America

dinner the following Saturday night, then thanked him and rang off.

Flap was up to speed. He grinned wolfishly at Grafton. 'You should have been a marine,' he said.

'If you don't mind, sir, I'd like to go first tomorrow. I'll read a statement, telling what I know about Zelda Hudson and Antoine Jouany and EuroSpace. The only way to shut these people up is to throw the truth in their faces.' 'The prosecutors won't like it.'

'Not my problem,' Jake said and laced his fingers behind his head. He was alive and home, and he felt pretty damned good.

Jake wore his dress blue uniform the next morning. Callie was home from Europe, so she came and sat in the gallery. Carmellini sat with her and Corina Le Beau, while Toad sat at the long wooden witness table beside Jake and Flap so it wouldn't look as if they hadn't a friend in the world.

Finally the television lights came on and the chairman made a few remarks. 'I understand the commandant has suggested that you go first, Admiral. Do you wish to make a statement?'

'Yes, sir.' Jake began reading from his handwritten notes: 'This is a story of superpower politics, cutting-edge technology, and greed….'

About the Author

One of today's best action-adventure writers, Stephen Coonts is the author of ten published novels. His writing, he says, is the culmination of a lifelong love affair with books.

Mr. Coonts enlisted in the Naval Reserve during his sophomore year at West Virginia University 'to avoid the draft,' and because the Navy promised to send him to flight school. The Navy kept its promise, ordering him to flight training at NAS Pensacola, Florida, upon his graduation in 1968. He received his Navy wings in August 1969. After completion of fleet replacement training in the A-6 Intruder aircraft, he reported to Attack Squadron 196 at NAS Whid-bey Island, Washington. He made two combat cruises as a member of this squadron aboard USS Enterprise during the final years of the Vietnam War. After the war he served as a flight instructor on A-6 aircraft for two years, then did a tour as an assistant catapult and arresting gear officer aboard USS Nimitz. He left active duty in 1977 and moved to Colorado.

After short stints as a taxi driver and police officer, Mr. Coonts entered the University of Colorado School of Law in the fall of 1977. He received his law degree in December 1979. He was practicing law as a staff attorney for a large independent oil company when his first novel, Flight of the Intruder, the classic novel of naval aviation in the jet era, was published in 1986.

Since his first flight as a student naval aviator, Mr. Coonts has been flying whenever finances permit. His nonfiction flying adventure, The Cannibal Queen, first published in 1992, has been hailed by critics as a general aviation classic. 'That,' he says, 'is the book I hope they remember me for fifty years from now. Over half the fan mail I receive is inspired by that book. After reading it, many people decide they know me pretty well, so they write me a long letter telling me of their life's adventure. Receiving letters like that is the coolest part of being a writer.'

In addition to flying, Mr. Coonts collects and shoots rifles. 'Av gas and gunpowder are my substances of choice. They'll be illegal someday, so I'm burning all I can right now.'

He maintains a Web site at www.coonts.com. He and his wife, Deborah Buell Coonts, live in Las Vegas with their son, Tyler.