“Nate, I need to know. Please tell me who I am?”
“Honey, I’m not sure how much of this you can take in, all at once. It’s a long story.”
“Well, I know my mother, but she refuses to tell me anything about my father or why she changed our name and took me to Canada.”
“Probably we can spend some time comparing notes, later. Right now, I think we are both kind of gob-smacked.” He looked at Hal for confirmation.
Hal nodded. “Maybe I should take her back to her room and let you both get some rest.”
“I know. But, let me just say, I’ve looked for her for twenty-one years. I don’t want to lose her again.”
“How’s that?”
“My baby girl was kidnapped by her surrogate mother—Ferrell Miller.”
Sally released his hands and raised herself, “Who are you?” she demanded.
“Sally Alice Miller,” said Nate solemnly, “I’m your father.” Nate, gulped, tears streaming down his face.
“Oh my God” she said and stared at him searching his face for clues.
Thinking better of it, she asked, “How tall are you?”
“I’m six foot three,” said Nate.
“Where was I born?”
“You were born at 7:59 PM, on the 19th, in Portland, Oregon, delivered by Dr. Yarnoka.”
“Oh my God. It’s true!” She plopped back in her chair and started rubbing her tears away. Oh dear God, thank you.
Hal moved up beside them, nearly speechless, himself. “Well,” he finally managed, “this is wonderful!”
They both nodded vigorously and smiled through the tears.
“Um… Mr. Goodrich, may I call you Nate?” asked Hal.
“You have to ask?” said Nate, with implication in his words.
“Um, I’m wondering, sir, if it would be appropriate to ask for your permission… uh… to court your daughter?”
Nate looked at Sally who nodded yes.
“It is with the greatest of pleasure that I give my blessing,” Nate took Hal’s hand. “You’ve done a good job already, it seems.” Nate lowered his bed and half closed his eyes.
“I’d better wheel you back, girlfriend,” said Hal.
“But, I don’t want to leave,” she protested.
“I think you both need a nap.”
“I’m too excited to sleep.”
“Yes, but didn’t you see the sleeping medication the nurse injected into his IV?”
“Bring her back for dinner, Hal. I want to celebrate,” said Nate sleepily and closed his eyes.
The End
A Personal Request
Dear Reader,
Thank you for reading my humble offering.
Did you just love this happy ending? Me, too.
Would you like to encourage me to tell more stories like this?
If so, kindly leave a review on the webpage where you purchased this book Thanks a million. I read every one.
I’ll love you for it.
Hugs,
Dorothy May
Go here for links to more books like this one.
Author’s Notes
Air Traffic Control Systems of the Future
By 2020, the FAA mandates that all planes "announce" where they are as part of the Next Generation system called ADS-B (Automatic Surveillance System- Broadcast). Via the GPS, many commercial airplanes already have the system in place. The altitude, speed and location of the plane is broadcast automatically to relatively inexpensive receiving stations positioned all over. This is especially advantageous for airplanes flying over wide open water, where radar units do not reach. This new system is much faster and cheaper that the old radar systems.
Supposedly, any receiver can pick this up. We posited that the fictitious character, Kabandha Ghana, had an app on her smart phone that could tell her all the planes flying overhead.
Also, most commercial planes now have TCAS, which broadcasts to any plane in the vicinity. Special onboard displays warn the pilot of the danger of a collision and can say, Pull Up, Pull Up, or Descend, Descend and then Level Off when the danger is passed.
But, even that is subject to mistakes, because it depends on the pilot hearing the advisory and taking action. And so a very few of the largest trans-atlantic super planes now have the TCAS programmed into the autopilot, so it will automatically take over flying the plane in the case of an imminent threat of collision.
In this fictional story, Kabandha “knew” that experiments were underway to link the ADS-B with the next version of automated Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS), which is already on planes and which can be made to think another plane is in the air next to it already. In this story, the terrorists were after a version of TCAS that integrated ADS-B into it. The person would try to crash the plane using a "Software Defined Radio" (SDR for short) to broadcast these messages.
For our peace of mind, let us presume that the designers of the next system are actually well aware of any such glitches and have designed multiple safeguards against any “worm” entering the system.
Characters and Relationships
Just one of our characters is named after a real living person. Mr. Christopher Wray is the current head of the FBI, and was inducted into that post on September 28, 2017. His picture and bio are available online.
All other characters in this book are a product of the author’s imagination and have no relationship to any living persons, living or dead except for Caroline Douglas, the “Executive Assistant Director,” whose name I borrowed from a couple people.
