Test Pilot's Daughter II: Dead Reckoning (14 page)

“Listen carefully. We will very soon be faced with a clear but difficult choice, either a nuclear cataclysm in the United States or a Coup d’etat. Let me ask you Mr. Jacobs, which would you prefer?”

“My God, General,” Christina gasped, “I never agreed to any such thing.”

“Well, that’s why you are here. But, before we get into all that, let’s justify our meeting by signing over the DROID rights to the Air Force.”

“Wait a minute. DROID’s
my
baby. What exactly does the inventor get out of this? It could be worth billions.”

“Don’t worry, you will be justly rewarded, uh that is, just like any other Government employee. Let’s see, what is it these days? Ah yes, it’s in the regulations. The standard award is $100 for the application and $100 when the patent is issued. You have two patents here so that would be a total of $400. Now don’t spend that all in one place, Miss Matthews,” he chuckled trying to make a joke.

She laughed. “Are you kidding me? I’ve got three years of my life tied up in this thing.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Wallace explained. “It’s law. All the work was done under government funding, and the patents were applied for in your name while you were an employee of the U.S. Government. The paperwork here is a mere formality. You are to look over and approve the technical aspects of the applications and sign the rights over to the Air Force.”

“And if I don’t.”

“Simple, NASA would be forced to fire you, and the Air Force would sue. You probably don’t remember all the forms you had to sign for those research grants. You already agreed to this, years ago.”

“Guess that’ll teach me to read the small print.” She could only chuckle at the idea of signing over billions of dollars in technology for a measly four-hundred bucks. Luckily she didn’t need the money. She did a quick scan of the patent applications, read the claims and signed the forms. “Now let’s quit wasting time and talk about. . .well, you know. By the way, how do I know this room isn’t bugged?”

“Christina, you’re a very smart young lady. Do you think I would use the term
Coup d’etat
in a room that was bugged? I already had my people check it out. It’s squeaky clean, and you can be sure our conversation is private. Didn’t you call your dad about me?”

“Yeah, I called him. He said he hadn’t seen you for fifteen years, but he thought you were a true patriot.” She looked over at Michael. His eyes rolled as if saying,
Why the hell didn’t you tell me?

“Okay,” Wallace said, “let’s get busy. First, we need to know what you found in the Director’s mansion.”

Christina looked back at Michael like,
I told you so.
He turned white as a sheet.

“I’m not admitting anything, General. But let’s just say we had some information; why should we give it to you, and what would you do with it?”

“Fair questions,” he acknowledged. “William Pearce, the Joint Chief of Staff, has told me in secrecy that if we can show absolute proof that ties Hussein to Scott and Scott to the President, he’ll take whatever action is necessary to protect this country. We already have circumstantial evidence of a conspiracy. All we have to do now is get Scott out of the way, put some DROIDs in orbit and take out that Soyuz 23. So far the President refuses to take these obvious measures, and you are well aware of the consequences. Need I say more?”

“This is serious shit, Christina,” Michael cautioned. “We’re talking balance of power. We’ve got no business getting in the middle. If we go along with the General and this thing blows up, we could be executed for treason.”

“And if we don’t? Wait just a minute,” she looked Wallace in the eyes, “something smells fishy here. If you need evidence on Scott, why didn’t you just go in and get it yourself. His mansion was completely unprotected, no security at all.”

“
Ah ha!
So you’re admitting you broke into his house.”

All of a sudden Christina felt very uncomfortable with General Wallace. “I’m not saying that at all, I’m only asking you, if this is so damned critical to the future of the United States, why didn’t you go in?”

“Are you kidding? Do you think I could get approval for an illegal break-in? Have you ever heard of Watergate? And why should we, when we have concerned citizens like yourself who are more than willing to do our dirty work? Now, Miss Matthews, it’s time to shit or get off the pot. Somebody’s got to stand up for this country; our very way of life depends on it. I want to know what you found!” he raised his voice in anger.

She noticed his eyes shifting back and forth to her briefcase. “But how do we know we’re not being set up? How do we know you’re not wearing a wire?”

Wallace steamed, huffed and puffed, but he didn’t answer.

There was a pregnant pause as she hesitated. It was a tough call. Her gut told her to go along with Wallace, but something had changed about his disposition. What if her gut was wrong? “General would you be so kind to step outside for about ten minutes? I’m sure you understand. Time is of the essence, and I need to make sure I make the right call here. Just want to talk it over with Michael in private.” She was well aware he could simply take her briefcase by force.

“No problem,” Wallace replied. “I’ll go outside for a breather, be back in ten minutes.” He got up and walked out of the room.

Christina overheard him through the door.

“Why don’t you boys take a break? There’s a cafeteria just down the hall. I can assure you the young lady is quite safe in the Judge’s chambers.”

She could hear them walking away, joking around and growling for food. She looked at Michael and worried.

“What are you thinking?” he asked.

“I don’t know. For once in my life I don’t know what to do. I was very confident in Wallace before, but something’s changed. He’s giving me the creeps. I can’t put my finger on it, but what would he have to gain by lying to us. I know he hates the President, but he has some solid points. Why hasn’t Gleason acted? Why hasn’t the President gotten back to us on Rhani? What about that Iranian satellite?”

“Add it up, Christina. We’ve gotten all our information from Scott and the General, and we know one thing for sure: Scott’s a crook. We haven’t gotten anything from the President, so all we have is hearsay from a crook and an Air Force General hungry for power. I’m concerned that Wallace might use this information to nail us. He might just want to get us out of the way.”

