Final Approach (63 page)
Authors: John J. Nance
Joe hadn't seen Susan and didn't realize she was there, standing in the background. Now she appeared at his side. Kell had called her an hour before, knowing instinctively that she would be needed to reassure Joe that the appointment was appropriate. Kell had no inkling that the Board member and the investigator were anything other than professional friends, but he had dealt with men of Joe's sensitivities before. Since Susan had been offered the job, and even though she'd turned it down, only Susan could convince Joe he should accept it.
She motioned Kell away with a tiny flick of her hand and led Joe to the far end of the room.
“Why didn't you take it, Susan?
You
should be chairman, not
me!”
“I'm still learning. It's far too soon. I'm not qualified, especially not for a proper, technically oriented Board with a chairman possessed of a seven-year term. Good grief, Joe, you helped design the way this new Board should be. You know I'm not sufficiently knowledgeable.”
“Bull, Susan. You're a psychologist, the world is turning to human factors and human performance, and nuts-and-bolts guys like me are becoming dinosaursâconfused dinosaurs at that. Look”âhe started counting off fingersâ“I don't have a doctorate, I never got beyond a masters degree, I ⦠I'm just not ⦔ Joe put both his palms up. “Susan, I'm a
technician
, a technocrat. That's all I've ever wanted to be. I do
not
want this job. I don't have the slightest idea if I can
do
this job!”
She put her right hand on his arm, her eyes searching his, looking for the resolve she knew was there. “You can, and you must. Joe, it's not what you started that counts in this equation. It's the fact that he's rightâthe Board you just designed needs a Joe Wallingford on it. It'll be tough. It'll be alien terrain to you. There will be duties and requirements you are not used to, and a rank you have never dealt with. But I know you, and you'll do an honorable and excellent job.”
Deep down he knew she was probably right, yet he was scaredâso very scared. He had feared losing the job he loved. Now he feared taking the job he had loathed, yet, what was the choice? There were people depending on him. Kell Martinson was depending on him, and had probably helped engineer this. Andy needed his job back. Beverly, now sitting quietly at the other end of the room, watching Joe with apprehension, certainly needed hers. The President, who had cleverly turned the tables on himâthe old that's-a-great-suggestion,-why-don't-you-form-a-committee-and-look-into-it? method taken to an extreme, also, he supposed, needed him.
But most of all his mind embraced the image of the beautiful woman before him and the advice he knew by instinct he could trust. Besides, he couldn't let her down if this was what she expected of him.
“You really think I could do the job?” he asked at last.
“No question. I've seen you work as a diplomat, a commander, and even as a politician, whether you believe it or not. And you're certainly a consummate technical expert. You'll make mistakes, Joe, without question. You'll make mistakes, but in the long run, you'll be excellent.”
He sighed then, the exhalation sounding somewhat ragged, his heart beating an accelerated tattoo.
“You did say, Susan, that it would get complicated, didn't you?”
She smiled, sensing the crumbling defenses. “I did indeed.”
“By the way, are there any rules about Board members ⦠that is, against ⦔
“Fraternization among Board members?”
“Something like that.”
She smiled a radiant smile as she withdrew her hand from his shoulder and cocked her head slightly to one side.
“If there are, Mr. Chairman, dear, you'll have the power to change them.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Without all those folks at the NTSB who helped by example and otherwise over the years (some 300 dedicated pros who try to do so much with so little), this story could not have come to life with such “real” people against a background of such vivid reality.
Without all my fellow airline professionals who spend their lives trying to achieve perfect safety in an industry that never before realized it was based on the performance of human beings, the human struggles reflected here would not be credible.
About the Author
John J. Nance is the author of thirteen novels whose suspenseful storylines and authentic aviation details have led
Publishers Weekly
to call him the “king of the modern-day aviation thriller.” Two of his novels,
Pandora's Clock
and
Medusa's Child
, were made into television miniseries. He is well known to television viewers as the aviation analyst for ABC News. As a decorated air force pilot who served in Vietnam and Operation Desert Storm and a veteran commercial airline pilot, he has logged over fourteen thousand hours of flight time and piloted a wide variety of jet, turboprop, and private aircraft. Nance is also a licensed attorney and the author of seven nonfiction books, including
On Shaky Ground: America's Earthquake Alert
and
Why Hospitals Should Fly
, which, in 2009, won the American College of Healthcare Executives James A. Hamilton Award for book of the year. Visit him online at
www.johnnanceassociates.com
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1990 by John J. Nance
Cover design by Andy Ross
ISBN: 978-1-5040-2791-5
This edition published in 2016 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
345 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014
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