Minus Epsilon by Donald B. McFarlane

Author:Donald B. McFarlane [McFarlane, Donald B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-12-21T22:00:00+00:00

23

When Joe blinked himself awake, he found himself lying in bed, wearing only his boxers, next to Lisa’s naked body. Her warm body was cuddled up behind him, with her left arm draped over his torso. Joe closed his eyes and let his senses take over and enjoy the warm, silky smooth skin that was touching his. The night had been a long one, and Joe had a heavy hangover. They had drunk more than half the mini bar in between several passion filled sessions that had soaked the sheets, and left the bedroom in tatters.

Slowly sliding out from under Lisa’s arm, Joe swung his legs off the bed and stood up. Looking back at the vivacious woman in the bed, Joe put his watch on before pulling the sheets up to her neck. It was six in the morning on Tuesday, and the team was supposed to assemble in the lobby at eight for the drive to the airport, giving Joe just enough time to get in an early morning swim to charge his batteries.

Quickly dressing, Joe made his way back to his room to change into his swim trucks and bathrobe before slowly trudging his way to the rooftop swimming pool. The deck was empty at this early hour, with the rays of the rising sun slowly becoming visible on the horizon to the east for the scheduled 6:26 sunrise. As Joe lowered himself into the pool, the cool water chilled his body and numbed his sore head. Pushing himself off the side of the pool, Joe started swimming the front crawl, turning his mind off, he just swam.

Joe checked his watch and noticed that the transport to the airport had arrived on time. The SETI team’s baggage was quickly loaded into the hodgepodge of vehicles that were being used to drive the team the short distance to the awaiting US Air Force transport that would fly them south to Paraguay.

Joe rode with Doctors Temple and Beck in the same Range Rover that he’d ridden in the previous morning. With Keegan Beck sitting in the front next to the driver, Bobby used the opportunity to share some witty banter with Joe, but Joe did his best to ignore the husky American scientist as his hangover was still killing him.

As the convoy of vehicles snaked its way the short distance to the airport, Joe was considering the next phase of the operation, and how, since meeting the SETI team, his confidence had slowly been rising. It wasn’t often that Joe put faith in people that he hadn’t trained with or that were outside of the Special Forces community, but it was obvious to Joe that the individuals that comprised the team were the elites in their respective fields. If anyone was going to be able to pull off this operation with some level of success, it was going to be Doctor Stephenson and his group.

As the convoy reached the airfield, they drove straight through a set of open gates and onto a guarded section of the runway away from the main passenger terminal.

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