Nerve Center (10 page)

“And there’s been no one else?”

“On that level. No.”

“Afraid of commitment?”

“Not really. But being single does have some advantages.”

Geraldo sat in her thick red chair, waiting to see if the magnet would pull anything else out. Finally, she seemed to decide it wouldn’t.

“I have yet another test for you,” she said apologetically. “It’s another standardized test, but this one is a bit old-fashioned, no computer—pencil and paper. You have to fill in circles.” She got up and went to a filing cabinet at the far end of the room. She returned with a manila folder and a pencil. “Would you like more coffee?”

“No, thanks.”

As she started to hand the folder to him, the psychiatrist stopped. He looked up into her face; for the first time since the testing and interview sessions had begun, her face seemed like a real face, as if it belonged to someone he knew, an aunt maybe, not a scientist. The small wrinkles at the corners of her eyes and mouth furrowed deeper. Her body pitched down slightly, as if the tight iron bands that had held it loosened. Even her clothes—a dark navy-blue suit with a stiff white blouse—became less severe.

“Kevin, if you ever want to talk about your ex-wife, you can,” she said. “Not as an official thing, of course. But if you feel the need.”

He nodded slowly, then took the folder.

ZEN WHEELED HIS CHAIR BACK FROM THE MONITOR, watching as Geraldo left the room. Even though it was his job to help the psychiatrist make the final selection of an ANTARES subject, he felt like a voyeur spying on his friend.

He knew Madrone was divorced, even though Kevin said little about his ex-wife. Yet something about the way he talked about her surprised him. Over the past two years or so that they’d known each other, Kevin had seemed rather muted, not just shy, but not an emotional guy—as if being an engineer was deeply embedded in his personality. Even when he talked about things he liked, the Yankees and baseball, for example, he sounded as if he was reading down a column of numbers.

When he had talked about Karen, however, his eyes had changed. His motions had become, if not animated exactly, at least more fluid. Zen got the impression he was hiding something, struggling to keep something bottled away.

Anger? Did that make any difference for ANTARES?

Madrone had consistently scored the highest or second highest on all of the tests they’d given him, even the manual-dexterity and physical-endurance tests. His IQ, tested by computer no less than five times, had turned out to be an astounding 180. His only flaw was an inherent shyness and possibly a slight feeling of inferiority, or as Geraldo put it: “an image of self-worth that does not accurately reflect his abilities.”

Zen wheeled toward the low table where he’d placed his coffee nearly an hour ago. Geraldo pushed through the door briskly.

“Very good, Major, don’t you think?” she said, going immediately to the desk. She glanced at the monitor, then pulled a thick spiral notebook from the top drawer and made some notes.

“What do you think about his wife?” said Zen.

“Oh, the usual anger and resentment, some bewilderment,” said Geraldo, still writing. “I think he honestly was blind-sided. Perhaps it accounts for his reserve, no? The nail-biting under pressure, the cigarette-smoking—classic. Minor. To some extent the military has replaced his wife; he throws himself into work. Very common. Not an impediment. His emotions don’t run all that deep. Not good for a marriage, but for ANTARES, it’s a plus.”

Zen didn’t say anything. Geraldo pried into people’s minds for a living. It had to be done, but sometimes the notion that a personality could be dissected and examined like a piece of code in a computer or the components of a jet engine bothered him. Zen had undergone a battery of tests and examinations as part of his rehab in the hospital. He’d gone through it because it was necessary, but he hadn’t particularly liked it. Now he realized that people must have been watching him on hidden monitors just as he had watched Madrone. One more indignity; one more surrender.

Necessary, but still humiliating.

“I think he’s the one,” said Geraldo, putting down her pen finally. “But you’re reluctant.”

Her comment took him by surprise. “What do you mean?”

“You just seem reluctant. Should we bring Ross back in?”

“I’m not reluctant,” said Zen.

Geraldo pushed back in her seat, swiveling gently. “You’re his friend. You have doubts about the program, and you’re worried about endangering him.”

“I’m friends with a lot of people. He’s the obvious choice, no doubt about it.”

“You have reservations about ANTARES.”

“Of course,” said Zen. “We’ve gone over that.”

“The spy did not compromise the project.”

