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CHAPTER 1 – BACK TO CIVILIAN LIFE
08:17 (Seattle Time)
Wednesday, December 12, 2001 ‘C’
Chief Aircraft Designer’s office
Port Angeles plant of Hiller Aircraft Corporation Port Angeles, Washington State, U.S.A.
Ingrid Dows was finding herself to be quite busy, now that she was out of uniform for good (hopefully) and back at her civilian job as Chief Aircraft Designer and Primary Test Pilot for the Hiller Aircraft Corporation. The three last months spent by her in Afghanistan at President Bush’ request had caused her ‘in’ basket pile at Hiller’s Port Angeles plant to grow quite spectacularly and she now had to put up some long hours trying to cut it down to a manageable size.
She was reading through a flight test report done on the latest Hiller SKYTRUCK
completed at the Port Angeles plant and awaiting commercial certification when her telephone rang, making her pick up the receiver.
‘’Ingrid Dows speaking!’
‘’Ingrid, this is Jeff Hiller, calling from our corporate headquarters in California. I just got a call from the Filippino defense minister, Wido Rudowo. He was calling on behalf of three governments: his own plus that of Indonesia and Vietnam. I don’t want to speak too much on the phone about the exact purpose of his call but suffice to say that those governments are looking for your expert opinion about a common defense need they have. This may in fact possibly attract to us a development and design contract for our company if they find your advice attractive, so I am counting on you to blind them with your aircraft design skills brilliance. A joint delegation of nine persons should land at Port Angeles late this afternoon aboard a chartered private jet.’
Ingrid briefly chuckled at the words used by the owner and CEO of the Hiller Aircraft Corporation.
‘’I will serve them my best bullshit, Jeff. Do you have an estimated time of arrival and the registration number for that incoming flight?’
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‘’A precise arrival time, no! However, I was told that it will be an Air Philippines chartered GULFSTREAM II executive jet. They will come to discuss with you about a new light combat aircraft.’
‘’I will be ready for them, Jeff. Thanks for the advanced warning.’
‘’My pleasure, Ingrid. Could you take care of reserving hotel rooms in Port Angeles for those visitors? That delegation counts seven men and two women.
Individual rooms would probably be preferable for them: while they are coming as one delegation, their governments were not always on the friendliest terms in the past.’
‘’I served and fought enough around Southeast Asia to know about their history, Jeff. I will put on my best diplomatic face for them.’
‘’Good! By the way, your adopted daughter Hien is still the American ambassador to Vietnam, if I remember well, right?’
‘’Correct! She is doing a hell of a job there and she makes me most proud, so be sure that I will do my best not to offend any of the members of that visiting delegation.’
‘’Excellent! Well, I will leave you at that. Just keep me posted on the results of their visit.’
‘’I will, Jeff.’ replied Ingrid before hanging up. She was then thoughtful for a moment while she mentally reviewed what she knew about the latest military and political developments from Southeast Asia. The composition of the incoming delegation was by itself a serious clue for her about what they wanted to discuss with her.
Normally, little common linked Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam...little except their mutual suspicions about Chinese geo-political goals concerning the South China Sea.
Despite the fact that the American forces in the Pacific, which were at the time under Ingrid’s command, had taught China a severe lesson in the past, China had recently started to rebound and to start again to cause trouble around the South China Sea.
Thus, those three countries were most probably looking to strengthen their military capacities to counter any Chinese bullying around their respective waters and their exclusive economic zones, or EEZ. With that in her mind, she started consulting her work computer, scribbling down notes for herself as she went.
19:52 (Seattle Time)
Immigration and customs counters, international arrival hall William R. Fairchild International Airport, Port Angeles
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Harry Gleason had been a U.S. immigration agent for over twenty years and had seen about every possible kind of foreign visitor pass by his control wicket in the past.
He had also been working for a good six years at this airport and was accustomed to the kind of mix of visitors one could expect to come to the Seattle area. However, the group he was now processing, while all having valid visitor visas, was most unusual in its composition. Not only the seven men and two women traveling together were from three different countries which rarely mixed together but their high political and military status made it even more unusual, not to say suspicious. He however kept a neutral expression and a polite tone of voice as he looked up from the passport presented to him by the small Asian man now standing in front of his counter.
‘’And what is your military rank, if I may ask, Mister Ngo?’
‘’Lieutenant general.’ answered the Vietnamese man in his fair English. Gleason digested that information for a second: this was the third general officer in the group he was checking out, one each from Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Three of the other men were government cabinet members, again from the same countries, while the remaining one man and two women had presented themselves as either political aides or secretaries.
‘’And what is the purpose of your group’s visit to Port Angeles, General Ngo?’
‘’We came to consult one of your experts in aeronautics from the Hiller Corporation about a problem common to our three countries. Hiller has a very good reputation about solving aviation-related problems.’
‘’That they do, General Ngo.’ recognized Gleason, who then stamped Ngo’s passport and gave it back to the Vietnamese man. ‘’Have a nice stay in the U.S.A., General.’
‘’Thank you, sir.’
Gleason watched the man walk away from his counter and join up with the rest of his group, which had arrived in a Filipino executive jet half an hour ago. That group may have been a valid one but its composition still made Gleason wonder about it. Grabbing his telephone, he called the Seattle office of the F.B.I.1, intent on advising the agents there about this unusual group of visitors.
