The Agent's Daughter by Ron Corriveau Page B

at her
clipboard.
    “ Okay,” she said, “Let’s
go over the checklist of your mission.”
    On previous missions, he listened to the
checklist speech with the attention span of someone listening to
the ‘seat-is-also-a-flotation-device’ speech that flight attendants
make before a commercial flight. But he had not been on a mission
in a while, so he appreciated the focus that would be gained by
going over it one more time.
    “ At 0400 hours, we will
pass directly over the Malaz reactor base,” Shirley began. “The
MAC-25 SSC will separate from the B2 at an altitude of 44,000
feet.”
    Evan thought to himself. What is it with the
military and acronyms? Why didn’t they just call it something a
little more straightforward like Carbon Fiber Tube instead of
MAC-25 SSC? And, now that he thought about it, here he was in the
most advanced bomber aircraft in the world, a plane that was almost
invisible to radar, and it had the name B2. He thought it should
have one of those cool made-up names like the characters in the
Japanese anime cartoons his son watched. Something like Bombazar or
Stealtheus.
    “ After the drop, the B2
will continue to circle the area,” she said. “We will have one of
its onboard cameras scanning the entire Malaz base and the other
focused on the reactor building. I will give you a heads-up if
anything is happening down there. The SSC will then descend for
40,000 feet, followed by the opening of the outer parachute. You
will hear an announcement of this in your earpiece.”
    “ Will there be an
announcement if the outer parachute does not open?” Evan
asked.
    Without looking up, Shirley continued, “You
then will be at 4,000 feet. Upon successful deployment of the outer
parachute, you will be falling at a slow enough rate for the SSC to
be released. At that point, it will automatically break free and
fall away from you, and you may remove your oxygen mask. Also, once
the SSC falls away, we will cease all contact. We cannot risk your
discovery with any radio transmissions. David Winfield from the
tools group will do his best to keep track of you from our camp
just across the southern Malaz border. Can you hear us, David?”
    “ I hear you, loud and
clear Colonel,” David said, his voice booming into the B2 bomb
bay.
    “ You will descend another
1,000 feet under the outer parachute,” Shirley said, “and then at
an altitude of 3,000 feet, the glider wings will deploy. This also
should happen automatically, triggered by an altitude sensor. The
joint that holds the wings together is hydraulic, so it should take
about twenty seconds to lock into place.”
    “ I notice that you have
started using the word ‘should’,” Evan said. He heard snickering
from David.
    Shirley continued, again without looking up.
“After the glider has been fully deployed, pull on this handle that
is right here above you. That will release the parachute. When you
are in level flight with the glider, use the GPS display in front
of you to guide you toward the target.”
    “ What about the radiation
detector,” Evan asked.
    “ It is mounted right here
behind your head,” Shirley said. “You need to be below 1,000 feet
and directly above the reactor for the detector to record any
meaningful data. It is not recommended that you fly below 800 feet
because you may not have enough altitude to reach the border. The
video camera is also mounted on a swivel above you behind your
head. The camera is already on, but the controls for direction and
zoom are on the glider handles. The video is displayed on the
screen next to the GPS screen. Take video of anything that looks
unusual.”
    Evan fiddled with the video controls until
the screen showed a close-up of Shirley’s eyes and nose.
    “ Aaaaah,” Evan said. “It’s
coming right for me. Save yourselves, everyone!”
    Shirley smiled, but Evan was starting to
make her nervous. She knew that as the mission start time edged
closer, sometimes an agent would make a joke in