The special fictional heroine of Ms. Caroline Douglas was created to honor the very few women who have risen to high ranks in the FBI. The name Caroline Douglas actually was my grandmother’s name, and so I used the name, as a little tribute to her. The similarity is in name only, as I never knew this grandmother.
Also, among those women who rose to high posts in the FBI were Ms. Stephanie Douglas (no relation) who was the actual head (Executive Assistant Director) of the FBI’s National Security Branch, appointed in 2012 where she served until her retirement in 2013.
According to the NY Times, as of 2016 women only held 12 percent of the FBI’s 220 senior agent positions, including nine who run field offices. Janice K. Fedarcyk, now retired, ran the New York office, with about 2,000 employees, from 2010 to 2012.
Twenty percent of the FBI agents are women, (about 2700), but no women were agents, at all, until after J. Edgar Hoover’s death in 1972.
Hopefully, in the future, more young women will be encouraged to join the scientific community studying computer software technology, perhaps following the model of Amy Hess who is the admired first woman to be head of the FBI’s science and technology branch with 6,000 employees.
We believe that women, in general, are subtly discouraged from seeking higher positions in the FBI because of the harsh necessity of moving agents from bureau to bureau at a moment’s notice. Difficult as this is for married men, in my opinion, it is even worse for women with children at home.
The Confusing Federal Hierarchy
With apologies and a salute to the current Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security who also happens to be a woman, Ms. Kirstjen Nielsen, who was nominated to that post on October 12, 2017:-
The DHS is in charge of the TSA which is in charge of the FAMS, and not the FBI.
The FBI is really under the Justice Department, not the DHS, however, for this story, we have assumed that they cooperate, at times.
And finally, the Federal Air Marshal Service is a different law enforcement agency from the Federal Marshal Service. Confusing, isn’t it?
No Worries
While the titles, posts, cities, countries, airlines and schedules are real, the people and their relationships are totally the author’s imagination. The method by which the fictional terrorist might “take-down” a passenger airplane was also a product of the author’s imagination. We are still enjoying flying safely everywhere in America.
Peace,
DMM
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Glossary
FBI = US Federal Bureau of Investigation
FMS = Federal Marshal Service
FAA = Federal Aviation Administration
TSA = Transportation Security Administration
DHS = Department of Homeland Security
FAMS = Federal Air Marshal Service
DC = District of Columbia
DFW = Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport
SEA TAC = Seattle/Tacoma International Airport
DCA = Ronald Reagan National Airport
YVR = Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, International Airport
YYJ = Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Airport
LAX = Los Angeles International Airport
IAD = Dulles International Airport
DAL = Dallas Love Field Airport
DCA-SEA = A flight from Reagan to Seattle
TCAS (T’-Kass) = Traffic Control Avoidance System
ACAS (A’Kass) = Air Traffic and Collision Avoidance System
SDR = Software Defined Radio
Cast of Characters
Nate Goodrich
Nan Goodrich
Rob Goodrich
Rob’s friends Elvin and Tom
Joy Goodrich
Sally Millecan a.k.a Miller
Mother Ferrell Millecan a.k.a. Miller
Jeff Totten
Judge Norville Totten. His young wife Mrs. Totten
Sgt. Draff, Police
Officer Sharon McGillicuddy
The teenage girl—Lobbyist contact
George F. George, terrorist alias name
Cabbie
Mavis, Sheldon, Nate’s alises
Rosie - desk clerk
Alan Bartle, Hotel manager
Local Cop
Cliff Side, field agent supervisor, Nate’s Chicago control
J.Mohammad Mutawassit (meaning moderate, average)
Kabandha Ghana (meaning ugly giant) heads Chicago terrorist cell
Judge Malik Faakhir (meaning master, proud, excellent)
Fadl (meaning reward, favour) Judge’s assistant
Danny and Charlie, teen Sunday school boys
Their mother and little sister.
Elder care nurse
Sari – the neighbor snitch
Terry and Rose McGillicuddy
“Papa” Buck Boyles
Justin Lawrence of the law firm of Beetle and Bailey, LLC
Chief Adkins of the Les Plaines PD
Mr. Harold L. “Hal” Brown Jr. Special Agent FBI (bacon and eggs spy)
Daisy, the cat
Captain Mahoney, pilot
FBI Director Christopher A. Wray
Caroline Douglas, FBI National Security Branch. Executive Assistant Director.
John, Caroline’s exec asst.
Bell, head of TSA
Shapiro head of FBI Counter-Terrorism
Mason head of Federal Air Marshals
Facts
Reprinted from Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_collision_avoidance_system#Relationship_to_automatic_dependent_surveillance-broadcast_.28ADS-B.29
To overcome some of these limitations, the FAA is developing a new collision avoidance logic based on dynamic programming.
