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She shrugged. “Maybe. Good luck.”
And then she was gone.
Diego Garcia
1200
“I THINK THAT’S IT FOR NOW,” SAID DOG, WRAPPING UP THE
postmission brief. “We’ll stand down for the next twenty-four hours, take a little breather, relax. One thing I have to mention—there are a number of difficult situations in Asia.
We may not be going directly home.”
He looked around the small conference table in the Command trailer. He’d expected disappointment—but all he saw was fatigue.
“All right, then, I think that wraps it up,” he told them.
“Wait, Colonel, I had one thing I wanted to discuss.”
“What is it, Mack?”
“Naming the Megafortresses. You put me in charge of that, remember?”
“This is not the time to play the name game,” said Zen.
“I have an idea that I think everyone will agree with,” said Mack. “Even Zen.”
“Right,” muttered Zen, just loud enough for everyone to hear.
Dog looked at Mack. He was glad the pilot could walk again—but still, he wished Mack didn’t always have to be Mack.
“So? Want to hear it?” asked Mack.
“Come on, I’m starving,” said Brea
“Medal of Honor wi
planes after Air Force Medal of Honor wi
Dog looked around the room. The other officers were speechless. It was an historic moment.
404
DALE BROWN’S DREAMLAND
“I think it’s a great idea Mack,” said Dog. “There’s only one problem.”
“What’s that?”
“You thought of it.”
“I still don’t get it.”
Everyone else started to laugh.
“Dismissed,” said Dog.
STARSHIP FOUND HIS WAY BACK TO THE CHAPEL AFTER LUNCH.
The minister wasn’t there, but the door was unlocked. He took a step inside. A Bible sat on a chair a few feet away.
Was it wrong to steal a Bible?
Starship hesitated, then took the book.
“LISTEN, I OWE YOU AN APOLOGY. YOU WERE RIGHT AND I GOT
mad at you. For getting on Mack’s case. I was being a jerk.
You were right,” Zen told Brea
“I don’t know,” said Bree. “Everybody’s saying how you made him walk again.”
“No, you were right. He didn’t walk because of me. He would have walked sooner or later.”
“Maybe he needed a kick in the butt from you to get going.”
“Oh, he needs a kick in the butt. Definitely. But I was out of line. I’ve always been mad at him—it was when I got mad at you that I realized I was out of control.”
Should he tell her that he had almost hit her? He wanted to—but he couldn’t. It was too terrible.
“I know it sucks,” she said, coming over. Her fingers on his neck tickled his whole body—or what still worked on his body.
Yeah, he thought. It sucks. Every day. That’s the way it is.
THAT NIGHT, ZEN LAY IN BED FOR MORE THAN AN HOUR AFTER
Brea
SATAN’S TAIL
405
fee that afternoon, he couldn’t sleep. He got up and made his way over to the Dreamland Command trailer, hoping to find a card game. But the Whiplash troopers had only just returned from Africa, and the only person there was Sergeant Liu. Things were so slow, he was practicing his tae kwon do while standing watch.
Liu let Zen use the computer tie-in to check his e-mail.
As it happened, he had only one item. It was from Dr.
Martha Geraldo, a psychiatrist who had led the Nerve Center project, an experiment that used brain waves to help control aircraft. Zen had been one of the subjects—and almost gone insane from the drugs and experimental procedures.
ZEN:
I KNOW SOMEONE WHO’S WORKING ON A PROJECT AT A RE-SEARCH HOSPITAL IN NEW YORK. IT INVOLVES NERVE CELL REGENERATION. IT’S VERY—IT’S OUT ON THE EDGE. BUT WHAT THEY THINK
THEY COULD DO, OR WHAT THEY WANT TO DO EVENTUALLY, IS RE-GENERATE SPINAL CORDS. MAKE PEOPLE WALK AGAIN. THEY NEED
A CANDIDATE.
Zen wheeled back from the display.
When he leaned back to write a response, his fingers trembled so badly that he had to stop twice, though all he wrote was a simple sentence:
WHAT’S THE PHONE NUMBER?
T H E M E N A N D W O M E N W H O T U R N
H I G H - T E C H W A R G A M E S I N T O
B R E AT H TA K I N G R E A L I T Y AT
D R E A M L A N D
Lieutenant Colonel Tecumseh “Dog” Bastian: The master of Dreamland, his “bark” and “bite” have won him many powerful Pentagon friends … and enemies.
Captain Brea
Captain Harold “Storm” Gale, USN: Commander of Xray Pop, a cutting-edge naval squadron, his “shoot first”
attitude puts him on a dangerous collision course with Washington and Dog Bastian.
Captain Da
Jed Barclay: Barely old enough to shave—a science
“whiz kid” and deputy to the National Security Advisor—he is Dreamland’s link to the President and will be called upon to take the ultimate risk in the midst of crisis.
Major Mack “Knife” Smith: An ace with more MiG
kills than any flier since Vietnam, he was taken out of the game by a terrorist in Brunei … but nothing will keep him out of the fight.
Copyright
About the Author
DALE BROWN a former U.S. Air Force captain, is the author of fifteen previous bestsellers. Brown lives in Nevada, where he can often be found in the skies, piloting his own plane. Jim DeFelice’s recent techno-thrillers include Brother’s Keeper (2000) and Havana Strike (1997). Jim has also written more than a dozen works of fiction and nonfiction for young people. He lives with his wife and son in upstate New York, and can be contacted by E-mail at [email protected] /* */
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