Starfire (59 page)

Authors: Dale Brown

S
T
. G
EORGE
, U
TAH

S
EVERAL
DAYS
LATER

Brad stood at the head of the Cybernetic Infantry Unit as the straps began to slowly retract up toward the ceiling, and moments later Patrick McLanahan was pulled clear of the robot. His body was as pale as a bedsheet, and he was thinner than Brad could ever remember, but he was not as skeletal as he had fearedâhe looked wiry, with good muscle tone beneath the snow-white skin. His head was supported with a pillow attached to its own straps. Doctors and nurses rushed up to him, administering medications and attaching sensors all over his body. They placed an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose with a microphone in it.

Patrick turned and opened his eyes, looking at Brad, and he smiled. “Hello, son,” he said. “Good to see you in person and not through an optronic sensor.”

“Hello, Dad,” Brad said. He turned a little to his right. “I'd like you to meet Jodie Cavendish, my friend and one of my Starfire team leaders. Jodie, please meet my father, General Patrick S. McLanahan.”

Patrick closed his eyelids and even slightly bowed his head. “A pleasure to meet you, Miss Cavendish,” he said. “I've heard a lot about you.”

“It is a great honor to meet you, sir,” Jodie said.

“I'm sorry about Casey Huggins and Starfire,” Patrick said. “You did some amazing work.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Patrick looked at Brad. “So, you're headed back to school,” he said. “I'm not sure if you can get any work done with all the publicity swirling around you guys.”

“We're counting on fast news cycles and short memory spans,” Brad said. “Cal Poly is a big place. We're the ones who lost a space station. We're not heroes.”

“In my eyes, you are,” Patrick said.

It did not take long. As Patrick was suspended above, the old CID was wheeled away, the new one wheeled into place. Patrick's body was lowered inside, the straps pulled free, and the rear hatch was closed. Jodie was awestruck as the CID stood up, wriggled its arms and legs as if waking up from a nap, then extended a hand to her. “It was a pleasure to meet you, Miss Cavendish,” Patrick said in his electronically synthesized voice. “I look forward to seeing you again.”

“We're coming up next weekend to decorate your room,” Brad said. “I got a bunch of your Air Force stuff out of storage. We'll make this place feel like home.”

“I can't guarantee I'll be here, Brad,” Patrick said, “but you're welcome to do whatever you feel like doing. I'd like that.” Brad gave his father a hug, and he and Jodie departed.

A few minutes after they left, with the CID plugged into power, nutrients, environmental, and data umbilicals, former president Kevin Martindale entered the room. “You actually approved Miss Cavendish to visit,” he remarked. “I'm surprised.”

“She promised to keep it a secret,” Patrick said. “I believe her.”

“Too bad about Phoenix losing the election to Barbeau,” Martindale said. “That could be the end of a lot of government contracts.”

“Many more clients out there,” Patrick said. “Many more projects that we need to get under way.”

Martindale shook his finger at Patrick. “Very clever of you, I must say,” he said. “Injecting news articles and data to Brad about orbiting solar power plants and microwave lasers. You actually made your son believe Starfire was
his
idea.”

“I planted the ideasâhe had to run with them,” Patrick said.

“True, true,” said Martindale. “But when the idea came to life, it was so clever of you to secretly and carefully send him the experts, point him to Cavendish, Kim, Huggins, and Eagan, and line up Sky Masters to support him with that grant money.”

“My son is a true leader,” Patrick said. “He may be a terrible aerospace engineering student, but he's a good pilot and a great leader. All I did was place the resources at his disposalâit was up to him to put them together and build it. He did a good job.”

“But you used your son to build an illegal directed-energy space weapon, in violation of international law,” Martindale said. “Very, very clever. It worked. Unfortunately it was destroyed by the Russians, but it proved the value of microwave lasers. Good job, General.” Martindale smiled and asked, “So what else do you have in store for young Bradley, may I ask?”

“We have to deal with a President Stacy Anne Barbeau now,” Patrick said. “She will surely scrap the space initiative. But the good thing is, she wants to build bombers, aircraft carriers, arsenal ships, hypersonic weapons, and unmanned everything. I'm sure Brad can design and test most of those things. I'll get to work on it right away.”

“I'm sure you will, General McLanahan,” Martindale said with an evil smile. “I'm sure you will.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Information on Cane-Ja was taken from “Street Techniques” by Mark Shuey Sr. and Mark Shuey Jr., Â© Canemasters.com.

The P210 Silver Eagle, a Cessna P210 Centurion modified with a turboprop power plant (minus a lot of the high-tech stuff I added to it), is a product of O&N Aircraft, Factoryville, Pennsylvania, www.onaircraft.com.

Angel Flight West is a real charitable organization that matches needy medical or humanitarian recipients with pilots who donate their airplane, the cost of fuel, and their skills to fly them to wherever they need to go for medical or support reasons, with absolutely no cost to the passengers. I have flown for Angel Flight West for four years, and I think it may have been the ultimate reason I became a pilot: to use my skills to help others. Learn more at www.angelflightwest.org.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DALE BROWN
is the author of numerousÂ
New York Times
Â bestsellers, starting withÂ
Flight of the Old Dog
Â in 1987, and most recentlyÂ
Tiger's Claw
. A former U.S. Air Force captain, he can often be found flying his own plane over the skies of Nevada.

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www.AuthorTracker.com
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WINGS OF FIRE

WARRIOR CLASS

BATTLE BORN

THE TIN MAN

FATAL TERRAIN

SHADOW OF STEEL

STORMING HEAVEN

CHAINS OF COMMAND

NIGHT OF THE HAWK

SKY MASTERS

HAMMERHEADS

DAY OF THE CHEETAH

SILVER TOWER

FLIGHT OF THE OLD DOG

CREDITS

Cover design by Richard Aquan

Photograph montage: Stormy Clouds by Travelpix/

Getty Images; Flag Â© by Travelpix/Getty Images;

Space plane Â© by kollected.com;

Author photograph Â© by Joy Strotz

This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity and are used fictitiously. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real.

STARFIRE
. Copyright Â© 2014 by Air Battle Force, Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST EDITION

ISBN 978-0-06-226239-4

EPub Edition May 2014 ISBN 9780062262363

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