by Dale Brown
Next order of business — purchasing twelve F-15s from America, along with six Megafortresses.
Mack didn’t particularly want the Megafortresses himself, but the sultan insisted. And hey, it was his dough.
Getting the aircraft from America was probably going to take some heavy-duty diplomacy. Megafortresses had never been sold overseas. Even F-15s weren’t sold to just anyone. In fact, only Japan, Israel, and Saudi Arabia currently had them.
Mack could fix that with a little charm in the right places. He was a born diplomat.
Secretary of state someday. Though personally he’d prefer defense.
Once they got the planes, they’d pull a few mods from the Dreamland playbook. Which meant he needed some brainpower as well.
And some mechanical monkeys. Not that he’d call them monkeys to their faces.
Chief of the Brunei Air Force Command Mack Smith. A boss in paradise — what more could he ask for?
Beijing
1240
The hotel where the Chinese had put up the Dreamland crew was not exactly handicapped-friendly, and Zen found himself having to ask two of the staff to help him down the two steps from the hallway to the lobby. As indignities went, it was hardly the worst he’d ever suffered, but after struggling with the sink upstairs in his room and pushing his way through the narrow maze they called a hallway, he was hardly in the best of all moods. And the fact that he couldn’t call the States from his room didn’t exactly calm his mood.
Nonetheless, he managed to ask for a phone politely, explaining that he wanted to call home. It took three tries — the hotel personnel all spoke English, but his accent apparently was difficult for them to decipher. Finally he managed to mime what he wanted, and was led behind the desk to the manager’s own office. The door was just wide enough — just — but Zen was used to that, and the man seemed genuinely hospitable, anxious to do right by his American visitor. He punched the buttons on the phone to allow the international call, then waited to make sure Zen had no problem connecting.
Zen used the “open” number for Dreamland, which actually connected through Nellis Air Force Base. It was highly likely, of course, that the conversation was being recorded, and so he had to be careful exactly what he said. Still, he wanted to talk to Bree.
“This is Major Stockard,” he told the operator on duty who answered. “I’m looking for Captain Stockard.”
“Yes, sir!” snapped the operator.
The line clicked, and a few seconds later, a male voice answered.
“Yeah?”
“Who’s this?” asked Zen.
“Deke James. Who’s this?”
“Zen Stockard.”
“Why’d you wake me up for?” said James.
“I’m looking for my wife,” said Zen.
“She ain’t here.”
Zen felt his jealousy spiking up — what the hell was James doing in their apartment?
“I want to talk to Bree,” he said.
“Yeah?”
The line went dead. Zen held the phone out, confused and angry. Deke was one of the engineer dweebs on the Unmanned Bomber Project.
What the hell was he doing in their apartment?
He was just about to put the phone down and try again when someone suddenly picked up on the other end of the line.
“Major!”
“Ax?”
“What, you’re away a few days and you forget who runs this place?” said Chief Master Sergeant Gibbs.
“How’d I get you?”
“Just lucky I guess. Deke James transferred you. Why’d you call him? What’d you do, wake him up?”
“I got the wrong number. What time is it there?”
“About 2100. He goes to bed early. Want to talk to your wife?”
“It’d be nice,” said Zen.
“Hold the phone. And listen, Zen — you kicked butt big time. We’re prouder than hell of you.”
“Thanks, Chief.”
Zen waited while the line once more went cold. Another voice picked up — male.
“Hey hero,” said Greasy Hands Parsons.
“Grease — what the hell are you doing?”
“Partying with your wife,” said Parsons. If Ax ran the administrative side of Dreamland — and he did — Greasy Hands essentially owned the planes. The chief master sergeant and Zen had known each other pretty much forever.
“She’s okay to party?” said Zen.
“Better than ever,” said the chief.
“Give me that phone,” said Breanna in the background.
“Bree—”
“Jeff—”
Her voice was like a spell. He felt his body suddenly relax.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Am I okay?” she said. “I’m fine. How the hell are you?”
“Just tired. I want to see you.”
She laughed. He could hear her talk to the room. “Hey, I got Zen on the phone—”
There was a general shout. Zen made out some congratulations from the assorted tumult.
“Where are you?” he asked, but Bree didn’t hear. Someone took the phone from her.
“Zen?”
“Hey, Jennifer. How are you?”
“I’m okay,” she said, with a tone that seemed to be meant to reassure herself as well as him. “Is Colonel Bastian there?”
“No, he’s hooked up with some ceremonies and crap,” said Zen.
“Tell him I said hello, okay?”
“I will. I think your program helped us nail the clone.”
She didn’t answer. Zen imagined seeing her turn red and push back her long, strawberry blond hair.
Breanna took the phone back. “So?” she asked.
“So what?”
“When you coming home?” Bree asked.
“Haven’t figured that out yet.”