In response to a series of midair collisions involving commercial airliners, Lincoln Laboratory was directed by the Federal Aviation Administration in the 1970s to participate in the development of an onboard collision avoidance system. In its current manifestation, the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System is mandated worldwide on all large aircraft and has significantly improved the safety of air travel, but major changes to the airspace planned over the coming years will require substantial modification to the system.[41]
A set of new systems called ACAS X[42] will use this new logic:
ACAS Xa will be a direct replacement for TCAS II, using active surveillance
ACAS Xo will be collision avoidance tuned to work in some currently difficult operational situations, notably closely spaced parallel approaches.
ACAS Xu will allow multiple sensor inputs and be optimised for unmanned airborne systems.
ACAS Xp will be designed for aircraft with only passive surveillance (ADS-B).
The first FAA-scheduled industry meeting was held in October 2011 in Washington DC, to brief avionics manufacturers on the development plans for "ACAS X" – including flight demonstrations scheduled for fiscal 2013. The FAA says its work "will be foundational to the development of minimum operational performance standards" for ACAS X by standards developer RTCA.[43]
It is estimated that, if ACAS X will be further developed and certified, ACAS X will not be commercially available before mid 2020s. And it is said to be unclear at this stage whether ACAS X would provide any horizontal resolutions.[44]
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Stephanie Douglas [now retired] was named executive assistant director of the FBI’s National Security Branch by agency director Robert Mueller, on Oct. 3, 2012. Before her appointment Ms. Douglas had most recently served as special agent in charge of the San Francisco Division.
The National Security Branch of the FBI, a very important post, which Ms. Douglas held, is responsible for protecting the U.S. from weapons of mass destruction, terrorism and foreign espionage. It combines counterterrorism, counterintelligence, weapons of mass destruction, and intelligence elements under the leadership of a senior bureau official. It also houses the Terrorist Screening Center, that maintains the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB), that contains information about all known or suspected terrorists. A number of different government agencies, including federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies, the US State Department, the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Transportation Security Administration use the resource.
The Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the supervision of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
BOOKS FROM MERCERPUBLICATIONS
Links to all of these books can be found at www.mercerpublications.com
The McBride Series of Action Novels, Starring Det. Lt. Michael J. McBride Jr. available in English and Spanish, ebook, print and Audible editions
“Car oo6 Responding”
“The Cocaine Chase”
“The Golden Coin”
“The Cartel Wars”
“The Gang Bust”
“Unidad oo6 Respondiendo”
“La Casa di la Cocaina”
“El Immigrant e la Monada Dorada
“La Guerras Cartel”
“La Pandilla Busto”
The Washington McBride Novels, Starring Senator Mike McBride, his wife Juliette, featuring his bodyguard, Cynthia Patterson. available in ebook, print and Audible editions
“the Fairfax Fix”
“the Arlington Alias”
“the Savage Surrogate”
The McBride Romances, available in ebook, print and Audible editions
&
nbsp; “Fran and Max” The Bungalow
“Cynthia and Dan," Cyber War
"Mary Beth and Sammy," Rolling Thunder
“Nate” The Search (A Father’s Search for His Long-Lost Daughter)
Photo Travel books by Dorothy May Mercer, and Dave Mercer
“Alaska and Back” With Dave and Dorothy, a travel journal.
“Africa and Back” With Dave and Dorothy
“Hawaii and Back, Vol. I Kauai” With Dave and Dorothy
“Hawaii and Back, Vol II, Maui," With Dave and Dorothy
“Hawaii and Back, Vol III, Oahu," With Dave and Dorothy
“Hawaii and Back, Vol IV, Kuai Via S'FO," With Dave and Dorothy
“Niagara and Back,” With Dave and Dorothy
More books by Dorothy May Mercer:
“Leon and Esther,” an historical Christian love story.
“Stories I Haven’t Told,” an auto-biography
Collections and Miscelaneous Books edited and published by Dorothy May Mercer and Mercer Publications & Ministries, Inc.:
"Let's Talk," a Black/White Dialog in the US and the UK, Various Authors
“He Called Her Hat,” That Tough Little Lady, by Myron C. McDonald
“Short & Fun Stories,” Vol. 1
“Short & Fun Stories,” Vol. 2
The “How to For You” series of booklets for aspiring writers.
How to Write Great Dialog
How to Write Fiction
How to Design & Format Your Paragraphs
How to Write Sentences and Paragraphs in Your Novel
How to Fix Errors in Your Document
How to Format Your Book, for Publishing
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