1 F.B.I.: Federal Bureau of Investigation. The American federal government agency in charge of enforcing laws pertaining to federal level. The F.B.I. also is in charge of counter-espionage and anti-terrorism operations.
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The nine Asian visitors, all wearing good quality civilian clothes, were processed quickly at the customs counters after retrieving their suitcases, with the customs agents there making only perfunctory searches of their luggage. As soon as the group exited the arrival area and walked into the public part of the small airport, they spotted at once a young and beautiful woman holding high a small sign saying ‘Hiller guests welcome!’.
Major General Anwar Sukarno, who commanded the Indonesian tactical Airforce, couldn’t help stop for a moment while eyeing the young woman, then whispered to his secretary, a young woman named Putu Sarawan.
‘’Remind me again about the age of General Dows, Miss Sarawan.’
‘’She is now 76, General.’
‘’Seventy-six... A most extraordinary woman indeed in many respects. She is also said to be able to speak dozens of languages. Do you know if she can speak Indonesian?’
‘’I am not sure about that, General.’
‘’Well, we will know soon enough. We do all speak fair to good English anyway.
Let’s go meet her.’
Ingrid, recognizing the group at their ethnic mix, lowered her sign and went to greet it with a big smile while speaking to them in English.
‘’Welcome to Port Angeles, ladies and gentlemen. I presently speak to you in English but know that I can speak Tagalog, Cebuano, Vietnamese, Javanese and Balinese. However, my Javanese and Balinese date back from a couple of millenniums, so is probably hopelessly quaint by today’s standards in Indonesia.’
‘’We are all proficient in English, General Dows, so we can continue in English.’
replied Sukarno. ‘’I am Major General Anwar Sukarno and I came with Air Minister Suparman Prabang and with my secretary, Miss Putu Sarawan.’
‘’I am Lieutenant General Ngo Minh Wa, Commander of the Vietnamese Air Force.’ said in turn the older man of the group. ‘’With me are Deputy Defense Minister for the Air Force Tran Le Toan and his aide, Mister Nguyen Binh Minh.’
‘’Pleased to meet you.’ replied Ingrid in fluent Vietnamese before facing the last trio of the group, who she could recognize by their ethnic look as being Filipino, speaking to them in Tagalog.
‘’And you must be the Filipino delegation, I presume.’
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‘’Correct, General Dows. I am Major General Jesus Alba, Commander of the Filipino Air Force. To my left is Deputy Defense Minister for the Air Force Antonio Villanueva, along with his secretary, Miss Carmen Santiago.’
‘’Welcome all to Port Angeles. If you will follow me, a minibus is waiting outside to drive you to your hotel. You must be quite tired by your long trip across the Pacific.’
‘’Indeed, General Dows.’ replied Ngo.
‘’Please, simply call me ‘Ingrid’, all of you. No need for formalities with me: I am a very informal woman.’
‘’Then, Ingrid it will be.’
Next, Ingrid led the group outside to the taxi waiting lane, where a minibus marked as belonging to the Hiller Aircraft Corporation was parked, with a driver waiting behind the wheel. As the driver helped load the group’s luggage inside the minibus, Ingrid spoke to her older visitor.
‘’Have you eaten supper yet, General Ngo? Are you hungry?’
‘’We ate a couple of sandwiches in the plane but I wouldn’t mind having a more substantial meal tonight, if that is possible.’
‘’Then, once you will have a chance to drop your luggage in your rooms, I will guide you to a good little restaurant I know, so we could all eat together.’
‘’Uh, a few members of our group are Muslims. Does your restaurant have a menu compatible with Muslim dietary rules?’
That question made Ingrid smile widely to Major General Sukarno.
‘’Don’t worry, General: you will feel at home at the Sabai Thai. It is a good Thai restaurant with a very varied menu. It is one of my favorite restaurants in Port Angeles, along with the ‘Toga’s Soup House Deli & Gourmet’ Restaurant.’
‘’Sounds good to me, Ingrid.’
‘’Excellent! One thing before we go to your hotel, the ‘Red Lion’: I realize that you may want to keep discreet about the reasons for your visit to Port Angeles, so I would counsel that we don’t discuss business until we are in a truly private place, like my house, or my office at the Hiller plant.’
‘’A good idea, actually.’ approved Ngo, who then climbed aboard the minibus with the rest of the delegation.
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The group first went to the Red Lion Hotel, situated along the shores of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, where Ingrid helped her visitors to take possession of their rooms, which amply satisfied their new occupants. Then, after they had taken the time to drop their bags in their rooms and since they were getting quite hungry, they loaded back in the minibus, with Ingrid leading them in her Pontiac TRANS AM sports convertible, drove to the Sabai Thai Restaurant, situated a short distance away, close to the airport. While the interior decoration and furniture was not what one would call ‘impressive’, the Thai menu and the food itself met with the warm approval of Ingrid’s guests. Following Ingrid’s advice about not discussing business in such a public place, her guests kept to anodyne or personal subjects. Major General Anwar Sukarno, consumed by curiosity about her, was one of the first to ask her a personal question while enjoying his plate of crispy duck.
‘’You said that your Javanese and Balinese is quite antiquated, Ingrid. From which century was your Indonesian past incarnation?’
Ingrid stopped eating for a moment as she concentrated on long-past souvenirs.