“Well, get moving, Major. Get the lead out. Here, listen, everybody wants to say hello.”
Zen didn’t particularly want to talk to them, but somehow it felt as if it was his duty to. He leaned back in his wheelchair and listened as Breanna reminded them it was an open line.
“DEATH OF THE DOGFIGHT”:
AN INTERVIEW WITH DALE BROWN
Interviewer: You began your first novel, Flight of the Old Dog, while you were still serving in the U.S. Air Force. What did your colleagues think of this?
Dale Brown: I never really told anybody what I was doing. Most of them thought I was just playing computer games. The others thought I was wasting my time. I enjoyed proving them wrong!
Interviewer: To what degree do you plan your novels before starting to write?
Dale Brown: Probably not as much as I should. When I get an idea, I research it, and if I get some exciting info or background, I’ll write a short outline for my editor, tweak it a little, then get busy.
Interviewer: Is there such a thing as a typical writing day for you? If so, what form does it take?
Dale Brown: Most days start at nine a.m. and go to four p.m., then restart at nine p.m. and go to eleven p.m. I usually rewrite in the morning and write new scenes in the afternoon and evenings. But every day is different. Some days the scenes flow like water — the next day it’s as dry as a desert. But the important thing is to be in the seat with the computer on, ready to go.
Interviewer: Dreamland is the first novel in a new series you’re co-writing with Jim DeFelice. Can you give us an idea of how the writing process works?
Dale Brown: It should be bylined “Jim DeFelice with Dale Brown,” by the way. I invented the basic backdrop of the “Dreamland” series — the time, place, circumstances. I help develop the plot and the characters, and I review the manuscript. Jim does everything else. He’s an incredibly talented writer and we work well together.
Interviewer: As well as describing the development of the weapons and their use in combat,Dreamland also details the crucial political background to the military action. Which part do you prefer writing?
Dale Brown: I pr
efer describing weapons and technology by far. But the fighting is actually just a tiny fraction of the conflict. The political/diplomatic stuff is not as exciting sometimes, but it’s every bit as important to the story.
Interviewer: Dreamland’s characters — “Dog” Bastian; his daughter, Bree Stockard; her husband, “Zen”; Mack “Knife” Smith — all face different challenges and all have different goals in mind at the beginning of the novel. To what extent are they based on real people?
Dale Brown: We all know characters like these — the hot dogs, the dedicated ones, the smart ones, the obsessed ones. So all of my characters are based on folks I know. But it’s also true that the characters take on a life of their own. Jim DeFelice and I talk about the characters as if they’re real persons: “Bree wouldn’t do that”; “Mack would say this.”
Interviewer: The novel depicts certain rivalries among those on the ground and those who take to the air. It’s the latter group who get the glory, yes?
Dale Brown: No one likes to admit it, because it doesn’t fit in with the “whole force” politically-correct concept, but the pilot is and will always be king of the U.S. Air Force. Only seventeen percent of USAF personnel are pilots, but they make up most of the unit commanders. Even if in ten to fifteen years most USAF combat aircraft will be unmanned, the pilot will still be king.
Interviewer: Life in a secret establishment such as Dreamland — or even on a “normal” military base — must be hard enough without the staff having relationships. In your experience, do these relationships lead to difficult situations?
Dale Brown: All the time — that’s why we authors put them in our stories! We are always looking for conflict. It’s another complication in wartime.
Interviewer: Since the end of the Cold War, threats to “our way of life” are not so neatly geographically placed. Nor, aside from Saddam Hussein and various terrorist groups, is it clear where we should place our military priorities.
Dale Brown: There are plenty of bad guys out there — but it sometimes takes more background to explain why they are the bad guys. Fifteen years ago, everyone understood why we were fighting the Soviets. But if you set a war story in Ukraine or Lithuania or the Philippines, you need to take some time and explain why we’re fighting there.
Interviewer: What effect has the advent of improved technology had on the art of being a fighter pilot?
Dale Brown: It has changed it completely. The “dogfight” — two pilots, two planes — is all but dead. Life and death takes place in split-second battles that happen across dozens of miles, usually without either adversary ever seeing the other. Pilots are more systems operators than fliers nowadays. Sooner than most folks think, our fighters won’t even have pilots in them!
This interview was first published, in a slightly different form, at www.fireandwater.com, the website of HarperCollins UK.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
DALE BROWN is the author of multiple New York Times bestsellers including Flight of the Old Dog and Wings of Fire. He also created the Dreamland series, co-authored by Jim DeFelice. A former U.S. Air Force bombardier, Dale Brown is an instrument-rated private pilot and can often be found flying his own plane across the United States. He lives near Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
JIM DEFELICE’s technothrillers include Brother’s Keeper (2000) and Havana Strike (1997). Jim has also written more than a dozen works of fiction and nonfiction for young people. He lives with his wife and son in upstate New York.
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