Spy. No one would even say the name Maraklov—or Captain James, as he had been known here. He had nearly ruined Dreamland, and all of them.

“It’s not that,” said Zen.

“Perhaps you should explain, Jeff. Are you feeling jealous?”

“Not in the least.”

They’d been over it before, twice as a matter of fact, neither time very satisfactorily. Jeff believed in the concept of ANTARES; he was the only person left on the base who had gone through the program, and in fact still had the old-style chip implant in the side of his skull. He had always assumed he would be involved in the next stage of the project, always assumed it would eventually be green-lighted again after the Maraklov business died down.

But he had reservations, objections he couldn’t quite put into words. His recent nightmare for one. The way he felt when he woke from it—as if a part of him he didn’t completely trust or like had taken control of him.

There was no way to put those vague feelings into rational arguments. They sounded like reasons to continue studying ANTARES. They were, in fact.

“We’ve made numerous improvements,” said Geraldo. She spoke as if she were making the case for the first time. “We’re light-years ahead of where the project was when DreamStar was canceled. Fresh eyes—fresh minds—a new start. Kevin Madrone will be a perfect subject.”

“I’m sure he will.”

“So we have your approval?”

What was it that bugged him? Kevin or ANTARES?

Shit. The way Geraldo was looking at him, he could tell she thought it was jealousy—that he looked at Kevin as a potential rival on the Flighthawk program.

“I think Captain Madrone is the obvious choice,” said Zen. “And I’ll put that in writing.”

“Very good,” said Geraldo, standing. “We’ll start this morning.”

Aboard EB-52 BX-4 “Missouri”
Range 2, Dreamland
23 January, 0807

WAS IT THE FACT THAT HE WASN’T USED TO FLYING something so big? Or the fact that he wasn’t used to flying with a copilot?

Or maybe he just felt odd flying a plane named after a Navy battleship.

Then again, it was better than Cheshire’s suggestion—”Rosebud,” ostensibly for the sled in
Citizen Kane.

“Crosswind,” prompted Major Cheshire from the copilot’s station.

Colonel Bastian told the computer to make the crosswind correction, probably a half second before the computer would have taken over from him. He was near the edge of his localizer course, off center and coming in a bit too fast. He nudged the throttle glide slightly. The speed and engine readings flashed on the HUD, all green.

Was that temp on three nudging into yellow?

Just land.

Just land.

Dog blew a laboriously long breath from his lungs as he edged the stick ever so gently to move the big plane back into the sweet spot as it approached the landing. If he’d been flying an Eagle, he would have simply—

Irrelevant, he told himself.

“In the green,” said Cheshire. “You’re looking good. Temps are all normal.”

The concrete seemed to expand as he approached. He could feel the heat wafting upward, gentle hands taking hold of him as he settled down.

Then all hell broke lose. The plane jerked suddenly to the side: a dozen warning buzzers went off. Cheshire shouted something at him.

He had no lateral control. The computer had begun to compensate. Stick dead.

No, he had stick. No rudder.

No tail?

He forced the plane down, felt a jolt as the wheels on the right undercarriage hit the ground. He could feel himself sliding to the right.

“Steer! You still have steering!” shouted Cheshire over the interphone.

“Okay,” he managed. “Okay.”

The plane straightened out. Their speed knocked down to twenty, then fifteen, then ten knots. Firmly in control now, Dog permitted his eyes to move to the left-hand multi-use display, which was slaved to the emergency status nodes.

Clean.

Clean?

“What the hell happened?” asked Bastian.

“You were doing such a good job I decided to complicate things,” said Cheshire. “You just landed without a tail.”

“Jesus.”

“Well, he would have done a better job,” said Cheshire, clearly enjoying herself. “Still, you did okay. I didn’t take off the entire tail, just one of the stabilizers.”

Actually, Cheshire had directed the plane’s advanced flight computer to simulate the loss of one of the stabilizers. The flight profile was among several the major had preprogrammed into the flight computer as part of the advanced training Bastian had persuaded her to give him.

“You’re worse than Rap,” Dog told her.

“Thank you, Colonel.”

“What would you have done if I crashed?”

“Oh, you wouldn’t have crashed,” she said. “We were always within specs. The computer has tested the profile on its own.”