‘’My oldest incarnation as an Indonesian was 2,000 years ago, in Java. I was then a man named Tambali who built canoes out of tree trunks and produced stone tools for a living. He was married and had five children. He was killed by a falling tree when he was 45. My second incarnation as an Indonesian was as a fruit merchant named Tarumadam, who lived some 1,200 years ago on the island of Java. He was married, four children and drowned during a Tsunami.’
‘’And what about your past Filipino incarnations?’ asked Carmen Santiago, the secretary of the Filipino deputy defense minister.
‘’I lived only once in the Philippines, some six centuries ago. I was then a woman named Malitanang, who lived in a tiny fishing village on the island of Mindanao and who was married to a fisherman. She was the mother of two children and died at the age of 23, from a tropical fever. Before your Vietnamese colleagues could ask, I lived once as a Vietnamese, a modest farmer who lived some 250 years ago in the village of Gia Rai, in the Mekong Delta. His name was Tran Qui Khiem and he was married, with five children. Like Malitanang, Tran died of a tropical fever.’
‘’So, you lived as both a man and as a woman during your past incarnations, correct?’ said Antonio Villanueva, making Ingrid nod her head once.
‘’Correct! Out of my past 71 incarnations, they were fairly equally split between those I lived as a man and those I lived as a woman. From what I know of the past
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incarnations remembered by my late adoptive mother, Nancy Laplante, this seems to be a common pattern concerning incarnations.’
‘’And what was the oldest incarnation you can remember, Ingrid?’ asked Villanueva.
‘’My first ever incarnation was as a nomad woman named Amdira, who lived in the Sumerian Basin some 7,000 years ago.’
‘’It sounds like you mostly lived humble lives, Ingrid. Were you ever someone of importance?’
‘’Oh, I was a person of privilege or power a few times in the past, Antonio. My most powerful past incarnation was as Emperor Wou-Ti, of the Chinese Han Dynasty, who reigned some 2,100 years ago. Under his reign, the Chinese Empire reached its largest expansion and he succeeded in repelling the barbarian Xiung-Nu invaders from the North. I was also once a rich Ukrainian aristocrat who died in the Sixteenth Century and was also Aïsha, the third wife of the prophet Mohammed, who ended up dying as a reclused widow.’
Her last sentence had the effect of a lightning bolt on the three Indonesians eating at her table, all of whom were Muslims.
‘’You were the wife of the Prophet?’ asked excitedly Anwar Sukarno, restraining with difficulty the volume of his voice. ‘’Would you accept to tell us about your life with the great prophet Mohammed?’
‘’I will, but at a later date, once you will have rested from your long trip and once we could have discussed business tomorrow in my office at the Hiller plant. There is however something I can tell you all right now about my incarnations: despite all the scientific and technical progress us Humans did during the past millenniums, we are still basically the same kind of creatures, capable of both the best and the worst.
Unfortunately, our weapons are now so powerful that we could now destroy ourselves and this planet if we don’t learn to control better our potential for violence.’
Her nine guests could only soberly nod in agreement at that affirmation.
09:11 (Seattle Time)
Thursday, December 13, 2001 ‘C’
Ingrid’s work office, Hiller aircraft plant
William R. Fairchild International Airport, Port Angeles
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Ingrid greeted with a smile the nine members of the Asian delegation as they were guided into her office by her secretary.
‘’Good morning to you all. I hope that you had a good night’s sleep?’
‘’We did!’ answered Lieutenant General Ngo. ‘’My brain is still a bit fuzzy from the time zones switching but I am ready to discuss business with you.’
‘’Excellent! Let’s sit around my coffee corner. Would you like some coffee or tea?’
The delegates looked at each other before nodding their heads and stating their individual preferences, which were noted down by Ingrid’s secretary. The group then moved to the discussion corner in Ingrid’s office, where the usual low coffee table had been temporarily replaced by a large, round table surrounded by seven swiveling chairs, with three more chairs set against a wall for the three aides and secretaries of the delegation. Ingrid then decided to wait until the ordered coffee and tea had arrived before starting to discuss serious things, thus looked at the three general officers and three ministers sitting at the table.
‘’Let’s wait for your beverages to be served before discussing business. So, what do you think of Port Angeles and the Seattle region so far?’
‘’That it looks nice, with the nearby mountains and the Strait of Juan de Fuca giving it a beautiful natural background.’ answered Major General Jesus Alba, the commander of the Filipino Air Force. ‘’However, while the local climate is about as humid as that in the Philippines, it is much colder, I must say.’
‘’The view we have from our hotel rooms, which are close to the shore, is most relaxing.’ added Deputy Defense Minister Antonio Villanueva. ‘’The service at the Red Lion Hotel is also very polite and efficient.’
‘’I am glad to hear that, Minister Villanueva.’ said Ingrid. ‘’Aah, here are your coffee and tea.’
‘’That was fast!’ said Major General Sukarno as Ingrid’s secretary rolled a service trolley next to the table and started serving cups around. That made Ingrid smile with malice.
‘’I anticipated the need for hot beverages and had full pots of coffee and tea prepared as soon as I saw your minibus arrive.’
Ingrid waited until everybody had a chance to take a first sip and until her secretary had left before addressing the men around the table.
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‘’Good! Time to get into serious things. First off, what caused your respective governments to send you here to consult with me?’
