Chapter 8

So far, so good, Jon thought as he headed for the lobby. The timing was going to be tight; in six minutes his father would be pulling up to the service entrance in the back, and in nine minutes Tanisha would be pulling up in the rental outside. This is really more complicated than it needs to be, Jon thought. There was no reason he couldn't have just walked out with Tanisha, or maybe with Jennlynn and Will, but after the last few days and especially after the joke of an alleged "press conference" there were some things he wanted to say. Whether anyone in the press would pick them up was hard to judge. Probably not, he thought, but someone needed to say it. Jon wasn't an outspoken guy normally, but he'd had enough.

There was a number of people heading out the lobby doors at the same time, and none of the reporters gathered there were paying much attention to him. He probably could have made it out the door without being bothered, but that wasn't his intention. He looked around briefly, spotting the big black dude holding a professional video camera. Perfect, he thought. He walked right up to the guy and said, "Hey, thanks man. You were pretty cool back there."

"That guy is a real asshole," the black guy said. "He can make a real pain of himself. It was good that someone told him to go to hell. I know several people got footage of that, I wouldn't be surprised to see it get on air sometime."

"Good deal, he deserves it," Jon told him. "I don't know why people like him think they can get away with things like that, but I guess they do."

"He does all too much," the guy snorted. "We just have to put up with him."

"Uh, sir," a feminine voice said. Jon looked up and saw a young reporter, probably no older than he was. She was very pretty, with a big chest; Jon couldn't help but wonder if she got her job as the result of her looks or her smarts. If he had to bet, he thought, he'd bet on her bra size. "What's your relationship with Jennlynn Swift?"

"Just a co-worker at Lambdatron," Jon told her, glad that someone had noticed. "We're both representing the company at this show."

"You're not like a boyfriend or anything?" another reporter asked.

"No, no way," Jon smiled. "I'm afraid my wife would have a problem with that."

"What's she like to work with?" a third reporter asked. "Pretty casual?"

"Furthest thing from it," Jon said. "She's very demanding, very intolerant of incompetence. She's been my supervisor on several projects, and I've learned a great deal about engineering from her."

"You don't have any problem with her being a prostitute?" one of the reporters asked.

Jon was finally drawing some attention now. Good, he thought. "It's her business. It's not mine. It doesn't affect her job performance and you really can't ask much more than that."

"Do you have any idea why she does it?" the first reporter asked.

"No idea," Jon replied. "Like I said, it's her business. I don't pry into other people's private lives. Why are you even asking that question?"

"Well," the blonde with the big chest said, "The public has a right to know."

"No," Jon told her, "The public does not have a right to know, any more than they have a right to know what color panties you have on."

"But she's a public figure," the blonde protested. "People have a right to know about public figures."

"You are more of a public figure than she is. What color are your panties?" Jon replied snidely. "Or do you even have any on at all?"

"That's a pretty rude thing of you to ask," she snorted.

"And asking me about someone else's private life isn't?" Jon said. "In fact, that's considerably more rude. You may have forgotten one thing, young lady. Miss Swift is not an elected official, so you don't have that reason to pry. She is not a public employee, or even an employee of a publicly held company, so you have no right to pry into her life using the excuse that the public has a right to know. The public has no such right, no more than they have the right to know the color of your underwear. You especially have no reason to judge Miss Swift for what she does in her private life any more than I have any reason to judge you for what you and your boyfriend did last night. I don't know what you did, I don't want to know, and I couldn't care less. Frankly, people like you trying to make a scandal out of who Miss Swift is and what she does makes me sick. Worse, it makes me ashamed to be an American to think that we have to even put up with you alleged journalists. Less than a week ago she saved hundreds, if not thousands of lives. She didn't do that for personal publicity, she did it because it had to be done and she was the only one who could do it. She would have been just as happy if she could have walked off that airplane without anyone knowing who she was. You just want to drag her through the gutter for the sake of your lousy little rating points. As far as I'm concerned, the whole damn bunch of you can go straight to hell." He smiled and turned to the big black guy, who now was recording the whole thing. "With your exception, of course."

The guy flashed a big grin at him; Jon hoped that he'd gotten a good piece of his rant. He doubted like hell that it would make it on the air but at least there was some hope. He glanced at his watch; about time to be getting out of there. "I have other places to be," he said. "So, again with your exception, sir, I bid you all a truly lousy night." He turned on his heel and headed for the front door at a fast walk.

