Chapter 19

What a strange way to wake up. I would wake up alone a couple of months ago, go do some chores in the morning if I was home, have breakfast, and go to work at the university. I now wake up with women covering me. I may go to sleep with one or two, and wake up with only one, but sometimes as many as three or four. I was being kissed by my tiny Polynesian, while my sister-in-law was performing some very intimate acts with me this morning.

Suki thought it was funny and was giggling, but Cindy was panting as she lifted and jammed herself down on me; so much for my sweet sister-in-law being sore. When she had completed her mission of achieving a brother-in-law induced orgasm, she slid down next to me and sweetly kissed me. "That is so good, Sal. Val will be proud of you the way you let me enjoy myself. That is so much better than some toy."

Suki was still snuggled up to me, and said, "I'm fine this morning after our loving last night. I'm not as horny now that I have our baby in me. I'm ready if you're still ready to go, but you don't have to do me to get me off."'

Geez, these women have it down to a science. Let's see, Cindy gets off on me without a lot of thought of whether I might want to join her. Suki says she's fine, since she got hers last night and I'm waving in the breeze. It was Suki who said, "I should call Niki over here and teach her how to get you off in the morning. That would be good training."

"Let it be, Suki, I'm fine. As a matter of fact, I might even want a nooner if I let it go now."

My sister-in-law said, "I'm your girl if you want a nooner. I always get horny after lunch."

Geez, how in the world did I get hooked up with so many weird horny women?

Breakfast was normal and Cindy had her own cart today. Hers was electric while mine was gas, so we would need to remember to hook her cart up at night.

Today was supposed to be special. Donny was anticipating that his steam engine would arrive today. The excitement of that event was evident from breakfast on. Donny's anticipation, and the fact that everyone was anxious for the arrival, caused Steve to send several aircraft up to find the progress of 'Donny's Dream', the steam engine's name.

The radio transmissions were broadcast over the speakers on the patio as soon as the engine was located. Everyone was treated to video of the engine being towed by a newer diesel down the tracks as it came south on the assigned route. Donny was delirious, and was constantly in contact with his father via cell phone.

When it became obvious that the engine and cars were almost here, everyone traveled to S&S's main building to watch as the engine, coal car, flat car, and caboose were switched to the siding and slowly traveled up to Donny's Dream's special resting place.

When the short train had stopped, Donny went nuts running from point to point, releasing air from various valves to reduce rust. Donny had a big laminated plastic sheet that was a checklist of things he needed to do. The man was as meticulous as a pilot in that he made sure every item was done and checked.

Donny stood before his beautiful steam engine when all was complete, and said, "This is a piece of American history. I hope I can let her travel around the USA and show how our country progressed over these last hundred years."

It was an emotional moment as all could see how much these pieces of steel meant to the huge man. It was respect. The man respected the machine's contribution to the progress of our great country.

It took a while for Donny to introduce his mom, dad, and brother who had brought the train from Arkansas. Donny's dad and brother were big, but not nearly as large as he was. You easily knew where Donny's great attitude and easy going personality came from.

Everyone went back to their duties and responsibilities at their individual work places.

Sandy had located and hired two more former students of mine to help work on the project. I was surprised that Sandy had found two of the best that had graduated and were still looking for work. With three additional good heads putting meat on the program bones that I was building, the program began taking shape much faster than anticipated.

We were on the final lap within six weeks. By that point, I was rewriting the code the others had filled in to make it more compressible as the others were adding the I/O lines to evaluate flow data from each square centimeter of the fuselage.

The program was huge, or so I thought. Sandy and his men had been condensing the code until it was compact enough to even satisfy me. Everyone worked on making the code conform to whatever the input data was, so that any aircraft could be evaluated and put through our screening process to find faults and flying problems, as well as armament firing problems.

I was sure we would add to this over time, but the program as it now was would be the benchmark by which all military and civilian aircraft would be built.

The Friday after our completion brought a big party. Everyone who was involved was honored, and Wes gave a testimonial that curled all of our toes. "Everyone, I have to tell you of a phenomenal software creation that will probably change the aircraft industry. Sal and his men have created software to evaluate any aircraft with any combination of engine or engines, any type of fuselage, and military aircraft with any type of armament. No one anywhere else on this earth can take an aircraft apart like Sal's software can."