As the senior officer present, Lieutenant General Ngo Minh Wa spoke first, his expression now most serious.
‘’First, let me say that our three governments, while quite disparate in terms of political orientations and policies, realized that they had a few identical military needs and also faced mostly similar threats. To be totally frank, our three countries also happen to have limited financial capacities when it comes to buying and operating military hardware without severely impacting important social and economic projects. So we agreed to join together in order to constitute what would be a more interesting customer to major aircraft manufacturers and thus be able to ask for a dedicated aircraft design. In terms of common threats, we are all facing a resurgent and increasingly bullish Communist China, which is pushing more and more its weight around the South China Sea. We also face persistent and wide threats from pirates, smugglers and illegal fishing vessels, thus need to enforce our sovereignty over our waters and economic exclusion zones, or EEZs. That in turn means the need for a sizeable and efficient maritime patrol capability, both from the sea and from the air. However, as you well know, aircraft can cover much larger areas much faster than ships when patrolling and identification is involved. Once detected from the air, ships and boats deemed to be either hostile or engaged in illegal activities can then be challenged by our ships called in by our surveillance aircraft. Normally, simple maritime patrol aircraft can do that job quite efficiently. Unfortunately, many of those hostile or illegal boats, like pirate skiffs and fishing boats, have taken to chasing our patrol aircraft away with rifle and machine gun fire and have become quite brazen in that respect. All three of our nations have also been facing a growing number of instances when Chinese so-called ‘coast guard’
ships have tried to intimidate our own fishermen away from prized fishing grounds inside our EEZs and are also blocking to us access to potential oil or gas deposits, claiming those waters to be Chinese waters. I know that the American government has been supportive of our rights to those waters but we need to be able to police adequately our EEZs ourselves. Thus, we need to reinforce our maritime patrol and law enforcement assets in order to better protect our waters. Unfortunately, typical existing maritime patrol aircraft are quite expensive to acquire and even more expensive to operate, so we need a more affordable, yet practical solution to our patrol needs.’
At that point, Major General Jesus Alba jumped into the conversation.
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‘’We agree with Vietnam’s assessment about the threats and needs concerning maritime security. However, the Philippines also faces another serious category of threat: insurgency. As you well know, we have been faced for decades with a persistent, serious insurgency problem from Communist-leaning guerrilla groups hiding in the jungles covering our islands, groups who also often dabble in drug smuggling and organized crime in order to finance their insurrections. Our army has been fighting hard for years to eradicate or at least contain those insurgent forces but patrolling and guarding all those jungle-covered islands is proving to be a nearly impossible task.
What we need is a sizeable force of armed strike aircraft able to patrol large areas and visually detect insurgent movements and activity, then strike those insurgents hard.
Simple patrol aircraft, which are typically slow, multi-propeller aircraft with light armament, just can’t do that job properly. The Philippines thus needs to acquire a capable counter-insurgency aircraft which could also patrol our waters and counter pirates and maritime smugglers. Unfortunately, existing counter-insurgency aircraft mostly lack radar and have a limited endurance on station, while buying large numbers of modern, supersonic fighter-bombers or strike aircraft is simply too expensive a proposition for my country.’
‘’Indonesia also faces the same kind of insurgency, piracy and smuggling threats across its thousands of islands.’ said Major General Sukarno, jumping in. ‘’If anything, the surface area we have to patrol is even larger than that of the Philippines, thus greatly complicating our job to enforce our sovereignty. To be totally frank, our army and navy are hogging much of our available defense budgets, thus leaving little for our air force to buy a sizeable fleet of long-range, armed patrol aircraft.’
‘’Vietnam also has a need to patrol its land borders, in order mostly to counter drug smuggling.’ said in turn Ngo. ‘’We also have to face recurring air and maritime incursions by Chinese aircraft and ships bent on claiming sovereignty over our own waters. Finally, having a direct border with China means that we must be ready to resist any future border incursion by Chinese troops. Only armed combat jet aircraft could deal with such incursions. The leaders of our three countries recently met in secret to discuss those mutual threats and agreed on a few common measures and policies, including the need for us to acquire sizeable air fleets of armed patrol jet aircraft able to counter those threats while being affordable to both acquire and operate. Unfortunately, no such aircraft with both desired capabilities and low costs exist. We came to see you about our problem because you are recognized as both a master wielder of airpower
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and as an innovative aircraft designer, while Hiller has gained a worldwide reputation for producing innovative and highly efficient aircraft, thanks to you.’
Ingrid slowly nodded her head as she mentally analyzed what the delegates had told her.
‘’I can see and understand your problem, gentlemen. While the United States and its European allies produce excellent, high-performance combat aircraft, their military doctrines and philosophies are geared mostly towards long-range interdiction and strike missions, plus air interceptions and air superiority missions using standoff guided missiles and gliding bombs, and this mostly against top tier adversaries rather than against low-level threats. They are simply not at their best in making low-level, low-speed combat patrols over large areas, especially when it comes to detecting such hard-to-find targets as insurgents and smugglers hiding in jungles. Also, in your particular case, you need to visually identify and classify possible threats from up close, without the benefit of relying on the support of a network of long-range ground or sea-based radars and radio-listening equipment. I also agree with you that Western combat jet aircraft are too often hideously expensive to acquire and operate to make it possible for your three countries to buy an adequate number of them. Their design and development also too often take many years or even decades before they can enter service. Another point I would note is that low-level patrolling against insurgents, pirates and armed smugglers brings a high risk of getting targeted from the ground by small arms fire.
