pilot?"
"She's an astronaut, Craig. That's the pin on her lapel," Jose supplied.
"Only a buck astronaut, Major," Rae said as she put her hand on the pin. This one is silver. I've been through the school. You only get the gold one when you've been past two hundred and sixty four thousand feet." She turned toward the doorway, "I graduated from Air Force flight school, Mr. Pulliam, and I've got a current medical for my commercial license. So, yes, I'm a pilot."
"We'll try not to hold that zoomie training against you, Ma'am. Would you like to go put-put around for a couple of hours in a fairly new Skylane one eighty two? I'll show you the town and the airspace. It's not as exciting as the major's white jet, but mountain flying is always fun."
"The major has a white jet?" Rae asked. She raised her eyebrows and looked appraisingly at Jose.
"Oh, he hasn't told you yet?" Pulliam replied with a grin. "Maybe we'll go re-fuel at Nellis and I'll show you."
Rae looked at Jose. "If you'll excuse me, Major, I think I'll go flying."
"Uh, Doctor Dunnan, you remember those Realtor wives I told you about? Well, Mr. Pulliam's wife is one of them. So beware warrant officers bearing gifts. Otherwise, let me know if you need anything," Jose said.
"Oh, I will!" Rae replied with a smile. “ Count on it!” she thought. Craig Pulliam looked at her like he had read her mind. Jose never noticed.
After she cleared the door, Jose turned to his computer and started an email to General Arthurs and Sally. He outlined the initial positive meeting with Dr. Rae Dunnan including her ideas about using new sensor data.
After a moment of thought he added General Landry and Bill Wirtz in the cc: line. Then, in the main body of the email he wrote, "Dr. Dunnan has the credentials and personality to be useful in other liaison roles."
He knew that vague reference would key the others to think about the discussions with the Japanese. Landry and Wirtz were still on the Japanese northern island of Hokkaido where they had approached a small team of Japanese university professors about the work going on in a rural town named Tobetsu. The two Americans were acting curious, naive, and open while drinking a lot of fine Sapporo beer. They had no official status with the US State Department and wanted to keep things on a professor-to-professor level.
Everyone in the Project hoped that the branch of the Japanese government involved in developing a time displacement operation on Hokkaido would respond to this low level-opening with some cooperation. But while Landry and Wirtz had clear associations with the US Department of Defense, Rae Dunnan was a fresh face with no association or knowledge of any of the past operations of the Project. The Japanese might be less threatened and more accommodating to NASA than to the DoD.
Jose sighed, nodded to himself, and sent off his email.
Chapter 3: "Keep It Inside"
Tuesday September 1, 2009 1400 Eastern
Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
E-Ring, The Pentagon
Washington, DC
Excerpt from the Personal Narrative of Mr. Ted Arthurs
Recorded May 2014
CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET/TA
"The 2008 election really changed our direction. Plainly stated, we didn’t trust anyone who came in with that administration and worried over how they might abuse the power contained in The Project. Even as a professional member of the military, I had never before thought much about how politicians use the military. That was very naïve.”
Jose would have sighed even more deeply if he could have seen Major General Ted Arthurs at that moment. Ted had just marched across the carpet in front of the desk of the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff and snapped a salute that would have looked good on the parade ground at Colorado Springs.
"We should make you a