Lieutenant Read online

  Ell put her hand up, “Sir, that would likely be me.”

  He lifted an eyebrow, “That ‘likely’ would. Well, you’re three weeks of class work behind the rest of the group and you’re going to have all kinds of Hell playing catch-up, but we can’t spend time nursemaiding you. Today we’re doing some actual flying simulations which you won’t even have a chance with, not having attended the classes. So you observe Lieutenant Sasson, he’s leading the pack and may be willing to waste some of his precious time explaining a few things to you. You’ll have to do your best to catch up by studying nights and weekends though, ‘cause I warn you, lots of folks that start this course on time have to repeat it. I recommended that they assign you elsewhere until the next class starts but my recommendation was denied because someone, somewhere above my pay grade, is ‘sure you can catch up.’”

  Ell quietly said, “Yes sir.”

  He turned to the class as a whole. “OK, today we’re going to run some simulations with the same RQ-7 reconnaissance drone you were running Friday. Take offs and landings from Kadena AFB on Okinawa and we’ll throw something new at you this time. Saddle up.”

  Sasson had rolled his eyes when Major Axen assigned him the newbie. He intended to graduate “top of class” and spoon-feeding a late entrant could only hurt him. At first other trainees blocked his view of her but he could see enough to know she was wearing her dress uniform instead of her BDUs. He groaned internally, she had to be a complete neophyte, just out of officer training school. At the command to “saddle up” he went to his usual simulator. He considered it her problem to find him, not his to babysit her every step.

  As he’d brought up the day’s feed on the simulator he felt her standing behind him. He didn’t look around but did say, “Watch what I do and try to learn. Don’t ask too many questions.”

  A quiet “Yes Sir,” came over his shoulder.

  Sasson glanced down as he moved one of his pedals and saw to his amazement that she had assumed a stance of “parade rest” with her feet separated about 12”. He thought about telling her to pull up a chair, but then thought that, if she’s such a stick that she’s going to stand at parade rest, I’ll let her do it. He did an electronic preflight check on the bird and then touched his mike, asking the simulated “on site” crew chief at Kadena AFB to go through the local preflight check with him.

  With the preflight complete, he began engine ignition, then rolled out to the runway.

  Standing behind Sasson, Ell had been pleased to be able to follow the preflight as it had been outlined in the manual except that Sasson hadn’t “checked the weather.” In view of the Major’s admonition that they’d “throw some something new” at them she wondered if he’d forgotten, or had somehow checked it on a screen without her seeing it? Her eyes flashed from screen to screen looking for a weather report that she’d missed. Ell subvocalized to Allan, asking if he could access the weather report on the simulator. Allan reported, “Yes, I’ve put it on your HUD.” Ell glanced away from what Sasson was doing and saw that the crosswinds were about 20% higher than the RQ-7 was rated for.

  Major Axen chose that moment to check in. “Lieutenant, something on your HUD more important than what Lieutenant Sasson is doing?”

  Ell said, “No Sir.” Her eyes were already back down on Sasson’s screens anyway. She wondered if she should point the crosswinds out to Sasson? Would the major, or Sasson himself, want her to help, or did Sasson know something about handling high crosswinds that she didn’t? The major stood watching Sasson as he rolled up to the end of the runway, was he waiting for Sasson to get in trouble? Unable to stand by if Sasson had simply overlooked the winds, Ell finally bent down near Sasson’s ear and said, “Sir. Are you aware of the crosswind situation?”

  Sasson hissed, “Don’t bother me during take off!” The RQ-7 began rolling forward and the horizon began to shudder. Sasson said, “Damn it!” and gripped the flight stick with white knuckles. The left wing lifted up and Sasson slammed the flight stick to the left to try to keep the right wing tip from dragging. The horizon leveled momentarily but the runway began to slide to the left. Sasson pumped in rudder, then the left wingtip rose again and after a momentary pause, went on over the top. The image of the airfield flipped upside down and filled with flames.

