Rebecca shrugged. “They’re okay,” she said as she shook Patrick’s hand.
“Nothing like a Bone, huh?” Patrick said with a smile. Rebecca didn’t return the smile. “Is it yours?” he asked.
“It was Rinc’s,” she said woodenly. “I’m… borrowing it.”
Annie walked over to Rebecca and gave her a warm hug. “Are you doing okay, boss?” she asked.
“Not really,” she replied. She looked over at Dave Luger, then back at Annie and gave her a shy grin. “You and Colonel Luger?”
“Hey, love strikes at the weirdest times and in the weirdest places,” Annie said. “Looks like we were meant to be ‘crewed-up’ after all.” Rebecca gave her a congratulatory squeeze of the hand.
“Welcome, Colonel,” General Samson said. “Glad you could make it.” She shook hands with him and the others. “How are you doing, Colonel Long?”
“Much better, thank you, sir.”
“Good,” he said. “Well, I’m sure you heard the good news by now: China and United Korea finally began formal diplomatic relations and exchanged ambassadors. What you may not have heard is that China has decided to pull all of its troops away from the border. No troops on either side. Same with the Russia-Korea border area.” No reaction from Rebecca.
“More good news: they held peninsula-wide elections, and the prime minister, Lee Kyong-sik, was elected president. They elected an ex-North Korean as vice president. That country might actually make it, even after everything it’s been through.”
“Any noise about the… er, aftermath at Osan?” John Long asked.
“Lots,” Patrick said. “But, as always, the answer was ‘no comment,’ except to the President, of course. But he’s all worried about reelection and politics, so he didn’t ask too many questions.”
“What happened to Osan?”
Terrill Samson shrugged. “The Korean Master Control and Reporting Center was destroyed. The initial reports said that part of Osan Air Base just… disappeared. Of course, that’s
“Your ‘friend’ will see to that.”
“Good to see you’re starting to understand how our little world works, Colonel,” Samson said. “It so happens that the Chinese did end up destroying most of United Korea’s nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons labs in Chagang Do province on their way out of the country, so Korea’s special weapons capability has been all but eliminated. The new president has vowed to destroy the rest of the weapons. We’ll see.
“Well, let’s do some business here. I heard you turned down that assignment offer from the Air Guard at March Air Reserve Base, Rebecca. Mind telling me why?”
She shook her head, then lowered her eyes. “Didn’t feel like going for it, that’s all, sir.”
“You done with flying, then?” he asked. “Done with the military?”
“I think so.”
Samson shrugged his shoulders, then looked around. “Too bad,” he said. “It’s a shame to lose good, tough, aggressive commanders.”
“Being tough and aggressive didn’t get us much, did it, sir?”
“It brought victory, and it brought peace,” Samson said. “You taught it well to your troops, and you did the job and conquered. For a warrior, that’s the best reward there is. You should be proud.” No reply. “The 163rd Air Refueling Wing is still looking for a new commander, Rebecca. I’d be happy to put in a good word for you.”
“No thank you, sir.”
“Plenty of other good units out there need commanders,” Patrick McLanahan said. “In fact, I’ve heard of a Nevada Air National Guard unit that needs a commander.”
Rebecca looked up at him — she knew there was only one Nevada Air Guard unit, her old one in Reno, and it had been disbanded. “What did you say, sir?”
“I heard of a plan to put twenty Block G B-1B bombers at a new base to be built in northern Nevada,” Patrick said. “Specifically, right here at Battle Mountain Airport. I heard this new B-1B unit, the 111th Bombardment Wing, Missile, will be training down in Tonopah Air Force Base until the new base is built and the planes are modified. They wouldn’t be Megafortress aircraft, but they’d be primarily deployed for suppression of enemy air defenses, antiballistic missile defense, and standoff attack.”
“What do you think about that, Rebecca?” Samson asked. “It would mean lots of headaches: lots of deployments, training new instructors, setting up a new base, setting up a new wing, congressional wrestling matches…”
“I… I think it’s great, sir,” Rebecca said, her eyes lighting up. “Where might an interested party sign up for this assignment?”
“Why, I think the general is taking applications right now,” Hal Briggs said with his famous smile. “And I do believe you’re first in line.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DALE BROWN is a former captain in the U.S. Air Force. He lives in Nevada, where he can often be found high in the sky, piloting his own plane. He is the author of eleven previous novels, all of them