Western Air force commanders typically hate to risk jets worth tens of millions of dollars to such low-level weapons operated by illegal groups. As well, your need to patrol large ocean areas clearly call for patrol aircraft equipped with radar. Most of the present light combat aircraft geared towards counter-insurgency work lack such radar capability, as you already stated. To sum it up, I agree with you that you need a new aircraft geared towards the specific needs of your three countries. Now, you must realize that such a new aircraft will need at least a minimum of equipment, sensors and weapons in order to do its job, so there will still be a floor cost to the acquisition of such a new aircraft.’
‘’And do you think that Hiller could design and produce such an aircraft while keeping its cost to a minimum, Ingrid?’ asked Jesus Alba, his tone reflecting some apprehension.
‘’Yes!’ answered at once Ingrid, making the men around the table visibly relax.
‘’I can say that for a number of reasons. First off, as you said yourself, design and development of Western combat aircraft typically take long years and cost a fortune,
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mostly because they are designed by committees of air force officers setting in advance rigid and often unrealistic sets of requirements, which are also influenced too often by political actors pushing for the awarding of contracts to their own constituents. Then, whatever those committees end up producing as sets of specifications is given to other committees, this time formed of engineers and production plant managers, who also have to discuss and debate before agreeing on a final design. That so-called final design will also more often than not be modified, sometimes radically, during project development as air force leaders change their minds or want to gold-plate it in order to make it more attractive to their egos and set opinions. All this tends to kill true innovation and flexible thinking while adding years and hundreds of millions of dollars in cost to the development program of a new aircraft. Without bragging, I can say that you will not see such problems at Hiller: I am its chief aircraft designer and, while I always am ready to embrace good ideas from others, I am not in the business of committee decision-making. When I design a new aircraft, I do it mostly by myself when it concerns its basic concept and technological solutions. Also, I have the huge benefit over the various engineering design teams you will find in the United States and in Europe that I also happen to be a very experienced user in terms of combat aircraft piloting and air combat. I thus know from personal experience what works and what doesn’t. Now, concerning the specific needs of your three countries. Since you will still need some air interception capabilities as a secondary mission, your new aircraft will need to be able to fly faster than sound. However, its top speed will not need to be higher than Mach 2: a high transonic speed of around Mach 1.6 would suffice for most types of missions in my opinion, except for interception missions, which call for the fastest response possible. In reality, existing fighter jet aircraft rarely fly at or past Mach 2 and, if they do, they stay at that kind of speed for only a few minutes at the most. The reason for that is simple: high fuel consumption. While powerful, their typical low-bypass turbofan engines equipped with afterburners drink fuel like thirsty camels while flying supersonic. Unless you design a flying fuel tank, you will not be able to fly a whole mission at supersonic speed. A few rare jet fighters can do what is called ‘super cruise’, meaning the ability to fly above Mach 0.95 without the need to use afterburning. Even then, that super cruise ability means a top speed of at most Mach 1.5 before such planes have to light up their afterburners. Another disadvantage of high Mach numbers above Mach 2 is the thermal stress it induces on airframes. The faster you fly, the hotter your aircraft leading edges get. In high performance jet aircraft, this necessitates the use of materials with high
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thermal resistance, like titanium, special steel alloys or carbon fibers, which are a lot more expensive than the common aluminum alloys, which are able to resist well to speeds of Mach 2 or less. Even if you use such special materials, the difference in heating between the leading edges and the other parts of the airframe structure may cause fatigue cracks, splits and distortions. Since you want to keep your aircraft cost as low as possible, I would aim for a transonic aircraft with a top speed of at most Mach 2
and at a minimum of Mach 1.6. A fighter jock would probably poo-poo such a so-called low top speed but a transonic aircraft will do the job for your countries quite nicely.
Another advantage in going for a transonic design is that it is then possible to use medium-to-high
bypass
jet
engines
without
afterburners, if their air intakes are designed to let them operate properly at supersonic speeds. Such air intakes exist: they are called DSI inlets, which stands for Divertless Supersonic Intake. Such DSI inlets, which look like a lump stuck in your air intake, do the same job as the moving inlet plates used in supersonic fighters and bombers, and this up to speeds of Mach 2, but have no moving parts, are much lighter, cost a lot less and also are maintenance free, all things that would greatly benefit your future combat aircraft. For the sake of keeping costs low, I would choose one or two already existing high-bypass turbofan engines of the kind used to propel modern commercial airliners.
That would avoid having to design a new engine specifically for your future aircraft, would give you a lot of power without the need for afterburners and, most importantly, would drastically cut its fuel consumption, as the specific fuel consumption, or SFC, of such engines typically turn around 0.55 kilos of fuel per kilogram-force of thrust per hour at cruising speed, compared to the SFC of low bypass turbofan engines, which turn around 0.75 or more at cruise settings. If you use afterburners on low bypass turbofans, your SFC then easily climbs close to or past 1.0. Thus, the use of a standard commercial high-bypass turbofan with DSI inlet would greatly cut the cost and design time for your future aircraft, would allow for a much longer autonomy and endurance and would give your pilots lots of available power when needed. As well, many of the commercial high-bypass turbofan engines now available come with thrust reverser systems, something that would drastically shorten the landing runs of your future aircraft.’
