'Then you agree to waive your right to remain silent?'

'Don't fuck with me, Landow! I'll close down this facility so fast it'll make your head spin! Now, cut these cuffs off and tell those pilots to shut down those engines, and that's an order!'

'I don't think you're in a position to be issuing orders right now, guys,' Landow said. 'You've just entered a secure government research facility operating under Threatcon Delta with Kryton nuclear trigger devices in your possession.'

'What?'

'Our electronics sensors detected them in your clothing. You're under arrest for attempting to bring a weapon-ofmass-destruction component inside a secure government facility.'

'That's bullshit!' Willison stared bug-eyed at the objects. 'I've never seen those things before! I have no idea what they are! This is a frame-up! You planted those things on us… no, that girl! That girl planted them on us!' He continued his loud protests as the security officers were hauling him and his men away at gunpoint.

Landow met up with Jon Masters a few minutes later. 'Good job, John,' he said. 'Those old triggers from the museum sure did come in handy.'

'It's a ridiculous stunt that won't hold up for a moment,' Landow said.

'But it sets off the security procedures, and onae they go into action, it'll take someone in Washington to stop it,' Masters said happily. 'This is the first time I'm actually thankful we have such tight security. How long are they going to be out of the picture?'

'We can hold them incommunicado for about six hours,' Landow replied, 'unless you intend on just locking them away somewhere.'

'The thought had crossed my mind.'

'Even a terrorist with a gun would get a phone call,' Landow pointed out. 'I think you should count on locking them away until just after five P.M., so they'll have to contact a duty officer instead of their own office for helpthat'll slow things down a little more. But once the call goes in, your time runs out fast. The FBI will probably fly a supervisor or a U.S. attorney out from L.A. shortly after they hear about this, but they won't have clearance to enter, so that'll delay things another few hours. But they might fly a Hostage Rescue Team out here to guard the place until the men can be released-that'll take them no more than one or two hours. After that, the game will be up. I'm sure they'll shut this place down tight and have all of us in federal prison in a heartbeat.'

'Plenty of time,' Jon said. 'We'll all be long gone by then. We'll have to hope that Patrick's benefactor can keep the heat off us so there's a company to come back to after this is all over.' He held out his arms when Kelsey Duffield approached, then picked her up and gave her a kiss on her cheek. Sasha sat down beside Jon, proudly puffing out her chest. 'Good job, Kelsey,' he said. 'You too, Sasha. Kelsey, I didn't know you were a pickpocket too.'

'Thanks, Jon. My dad always told me everyone likes a good pickpocket-but just as a joke. It's easy. I never picked a pocket to put anything in before, though.'

'The support aircraft will be ready to launch in about four hours, fully loaded with every weapon we can carry,' Jon said. 'The bombers should be airborne a few hours after that. They'll be loaded to the gills too with external weapons, so they won't be stealthy, but we'll have to risk it. I hope Patrick and Megafortress Two will be up there clearing a path for us.'

'Is this going to work, Doc?' Landow asked. 'We've broken just about every federal law in the books already-we're going to make it a million times worse by flying those planes to Libya. Libya is a prohibited country- technology export and import sanctions, terrorist support sanctions, money sanctions, travel and immigration restrictions, the works. If we don't get our asses shot down by the Libyans, we could all be in prison for the rest of our lives.'

'Nah. Every thing'11 be okay,' Jon Masters said confidently, giving Kelsey a reassuring hug. 'You haven't been with the company too long, John. We do this sort of thing all the time.'

'And you've never been caught?'

Jon shrugged, then gave Landow a sheepish grin. 'Well… we've always gotten away with it before,' Jon admitted. 'That's just as good.' He turned to Kelsey. 'Unfortunately, the only plane we won't have with us is the second Dragon airborne laser aircraft. We can't fly it in its current state unless we remove all the plasma-pumping equipment you've put on it and reassemble the diode pumping system on the laser. You gave it a good try, Kels.'

