The Ties That Bind (15 page)

She was quiet for a little while before continuing, "I feel foolish for it all, now, and I am just glad you were able to pull me out ... both from the situation with Steven, and from the weird mindset I was in."

"It might not have been all your fault."

"Huh?"

"We learned something new while you and I weren't talking. It turns out, along with all the other weird stuff about me, my saliva may have some kind of ... effect on people. We did a test on Rachel, who kissed me at Zoe's party and then started hitting on me pretty hard, and found she was under the effects of it. If you remember, you kissed me at the party, too."

She had a stunned look on her face as she said, "Ohh..."

She was quite for a few minutes, looking down at her hands before saying, "It's just that I..." and then stopping again.

Finally, she let out a breath and said, "Whatever, I am just really happy to have things back the way they were."

"Me, too," I said as I squeezed her hand.

We finished eating and watched a movie together, although she said hardly anything. I felt I had pushed enough and left it alone, figuring she would talk to me when she was ready. After the movie she said it was time to go, gave me a hug, and took off out the door.

Even though things had turned a little awkward between us after our conversation, I was really happy she'd stopped by. It was nice to have the company.

The next day was more the same, me just pacing around or reading. I did put in a call to Marcus to see how it was going, and got a clipped report from him. I could tell he was pretty busy and didn't have time to talk to me just because I was bored, so I let him go. I decided I wouldn't bug him again until Christmas Eve to see if we were set for the test the following week.

Finally, time crawled by, and it was time for my date with Emily. Weirdly I was a little nervous about it. I really liked her and could already feel whatever the thing was that bound me to the other girls, was growing between us. Since she was still really skittish about the idea of her father finding out about me, we agreed to meet at my house. A little past four there was a knock on the door. I opened it to find Emily in shorts and a t-shirt.

Before I said anything she started speaking, slowly at first and then gaining speed. Clearly she was still working on her confidence around me.

"Sorry. I am a mess. I didn't want to get dressed up at home. Do you mind if I take a few minutes and freshen up?"

I noticed the bag in her hand and stepped aside, ushering her in. She smiled and walked past me and up to the upstairs restroom. I guess the girls had given her a good lay of the land. After about ten minutes she came back out. She was wearing lightly applied makeup and different clothes.

I had to stop and stare for a moment. I knew that she was beautiful, despite the fact that she tried to hide it most the time, but I hadn't really been confronted with it yet. I realized I was staring too much, when she stopped looking back at me and looked down at her feet.

Pulling myself out of my own thoughts I said, "You look amazing! I am sorry you went to all the trouble to get dressed up, though. I figured you might not want to go out somewhere big and public so I thought we could cook dinner together and just hang out, here."

She shrugged and came the rest of the way down the steps, "That sounds perfect. And I would have still wanted to get dressed up, even if I knew we were staying here, since I don't get to do it often. So, you like?"

"Yes, you are stunning, Emily," I punctuated this remark by leaning forward and kissing her on the cheek.

I offered a crooked arm saying, "May I escort you to your table?"

She laughed at me but took my arm, and we walked into the kitchen.

"I was gonna make us some chicken fried steak and steamed vegetables."

"You know how to cook?"

I just laughed, "Not really. I have practiced a little bit, lately, and I had Mom and the girls show me how to make this before everyone went out of town. I promise I will do my best not to poison you."

She just laughed at me as I started pulling out ingredients. Together we managed to get the food made and on plates, in a reasonable amount of time. She did, however, have to stop me making several major mistakes. It turns out Emily does know how to cook, which was a good thing. So after about forty-five minutes, and a sink full of dishes, we sat down to eat.

I had hung out with Emily a few times, but we always kept the conversation light and didn't dig into her past. I figured this was a good opportunity to get to know her better.

"So, since this is our first date, we should probably do the 'getting to know you' thing."

"But, you already know me. We've been hanging out for a few weeks now."

"Yeah, but there is so much I don't know. Where did you grow up?"