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‘’Uh, pardon my ignorance, Ingrid, but what is this business of low and high bypass turbofans?’ asked the Vietnamese deputy defense minister, Tran Le Toan.
In response, Ingrid went to her work desk and grabbed a thick file on it before returning to the round table. She then opened the file at a specific page and showed it to Tran.
‘’These are schematic pictures for a zero-bypass turbojet, a low-bypass turbofan and a high-bypass turbofan. In the first one, the whole air volume swallowed by the engine goes through the compressor, then through the fuel injection system, where it is mixed with fuel and then burned, producing thrust. In a low-bypass turbofan, part of the air swallowed bypasses the fuel injection and burn system, to then be mixed afterward with the hot gases coming out of the burner tubes. That creates significantly more thrust without the need to burn more fuel but at the same time increases the frontal area of your engine, a critical factor for high supersonic speeds flying. Such engines typically have a bypass ratio of 1.2 to 1 or less. In medium and high-bypass turbofan engines, the major portion of the air swallowed and compressed by their large diameter fans bypasses the burner tubes before mixing with hot gases, creating a lot of thrust with a low fuel consumption. Since nearly all existing airliners are subsonic, such high-bypass turbofans are widely used to propel them.’
‘’Oh! I understand now. Thank you for the explanation.’
‘’You’re welcome.’
The next one to have a question for Ingrid was General Ngo.
‘’What about the wings for our future aircraft? Low-altitude patrolling and high-speed air interceptions call for two very different kinds of wing profiles and planform, no?’
‘’A good point, General Ngo. First, let me say that, when it comes to air combat against enemy aircraft, the days of dogfighting are mostly gone, a truly sad fact for an ex-fighter pilot like me. Today, the game is to detect your enemy at the longest range possible and then fire an air-to-air missile at it. Yes, agility in a combat aircraft is still valuable, mostly when trying to evade incoming missiles or ground fire, but it is no longer the dominant factor in air combat. Radar detection ranges and missile performances are much more important factors these days. In the case of your future combat aircraft, performances at low altitude and slow to medium speeds, along with short takeoff and landing performances, will be a lot more critical in my opinion. Shorter takeoff and landing distances will mean that shorter and cheaper runways or even dirt airstrips can be used, something that will translate into significantly lower operating and basing costs
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for your air forces. The use of high-bypass turbofan engines with thrust reverser systems will help a lot in that aspect. As for the type of wing to be employed, I would advocate the use of a simple sweptback or clipped delta wing of large surface with supercritical profile, in order to have a large lifting surface and low wing loadings for low-speed landings and short takeoffs, while keeping supersonic drag to the minimum. Next, about the armament and sensors for your aircraft. These are two areas which will impact heavily on the acquisition and operating costs of your aircraft. Thankfully, in the case of its intended primary missions, that is maritime patrolling and policing, counter-insurgency and counter-piracy, low-cost weapons systems like guns, cannons, unguided rockets and bombs will do the job nicely. Also, since your pilots would need to visually locate and positively identify their targets before engaging them, human eyesight then becomes as important as electronic sensors like radar and electronic warfare systems.’
Ingrid then paused while looking straight at the three general officers sitting around the table.
‘’Believe my extensive air combat experience when I say this: having only one pilot may sound like a way to save money but an extra pair of eyes, especially if you add a weapons officer to take care of long-range detection and weapons guidance, will prove invaluable for your future combat aircraft. The added cost and mass due to a second crewmember are truly minimal compared to the advantages of having two of them. A lone pilot trying to both look around while flying low and looking down at its sensors will be a lot less effective in detecting visually small targets, while he may lose sight of his true flight attitude and crash against the ground or the sea. I thus strongly recommend a two-seater formula for your future combat aircraft.’
Again, the three air force generals quickly agreed with her last recommendation. Ngo, most happy about the way the discussion was going, then asked Ingrid yet another question, this time a bit hesitantly.
‘’And...what kind of aircraft design will you propose to us once you will have time to look at all the possible solutions, Ingrid?’
Ingrid then surprised all of her guests by taking six documents from inside the file lying on the table and distributing one copy to each general officer and politician.
‘’When my boss, Jeff Hiller, called me early yesterday morning to warn me about your incoming visit, I then thought about the possible reasons for your countries to send delegates to see me. In view of what I know about your respective military forces and geo-political situations, it wasn’t too hard for me to figure out in advance what you would
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want to discuss with me. I then worked a few extra hours yesterday in order to write down a preliminary aircraft design concept, complete with a few basic sketches and a list of optional features. It now seems that I guessed right about the goal of your visit, so I am now giving you a copy each of the proposed design concept for what I will call the Hiller A-24 SHARK. Please take your time to read carefully through your copies, then tell me frankly about any misgivings you would have about specific points of my design or about features and capabilities you would like to add, change or delete.’
General Ngo had one quick look at the front page of his copy, then looked at Ingrid with something close to reverence.
‘’Ingrid, you are just incredible.’
‘’I try my best, General.’ replied Ingrid with a disarming smile. She then stayed quiet during the few minutes needed for her guests to read and study their copies of her aircraft concept paper. After some four minutes, Air Minister Suparman Prabang looked up from his copy and asked her a question.
