Chapter 51

Major Vance Lancaster was a foot shorter than I was, with a soft voice and a mustache that qualified as somewhere between 'pencil' and 'disappointing'. He was wearing an Air Force uniform which automatically counted as a strike against him in my book. His soft handshake and weak smile didn't win him any points either.

'Sergeant James," he said as he approached me in the Kaffe Mocha & Grill, our lunch destination. Lloyd, Ben and Sam stood behind me. "A Pleasure to meet you at last."

"Major Lancaster," I replied, returning his handshake. "I look forward to getting things squared away so FiberDyne can start being everything you have asked us to be."

The greeting seemed to satisfy him and we sat at a large table with a lot of privacy. The restaurant was on the edge of the airport and I imagined it was a place the Major felt comfortable. It was too warm for coffee so I ordered lemonade after lingering on the iced tea option for a while. Everyone else ordered an iced coffee of some kind which, given the name of the place, was probably what they were known for. I prefer my coffee hot.

"Lloyd tells me that we can go ahead and do our press conference tomorrow," the Major said while we waited for our drinks.

"That's correct," I answered. "My week is open, but as far as I"m concerned, the sooner the better."

"Great," he actually rubbed his hands together. "We'll have a helicopter at the FiberDyne helipad at 9am tomorrow, if that's not too early?"

"No problem," I nodded. The drinks arrived and I took a long sip of the lemonade. It was a pleasing combination of tart and sweet and didn't go too far one way or the other. I'd been studying the menu while we talked and I was prepared to order, asking for a prime rib sandwich and salad.

"The last of the paperwork was signed this morning," Lloyd told me. "With the signatures you gave last week, this press conference is the last step. By tomorrow afternoon we'll officially be a DOD supplier."

"And we are the sole suppliers for these materials, correct?"

"Ahh, that is correct, Sergeant," the Major licked his lips unattractively. "Our contract makes you the only company in the country authorized to produce these materials for us."

"Which is natural enough, since we are currently the only company capable of making them," I countered.

"Exactly," he laughed. Finally something about the man I didn't find off-putting. He had a good laugh.

"The press conference will be pro forma," the Major said as we waited for our food. "It fulfills a federal regulation regarding military contracting by the Department of Defense. Particularly regarding DOD purchasing not tied to a particular military budget."

"So its really a CYA thing," I said dryly.

"Exactly," the Major again laughed. "The members of the press who will attend will be – ahh, how do I put it?"

"The usual suspects?" I laughed.

"Close enough," his laughter joining mine. Lloyd, Ben and Sam joined in as well.

"Since we don't have any impressive hardware to show off, we won't do the usual podium in a hangar scene politicians love. There's a briefing room for the press corp at Travis and we'll use that,"

"Whatever makes you folks happy," I agreed. Lunch arriving interrupted things for a while as we all got our meals arranged and dug in. My prime rib sandwich was very nice, served with some Au Jus to dip it in like a french dip and some horseradish. The meat was succulent enough that I didn't bother with either of them. It was a large sandwich. I wound up sacrificing half my salad, as I was full before I could finish it.

When the feeding frenzy died down a little I got around to asking the next of my questions.

"Will I be expected to make a statement?"

"Yes, I'll call you up and introduce you and you can make a nice, generic statement."

"Major Lancaster," I laughed. "I'm so new to this party that a generic statement is the only kind I'm capable of. I don't have the education or training to be able to tell you anything specific about what FiberfDyne actually does. I know it involves making things out of something called graphene, or at least that was the start of it. I know how much my parents invested in the three guys sitting with us, and how much faith that implies that they had in them. Beyond that I can't day much."

"That will make it easy then."

"Will I have to take questions?"

"Yes, but that will be easy enough as well. Answer in whatever detail you feel comfortable with if they ask personal questions. For anything technical, defer to Mr. Lloyd or Drs. Nieminen and Girardi. For the most part, if its not a yes or no answer, I'll interrupt at that point and say its classified and prevent an answer from being given."

"That sounds simple enough," I said, breathing a little easier. The idea of having to speak at a press conference had been intimidating me a little.