'Jon, I promise, it will work,' Kelsey said. 'Don't keep on thinking in two-dimensional ways. The plasma generator doesn't need to be a multimegawatt monster-all we need is a large pulse for a hundredth of a second to excite the neodymium lasing amplifier chips. Let's reassemble the plasma generators we have, install them, and try it.'

'We're going to lose our lab in less than eight hours, Kels-'

'Then we better hurry, shouldn't we?' Kelsey asked. 'We have a plasma generator we know will work on Dragon Two right now. Let's load it up, put the screws back in, and leave before that angry Mr. Willison comes back.' She smiled and touched Jon's hand. 'Jon, we'll have time to write up the documentation and the engineering later-right now, we have to get Dragon flying, before they come and take her away. You're worried that you won't know how it works if it does, and so you won't be able to start preparing marketing plans and prospectuses for the project. Don't worry about all that stuff, Jon-let's see if it flies first, then worry about selling it later.'

Jon Masters looked at Kelsey with a grin. Her enthusiasm was indeed infectious. 'Kelsey, you know there's no way this should work,' Jon said. 'It's too dangerous. We still haven't gotten the right yield out of the singlegenerator system to be an effective weapon with the proper safety tolerances. We won't know if it's ready to let go until just before it blows up. And all these unknowns will be going on with two human beings riding on top of it.'

Kelsey took Jon's face in her hands, pulled his head down, and kissed his forehead. 'You're silly, you know that?' she said. 'I know we don't know all these things, Jon-doesn't that want to make you go and try it out?' When he hesitated in replying, Kelsey added, 'Jon, wasn't there once a time when you would have given anythingeven your own life-for one chance to try?'

In fact, there was such a time: Jon Masters put himself in the fuselage of an airliner loaded with several hundred pounds of TNT to prove his electronic armor called BERP, or Ballistic Electro-Reactive Process, would protect the aircraft in case of a terrorist bomb going off in the cargo hold. The demonstration had horrified the airline and government representatives to the point that they refused to fund the program, but that didn't matter-it worked, and Jon risked his own life to prove it. That BERP material eventually became the Tin Man battle armor system, which would one day revolutionize American infantry fighting.

Kelsey paused, still holding Jon's hand, like a brother and sister taking a stroll. They found themselves standing in front of Dragon One's open hangar door. There was a flurry of action around it, with dozens of technicians and crew members rushing to get it ready to fly. Right next door was Dragon Two-virtually ignored except for the four security guards stationed around it.

'Doesn't it look lonely?' Kelsey asked her new big brother. 'It needs some love and attention. We can do it,

Jon. We put Dragon's new plasma generators in, give it some gas, and take it on a trip to help the general find his wife.' She saw Jon's smile vanish and his shoulders slump. 'I know Wendy is still okay, Jon. I know she is. But we need to help Patrick so he can go back and find her.'

Jon smiled at his little partner, then nodded. When he looked at Dragon Two, he had to agree-it was a goodlooking bird, and right now it did look pretty lonely.

He pulled out his secure cell phone: 'Doug? How's it going…? Excellent. Listen, pull Ken and Duncan's crews off Dragon One and have them start installing the plasma generators on Dragon Two… yep, right now. As soon as Joel's crew signs off their preflight on One, have them jump over to help, and get the rest of the crews on Two as soon as One launches. We're going to bring Dragon Two with us… yes, and I want it operational… yes, operational, not just flyable…. We've done all the lab testing we're going to do. Dr. Duffield and I are standing out front right now to help. We have about six hours to do it… yes, I said six, and I'll be surprised if we don't get a visit from the feds before then. Let's hustle!'

SKY MASTERS INC. WORLD HEADQUARTERS, ARKANSAS INTERNATIONAL JETPORT, BLYTHEVILLE, ARKANSAS LATER THAT EVENING
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