"Here, or just outside of town, rather. The farm we live on was originally owned by my grandfather. When he retired and moved to Florida with my grandmother, Dad took over the farm."

"So you live on a farm with your mom and dad. What's that like?"

"It has its moments. I have to get up pretty early as I have a bunch of chores around the farm before I can go to school. But I get to spend a lot of time outside, which I like."

"So you're an outdoors girl, huh? I never would have guessed."

She just shrugged, "I guess I don't show it at school since I keep to myself so much, but yeah, I have always been kinda a tomboy. I don't get to do it often, but sometimes I get to take the four-wheel out to check on something, and that is always a blast. And we have a horse that I sometimes ride."

"What about your mom?"

"She's around. She helps Dad out on the farm, and stuff."

"Are you close with her?"

If my suspicions were true about her father, then I wanted to avoid talking about her relationship with him.

"I guess. She is kinda quiet actually, soo..." she just trailed off, making me think there was more there, too. The mystery that was Emily keeps building on itself.

We ate silently for a while longer, since she seemed a bit lost in her own head after I asked about her family.

"So, besides riding horses and doing farm stuff, what do you do for fun?"

"Similar stuff, I guess. Fishing, hunting, you know, country girl stuff."

"Huh."

"What?"

"Just never would have guessed any of that. I might live in Texas, but I don't even think I tried any of that."

"Really, you've never been fishing?"

"No, not really."

She got a lot more animated, sitting up in her seat, "I totally need to take you. It's so peaceful, out on the lake."

I couldn't imagine I would enjoy it, but seeing her so outwardly happy was rare, and I wanted to see more of it if I could.

"Yeah, that might be fun."

"Really? We can totally go this week. I have a spare pole and can show you how," she was actually bouncing in her seat.

"Sounds good. I have nothing going on 'till next week, so pick a day this week and we can go."

She jumped up and ran around the table to give me a hug. As little as I wanted to go fishing, that made it well worth it. We finished dinner and stacked the dishes in the sink. Coupled with what was there from cooking dinner, I knew how the rest of my evening was going to be spent, once Emily went home.

We moved into the living room and I let her pick out a movie. It was some comedy, and she seemed to really enjoy it. I decided it was ok to move things forward a little with her so I sat in the big chair and pulled her in with me, and we sat cuddled up together. I didn't let my hands wander or anything, but even after just a few days, I had found I missed cuddling with the girls. It seemed Emily was on her way to joining that group. I am sure the girls would be happy when they heard that news.

The movie ended, and it was getting close to six, meaning it was time for her to get heading home. After she quickly changed back into the clothes she arrived in, I walked her to the door and we stopped.

I put on my serious face, "Emily, I know we talked about it a little before, but you know you can tell me stuff."

She looked down at her feet again, "I know."

"I want you to know I know what is going on at your home. I will help you, if you'll let me."

"I know," she almost whispered.

"I won't push you, but I won't let this drop. I really like you, and I worry about you."

She just nodded. I put a finger under her chin and lifted her head up to look at me.

"Figure out when you want to go fishing, and let me know."

She smiled again, the cloud that had settled over her face lifting slightly. I leaned down and kissed her solidly. I knew that each time I did, it was drawing her in to me more and more; but the girls had already decided what they wanted, and this time I agreed with them. The glimpses of her, the real her that she kept hidden most the time, really surprised me. She was different than anyone else I had gotten close to, and yet she had a lot of similarities, too.

We kissed for a few minutes, then I hustled her out the door so she wouldn't be late. The rest of the week went more or less the same, with Tina visiting me in the evenings, when Margret was out at work. I would meet up with Emily during the day, so she could drag me to various places where she liked to fish.

As predicted, I found fishing a bit boring; but she was so happy, so content, that I knew I would keep going with her. Each time we went out she came a little more out of her shell, although she still kept silent about the problems at home. I was still set that before I moved our relationship to another level, that area had to get fixed. Every time I saw a fresh bruise on her, my anger would spike! I knew it was just a matter of time before I did something foolish.

