Tin Man

by Dale Brown

"I have a feeling Jon will get whatever he wants,"

  Paul said with a grin. Then he asked, "And you?

  Anything different from what you've been telling

  me, Patrick? "

  "No. Go home, help raise my son, and think

  about the future," Patrick replied. "General Samson

  at Dreamland still wants me as his vice commander

  at the High Technology Aerospace Weapons Center,

  but he's given me until October to decide whether

  or not to take the assignment. Jon and Helen'll need

  a lot of help trying to rebuild the company."

  The thought of them made Wendy smile. "It's so

  great that they're a team now," she said. "I love

  seeing them so happy together."

  Patrick nodded, but he had something else on his

  mind. "Bro, there's something I've been meaning to

  tell you for along time . . . "

  "You don't have to tell me, Patrick," Paul said. "I

  think I know what kind of things you've been doing

  the past several years-though I've got a feeling I've

  only sensed the very tip of the iceberg. But there's

  something I want to tell you too. I know how much

  you like Jon and the company and all, but I think

  you're much happier in the Air Force, doing all the

  cosmic stuff you were doing. You're a general. Go be

  a general again. Get out there to your base, wherever

  the hell it is; march in front of your troops, call

  them to attention, and lead them. You're certainly

  not too old to strap on a jet once in a while and fly a

  few more bomb runs, but I'll bet there are some

  pretty shit-hot kids out there ready to do their part.

  You've just got to teach 'em how it's done."

  Patrick looked at his brother quizzically. "And

  how the hell did you get to be so smart, kid?"

  "Just trying to be like you, bro," Paul said. "Just

  trying to be like you."

  The Sky Masters, Inc. Gulfstream had departed

  from Mather Jetport several minutes earlier,

  bound for San Diego. Paul McLanahan was back on

  Highway 50, heading to his first afternoon on the

  job, when his cellular phone rang. When he picked

  it up, he heard a warbling sound, so he pushed

  the function and 1 keys to engage the autodescrambling

  function on the special Sky Masters

  cellphone and waited for the warbling to go away.

  Then he said, "Hi, Jon."

  "Hi, Paul," Jon Masters responded. "They're on

  their way?"

  'Yes.

  "What did Patrick say?"

  "Nothing definite," Paul replied. "I think he

  wants to take the Air Force job, but he also wants to

  give being a dad a try. My feeling is he'll come back

  to work for you for a few months, but he's not going

  to let October come and go without some hard soulsearching."

  "I thought so," Jon said. "Listen, I have some

  mods I want to try on your arm-and-shoulder prosthesis

  . I'll be back out your way next week. Should

  only take a couple of hours over two or three nights.

  You won't miss any work."

  "What kind of mods?"

  "Oh, I think you'll like them," Jon replied. "A bit

  better interface with the suit, some weapon-control

  functions I want to try."

  "What about the suit itself?" Paul asked.

  "I'll bring the latest version along with me," Jon

  said. "A bit better slow-penetration protection, better

  power-management functions and readouts,

  some different features to try to bring the weapon

  systems on board."

  "Good," Paul said. "My office has been receiving

  a lot of new information on a resurgence of meth

  producers moving into the state, and especially in

  the north. I have a feeling the Tin Man needs to get

  out on the street and countryside a bit more."

  "The National Interagency Counterdrug Strike

  Force out of San Luis Obispo has an operation that I

  think might be perfect for you," Jon said. "Are you

  familiar with NICI?"

  "Of course," Paul said. NICI, located on the central

  coast of California, was a combined federal,

  state, and local law-enforcement training-andeducation

  center where members of the military,

  federal agencies, police units, and district attorneys

  came together to learn the latest about the illegal

  drug trade and how all the different antinarcotics

  agencies could work together more effectively.

  What was not widely known was that every year

  NICI took the best and the brightest one percent of

  its thousands of graduates and formed a strike team

  that ran actual counterdrug operations throughout

  the United States. "I can't wait to get started."

  "You give the word and your support team will

  be rolling and ready to go," Jon Masters said.

  "You've got the word, Jon," said the new Tin

  Man. "You've got the word."