by Bob Blanton
“Arrgh!” she yelled in frustration. “Maybe Jennie can help . . . no, she’s always been assigned to small jets. . . . Aha!” Catie said after flipping through her mental contact list. “Jackie would be perfect. She does long haul flights, besides Uncle Blake would probably be happy to see her.”
Catie checked where Jackie was. Once MacKenzie Discoveries had started selling the new phones, Catie had sent Jackie a Comm unit, which was much more powerful than the phones, and they’d sporadically kept in touch, so Catie was able to check her location. Jackie was in Paris, “probably on a layover,” Catie thought. It was nine o’clock in the morning in Paris. She sent Jackie a message to call her when she was available. Her Comm rang right away.
“Hello, Catie, this is Jackie.”
“Hi Jackie.”
“It’s been ages since we’ve talked,” Jackie said. “I almost dropped my phone when I saw your name come up.”
“Sorry to surprise you,” Catie said. “I was wondering if you wanted a job.”
“I have a job.”
“I mean a different job,” Catie said with a little frustration.
“I know, I was just teasing you. You’re probably not used to it now that you’re a big hero and a princess,” Jackie said. “But what kind of job?”
“This is kind of a secret, but we’re going to add wide-body jets to our airline,” Catie said.
“Humm, are they going to be supersonic?”
“Yes, we’re hoping for Mach 3.5, but we’re still designing the airframe,” Catie said.
“So, what do you need me for?”
“I need someone to lead the design for the interior layout,” Catie said. “Everything I read is contradictory.”
“No surprise there,” Jackie said. “What would I do after that?”
“Depends on what you want,” Catie said. “You could manage all the cabin crews if you want.”
“So, I could quit flying,” Jackie said.
“Except when you want to,” Catie said. “You could work a flight, or just take one whenever you want.”
“Sounds pretty nice. You do know it’s kind of weird talking about a job with a teenager, what are you fifteen?”
“Next month; you don’t have to work for me if you don’t want to. After we finish the design, you’d work for the head of the airline.”
“I’d be happy to work for you, you’re probably more mature than my current boss,” Jackie said. “Half the time, she acts like a two-year-old. What’s the pay?”
“I don’t know. ADI?”
ADI flashed the current salaries of the managers of cabin operations for Delta, United, and Air France on Catie and Jackie’s HUDs.
“The average plus twenty percent,” Catie said.
“Deal,” Jackie said. “When do you want me there?”
“As soon as you can get here,” Catie said.
“I have to give notice,” Jackie said. “I’ll have to do my flight back to LA tonight, I have a lot of vacation on the books, so I might be free right away.”
“Let me know,” Catie said. “I can use the help right away.”
“I’ll study up on the cabin configurations,” Jackie said. “By the way, how’s Blake doing?”
“He’s doing good, you’ve seen him on the news,” Catie said.
“Of course, he does look nice with his face all fixed up. It is amazing what you people can do. Is he dating much?”
“Off and on, it’s kind of hard right now, he can’t date in his chain of command, so that eliminates most of the people he interacts with.”
“I won’t be in his chain of command,” Jackie said.
“No, you won’t,” Catie said. “I’ll make sure of that. He’ll be shocked to see you again.”
“I hope in a good way.”
“I’m pretty sure he’ll be happy,” Catie said. “You guys really got along in Hawaii.”
“It was only two weeks.”
“That’s longer than most of his relationships last,” Catie said. “Except the one with the Chinese spy.”
“Chinese spy?”
“I’ll let Uncle Blake tell you; it’s a funny story.”
◆ ◆ ◆
Catie grabbed two adjacent warehouses they’d just had built. She had them combined into one big warehouse that would be able to hold two of their new jetliners. She was going to have two of them built here one piece at a time. She decided to call them Alpha and Beta, “creative, huh,” she thought. Alpha would be the one where they’d used full-immersion virtual reality to simulate the structure of the aircraft. Only things that they were absolutely certain of would be built up. Beta would be where they tried out different configurations. They would practice in Alpha; then, when they thought they had a solid concept, they would build it in Beta. Then they would test it, over and over, reconfiguring it based on what they learned. When they reached a solid design, they would add that to both Alpha and Beta.
Right now, Alpha was just an empty space. Catie had a list of all the maintenance procedures and the activities that the passengers and crew did during flights, from boarding to deplaning. She was just waiting for the airframe design to get started.
She hired the chief of maintenance away from one of the major airlines, as well as three of the top designers from Boeing and two away from Airbus. Offering them a thirty percent raise as well as moving them to the island paradise of Delphi City made the recruiting easy. She would have her full team in place by next week when she should also have the final spec for the airframe.
Chapter 15
Doesn’t He Ever Give Up?
On Monday, October 19th, the President of the United States recalled all U.S. forces that had been assigned to the Delphi Alliance during the Paraxean crisis. He was pressuring all the NATO countries to do the same. Marc immediately called an emergency meeting of the Delphi Security Council for Tuesday morning. He was giving everyone one day to collect intelligence on the issue.