On Saturday, Christmas arrived. Margret had the day off, so Tina couldn't visit. Emily had family obligations. I started to turn mopey, but stopped myself. Looking back I realized how whiny and sullen I had been getting, ever since learning about what was going on with me, and with the benefit of hindsight I was determined to turn that around.

Sure, I was alone on Christmas; but things were better this year, than last. Last year I had no friends, Margret and Tina didn't talk to me, and I was directionless with my life. I had been just plodding through, with my head down.

Now I had a family that loved me, the girls (and I noticed in my head, that was including Emily), Tina, friends, money, and a purpose. I needed to take things as they came. Sure there were challenges, like the effect I was having on the girls, but we didn't know if it was bad or good. Generally, it seemed for the better. I could either whine about it, or face up to it and make the best of the situation.

The last little bit of this year was looking up. The drone test was next week, and the girls were coming back. I had lot to look forward to!

The weekend dutifully rolled by.  The beginning of the week following Christmas was the same as it had been, the previous week.  Our test of the drone wasn’t until Tuesday, and I didn’t want to get in Marcus’s way as he worked on the final touches for the demonstration.

I did talk to Ted, briefly.  He had been out to the range just before they shut down on Friday, and had watched some of the action.  He said everything was looking right on track.  Marcus had made a few more modifications, but they were mostly just fine-tuning some of the control systems, to ensure the drone did what it was supposed to do.

He had rolled out the best radar and detection equipment he could get his hands on (some of it, courtesy of Ron), and so far the drone was performing beautifully.  We knew that the Air Force would try and put it through its paces, once they got hold of it. It was best to try and match what they would do, beforehand, to ensure there were no surprises.

I was also briefly consulted on the name, since we couldn’t just keep calling it “the drone.”  With Ron’s input we decided on “SWEEP Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Mark III.”  “Mark III” because the first version never really made it off the drawing board, and the second was essentially scrapped and majorly overhauled during the practical design phase.  Apparently the arrangement of plating on the Mk. II was not ideal, as it let some signal leakage through.  Because the military does love their acronyms, we gave them one.  SWEEP stood for “Stealth Warfare Electronic Espionage Platform;” because, even though it was capable of carrying an internal munitions payload, the amount of armament it could carry was a lot smaller than other drones currently in service.

Marcus’s original idea had always focused on something geared for intelligence gathering, more than for direct interdiction.  We didn’t come up with the surveillance and interception hardware ourselves, but we did make modular connections that would allow the Air Force, with the assistance of our engineers, able to attach some of the latest in hardware available to the military.  Our goal was to build a truly silent, stealth platform for these devices to be installed on. The weapons connections found on most drones were missing on the SWEEP, due to the fact that attaching external weapons systems caused the stealth features of the drone to become moot. Instead we had installed extremely sophisticated cameras and detection equipment that allowed the drone to collect a wide range of intelligence data.

I took the opportunity to get together with Emily once more, before work took over all my free time.  We managed to change it up.  Her mother and father had to go to some auction for the day, and Emily managed to get me a ride to her family farm.  She terrified me with the wild way she rode her four wheeler, with me clinging to the back! The horseback riding was fun, though.  I wasn’t particularly good at it, since this was the first time I had ever been up close to a horse, but I soon got the hang of it and it was pretty pleasant.

Unfortunately the day ended all too soon, since she hustled me out of there well before it was time for her parents to come home, just in case.  Still, it was a great way to spend the day. I was really relaxed when I got home, even if I did smell like a horse!

The next morning I was up bright and early, pacing waiting for Mary Ann to pick me up.  To say I was anxious would be a huge understatement.  If this didn’t go well, we basically had an extremely expensive paperweight, and most of the money I got from the settlement would be down the tubes.  I had a lot of plans for the future, but they all required money.  Not that I thought we were going to fall flat on our faces, but the possibility was there, and it had me nervous.