“Dang, Michael, that sounds quite logical. But we have to do something, and,” she looked around, “well, we’re trapped.”

Michael walked to the back of the room and disappeared out a back door. In just a few seconds he came back. “There’s a way out. It leads to a bathroom with a large sliding window. We’ve got a five minute lead, so I say we get the hell out of here and think on this.”

Christina raked the papers back into her briefcase and turned to Michael. At least he was decisive, and, right or wrong, that felt good. She truly didn’t know what to do. “But where will we go?”

“My uncle has a cabin up on Lake Lanier, just north of Atlanta. We’ll hike out of here on foot, get a cab and figure it out. That’ll give us time to think.”

Charged with both fear and adrenalin, she couldn’t think of a better plan, so they were off.

They speed-walked back in the direction they had come. It was only about a quarter-mile to the guard shack at the entrance of Fort McPherson. When they noticed the single guard talking to someone in a car, they simply slipped passed and marched off campus. It wasn’t far until they found a small strip-mall crawling with Christmas shoppers.

Christina knew they could be tracked by ATM and credit card transactions, so they took a taxi to Hartsfield International and rented a compact car on Christina’s VISA. After a short brainstorming session, they purchased some maps and drove 200 miles south on I75 to Valdosta, Georgia. Driving around the little town after dark to find the appropriate banks, they withdrew $400 each from ATMs. Another 100 miles south, in Pensacola, Florida they filled up the rental car on Michael’s credit card and spent the rest of the night reversing course, all the way back to Atlanta. Sixty-five miles further north put them in Gainesville, Georgia at Lake Lanier.

After a long and weary twenty hours of driving, they crawled down a winding gravel road to an isolated log cabin surrounded by heavy woods, right on the water’s edge. Michael had visited his uncle’s cabin many times. He was familiar with the layout and the location of the hidden key. It was clear no one had been there for some time, so he found the key under the mat and opened the front door. Luckily the utilities were active so it was a simple matter of getting everything turned on. It was a crisp November morning, and Michael built a roaring fire in the huge, stone fireplace. Christina smiled as he pointed out the bearskin rug. The clean smell of burning pine filled the air.

Pure heaven,
she thought.

The situation was grim. They were smack dab in the middle of a cataclysmic terrorist plot on the one hand and a Coup d’etat on the other. To add a little more intrigue, the actions or inactions of the President made him suspect. It was quite possible that the Islamic terrorists, the Air Force, the Administration and the Director of NASA all wanted their heads.

A complicated mess, Christina was grateful Michael had shown the ingenuity and courage to take them out of harm’s way, at least for the moment. She looked around at the beautiful abode. It was much more than a log cabin.
More like a log castle.

“Damn, wish I could’ve been a fly on the wall,” Michael chuckled. “I bet that General shit a brick. Wonder what he said to your bodyguards?”

“Yeah,” Christina agreed, “right after he told them I’d be safe.”

“When this hits the papers, can you imagine how many folks will be heading down to Florida?”

“Let’s see,” she tried to think, “FBI, CIA, NASA, the Air Force Cyber Command, the Air Force Security Agency, the Civil Air Patrol and don’t forget the Department of Homeland Security,” she laughed out loud. “The Florida State Police won’t know what hit ‘em.”

In the flickering light of the roaring fire, she thought Michael looked like a high school boy. With black ash on the side of his nose, he did have a baby-face. But, truth was, she found him devilishly attractive. She walked over and brushed his hair to one side, licked her thumb and rubbed the black soot off of his face. Staring into his eyes she purred, “So tell me now, my big, bad nuclear physicist. How does it feel to be my hero?”

“I don’t know,” he grinned, “I’ll tell you in the morning.”

He cupped his hands around her face and kissed her. It was a gentle kiss on the lips. She kissed him back. The world seemed to fade away as he kissed her again, harder this time exploring with his tongue. She responded as his hands slid down her lower back. The fire crackled and popped as her right hand went around to the back of his head and pulled him in. He reacted in a blaze of passion, hands all over her. A searing fire began to boil. She could feel his hard body pressing, his essence expanding between them.

It was cold in that cabin, but no one seemed to notice as clothes went flying. It looked like a Wal-Mart 70% off sale, the day after Thanksgiving. Shirts, sox, bras, and pants went everywhere. In a matter of seconds she was lying in the middle of that bearskin rug with nothing on but a smile, beckoning him with both arms. He fell on her, and his warm, manly skin set her afire. On such a cold day she was hot as a firecracker. She ran her tongue all over his face.

“Take me, Michael. Take me now. I mean. . .right now!”

“Hey, what’s the rush?” he teased as he backed off and waved his hands tracking her form in the dim glow. He scanned her head to toe. “Always wondered what was under that space suit,” he grinned. He raised his eyebrows, “Don’t quite understand why they called you
Stick
though.”

“Come on Michael, now!” she commanded. She had never been a patient woman, and her body yearned for him. She reached down and said, “Oooh, you
are
the big boy, aren’t you?”

She tried to restrain herself.
Come on Christina, don’t hurt his feelings
;
let him do his man thing.
She closed her eyes and felt his hand travel the full length of her body, lightly caressing her sensitive spaces. A wave of delight rolled up her spine. Her legs instinctively parted, knees elevated. Fingers traveled around her inner sanctum slowly in smaller and smaller concentric circles until they suddenly stopped. She arched high into the air as he found her core. She tensed and completely lost it.