Chapter 52

The helicopter wasn't visible as I approached the FiberDyne building the next morning. I took the elevator up to the office and found all three of my partners there.

"Good morning Cooper," Ben greeted me when he saw me. "Coffee's on!"

I grabbed a cup, not having had my morning's quota yet and walked over to where the three of them were standing, watching something on the computer. "what's so interesting?"

"Ahh, Sam stumbled across this page full of animated gifs on the internet," Lloyd explained. I glanced down at the monitor and saw a high school boy getting his testicles rearranged by a steel railing, over and over again. I cringed automatically. "okay, enough of that one,"

Ben clicked an onscreen option and the next picture showed some guy miraculously avoiding a horrendous accident as he seemed to casually step out of the way just before a car careened off the highway and into the car he'd been standing next to.

"A nice morning's entertainment I see," I laughed.

"The helicopter should be here any minute, so we don't want to get too wrapped up in work. This does a good job of keeping us occupied while we wait," He clicked on screen again and the picture changed to the upper torso of a very generously proportioned, naked woman bouncing up and down. "Yeah, about one of every ten of them is like this," he mumbled apologetically. "They seem pretty popular."

"I would imagine so," I commented dryly. Fortunately we were interrupted by the phone. Lloyd answered.

"The helicopter is here," he announced. "Let's go."

The three of them grabbed their coats and we headed for a door at the far end of the office from where the elevator was. A typical security door with a push bar led to a flight of stairs that turned once before leaving us at another door. This one also had a security bar on the inside.

We pushed through and there was a Bell 206 sitting on the helipad. There was a smiling woman dressed in an Air Force uniform standing at the doorway who ushered us in. It was done in Air Force paint on the outside, but I could see it was the prototypical executive shuttle on the inside. The executive cabin was very well appointed and much more soundproof than the Pave Hawks I'd most recently been used to traveling in.

"Welcome aboard gentlemen," our hostess said as she shut the cabin door. Things got immediately quiet. "I'm Airman Lonnigan, but since none of you are military, you can call just me Abby."

"Thank you Abby," Lloyd said with a smile. The airman had been chosen for this duty, I assumed, because she was very easy on the eyes.

"If you'll just take your seats and fasten your lap restraints, we'll be in the air momentarily. We're sixty air miles from Travis, and should be on the ground there in approximately 30 minutes."

The scenery was very nice, for most of the ride as we crossed the majority of the Sonoma and Napa valley wine country. Our hostess didn't offer us anything to drink, but sat expecting to be engaged in conversation. Ben and Sam both spoke with her briefly.

I ignored everyone for the most part, just watching the scenery go by and fighting off the memories of past flights. 'Well, exiting this bird should be a lot less exciting that the last couple I dropped out of, ' I thought to Bud and Harley.

'And you won't have to jump out of this one, ' Harley's laughter sounded in my head.

The airman escorted us out of the Bell and quickly across the tarmac to a small door in the side of a huge building. Behind that door we followed a short hallway and then went through a door that left us in a small room with several comfortable looking love seats, upholstered chairs, a large counter with a mirror behind it, and another door with both male and female symbols typically used for restrooms.

I stepped in, and yes it was, so I emptied my bladder quickly, washed my hands, examining my face for a moment as if reassuring myself that this was going to be okay. Hands dried and fly double-checked I stepped out of the bathroom and found the Major there already.

"Ahh James, good. We're ready to go if you are?"

"Of course," I nodded.

"Alright, just like we discussed yesterday. I'll have some introductory remarks, you'll make your statement and then we'll open it up to questions. A few of those and we're done."

And that was pretty much how it went. My statement was so bland as to be totally unmemorable. I at least couldn't remember it five minutes after I said it. The only real surprise was when one of the men asked me about my military career. The Major jumped in immediately.

"Mr. James served ten years in the United States Marine Corp. That service included active duty tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. His last station was the jungle warfare training center at Camp Gonsalves, Okinawa, where he received his honorable discharge with the rank of Gunnery Sergeant. Any other questions about his military career should be directed to the Defense Department."

Wow. There was a mouthful, and probably said better than I could have.

I tuned out the technical questions and the inevitable 'classified' intervention by the Major. It was a very brief briefing. We were done in less than thirty minutes. Airman Lonnigan escorted us back to the Bell and we were in the air and on our way back to FiberDyne within five minutes of leaving the podium. Major Lancaster talked the entire way, but it was just jabber. I tuned it out, only barely remembering to smile when I shook his hand at the cabin door.

My partners were very much wound up on the flight back. I had to remind myself that this signaled a big payday for us, and for them, their first big payday. The scenery outside was just as nice going back as it had been coming down. Inside, the airman seemed to be trying to give me a look at some nice scenery as well, as she had unbuttoned a couple of the buttons on her uniform. I didn't think the air force uniform was really cut to take advantage of such an effort, and in any case, I had better scenery on my mind, thinking of Kelli and what she might have for us to do this weekend.

We got a wave and another look down the blouse of the airman as we exited the bell on the FiberDyne helipad. Ben, Sam and Lloyd were all laughs and smiles as we went through the door into the rooftop stairwell. It was interesting to note that Lloyd used a cardkey to unlock that door and used the same key to unlock the one back into the office.