Randall smiled and put out his hand. “I hope you gentlemen speak English. My Russian is horrible.”
His words and hand were met by a pair of crossed arms and icy glares. One man finally began to smile at Verna. After what seemed like an eternity, with a very heavy accent he asked, “Are you an angel?”
Verna shook her head slightly. “No, not today. Is the Secretary here?”
The man stepped closer to her and reached to place the palm of his hand against her cheek.
Randall smirked a little as he warned, “I wouldn’t do that, Ivan. She doesn’t like to be touched by strangers.”
As he slowly reached out to touch her face the man snapped, “My name is not Ivan!”
But it was too late. Faster than he could blink, Verna grabbed his arm, spun him around and onto the ground, face first. She had Ivan in a very painful submission hold that finished with both arms inverted behind his back and with her knee pinning his hands against his neck.
Randall quickly picked up the rifle he had been holding and pointed it at the other man. “I told you not to touch her, Ivan. Hey, this is nice; a Kalashnikov AK-74! Sela would love to fire this!”
As usual Verna was more focused on the mission than Randall. “I would prefer not to hurt you, Ivan. Our president is here to meet with the Secretary. Is Secretary Gorbachev here or not?”
With her knee on his neck, the man on the ground struggled to speak. “Yes… he is here.”
“Bring him out, now! Otherwise we’re out of here!” Verna released her hold and helped him up.
“Please, I mean no harm to you. You are very beautiful. I only wanted to touch your angelic face. I am Yuri. He is Ivan.”
Randall burst out laughing. “I’m Commander Randall. She’s Captain Starr.”
It hurt as Yuri raised his hand to motion to the people in the building, but soon the Secretary and his aide came to meet them.
“Greetings, Mr. Secretary. I’m Captain Starr.”
With a slight Russian accent but in perfect English the Secretary responded. “It is nice to meet you, Captain. Is the President with you?”
“He is, Mr. Secretary. If you will all move back to the building, he will join us momentarily.”
Randall pulled a small walkie-talkie from his belt and keyed it. “107, we’re secure. You’re cleared to land.”
A few seconds later the group watched as 107 softly touched down next to 100. Soon after, they could all see Addison, Sela and Penelope surrounding the President as they walked toward the group.
The Secretary began to smile as the President and crew of 107 reached them. Now standing in a much larger circle the two leaders exchanged a long warm handshake before moving on with the formalities.
“What lovely escorts you have, Mr. President!”
“Thank you. They are indeed! And it looks like you have a very lovely assistant, as well.”
“Thank you for coming. I assure you, our meeting will benefit both of our nations greatly, but before we start, please allow me to introduce my beautiful aide, Vasilisa Sokolav. As you Americans say, she is my right arm.”
“It certainly is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Sokolav.”
Smiling warmly, she answered. “It is my honor, Mr. President. Thank you for coming on such short notice. Please, introduce me to your escorts. They must certainly be the most outstanding members of your military, and those… planes? They intrigue me greatly!”
“I would be happy to, Miss Sokolav. This is Captain Starr, Commander Randall, and their crew, Lieutenants Addison, Sela and Penelope.” Verna winked at the president to confirm he had gotten the names right, then nodded slightly to acknowledge Miss Sokolav. The lieutenants quickly followed suit and Verna hoped Randall would as well, but no such luck.
Randall turned to Miss Sokolav with a boyish grin. “Your highness, I am greatly honored to meet a real queen. Not since Tzarina Alexandra have I seen such beauty.”
Hearing his statement almost caused Verna to have a stroke, while the others present became very confused.
Miss Sokolav’s face suddenly felt warm as she blushed at the compliment, but her face was a blend of expressions. Still smiling at him, she seemed to be both amused and puzzled as his comment was oddly funny to her. She could not place his face, but his voice was another matter. It was as though she had met him somewhere in the distant past. Still, try as she might, Vasilisa could not keep from giggling.