“You can’t really fly without a tail,” said Dog, who didn’t trust the simulator modules in the flight computer, no matter how sophisticated they actually were. He turned back to the windshield. The SUV designated to shepherd them toward the maintenance area was just now approaching from his left, a little behind schedule.

“Sure, you can. If you’re good.
You
could.”

“Ha.”

“You’re better than you think, Colonel.”

“I mean, the plane would auger in without a stabilizer.”

“Over my desk there’s a photograph of a B-52 that landed without a tail in Vietnam,” said Cheshire. “And another that was shot nearly in half through the fuselage. Then there’s the one with three quarters of its wing missing.”

Dog grunted. He finally realized he’d been suckered into a sales job.

“Colonel, you might want to relax your grip on the yoke,” said Cheshire. “You look like you’re going to snap it off.”

“Right.” He trundled the plane to the edge of the runway, where three support vehicles had joined the SUV.

Missouri—better known as “Mo”—was testing a modified version of the PW4074 turbofan, and carried one apiece on the inside engine pylons. The PW4074 turbofans, highly efficient engines originally developed by Pratt & Whitney for Boeing’s 777, were to be quickly checked by the ground crew. Assuming they were okay, the bomber would take off for a second tier of tests, then repeat the process for a third.

Dreamland’s specialists had tweaked the systems to achieve somewhat more thrust; nowhere near as thirsty as the J57’s that came stock on early B-52’s, the jets were considerably more powerful. The Megafortress engineers were still diddling with the computer models and specs to determine what exactly their optimum arrangement might be. While the conventional wisdom was that one new engine could sit in place of two old ones on each pylon, the Dreamland whiz kids were fond of defying common wisdom. The vast airframe of the B-52 gave flight to all manner of fantasies. Computer models had been devised showing the plane with six and eight power plants. One odd design even called for two of the engines to be mounted at the rear, somewhat like a 727.

The goal was to improve low-level speed without decreasing overall unrefueled range. Stock, a B-52 could clock roughly 365 knots at sea level with the old power plants. The Megafortress, with its much cleaner airframe, notched roughly 425 nautical miles an hour. The engineers wanted 475, which was well beyond the venerable and trusty J57’s.

Fifty knots didn’t seem like much, but it would exponentially reduce the detection envelope for a Megafortress on a low-level attack mission. In practical terms, it would allow an EB-52 to evade all but the most sophisticated defense radars, and to get close enough to air-launch torpedoes against a surface ship, one of the design goals remaining to be achieved.

Do that and even the Navy might order up a few dozen. Missouri indeed.

Dog powered back, preparing to turn the plane around at the edge of the ramp. In some ways it was more difficult to guide the big plane on the ground than in the air, since the flight computer didn’t help. Bastian found it nearly impossible to judge the clearance distance accurately, and twice twitched the control column, afraid he was about to clip one of the chase vehicles with his wings. But Bastian handled the turn expertly, stopping precisely parallel to the techies’ yellow and black pickup.

“You have time for the second flight?” Cheshire asked.

“I wasn’t planning on it,” said Dog. Then he realized she had a funny expression on her face. “Did I do that bad?” he asked.

“No, I told you, you did fine,” she said. “I was hoping to talk to you a minute.”

“Fire away,” Dog told her.

“I have to quick run over some of the numbers with Peter first, though,” she said, referring to the engineer in charge of the engine testing. “A quick check and we’re good to go.”

“All right,” said Dog. It wasn’t like he wanted to go back to his office and the mounds of paperwork waiting for him. Truth was, he would greatly prefer taking off again, even if it meant listening to Cheshire’s pitch for more resources. “Thanks, Colonel. I’ll be right back. I appreciate it.”

Dog undid his restraints and stretched his arms, watching out the cockpit windows as the ground crew gave the plane the once-over.

It wasn’t just that he preferred flying to paperwork. He wanted to master the Megafortress, just as he had every other plane on the base.

Not every plane. He hadn’t flown the two 767’s or the 777 they were testing as tankers. But he had flown every combat plane. The F-22, the modified F-16, the Joint-Service Strike Fighter, even the SR-71D spy plane with its hypersonic hydrogen engines. Flown them all, and damn well.