  Sasson leapt to his feet, saying, “Damn it!” He brought his face close to hers, “You don’t ask questions during takeoff!” He was startled to realize how young and pretty she was. He had a moment’s chagrin, thinking to himself that he would have been nicer if he’d known she was so cute.

  Ell thought if Sasson had had a hat, he’d have thrown it on the ground and stomped on it. At attention, she kept her face bland and simply said, “Yes Sir. I’m sorry sir.”

  Sasson turned to the Major. “Sorry sir. I shouldn’t have let her distract me.”

  The Major looked back and forth from one to the other, and then he said, “Lt. Sasson, what did she ask you?”

  “Sir, I do not know. I was focused on my take off.” He muttered, “Evidently, not focused enough.”

  The Major turned to Ell. “Lt….”

  Ell said, “Donsaii, Sir.”

  “Donsaii. What did you ask Lt. Sasson?”

  Ell wondered if answering was a betrayal and paused a moment.

  “Donsaii? I’m waiting.” the major said dangerously.

  “Sir, I asked if he was aware of the crosswind situation.”

  Sasson’s eyes widened and darted to Ell then down to the simulator as he realized what had just crashed his “plane.”

  Axen had developed a bemused expression and reached up to rub his moustache. “Donsaii? As in the ‘Olympic’ Donsaii’”

  Quietly Ell said, “Yes sir.”

  “And you knew those crosswinds were above what the RQ-7 is rated for, didn’t you?” His eyes glanced down at the row of medals above Ell’s left breast pocket.

  Another brief pause, then Ell resignedly said, “Yes Sir.”

  Sasson’s heart sank. Then to his astonishment the Major came to attention and gave Donsaii a sharp regulation salute. She saluted back. Next Axen turned to Sasson and murmured, “I suggest, Lieutenant, that the next time someone offers a suggestion regarding your flight conduct or preparation, you take such suggestions under serious consideration. Do you understand what you just did wrong that enabled you to, in theory, destroy 8 million dollars worth of your country’s aircraft?”

  At attention himself, Sasson said, “Yes Sir!”

  Axen turned back to Ell, “Perhaps we should see what you can do with a simulator yourself?”

  “I would like that Sir.”

  As Axen led Ell over to an unused simulator station, Sasson wondered what the Hell had caused a Major to salute a Lieutenant? Indoors!

  ***

  Axen waved his beer vaguely at Ennis, “So then she sits down at the simulator I assigned her, boots it like she’d been doing it all her life, preflights, notes the weather is beyond limits, asks for a determination as to whether the mission was critical enough to risk take off anyway? Instead of the usual, “wait until weather improves” I get my AI to send her a message to take off anyway and she does!”

  Ennis grinned, “So’d she crash and burn with the best of them?”

  “No! She got that RQ-7 off the ground! There were some wild wobbles, but this was her first flight! You know only one in ten get their plane successfully in the air on first flight even in dead air?”

  Ennis studied Axen with narrowed eyes. “Luck?”

  “Oh Hell no! Her flight was picture perfect. Landing? Nearly flawless. I asked her if she’d had any flight experience? She says, ‘Yes Sir, I reviewed the briefing materials on the UAV program that Colonel Ennis gave me. It has an embedded simulator that I made some runs on last night.’” Axen pitched his voice a little higher to imitate Ell.

  Ennis’ brows rose, “She picked that pack up yesterday afternoon!”

  “You’re tellin’ me! It has terabytes of information in i
t, mostly useless of course, but how could she even sort through it in one night? And that embedded simulator she practiced on is only vaguely like flying the actual simulators. Commercial joysticks don’t have all the controls and that embedded software isn’t even programmed for the second joystick.”

  Ennis took another sip of his beer, “Could she have engaged the AI and had it doing most of the flying?”

  Axen leaned forward, “First thing I thought of! AI is supposed to be disengaged to make them learn how the plane really works but I checked to be sure. No AI, ‘read the manual,’ one evening’s practice on the home simulator and she flies better than most of our ‘graduates.’ Anyway, even the AI is only occasionally able to get off the ground in that much crosswind.”