“Commander Randall, you flatter me. You hardly appear old enough to have known Alexandra, so I must ask, why do you call me, your highness?”
Pleased with himself that she seemed a little flustered by his statement, Randall laughed too. “Of course, you are correct. I only know of her through history books, but from the photos I have seen of the Tsarina, she was very beautiful. As for calling you a queen, isn’t it obvious? Because of your beautiful name! Vasilisa means queen, does it not?”
For the moment Miss Sokolav was clearly pleased. “Yes, you are correct, Commander, but I am not a real queen. As an only daughter, that was my father’s pet name for me as a child. You, sir, are a charmer!”
But as she was speaking, her bright smile was slowly replaced by a look of angry recognition. Indeed, she knew that voice and now she remembered. Slowly Vasilisa’s head cocked to one side as her voice rose. “Well, well… we finally meet, Ferryman! Or should I call you by your ancient name, Charon! I did not know your face, but I will never forget your voice! Thief! Murderer! At least twice you have stolen MiGs from us! In May of 1979 you assisted Mossad with stealing a fighter from a top-secret airfield in Syria and again in August of the same year another MiG from a base in Pyongyang, North Korea. That night I was in the air traffic control tower! And most recently, you were at Baikonur, the day we rolled out the Buran prototype. You have taken too many lives! How many obols do you have to show for it, a drachma?
“You see, I do recognize your voice, having heard recordings of your transmissions and over the radio on at least three separate occasions! Still, I must compliment you. You have displayed an uncanny ability to evade the Russian air force and the KGB! And for that, you have my respect as a formidable foe.”
Everyone suddenly turned their focus on Randall, especially Verna. She was already less than pleased with him, but now he seemed to have inadvertently placed everyone in a very dangerous situation. Most of it was news to her, but this was not the time and place for discussion. All that would come later, if they survived. She had to think of something fast, but before she could, Randall was talking again.
Grinning slightly, Randall looked directly into Vasilisa’s eyes and calmly replied. “I’m sorry, your majesty, you seem to have me confused with someone else. The incidents you describe were years ago, were they not? At that time, I was only a young boy, not even in the military and everyone knows, all Americans sound alike on the radio. To be completely honest, Captain Starr and Lieutenant Addison are the only pilots here today. I merely came along for the ride.”
The Secretary’s smiling face had melted into a much more serious expression as he turned slightly in her direction before giving Vasilisa a look that begged for further explanation, but after Randall’s calm reply as he looked her in the eyes, Vasilisa began to doubt her own memory.
“Perhaps you are correct, Commander. My apologies. I should not have accused you of being a thief and you are correct again when you say my hearing is not what it used to be.”
Randall smiled then spoke with complete sincerity. “Where no offense has been taken, no apology is required. Please, let us forget this, sweet lady. We all make mistakes. It was only an unfortunate misunderstanding. We should proceed with the meeting in friendship and work to develop strong bonds of trust.”
The President was less than pleased with the Commander, but as he saw the Secretary begin to smile again, he was in complete agreement with Randall’s statement. “Well, now that we have all of that sorted out, Mr. Secretary, shall we begin?”
“Yes! Please, bring you
r assistant and let us move to a place of greater comfort.”
The President glanced quickly at Verna. “Starr, you’re with me.”
“Yes, sir!” If looks were lethal, Verna’s icy stare might have killed Randall several times over.
“Lieutenants, it will be dark soon. Please return to the ships and be sure to reset the security clocks on both. Penelope, monitor SRN and let me know if anything comes up. And ladies, please take Commander Randall with you… and try to keep him out of trouble!”
“Me? Get into trouble?”
As Verna began to follow the others to the meeting room she paused long enough to whisper in Randall’s ear. “Go to 107 and stay there until I get back. It’s going to be a long return flight for you!”
“Yes, dear!”