‘’What is this Hiller N.A.W.V.S. mentioned as part of the sensors package, miss?’
‘’The Hiller N.A.W.V.S., or Night and Adverse Weather Vision System, is an optical system patented by me a couple of years ago for my new SKYTRUCK and which helps pilots see around at night and in bad weather. It uses a battery of fixed cameras linked to in-cockpit display screens and Heads Up Displays, or H.U.D.s, to show the outside world via the eyes of forward-looking infrared cameras combined with low-level light night vision cameras and laser rangefinders. The combined images of each camera combination are then projected on a dedicated transparent H.U.D. screen or on a flat plasma screen. Think of it as a sort of multiple windows through the night and bad weather. The basic commercial package we use in our new SKYTRUCK has seven such camera combinations providing vision in the frontal arc and on both side of the cockpit, while the military variant to be used in the A-24 SHARK will have fourteen combo packages. With them, the pilots will be able to see clearly around them even in the darkest of nights or the worse bad weather. The laser rangefinders associated with the cameras are used to display distance references to the objects or geographical features seen on a specific display screen. One big advantage for using such a system in a military aircraft is that the cameras are passive in operation and can’t be detected by an enemy using electronic warfare equipment. As for the laser rangefinders, very few military air force sensors are able to detect low-power laser beams. However, a pilot
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could always switch off the laser rangefinders if he decides that their beams could be detected by the enemy.’
‘’I see! And what would be your best estimate for the actual production cost of your A-24, Ingrid?’
‘’It will depend on many factors, like the number of aircraft to be eventually ordered, the need to correct any possible design shortcomings and your choice of which options your government would want to add to or delete from my basic design.
However, as is described in that document, I foresee an approximate production cost of about thirty million dollars for the basic variant of the SHARK and an approximate design and development time of less than two years. As for the costs added by my boss to cover our design work, the tooling up for production and a reasonable profit margin, I will let Jeff Hiller handle that. As they say, the ball is now in your respective governments’
courts. However, remind your bosses that going for three different final designs compared to a single, interchangeable design, will seriously impact the final unit price of your future aircraft. One final thing: please tell your governments to stay discrete about this. If words come out of any advanced deal between us, you may see most of the major American and European aircraft manufacturers cry foul and scream for an open bid’s competition.’
‘’That is precisely why we kept our visit to Port Angeles discrete, Ingrid.’ said Ngo in reply. ‘’We know too well how ferocious the competition for the sale of combat aircraft can be. When do you intend to start the detailed design work on your A-24?’
‘’I will contact Jeff Hiller right after this meeting and brief him about its outcome.
Once I get his go ahead, I will start right away on the detailed design work as it pertains to my basic concept. If your governments wish to add or delete features out of my basic design, then I would urge you to inform me as quickly as possible about their desired changes. Remind them as well that neither gold-plating nor barebones cutting will get them the kind of affordable and effective aircraft they want.’
‘’I will certainly emphasize that point with our prime minister and president, Ingrid.’ replied Ngo before getting up from his chair and shaking hands with her, his copy of the precious concept document now inside his attaché case.
‘’Thank you so much for having accepted to help us in this matter, Ingrid.’
‘’The same from my government, Ingrid.’ added Jesus Alba, followed by Anwar Sukarno. After a round of last handshakes, Ingrid escorted her visitors all the way down
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to the main entrance of the production plant, where she surprised them by taking place in the front passenger seat of their minibus.
‘’You don’t need to accompany us to our hotel, Ingrid.’ said politely Ngo, to which Ingrid replied with a smile.
‘’I am not simply accompanying you to your hotel, General: I am going to see you off as your plane will take off for its return trip. This is the least I can do to thank you for the confidence your governments put in my expertise and advice.’
To that, Ngo had no ready reply and he simply nodded once his head as the minibus started rolling.
11:03 (Seattle Time)
Monday, December 17, 2001 ‘C’
Aircraft design staff work section, Hiller production plant Fairchild International Airport, Port Angeles
Ingrid was working at one of the powerful aircraft computer-aided design work stations of her aircraft design section when her secretary came to her at a near run.
‘’Ingrid! Ingrid! A F.B.I. agent just arrived at the main entrance and is asking to speak with you.’
‘’A F.B.I. agent? What the hell does the F.B.I. wants with me? Alright, tell our reception desk to have him escorted up to my private office.’
‘’Got it!’
As Jenny Nakamura ran back into her own office, Ingrid closed the design program she had been working with and got up from her swiveling chair before shouting instructions at the five engineers and draftsmen working around her in the design section.
‘’ALRIGHT, GUYS AND GIRLS: CLOSE YOUR COMPUTERS AND PUT AWAY
THE DOCUMENTS VISIBLE IN THIS SECTION, THEN GO HAVE AN EXTENDED
LUNCH BREAK. BE BACK AT WORK BY ONE O’CLOCK.’
Her employees didn’t protest about that occasion to have extra lunch break time and quickly followed her directives before leaving the design section. When one of the plant’s security guards escorted in a big man wearing a suit and tie, Ingrid was alone in the large office. She walked up to her visitor and gave a quick look at her security guard.
‘’Thank you, Tom! You may return to the reception area.’
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‘’Yes maam!’