  Ennis reached out and clinked his glass against Axen’s. “And I was ready to rip her a new one yesterday morning.”

  “What for?”

  “I thought she was wearing non regulation heels, turns out she just has ‘unusually long legs.’”

  Axen grinned, “Look good too, don’t they?”

  “You didn’t hear that from me.”

  “So, what the Hell are we gonna do with her?”

  “Let her do her job, my man. Let her do her job. Train her up, graduate her early if she can do it, which I assume she can, and turn her back over to me. We could use someone brilliant doing our China surveillance out of Kadena. I don’t like the way they’ve been acting over there.”

  Axen leaned back. “Tell you what. I’ll bet she deserved that Medal of Honor.”

  Ennis raised his glass in silent agreement.

  ***

  When Ell left base that evening Allan took her to a different parking lot to find her truck, which the security team had moved. She asked Allan what had happened to Amy Reston and her children?

  “Steve is waiting to talk to you about her.”

  When Ell got to the apartment Steve waited at the dining table. “Hi, how was your first real day?”

  “Kinda fun. Just flying simulators but even they’re pretty cool. What do you think about Ms. Reston?”

  “I don’t like it. You know she’s homeless?”

  “The more reason why she needs the job.”

  “I’m not sure you should hire people according to their need? Besides, she made good money in her previous job. She’s just spent it all, then got laid off.”

  “Wasn’t her daughter sick?”

  “Well, yeah.”

  “I’m pretty sure I want to hire her. She’s experienced as an executive assistant. If you don’t have a substantive objection I want to interview her. Can you make contact?”

  He twisted his lip, then shrugged, “Sure.”

  ***

  Amy was walking Janey and Mike into the mall food court when her AI said, “You have a call from a Mr. Steve Jacobs about a job interview.”

  Amy said, “Put him on. Hello?”

  A baritone voice said, “Hello Ms. Reston. My employer is interested in interviewing you for a job as a personal and executive assistant. Would you be interested?”

  “Certainly. Are you with one of the agencies?”

  “Uh, no Ma’am.” Steve realized she must have applications in through some employment agencies. “This contact is a result of your conversation with Ms. Donsaii this morning.”

  “Oh!” Amy hadn’t really expected anything to come of that encounter. “When do you want me to interview? I’m working the graveyard shift at a casino right now so I could come in most times except when I’m picking up or dropping off my kids for school.”

  “How about right now?

  “Oh my goodness! I’m not dressed for it.” Amy began a panicked thought process for how she could get cleaned up and dressed in the Mall bathrooms. “And I’m just taking my kids out to eat dinner. Could it wait a little while?”

  “Much more important to this employer than how you are dressed at present, is how you adapt to a situation. We’d like to meet you wherever you are having dinner.”

  “With my kids?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okaay, I can adapt. We’re at the Meadows Mall food court.”

  “We should be there in 10 minutes or so. We’ll buy dinner if you’ll wait for us.”

  Amy set Mike and Janey down. “Hey kids. A man is coming here to interview me for a job.”

  They looked up at her with uncertainty.

  “I don’t know if the job is better than the one I have, but if it is, it could help us get a place to live. Do you understand how important that is?”

  Eyes wide, they both nodded slowly. Janey’s finger slipped nervously back into the corner of her mouth.

  “We’re going to wait until they get here to eat because the man said that they’d buy our dinner and that will help us a little with our money problems. Can you be calm and quiet while they’re here? That could help me get this job.”

  “Yes Mom.” Mikey said. Janey nodded again, eyes wide with apprehension that she might mess something this important up.

  Amy said, “Don’t worry too much about this kids. All you need to do is use the good manners I’ve taught you and stay seated. If you feel like you just can’t sit still, ask for permission to go play on the Mall playground, OK?”

  About fifteen minutes later a muscular dark skinned man strode up to the table and said in a Boston accent, “Hello Ms. Reston, Mike, Janey.” He nodded to each of them in turn.

  Amy was impressed that he had taken time to learn the names of her children. She’d had her AI play back his name from when he introduced himself earlier and she said, “Hello Mr. Jacobs. Is this table OK?”