“Doesn’t that guy ever give up?!” Blake growled as he came into the cabinet room.
“It’s his last-ditch effort to influence the election,” Admiral Michaels said.
“How is this going to help?” Blake asked.
“He’s been preaching America first, claiming that Senator Novak will gut the U.S. military and leave the U.S. at the mercy of other countries,” Samantha said. “This will be one more example for him to point at. Senator Novak has publicly stated that she believes the U.S. should continue to be part of the Delphi Alliance.”
“Catie, I didn’t expect to see you,” Blake said.
“I’ve finished my investigation, and I’m ready to file the report,” Catie said. “Besides, there’s no way I was going to miss this.”
“Okay, let’s get started,” Marc said as he and Kal entered the room together. Liz followed closely behind.
“Admiral, have you heard anything?” Marc asked.
“It caught everyone by surprise,” Admiral Michaels said. “My contact says the president just decided this morning and announced it without telling anyone.”
“What about our other allies?” Marc asked.
“They are stalling, making motions that look like they’re going to recall their people, but letting red tape get in the way. Privately, they’ve told me they are going to stall until after the election,” Samantha said. “I’ve got Margaret working on getting a better sense of the situation.”
“Blake, how are our forces responding?”
“Captain Clark tells me that they’re mostly dismayed by the move,” Blake said. “He’s getting private inquiries from people who want to resign from the U.S. forces and join us.”
“That sounds good,” Catie said.
“It is, but the majority of our pilots are within their six-year obligation to the U.S. They can’t do anything but comply with the order. Lots of the regular crew are beyond their commitment, so we’ll be able to pick whomever we want.”
“Why wouldn’t we take them all?” Catie asked.<
br />
“If we want to develop a truly loyal force, we need to recruit and train them ourselves; that means getting them out of high school and college,” Blake said. “We need to get them before they’ve established their identity within another military structure. That’s why we’ve been planning to build an academy.”
“I agree with Blake,” Admiral Michaels said. “You need to run your officers through your academy and have a real boot camp for the crews. It takes a lot of effort to instill the loyalty you want, and you want to do it when they’re in their teens or early twenties.”
“Sounds like brainwashing,” Samantha said.
“There’s a little of that, but it’s really about getting them before they’ve built up too many preconceived ideas about what being part of a military organization would be like,” Admiral Michaels said. “The training and discipline become like muscle memory; we don’t want that memory to point to another armed service besides ours.”
“We need to move fast,” Marc said. “Select the ones you want to keep and find a way to send the others home without building up any resentment. Tell them that without the U.S. support, we cannot manage a big force, and that we’ll come back to them once we build up our base infrastructure.”
“Okay, I’ll work with our captains and commanders,” Blake said. “Captain Clements, Commander Desjardins, Commander Frankham, and Commander Fitzgerald have all asked to stay.”
“Good, so pick the best people and do it by tomorrow. We don’t want to give the president any ammunition,” Marc said. “What else do we need to do?”
“Should we cancel the battery and fuel cell shipments to the U.S.?” Samantha asked.
“No, I don’t want to overreact, but I would like to send a message,” Marc said.
“We could advance the delivery of the next three fusion reactors to Japan,” Samantha said.
“I like that, do it!”
“We could also announce the construction of our own aircraft carrier,” Blake suggested. “I’ve got a design worked out; we could start building within a month.”
“Where would we build it?” Marc asked.
“If the election goes the way we hope, then we could build it in France; if not, then we could build it in Brazil or Argentina.”
“Why, don’t we have a leak about negotiations with Brazil?” Marc asked.
“I’ll take care of the leak,” Samantha said. “You okay if I let Leslie have the story?”
“Will it mess up your relationship?” Marc asked.
“No, she knows how the game is played. Besides, the story will be true.”
“What about our new jetliner designs?” Catie asked.
“We’re a long way from them being real,” Marc said.
“Yeah, probably a year, but why not let the president take the blame for us entering the business.”
“Good idea,” Samantha said. “We were expecting blowback when it became public. If we have a leak about that as well, and tie it to our need to become more independent due to the continued animosity from the U.S., it’ll allow us to redirect some of the heat next year.”
“Okay, Kal, you and Blake work out how to start recruiting and training people in a more structured way. Get your academy up and running, and expand your training facilities to handle bigger groups.”
“I’ll organize it,” Kal said. “Blake, I’ll pull you in when I need help, keep you in the loop, but it looks like you’re going to be busy.”
“Okay, make it happen,” Marc said as he stood up, announcing the end of the meeting.
“Uncle Blake, will you have dinner with me on Friday?” Catie asked as they were walking out of the room.
“Sure, any special reason?” Blake asked.
“No, just wanted to spend some time together. We haven’t been able to be seen in public since I started my undercover work.”
“Where?”
“Deogene’s,” Catie said.
“Fancy, I’ll have to dress up,” Blake teased.
“No shorts.”
“Then, you have to wear a dress.”
“Deal.”
