Air Battle Force

“He’s got me plugged in night and day.” There were lots of generals on base, Daren thought, but everyone knew that “the” general was Patrick McLanahan. “Lots of meetings and trips to TTR.” The Tonopah Test Range was the flight test and research base in southwestern Nevada that served as the medium-security conduit between the unclassified flight testing done at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California and the supersecret research work done at the High Technology Aerospace Weapons Center, or HAWC, near Las Vegas.

“Everything going all right?”

“I think we’ll have it dialed in soon,” Daren said. “The general is a hard-charger.”

“Good candidate for a nervous breakdown.”

“His head is screwed on right, I think,” Daren said. “He’s spending more time with his kid. He even showed up for the squadron run.”

“I couldn’t believe it myself.”

“I wasn’t surprised. He works hard, but he’s starting to gain a bit more perspective, I think.”

“That’ll be a switch.”

They fell silent again, nursing their beers. Finally Daren said, “How about dinner tonight? I think the Owl Club is doing cowboy poetry in the dining room. Should be a rip-roarin’ time in the old town!” That was pure sarcasm. There was not much to do in Battle Mountain after hours; cowboy poetry was a special treat.

“I… I don’t think so, Daren,” Rebecca said uneasily.

“You’re allowed to spend time with your squadron commanders while off duty.”

“I know that. It’s just—”

“This is the first time I’ve even spoken to you outside meetings and briefings, Becky, and we’ve still got several hundred airmen around us,” Daren said. “Something a little more relaxed and private would be nice.”

“I’m not ready to start seeing you, Daren.”

“Not even for dinner and some wine?”

“When did we ever get together for ‘just’ dinner?”

He smiled in spite of himself. “Well, I certainly didn’t mind when things turned in that direction.”

“And that’s why I’m saying no, Daren. I’m afraid our whole relationship outside of work revolves around sex. I’m not ready for that yet.”

“It doesn’t have to end up with us in the sack, Becky.”

“I just don’t want to take the chance,” she said. She motioned to the rest of the large crowd of runners a few dozen yards away. “I think I’m comfortable enough around you right now.”

“You’re not giving me very much credit here.”

“I’ll apologize — if you tell me you didn’t think about it when you asked me out.” Daren smiled again. “I thought so.”

“Hey, it doesn’t mean I was planning to carry you up to a hotel room and throw you on the bed after dinner,” Daren said. “If it happened, then… I’d be very happy. If it didn’t—”

“You’d try again,” Rebecca finished for him. “Problem is, I’m not sure if I’m ready for the pursuit right now… and I’m not sure what I’d be feeling if I said yes.” He looked away. “And if you cared about me at all, you’d respect that.”

“I do,” Daren said earnestly. “But it won’t stop me from thinking about it — or trying again.” She had no response to that. Daren couldn’t tell if it meant “Don’t bother” or “I’d like that.” He looked over the aircraft-parking ramp, wishing he could throw the beer bottle across with all his strength. “Are you ever going to tell me about you and Rinc Seaver?” he asked sharply.

“No. And I advise you not to bring up that topic again,” she said, and she walked quickly away.

As he watched her move off, his mind flashed briefly on Amber back at Donatella’s — and then he shook his head, finished his beer, and went to get another.

While over at the tailgate, Patrick McLanahan met up with him. “Good idea doing a run,” he said. Daren noticed with amusement that McLanahan’s sweatshirt was heavily sweat-stained. “The tailgate party makes it even better.”

“Thanks for turning out, sir,” Daren said. “Been a while since you’ve done any running?”

“I’ve been allowed to skate.”

“I see.”

“I saw the rundown on your familiarization ride today with Lieutenant Grey. Very good shooting,” Patrick said.

“Thank you, sir. With precision-guided weapons and the systems you have on board your B-1s here, a person’s got to have a pretty good excuse to miss.”

“Youth. New systems. Not intuitive enough. I’ve heard lots of excuses,” Patrick said. “It takes a skilled operator to simply walk into a Vampire, manage the aircraft, manage the systems, and release good weapons. You’re a good stick, too. You watered your wingman’s eyes with your formation flying.”

“Thanks.”

McLanahan pulled Mace away from the others circling the beer. “You’re doing an outstanding job getting the virtual-cockpit stuff ready on the Vampires, too,” Patrick went on when they were by themselves. “It’s coming together great.”

“I think we’ll be done well before your deadline, sir.”

“Unfortunately, we’re going to be taking a break for a few days. We have a special mission — and I want you to fly it.”

“You got it, sir. Where are we going?”

McLanahan looked around to see if anyone was in earshot, then: “Turkmenistan.”

Daren didn’t look surprised. “I had a feeling things were heating up out there,” he said. “When do we brief?”

“We’ll brief the mission itself in the plane after we’re airborne,” Patrick said. “Crew rest for you starts as soon as you finish that beer. Show time in the Lair is oh-two-hundred, wheels-up at oh-three-hundred.”

Daren drained his beer. “Cool,” he said simply. “I’ll be there. Who’s my aircraft commander?”

“You worked well with Lieutenant Grey this morning,” Patrick said, “but we need someone with a little more experience.”

“Don’t tell me — I know.”

Patrick glanced at Rebecca heading for her Yukon in the parking lot, then back at Daren. “You two going to be okay?”

“Yes, sir. If not, we’ll have lots of time en route to discuss things.”

“That’s for sure. See you in the Lair.”

“May I make a suggestion, sir?”

“Of course.”

“Let’s turn this mission into an operational test flight,” Daren said. “Let’s use everything we’ve put together. It can work, I know it.”

Patrick thought about it for a moment — but only for a moment. “Good idea,” he said. “We’ll still have a live crew on board, but we’ll run it as if they’re not on board. We’ll have to let everyone in the One-eleventh in on it….”

“It’ll work, sir,” Daren said. “It’ll be great.”

Patrick fell silent again, then said, “Fine. But I’ll fly as mission commander.”

“Sir…”

“No argument. This mission and this system are completely off the books. No one flies experimental aircraft until I fly it first. I might even bar Rebecca from flying it, but she’d argue so loud and long that I know there’d be no point.”

“Sir, the original idea behind this whole plan was to make it so you wouldn’t have to fly missions like this.”

“That’s not why I set up this program!”

“I didn’t mean it like a selfish act, sir — I know you wouldn’t start something like this just for yourself,” Daren said. “But the original motivating factor behind all of this was creating a weapon system that didn’t rely on human factors to complete the mission. You have too much invested in this program — emotionally as well as careerwise