I was sitting with Suki and Rita who were now showing that they were pregnant. The others within our group were sitting to our side. I stood, "All of the people who helped put this together are as important, if not more important, than I am. All I did was give directions and they put it all together. Applaud these folks; give them their due."

The noise was loud as people applauded, whistled, screamed, and generally showed their appreciation. These folks loved to show how proud they were of other members of the S&S group, or perhaps better, team.

Donny stood up, and everyone notices when Donny stands up, as the guy has to be over seven-foot tall, "Sal has only worked with us for a few months. During this time, the man has changed how we operate within our group and within the entire S&S structure. His ability to put equipment and operational personnel together has been invaluable. We are a better company today by having our Doctor Salvatore Feeny as our software guru."

The noise was strangely deafening, as everything that had been announced was not worthy of the accolades.

Steve was there and announced, "Folks, we are honored to have employees who are willing to bust their butts to make us the best in the business, so stick around and see what we're capable of."

This was a good party and became better when Tiny spoke up. "There is another item that I know most of you are sitting on the edge of your seats wanting to know about. Here it is, Folks. The S&S 401K plan didn't grow by the anticipated ten to twelve percent this past year."

You could see some of the crowd's excitement ebb.

"The plan has grown by a whopping eighteen percent."

There was stunned silence for almost a full minute until what Tiny announced sunk in. Then the noise of applause, yelling, whistling, and banging on tables began.

Tiny smiled at the assembled group both inside and outside the patio, and spoke, "The party most responsible for this growth is Ben Phillips, Sue's dad, the financial guru we all know and love. Tell us how you did it, Ben."

Ben was dwarfed when he stood next to Tiny and accepted the microphone. "Your company showed a profit, while companies all over the country posted red ink this past year. I was lucky to have made a few investments that have paid off very well. Both S&S' and Quality Wear's 401Ks benefited from the investments and you'll be able to see how much when you read the statements in your pay stub envelopes. I'm proud to work with companies like yours, and even happier to help you succeed."

Steve took the microphone back and said, "Now you know how great your company is. We continue to make ends meet and keep our people working, regardless of what the rest of the economy is doing."

Steve held his hands up for quiet, and in a normal tone of voice, said, "I want you to listen to Donny for a second. He has an announcement to make."

Huge Donny came up to Steve and took the microphone and looked around before speaking. "I think most of you have been out to the yard to see my huge toy, the steam engine that I had brought here. It would have been neat if she could have come under her own power, but for some reason there aren't any water and coal stops on railroads anymore. Now I need to recognize my Mom, Dad, and brother who did most of the actual work to bring my dream toy here and are still with us. You are missing something if you haven't met my family yet. Find them, talk to them, and enjoy knowing some real people. They have told me they are about to head home, so meet them while you can.

"I need to thank all of you for helping to refurbish the tender and caboose to its present beautiful condition. I need to thank Billy for making some replacement parts for the engine so I could finish it and ensure that it is as perfect as all S&S products. Now for my big deal. This next week, two 1940s Pullman cars will be delivered to us. They are in pretty good condition, but I'll need to take them apart and put them back together. When we get this train put together, I want to offer weekend round trip rides down to South Florida or up to Panama City but it will be near impossible to get water and coal for a trip like that. Instead, I'll try to make a deal with one of the parks across the state for a round trip that will include a night and day at the park. I think I'll try to get one of those luxury coaches along with an old fashioned dining car. What do you think? Who wants to ride on an antique train pulled by an authentic steam engine?"

There was almost a shiver of excitement rippling through the crowd as so many anticipated the thrill of riding on an antique train pulled by a real steam locomotive. I was thinking that my grandparents would go nuts to ride on the train. I would make sure that they had the opportunity.

The next few weeks after that Friday night were spent by tweaking the program and re-writing modules to work with turboprops and piston engine aircraft. I had begun shifting the new programmers to some programs that analyze various types of armament and their characteristics. If we had a working knowledge of each available piece of armament, Wes could build his aircraft around what would work best. It might take a year to compile a working library of current weapons, but it would be the most comprehensive weaponry knowledge database in the world.