  “Yes it will be fine.” He said, sitting down, “But I have a request and need your kids help.”

  Amy’s heart froze; did he intend to use her children for something? “Uhhh…”

  Recognizing her concern, Steve quickly said, “It’s just that Ms. Donsaii is with me but she’s wearing a disguise so that people won’t recognize her.” He turned to the kids. “Do you think you can keep quiet and not say anything to draw attention to her so that she can keep her privacy?”

  “Oh…” Amy frowned, “I think we can. Let me take a moment to explain this to the kids OK?” After Steve nodded, Amy spent some time talking to Mike and especially Janey about what privacy meant. When Ell, wearing a brown wig and dark makeup, walked up and sat down, Amy was gratified to see that the kids stared at her wide eyed but sat quietly without saying anything.

  Ell said, “Let’s go get some food. I’m buying. Steve, if you’ll defend the table I’ll bring you back whatever you want?”

  Steve asked for a cheeseburger, fries and Coke and the rest of them took off to wander around the offerings in the food court. Ell walked around with the kids and appeared just as delighted as they were to be picking out her own food. Ell had Allan electronically pay for whatever any of them ordered. Soon she walked back to the table with a tray carrying her food and Steve’s. The kids were torn between their desire to chatter in excitement, and their recollection of their Mom’s admonition to keep quiet. Amy anxiously waited to hear about the possible job. At Ell’s suggestion, the kids sat at a nearby table where they could be more themselves while the grownups talked, though the kids kept darting glances over at them.

  Ell turned to Amy, “Actually, I’m the one who needs an assistant.”

  Startled, Amy thought to herself that Ell almost looked young enough to need a babysitter. She’d been in the Olympics a year and a half ago—wasn’t she in college now? “What do you need assistance with?” And who’s paying me to assist you? And who’s in charge?

  “Well, there are a surprising number of things I need help with. I’m actually serving a military obligation as a second lieutenant in the Air Force which requires a lot of my time. I have a problem in that Chinese nationals have been trying to kidnap me which has led to the hiring of Steve here and his security team for protection. I have some research endeavors I’d like to undertake in my spare time. Essentially, I
don’t want to spend my time on doing the payroll for my security team, shopping, cooking, cleaning, laundry, ordering and receiving supplies for my research… I want to be able to focus on the things that I want to do and leave the rest of my life to someone else.”

  Amy tilted her head, “As a business executive assistant, I’ve done some of those things and,” she lifted an eyebrow, “as a mother I’ve done some of the others.” She paused, “I believe that I could adapt to learn others like payroll, though I would think that your AI could do that kind of number crunching?”

  Ell said, “I don’t even want to have to remember to talk to my AI about handling the payroll.” Ell asked many questions then, posing “what if” and “if this happened would you be willing to…” situations. Obliquely she determined Amy’s capabilities from her responses. Finally she said, “I’d like to offer you the job if you don’t have concerns. You should at least be worried about the danger the Chinese pose. They appear only to want to capture, not harm me. They apparently hope to have me work for them, but they may be willing to accept some collateral damage to you or perhaps even your children. I sincerely hope that they’ve given up and that, if they haven’t, Steve’s security team will be able to protect us, but I can’t be sure.”

  Amy studied Ell’s face, “Pardon me for asking, but how can you afford this? I know Lieutenants aren’t paid all that much. I don’t want to quit the job I’ve got and then find out that you can’t actually pay me.”

  “You’re right to be concerned. I have some royalties from an invention…”

  Steve snorted at this statement. “’Some’ royalties!” he chuckled.

  Ell continued, “and I will put two hundred fifty thousand dollars in an escrow account that you can check the balance of yourself. It would be payable to you if something were to happen to me and hopefully would tide you over until you found another job. As one of your benefits I will provide a place to live for you and your children at the same apartment complex I live in. I will double the salary that you are currently paid as a dealer and as my executive assistant you will be in charge of establishing an excellent benefits package for my staff, yourself and your family included.”