I got to Ellington field several hours before the test, and people were bustling everywhere.  There were grandstands being set up, along with a lot of machinery on the ground in front of them.  Some of it I recognized as ours, including the control desk  the pilot we hired would use to fly the drone.  The rest, I guessed, belonged to the Air Force … or, at least, the Texas Air National Guard.

We met up with Ron and he got me through security. He walked me over to a hanger where Marcus and Ted were huddled with the engineers.

“How we looking, guys?” I said as I strolled up.

Marcus turned, smiled at me and said, “We are all set, Cas.  The trials yesterday went beautifully.  Totally fooled Ron and his test monkeys.”

Ron just shook his head, “I told you not to call them that.”

Marcus just gave him a dismissive wave, “I think we are truly ready.  We did a once-over again this morning, and everything looks perfect.”

“Great, so what should we be doing while we wait?”

Ron looked a bit sheepish, “Well, Ted needs to go and start schmoozing.  I know there are a few Generals he is acquainted with, and it would be good for him to 'press some flesh,' before everything kicked off.  I hate to say it, Cas, but I think it’s best if you stayed out of the limelight.  It's very hard getting over your age, and these guys don’t bend to the unusual well.  I would say stick with the other engineers, and join them on the side benches.  I know this is partly your baby, too, and I hate to cut you out of the festivities; but …”

He let that last part go with a shrug.

“No, I get it, and it makes total sense.  If everything is looking good here, then maybe Marcus should go with Ted and talk up the project.”

“Good thinking,” Marcus said, scooping up some stuff he had been working on and handing it over to one of the guys.

We three headed out. They went to go talk up the project, while I did my best to stay out of the way of the guys doing the final check.  They hadn’t spent a lot of time around me.  I knew they were still uncertain about me, and for the same reasons that Ron didn’t want me to go with Ted and Marcus.  Eventually I would be old enough to move my own plans forward, but while I had the limitations I was currently under, it was still a giant pain in the ass to have to sit on the sidelines.  Not that I thought I could do a better job negotiating than Ted could.  I might have some kind of genetically souped-up brain, but Ted had decades of business experience on his side, and that was worth its weight in gold.  I knew if everything worked out, Ted would get us as good of a deal as possible.

I hadn’t spent much time with Marcus’s band of Engineers.  While we chatted off and on; for the most part, they left me alone, even though I was mixed in with them off to one side of the viewing stand. After what seemed an eternity, the festivities got under way.

The tests weren’t spectacular from where I was sitting, but I knew it would be an eye opener for the group crowded around the radar control set up.  It was being manned by one of their people, and I knew they would have the best person they could get.  After a few minutes the drone came silently whisking overhead, and you could see a commotion among the group at the radar station.  From their excited body language, my guess was that no one knew the drone was there, 'till it got within visual range.

It was eerie how silent it was.  I hadn’t really considered it before, but with any machine flying through the sky, you just expected some kind of sound.  Yet, this thing was dead silent.  I am sure close up there were sounds, but at the distance it was from us, nothing at all was heard.

Next came a series of higher altitude passes, which was supposed to make it easier on the radar guys, followed by several more low altitude passes were made.  The low altitude passes would naturally be the hardest to detect, since the drone would be obscured by the natural signals given off by 'ground clutter,' but it also showed off one of the features we had touted: the lack of “buzz” commonly associated with the drones currently in service.

There were a few of the low passes where I thought maybe I could hear something, but I wasn’t sure.  Again, from my seat, it seemed like the audience was suitably impressed.  This whole time the drone had also been snapping pictures and running a video feed from the installed surveillance array. After one more low pass, there was a thirty minute wait as the drone was landed and the brass examined its take.  Their technicians had worked hard to hide pieces of intelligence in the testing area for the drone to find.  This may not have been as sexy as a test where stuff was blown up for the spectators, but the true professionals in attendance would know the value of an intelligence gathering tool such as this.