It was about that time that Wes brought one of the chief researchers from Lockheed-Martin to see me. His interest was in our ability to configure a stealth capable drone. Wes told me that it wouldn't be a problem, but I hadn't worked on that aspect of Wes's aircraft yet.

The rep asked if we would be willing to build the software under an exclusive contract. It was Wes who immediately jumped the guy, advising him that anything we created was for us to decide what we wanted to do with it. We would be glad to enter into a joint venture, and we would jointly own the product, but neither exclusively.

The afternoon's meeting was cut short, as the rep didn't like the way that we were willing to work with them.

When the man left, Wes told me, "Boeing is sending an engineer to discuss something similar. I've already armed them with the knowledge we will not give our product development away, but would be willing to rent out available spare time on our equipment. Boeing wants a finished product, so this may be a place for us to really shine."

The Boeing engineer sat down with us the next day, and went over what they were looking for. We were told that four companies would be competing to come up with the best design, at the lowest cost, that could be tested on a real range. If we were interested, he would assign one of their engineers to work with us and observe our techniques.

Wes called legal to have one of the legal eagles come to draw up an agreement that would protect our product development with a covenant not to disclose each other's secrets. The document was taken back to Boeing headquarters for them to accept or reject. Our legal staff volunteered to meet with them in St. Louis or their headquarters in Chicago to work out any differences. That must have been the kicker, as they accepted our terms and advised that an engineering team would be assigned to us.

Dennis had decided that having Sandy and the extra programmers, plus an engineering team from Boeing, working with us was going to cramp my area too much, so construction was immediately underway to expand and double the software development area. I was afforded my large quarters, with a good view of the park once again, within a month, while the addition was built off another part of the front, with a common entrance in the reception area.

All of us involved with programming had begun developing code that would define radar absorbing and deflecting techniques and abilities. Instead of a skin coating, we discovered that some variables in the development of the skin itself could become invisible to radar in the same way that Wes's original designs using the special composite, seemed to disappear on radar, but were still physically visible. Our program development analyzed the content of the composite and isolated those components that reflected radar and those that either absorbed or deflected it. A rough surface that deflected radar often had a high heat signature from friction. There had to be an answer somewhere in between.

The staff was creating mountains of code that analyzed everything that came in contact with a drone, until we were flying a drone slowly back and forth across the helicopter practice field one day, when Wes began yelling. "You can't see it, you can't see it. That thing is invisible on radar."

The unique thing about today was the Boeing engineers had all gone back to St. Louis to report on their progress. They were not very appreciative of our closed attitude regarding our software. The engineers told us they were going to report our lack of cooperation of our software disclosure to headquarters in Chicago. That had been spelled out in our agreement, and they didn't want to help, only to copy what we had. It wasn't going to happen.

I called St. Louis right away to advise them we had made a significant breakthrough and that their engineers should hurry back. Instead, one of their senior engineers was handed the phone and told me, "I think we're wasting our time with S&S, and we will just forfeit our buyout now instead of at the end of our agreement."

I begged, "Please, send at least one of your men down here to witness what we've just been able to create. This is a major find and breakthrough. This is exactly what we have been trying to create."

All I heard was, "I'm sorry, the engineers have informed us that you are not cooperative and will not share your software development with them."

I sat back stunned at what I had just heard. Wes was sitting across from me and had heard both sides of the conversation. He said, "You gotta call Steve. This is a big deal and Boeing will think we're holding back on them. We haven't been all that restrictive, but I know you aren't ready to give all of your code to date away."

I called Steve, "Hey, Steve; we have a little problem that you need to hear from the beginning. Can you come by?"

Steve said, "I could, but I'm in Canada checking out our factory up here. Tell me the story and I'll see what I can do."

I told Steve the entire story, and then Wes described the perfect test. The line was quiet for a few seconds before Steve asked, "Can you put a camera in the test drone?"

Wes quickly responded, "No sweat, it already has a video camera mounted and working, so we could make sure the video equipment didn't leave a signature."

