Conquerors of the Sky by Thomas Fleming

Author:Thomas Fleming
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2012-05-29T16:00:00+00:00

VORTEX

High above the Mojave Desert, a new version of the Talus roared through its latest tests, looking more than ever like an illustration from a science fiction novel. The entire plane was now a wing. Not a trace of a fuselage remained. Around Cliff four Air Force generals shook their heads in disbelief. “Give me three hundred copies and the Russkies won’t say boo for twenty years,” one said.

Three hundred copies at a million a plane was three hundred million dollars. With spare parts and the usual overrides in a cost-plus contract, they were talking about a half billion dollars. Cliff Morris, project manager of the Talus, could claim a lot of the credit for pumping that much money into Buchanan Aircraft. It was incredible the way his life had turned around in the last three months.

In Cliff’s mind it was all connected to an amazing event. He had fallen in love with his wife again. The feeling seemed part of a current suddenly swirling through him and around him since their night of rage and reconciliation. Everything had been clicking, flowing, flying.

Frank Buchanan had switched to jet engines and solved most of the Talus’s stability problems. The plane zoomed through one checkout after another, demonstrating speed, maneuverability, endurance—and its greatest asset, its phenomenally low drag-to-weight ratio. No other plane in existence could match it as a weight lifter.

The rest of Cliff’s life seemed to reshape itself in the same magical way. A nervous Cassie Trainor told him she did not want to see him anymore. She was going to move in with Dick Stone. Two months ago he would have been furious. Now he just patted her on the behind and wished her well.

Sarah had shut off that stupid phonograph. She said she wanted to make her own music. She greeted him every night with ravenous eyes. After they made love they lay in bed, talking about the company, his ambitions, the Talus, Frank, Buzz, Adrian. He told her everything.

Sometimes she helped him see things he had missed. Mostly she told him how good he was at this project manager’s job. He was good at bridging gaps between people. Maybe it was because he was big and looked like he had the answers. People trusted him. He was a war hero.

Each day he went to work without the old crawling anxiety in his belly. It was amazing. Was Sarah some sort of sorceress? At times the wartime hunch that she was his luck swelled to cosmic proportions. She was his guide, his priestess, his goddess. The boyish devotion he had once felt for his mother was transformed into something close to adoration of his wife.

There was only one thing wrong. Up there at the controls of the Talus was Billy McCall. Every time Cliff saw him, a flicker of his old fear revived. Beneath the fear was a cold unforgiving rage. It was one thing to play sex games with chippies like Cassie Trainor. Billy had seduced his wife.

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