While we were waiting for the test to resume, that did get me to thinking.  There was a strange dichotomy between my stated goal of trying to make the world a better place, and building military ordnance.  On one hand, this seemed like one of those 'necessary evils.'  We needed money to do anything I really wanted to do, and this seemed like the best shot at getting the funding we needed to move forward. On the other hand, the US military didn’t always have the best track record on what they wanted to do with that ordnance. If I were being dishonest with myself, I could qualify our building a drone by saying that it had no offensive capabilities, but the realist in me understood that the military could use the intelligence our drone could gather to kill just as many people as if it had a missile attached. If it were up to me, I would find a way to offload the drone project in its entirety, and focus on things like the desalinization project.  But that was easier said than done.  It all came back to the need for funding.  This wasn’t something I was going to find a way out of, sitting here in these bleachers, but it would be something to ponder in the future.

Ted, Ron, Marcus and a bunch of guys in uniforms tromped off into a conference room set up especially for their meeting.  I went back to the hanger we had been assigned, and puttered around for what seemed like hours before Ted, Ron and Marcus entered the hanger.  I took it as a very good sign that the three of them seemed to be in an extremely good mood.

Ted walked up and exuberantly said, “We did it!”

“You’re going to have to elaborate on that,” I said, smiling back at him.

Marcus couldn’t hold it in anymore, and jumped in saying, “They were blown away by the test.  They had both the test installation, and the Ellington control tower looking for SWEEP-1, and they never picked it up.”

SWEEP-1 was the ID of the test drone that flew today.  I was happy to hear the stealth features worked as well as Marcus had hoped they would.

“They were also impressed by how silently it ran,” Marcus continued.  “Their only real concern was the lack of offensive capacity, but I reiterated that this was one of those situations where you had to decide which was more important, stealth or payload.  I told them they already had platforms capable of carrying out direct interdiction.  What they didn’t have, was a solid stealth platform.”

Ron’s head was bobbing in agreement, “They want to investigate further.  They ordered five for testing purposes, and authorized an 'intent to order' for twenty more, if the testing proves out. A representative of the DIA also expressed an interest.”  That was good news, the DIA, which stands for the Defence Intelligence Agency, is the intelligence gathering arm of the military.

“They agreed on a price of four million apiece for them,” Ted added.

I did the math quickly in my head.  While we had let Ron inside the processes a lot, we never discussed the cost structure of the drone with him, since ultimately, his allegiance was still to the Air Force.  Not that I felt that we were screwing the Air Force, but it’s best not to talk about profit with the customer.

Marcus felt that these would not be selling in huge quantities, since they were more of a specialty item for the military.  I figured, at best, we would be selling fifty of these a year; so I agreed we wouldn’t need a large production facility.  Unfortunately, even a small production line would cost a fair amount.

Our cost for producing one of these drones, including the manpower to put them together and the parts we were buying from suppliers, would come in at just about a million dollars each.  That left a hefty fifteen million on the initial order, but nearly ten million of that would be needed to set up the production facility.  This would leave us five million in operating capital, since we had just about used up all the money Ted and I had put into the project.  This was enough, though, for us to start working on the next ideas.  It would also allow Ted and I to recoup some of the money we had initially invested; which was good, since I was almost out of all my settlement money. I hated the financial pressure I must be putting on Mom.

“So, when does the order for the first five come in?”

“Soon, actually,” Ron supplied.  “The General was very impressed, and they have the room in the testing budget for the order.  The larger order will have to be part of ninety-seven’s military budget.  That should be submitted in the next couple of months, so it can go through the congressional approval process.  Assuming it doesn’t get pulled out of the budget … and with something this relatively small, I don’t imagine it will be … it will be September or October before it is finalized.”

That was a lot longer than I was hoping.  We would have to go ahead and build the production line, so we could push the initial five out; but then we'd have to just sit on it for six months, until the budget process concluded.  That meant we would have to live off the five million that would be left over, until then.  That sounds like a lot, but when you are talking about doing R&D on new projects, which I wanted us to start, it wouldn’t last all that long.  Still, it was what it was.

“That’s great news,” I said smiling back at them.