The lieutenants waited for him by the door and as he reached them Sela softly spoke. “You’re in it up to your neck, sir, I’ve never seen her like this. What were you thinking?”
“I’ll tell you when we reach the ship.”
Once they were all safely aboard 107, Randall began.
“I did my homework and I learned quite a bit about Vasilisa. The dossier we have on her says she loves flattery and to flirt. I was trying to take the edge off the meeting and bring their guards down, and it was working too. How was I supposed to know she would recognize my voice? I have to give it to her though. She has a memory almost as good as Starr’s.”
“That’s all well and good, sir, but openly flirting? The Captain is going to kill you!”
“Relax. The flirting was Verna’s idea. The only thing she was surprised by was Vasilisa’s accusations, but until now she didn’t know about those missions.”
Addison had a look of disbelief as she sat down beside him. “What was all that about stealing MiGs?”
“No, ladies, that’s a long, boring story. You don’t want to hear all of that.”
“Yes, we do!” Penelope chimed in from her station. “And speak up!”
“Well, we do have a couple of hours before we have to get the President back to Washington. I guess we’ve got a little time to kill but you have to take what I tell you to your graves!”
“Agreed!”
“Ok, you all know, I didn’t get to be a pilot by going the traditional military route. It takes too long, so I found a short cut. You all know that Rollie has been a part of Verna’s family for a long time now, and that he developed the flight simulators we use at DSSF for training.
“Back when I was 14, a friend of mine and I were in Civil Air Patrol in Birmingham. He had just received his pilot’s license but needed to up his hours as he worked toward his twin engine certification, but he couldn’t afford the clock time and the gas for the little Cherokee 140 C.A.P. used for recon. After we talked about it, I told him if he’d let me fly part of the hour, I’d pay for the gas and he could have the clock time. We flew together like that for a long time. He got the cert and I learned the basics from him.
“Then one day I was at Verna’s house for dinner and Rollie was there, too. He heard me talking about the arrangement, and after dinner he offered to show me something in the basement. It turned out to be the prototype of the simulators we use today, and he asked me if I’d like to try it. Naturally, I jumped at the chance and by the time we graduated from high school I had mastered the program. After practicing flying with my friend, I could fly twin engine planes rather well. Not long after, I flew my first Gulfstream and knowing that, Rollie convinced Mr. Miller over at Sirius to give me a chance.
“At that time, Sirius needed a highly skilled but unknown pilot that would be loyal to them and who, if caught, could not be traced back to the U.S. military. That person would have to be willing to go on special trips to procure things other agencies could not.
“So, in exchange for my flight training, I agreed to perform special services for Sirius. I was originally hired to be the test pilot for the Cestris Project. When the project was successfully completed fourteen months later, I was approached about using a Cestris to fly clandestine missions for Sirius. Of course, I quickly accepted. I could fly as much as I wanted at no cost to me and the pay was phenomenal!
“After a month of testing, I passed the psych-eval and began training for covert missions. Soon after that I was flying for Sirius, i.e. the U.S. and our allies; primarily CIA, MI-7 and Mossad but there were one or two other nations I visited too. As a pilot for Sirius, my missions provided all the important players with plausible deniability and the funding to develop new Sirius projects.”
Addison looked confused. “MI-7? I never heard of it.”
“That’s because, like DSSF, it doesn’t officially exist.”
“I see. And they decided to give you the job because you were… expendable?”
“You could say that, but I think it all really came down to, I was the only person stupid enough to agree to the set up. To be honest, I loved the job. I’m very grateful to Mr. Miller and Mr. Stabroth for the opportunity. They taught me a lot, paid me well, and most of all they trusted me. Today, I can pretty much fly anything. I just don’t have a license.”
Penelope had been sitting spell bound without a word but suddenly she exploded with laughter. “You don’t have a license?”
“Nope.”
“I don’t believe it!”
“I believe it!” Sela chimed in. “Somehow, I completely believe it.”