Steve said, "Send the drone over MacDill and make sure that you video record the flight. I want you to highlight CENTCOM and SOUTHCOM by making multiple passes over them so that they know our drone has a negative signature. Give me a call when you have that, and I'll tell you where to send the video.

As soon as the call was completed, Wes said, "Come on, let's launch this puppy and let it impress the brass. I'll bet more people see it with the naked eye than who see it on their radar scopes."

I watched as Wes launched the drone and sent it straight to the restricted area. It was while Wes was watching the tech manipulate the drone that Steve called back. "Can you get a drone up to St. Louis and buzz the Boeing engineering complex? They are supposed to have some very sophisticated radar to protect them up there. Be obvious, go slow, and make sure you buzz all of their key buildings. See if you can get the building numbers."

When the tech finished with the MacDill pass, Wes asked him about fuel. The man said, "No sweat, Wes. We can do a pass there, the White House, and back home with what we have. How much to do you want?"

Wes looked at me and I instructed the tech, "Do the passes over Boeing, then do a pass over White House, but make sure we aren't spotted there. I want that to be a surprise."

The young man smiled and said, "I'll do my best, Doc. You guys have made my life very easy."

We watched as the drone streaked to St. Louis and meandered around the Boeing complex, and even slowly flew over the radar sensors. After picking up multiple building numbers, the drone flew rapidly to DC, circled the White House, and continued circling it as the sensors narrowed down to the front doors and the windows on the second floor. We actually saw one of the president's kids in her room. Nothing revealing, but that should be very convincing. Our drone was leaving the White House area when a surface to air missile launched at it. The drone acted instinctively with its software and attempted to launch a return missile at the launch site. The drone wasn't equipped with a defensive missile, but had attempted to launch what it was programmed to have. No more missiles were launched at the drone while it made its way back to our airpark.

The tech brought the drone back to the airpark and taxied it into the hangar Wes had designated for drones. Wes turned to me and said, "I hope Boeing comes back to the table, because I like those guys and know that we have what they want."

Steve called and told Wes and me, "Send the videos directly to the General. I've just hung up from him and he knows where you've just sent your test drone. He knows the White House was compromised, but wasn't able to appropriately strike back. Send it to the Boeing CEO in Chicago at the same time so that he knows that we have perfected what we said we would. Tell them to go away if they call, and that our legal team will talk to them, and you'll be able to talk to them after they pay a fee large enough to choke Donny's steam engine."

I felt bad, as the engineers who had been with us were good, but extremely prying and constantly wanting our proprietary code. We would have shared it with them, but they wouldn't sign a non-disclosure agreement.

It was all complete and put to bed at the airpark shortly after 9 PM, and I know that I was hungry, so most of the others had to be equally hungry. When Wes came back into the operations office, I offered, "How about some steak out at Park Place?"

One of the tech crew who had just put the drone to bed asked, "All of us?"

I told them, "You betcha, everyone on this gig gets a steak tonight. What you have just accomplished should make some big ripples at the Defense Department. As I speak, a couple of very high ranking people are going to be trying to explain how the videos we just sent them could have been taken, and how their missile defense could have missed the drone. We know how, but they don't. Let's go get some steak."

We were stuffing our faces with some great steak when Tiny and Henry showed up at the diner. Tiny said, "You boys haven't been disclosing what you've been up to, have you?"

All of the men, including Wes, looked at me to answer, and I asked, "What are you talking about, Tiny? We worked late on a project, and I decided to treat the men to a steak."

Henry was behind me and softly asked, "Your men won't disclose what they just did, will they?"

I turned to Henry and pulled him down to whisper in his ear, "Not a chance. These are our men."

Tiny used his cell phone to make a call. He handed it to me after speaking into it for a few seconds. It was Steve, saying, "You have, or should I say we have, really stirred up a hornet's nest. I think you've done a great job, but there will be some FBI and Secret Service folks coming by tomorrow. The surprising part is that Boeing is trying to distance themselves from us. If you haven't trashed the videos of your experiment yet, don't, but put them into a safe after you make some copies, as the agencies will want to see the originals. Good job, Sal, I can't wait to see the fallout from this one."