The Brig picked up
the red pen that was his own special prerogative and scrawled J agree at
the foot of the report.
That took care of Morgan, the pilot. He could now consider Morgan, the
man. His expression became bleak and severe. Debra's sudden desire to
leave home almost immediately David arrived in Jerusalem had been too
much of a coincidence for a man who was trained to search for underlying
motives and meanings.
It had taken him two days and a few phone calls to learn that Debra was
merely using the hostel room at the University as an accommodation
address, and that her real domestic arrangements were more comfortable.
The Brig did not approve, very definitely not. Yet he knew that it was
beyond his jurisdiction. He learned that his daughter had inherited his
own iron will. Confrontations between them were cataclysmic events,
that shook the family to its foundations and seldom ended in
satisfactory results.
Although he spent much of his time with young people, still he found the
new values hard to live with - let alone accept. He remembered the
physical agony of his long and chaste engagement to Ruth with pride,
like a veteran reviewing an old campaign.
Well, at the least she has the sense not to flout it, not to bring shame
on us all. She has spared her mother that. The Brig closed the dossier
firmly.
Le Dauphin called David into his office and told him of his change in
status. He would go on regular green standby, which meant four nights a