Penelope was still giggling when she asked, “When did you stop flying for Sirius, sir?”
Randall grinned. “When I do, I’ll let you know, and as for a license, until we became regular DSSF I never even had an I.D. just in case I was ever shot down or caught. Think about it, even now most people associated with DSSF only know us by our first names.”
“So, you’ve been doing this for…”
“Several years…”
“And you’re still helping Sirius?”
“Not as much, but yes. We’re all regular military now, so that comes first. But I do what I can, mostly test pilot at the base. I haven’t done anything overseas for Sirius since the Buran mission.”
Penelope looked confused. “What’s Buran?”
“Buran is the Russian version of the Space Shuttle, but unlike ours, its mission does not involve launching satellites or scientific study. Theirs was designed to haul a laser into space to shoot down our satellites or ICBM’s, but for the most part they are not seriously pursuing the idea.”
“You mean, you stole their shuttle?”
“No, that would be impossible. Well, almost. I mean, I could fly it home, but theirs is behind us technologically and it would be too easy to know where it landed. No, I just flew an up-close recon mission, that’s all.”
“That’s all! How close?”
“Five hundred feet.”
Addison’s jaw hit the floor. “Five hundred feet!”
“Yep, about 1400 hours on a crystal-clear afternoon. They rolled it out in the sunshine, I made a couple of passes with cameras rolling in the Cestris, then had fun leading their fighters a merry chase until we reached the Med. They ran out of gas, and as soon as I was off their radar I climbed to angels 90 and cruised home.”
“Wow! I had no idea! Did you hear that, Sela? Isn’t it amazing?”
Sela seemed to be bored by it all but she nodded her head without looking at them and continued to work at her station. Penelope gave Addison a bewildered look then slowly she realized why Sela wasn’t as surprised.
“Wait a minute! You knew all of that already, didn’t you?”
Sela half way tilted her head as she continued to work. Slowly Penelope’s eyes grew wide just before she shouted, “You’re not surprised, because you were there!”
Still focused on her station, Sela tapped her nose twice with her finger as Addison began to smile.
“Sela! When did you join Commander Randall?”
But Sela didn’t answer Penelope. Randall did. “Sela joined me the day after the Cestris was christened. To perform the missions for S
irius, the first thing I needed to find was a fearless weapons officer with a maturity well beyond her years and eager to prove herself. Someone with experience, a complete knowledge of Cestris armaments, and ice in her veins. She would have to be calm under fire, remain totally focused no matter the situation, and take every secret to her grave.
“And after I had gone over Sela’s records, there was a note in her file that convinced me she was my weapons officer. The note said when she was only seven she had four teeth removed, without any Novocain! That’s when I knew I had my weapons officer.”
“No Novocain! At seven? No way!”
“And Addison?”
“Addison joined us as DSSF was being formed. If we were going to expand our missions into space, we would need the best copilot available. One who was brave enough to fly anywhere and under any conditions, but not reckless. One I could turn into a command pilot with little effort and that I could trust to always put the crew and ship first. The most interesting item in her file was that her dad was in Special Ops, and when she was about four he taught her survival skills. Among other tasty things, they used to catch snakes and eat them. I thought it might be good to have a pilot who also knew how to help the crew survive if we ever crashed.”
Penelope sat silently for a short time. “And why did you choose me? I can’t fly, and I have limited knowledge of weapons. I want my dentist to use Novocain and I don’t eat snakes! So, why me? Is what I do really that important to the mission?”
Randall laughed. “COM is the most important station on the ship. David allowed me to go over every file in the company, hundreds as a matter of fact and what I found was that not only were you the most intelligent and highly trained person in your field, your psych-eval showed you to be the most calm, steady and rational under pressure of all the candidates. You are our first line of defense and the one keeping us on point in battle. Space is a huge place. It takes huge personalities to venture into it, but too many huge personalities in one place is not a good thing. We need balance. You are our balance.
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