Free Wraith by James R. Hannibal Page B

housing,” she continued, pointing to a blueprint projected on the far wall. “The heat and vibration will interfere with the signals. Have you allotted time to test for that?” Danny noted that Amanda was attractive in her own right and might even be striking if she made an attempt to fix her hair and put on some makeup, but such things apparently did not concern her.
    â€œLook, Amanda, your concerns are noted,” said Scott testily. “But all of you are going to have to stretch your limits on this one. The president wants it done yesterday, not in five years.”
    Two light-haired men occupied the seats to Amanda’s left, both dressed in khakis and short-sleeved plaid shirts. Their names were Jeremy and Ethan and they were known in Specter Blue as the Comm Twins. When he first pointed them out to Danny, Scott had confided that he could never remember which of them was which. He didn’t really care; they never spoke anyway. The Comm Twins always submitted their work on paper.
    Suddenly one of them broke the mold. “What if we scrapped the long-range transmitters altogether?” he asked, looking up from his notes.
    The unexpected outburst from the normally mute Comm Twin caught Scott off guard. “I’m sorry, Jeremy, what was that?” he asked.
    â€œI’m Ethan. We’ve been working together for more than a year now.”
    Scott waved his hand dismissively. “Whichever. Please repeat what you just said.”
    Ethan glared at Scott for a moment and then turned to address the group. “We could control Dream Catcher from the host bird,” he said, rephrasing his idea. “As long as we’re suddenly getting serious about building this thing, we might as well explore some shortcuts. If we flew it from a localized, airborne station we could get rid of a lot of the bulky long-range gear. We could also drop most of the satellite network plan and save a boatload of paperwork and coordination time.”
    Danny leaned forward, intrigued. “What about the time and cost of putting a station in the B-2?”
    â€œThe B-2 was originally designed for three stations anyway; it was supposed to have a navigator behind the two pilots. All of the wiring is still there; it’s just covered by panels. Terry worked for Northrup Grumman in those days. It could be done, right, Terry?”
    The man to Danny’s left slowly nodded his head. “Yeah, it could be done. The foundation is already there, and Ethan is right, a localized control station would save us time and cash.”
    Danny scanned the faces around the table. There seemed to be no disagreement. “All right, everybody, I want your preliminary redesigns turned in to Scott by tomorrow afternoon.”

Chapter 15
    Southwestern Germany
    21 January 2002
    â€œDevil Zero One, your next target is one and a half units north of the long rectangular orchard. It’s a pair of tanks.”
    â€œCopy, Grunge, Devil One is tally,” said Nick, responding to the ground-based forward air controller. He kept his Hog just high enough to see over a short rise with his binoculars. He picked up the tanks easily enough. They left a long brown trail as they motored across a snowy field. “I have them, Grunge, twenty meters apart, moving north.”
    â€œCorrect, Devil, that is your target.”
    â€œDevil Two, how’re we doing?” asked Nick on his other radio.
    â€œTwo’s tally,” replied Bug. “They’re easy pickin’s for some Mavericks.”
    After a quick strike brief, Nick pointed his A-10 in the direction of the tanks. It took no time at all for him to close the distance to a half mile. Then he pulled the nose of the aircraft up, looked left to find his target, and rolled in. “Devil Zero One, final, hot,” he called over the radio.
    â€œGrunge has you visual. Cleared hot.”
    â€œDevil Zero One, solid lock. Rifle.” Nick fired off his missile