Chapter 16
Blind Date
Catie met Jackie at the city airport on Thursday morning when she arrived on the Lynx flight from LA. It had taken just over two hours for the flight, an unheard-of performance before MacKenzie Discoveries had introduced the supersonic Lynx.
“Jackie!” Catie yelled to get Jackie’s attention as she deplaned.
Jackie did a double-take, “Catie?”
“Yeah, it’s me,” Catie said. “I’ve been in disguise for the last month.”
“The weight?”
“Mostly water, I’m starting to lose it now. Should be gone by next week,” Catie said. “My skin will take a few weeks to get back to my normal color; well, actually close to it, I’m going to keep a bit of color to protect me from the sun.”
“You look good, just not what I expected,” Jackie said as she gave Catie a hug.
“Do you have luggage?” Catie asked.
“No, just my carry-on,” Jackie said. “I have a friend subleasing my condo. I’ll have her ship my stuff once I know what I want.”
“You can go shopping today if you want. We have a kick-off meeting tomorrow morning. I’ll take you to your condo and help get you settled in,” Catie said.
Catie led Jackie outside to the golf cart she had reserved.
“Oh, you did mention there were no cars,” Jackie said. “I’ll have to get used to that.”
“We have these hop-on hop-off trolleys running down the main streets now,” Catie said. “They’re pretty convenient. I prefer them to the subway, but walking is pretty easy, you’re never that far from anyplace. The city is only three miles by three miles right now.”
“Here, I’ll take care of that for you, Ma’am,” Morgan said when Jackie started to lift her bag to put it in the golf cart.
“Oh, Jackie, this is Morgan; she’s my bodyguard,” Catie said.
“I guess having a bodyguard makes sense with you being the princess and all,” Jackie said.
“I guess,” Catie said. “At least I’m down to one now.”
Morgan tried to suppress a snicker.
“Yeah, I know about the two shadows,” Catie said, “but I can ignore them.”
“I guess it would get old, having to have someone with you all the time,” Jackie said.
“Morgan’s cool,” Catie said. “She gives me plenty of space. Sometimes I even forget she’s there.”
Morgan gave Catie a light slap on the back of her head.
“She doesn’t like being ignored,” Catie laughed. “We do our Krav Maga workout together sometimes; it gives her a chance to work out her frustrations. Unfortunately, I don’t get much of a chance to work mine out.”
“Well, she is a lot bigger than you,” Jackie said.
“And heavier,” Catie said.
“We’re working out again tomorrow,” Morgan threatened.
“Liz is going to be there, so you can take your frustrations out on her.”
“As if.”
“This is the building your condo is in,” Catie said. “It’s close to the airport, but it’s walking distance to where we’ll be working for the next few months. If you don’t like it, we can find you another one. We’re going to be shutting the city airport down next month, so I think this is going to become a prime location.”
“Why are you shutting the airport down?” Jackie asked. She was shocked at the thought of no airport for Delphi City.
“Oh, we’re moving the big airport closer to the city; we’re going to connect it with a bridge. With it accessible like that, we won’t need the small airport.”
“You can just move the airport?”
“Yep, it’s floating like the city, so you can drive it to wherever you want, just not very fast. We’ve been moving it for over a week, but it won’t get here until the end of next week.”
Jackie followed Catie into the building wi
th Morgan bringing up the rear, pulling Jackie’s bag. The two shadows had taken up position on either side of the entrance.
“This is nice,” Jackie said as she looked around the entry to the building.
“I think they all are,” Catie said. “All the condo buildings have an inside courtyard with a swimming pool. This one’s pretty new, so not that many people are living here yet. You’re supposed to have a roommate, but now that our housing shortage is over, you only have to pay a fifty percent premium and you can have the unit to yourself.”
“Oh, I kind of like having a roommate,” Jackie said. “Then you have someone to take care of your plants when you’re away, and the company is nice. Do I get to pick the person?”
“You fill out a profile of what you want, then they match you up. You get to review the choices and pick one before they move in. You can ask for a different one if things don’t work out.”
“That sounds good.”
“I’ve already registered your Comm with the door,” Catie said. “It’ll open up automatically whenever you’re next to it.”
“That doesn’t sound very secure,” Jackie said.
“Oh, it won’t open the door if you’re under stress; you have to enter a code then. By then, your Comm will have alerted security unless you’ve reset the stress level. You wouldn’t want security to show up just because you were having a fight with your roommate,” Catie said.
“That sounds better. . . . Oh, this is nice,” Jackie said as she entered the condo. “And I have an ocean view.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Catie said. “We’re having dinner tomorrow night with Uncle Blake, so you might want to go shopping.”
“I thought he might meet me at the airport,” Jackie said.
“He doesn’t know you’re coming,” Catie said. “I want it to be a surprise.”
◆ ◆ ◆
Catie sent Morgan to give Jackie a lift to the meeting. Liz had worked out with her, so she volunteered to be Catie’s bodyguard until they met up with Morgan at the meeting. Besides, Liz was interested in how Catie was organizing the design of the new jetliner.