Fortunately, Tanisha was waiting outside with the rental car, arguing with a doorman who wanted her to move it for someone important, but she wasn't buying. Jon opened the right door, jumped in and said, "Let's go."

Tanisha immediately punched the accelerator, leaving the doorman standing there with an exasperated look on his face. Jon swung around in the seat, wondering if anyone was charging out the door after them, but didn't see anyone in pursuit. "How'd it go?" Tanisha asked.

"I said what I had to say," Jon sighed. "Nothing much about Jennlynn, though."

It took more than an hour to make the meet outside of Pete's condo, and for the five of them to drive down to the Joliet Park District Airport, where Songbird had been sitting for several days. "If we're just going to get out of here," Will said not far from the airport, "Maybe we ought to think about getting something to take with us on the plane. Fast food, a sub, something like that."

"Not a bad idea," Jennlynn agreed. "I've been thinking about it. Originally we were just going to head for home and drop Jon and Tanisha off in Flagstaff, but I'm thinking now that we might just as well stop in Phoenix."

"There could be reporters waiting for you there, especially after the fracas tonight," Jon pointed out.

"Well, yeah," Jennlynn said, "But I've been thinking about it. I need some stuff from my apartment if Will and I are going home this time of year, and we'd be dropping you two off awful early in Flag to not have a car there. Besides, if we just make a quick pit stop in Oklahoma City, we should be pulling into Phoenix about four in the morning. If anyone is crazy enough to be staking out my hangar at that hour, I just might be willing to talk to them."

"Are you sure you want to fly the 310 all night?" Tanisha asked. "That's a long haul for this late."

"Between Will and I, we can handle it," Jennlynn smiled. "I'm used to staying up late, and he's a pilot, too."

"Good grief, Will," Tanisha shook her head. "Is there anything you can't do?"

"Well, technically I'm not a multi-engine pilot, but I can always use some time in my logbook," Will grinned, "'Specially if it doesn't cost me anything."

"I didn't think the Air Force let enlisted men fly," Jon commented.

"They don't," Will told him. "But they do have flying clubs with instruction and everything, and those are open to enlisted men at a real good rate. Miz Swift taught me years ago just how useful a plane can be around a ranch, so I've been picking it up."

It still took a while to get Songbird pre-flighted in the low light of the end of the day; while Will and Jennlynn were doing that, Jon and Tanisha took the time to have a word with Pete. "Dad, it's been real good to see you again," Jon said. "I'm sorry it couldn't have been longer, but you see how things are."

"Good to see you again," Pete replied. "And it's especially good to know things are working so well with you. Let's try to not let it be so long next time."

"We'll probably be back this way sooner or later," Jon told him. "Probably not until after this mess dies down, but it should blow over pretty soon."

"Couldn't be helped," Pete shrugged. "I'm just glad we were able to get together at all, and it's good to know everyone is doing fine out there. Give my best regards to everyone, especially your mother, will you?"

"Yeah, Dad," Jon said, "Sure thing."

Pete turned to Tanisha, "I'm even more happy to have met you," he smiled. "I somehow used to have difficulty imagining Jon with a woman at all, but to have him marry such an intelligent and good-looking one as you is even more surprising. You take care of him for me, will you?"

"I'll try," Tanisha smiled, still not quite believing how this had turned out. After all the stories she'd heard about Pete over the years, to have him turn out like this was more than a little overwhelming. "You take care of yourself too, Mr. Chladek. It's been a huge pleasure meeting you, a lot different than I ever dreamed it would be."

"I imagine so," he smiled. "Tanisha, you've probably heard more stories about me than you would like, and most of them are probably true. But they're mostly in the past, too. I'm not the ogre I once was."

"I believe it," she smiled. This was harder than she'd thought it would be.

"Jon, Tanisha," Jennlynn said from next to them. "We'd better get you two saddled up."

"Coming, Jennlynn," Jon told her. "Dad, see you next time."

"See you again too, son," Pete smiled. "Hopefully it won't be quite as long next time."

"Well, I hope it won't be, too," Jon said, shaking his head, still a little surprised within himself that he could be saying such a thing after the way he'd had to leave five years before. "I guess we'd better get on board."

Jon let Tanisha climb up the step and into the cabin of the 310 before him, while Jennlynn waited and talked with Pete for a moment. "Thanks, Pete," she told him. "You've been a big help on this."