Looking back at her visitor, she looked into the eyes of the beefy man with red hair while offering her right hand.
‘’I’m Ingrid Dows. What may I do for the F.B.I. today, sir?’
‘’Good day, Miss Dows! I am Special Agent Jack Flaherty and...urgh!’
The federal agent, not expecting her physical strength, was both surprised and somewhat shocked by her crushing handshake. He then reminded himself a bit late about her celebrated superpowers and withdrew his hurting hand while painting a false smile on his face.
‘’Uh, as I was about to say, my office was informed that you received a high-level, mixed delegation from Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines last Wednesday.
We would be interested to know the reasons for their visit to your production plant.’
‘’And who is ‘we’? The F.B.I. or other American aircraft companies like Boeing, which has its main plant in Seattle?’
Ingrid had said that in a calm and polite tone but her impassive facial expression told at once to Flaherty that she was not going to be very cooperative with him.
‘’The F.B.I., miss. One of the countries who sent delegates to see you, Vietnam, has a coalition government that includes Communists.’
‘’I know that, Agent Flaherty: I pushed for the formation of that coalition government some 46 years ago, after beating the shit out of an invading Communist Chinese army intent on taking Vietnam. The Vietnamese Communists of the time then united with my forces and those of other Vietnamese factions to help repel that Chinese invasion. If you knew your history of Southeast Asia, you would know that the United States again joined forces with Vietnamese soldiers some twenty years after the end of the Vietnam War, in order to stop another attempted Chinese invasion, this time of the Paracels Islands. So, what about Vietnam?’
Quickly understanding that he was not going to win an argument with her and also realizing that his own legal ground was less than solid, Flaherty nonetheless made a last attempt at a question.
‘’So, are you refusing to answer my questions, Miss Dows?’
‘’What I am refusing to answer are pointless questions about a simple case of perfectly legal professional advice on aircraft design given to three countries which are not considered hostile to the United States, Special Agent Flaherty. You can tell your superiors that this comes from a retired five-star General of the Army and twice recipient
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of the Congress Medal of Honor. I would thus urge them to think twice before thinking that I could possibly betray my loyalty to the United States. Any other questions, Special Agent Flaherty?’
‘’Uh, no, Miss Dows.’
‘’Then, I will accompany you back to the reception area.’
Feeling somewhat humiliated at being basically turned around and expelled from this place in such a manner, Flaherty still had no real choice but to follow her to the bank of elevators situated outside of the office and to get with her inside a waiting cabin. His mind was boiling as he recalled the briefing he had received from the agent-in-charge who led their Seattle F.B.I. office. What he forgot was that Ingrid, standing next to him, was a known telepath, one of the incredible powers she was said to possess. Still, Ingrid stayed perfectly polite with him, even waving goodbye to him as he sat back inside the unmarked car which had brought him from Seattle. The other agent who was driving the dark sedan gave him a questioning look as he buckled up his safety belt.
‘’That was quick. How did it go?’
‘’She basically told me that the F.B.I. can go fuck itself...in a very polite way.’
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CHAPTER 2 – UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES
The University of Alaska Fairbanks campus.
10:22 (Alaska Time)
Saturday, January 26, 2002 ‘C’
Weightlifting room, Nanook Students Recreation Center University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) campus
Fairbanks, Alaska, U.S.A.
Greg Sumner, a second-year student in engineering at the Fairbanks campus of the University of Alaska, was sitting on a low padded bench and pumping up and down a pair of 20-pound dumbbells when a fabulous-looking young blond woman entered the weightlifting room and went at once to the squat lift apparatus. She seemed quite tall for a girl but what attracted Greg’s attention, apart of course from her very sexy curves, was her incredible musculature, with very strong legs, a proverbial sixpack belly and muscular arms. Taking a deep breath while hogging the new girl, he whispered to his friend and fellow student, Alan Weir, who was exercising in a prone back position on the adjacent bench.
‘’Hey, Alan, take a look at that piece of pure candy and tell me if you ever saw such muscles on a girl.’
Alan looked ahead from his prone position for a couple of seconds before putting back down his head and resuming his weight lifting, a smile on his face.
‘’I have, Greg: she’s a new student who enrolled for the Spring semester last month. I saw her exercise here last week.’
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‘’And you didn’t tell me about her then?’ replied Greg, sounding incensed. ‘’Do you know something about her, like her name and in what studies program she enrolled? I really wouldn’t mind trying to date her.’
‘’I chatted a bit with her when I first saw her. Her name is Greta Visby and she is a lieutenant in the Marine Corps.
She is here to get a bachelor’s degree in security and emergency management, in order to fully qualify as an officer.’
‘’You mean that she is not a true officer?’
‘’Of course she is, Greg! She was commissioned from the ranks while serving in Afghanistan and is now studying here to get the required bachelor’s degree needed to satisfy the Marine Corps requirements to be an officer. Don’t you remember the various news reports about her during last year?’
‘’Uh, you know that I am not big on media news, Alan.’
‘’Your loss, Greg! There is more to life than video gaming and partying, you know.’
‘’Yeah, yeah! You already told me that a thousand times. Greta Visby...that sounds quite foreign as a name, no?’
‘’She was born in Sweden and is what you could call an ‘A’-grade Viking girl.
However, don’t hope too much about dating her: she seemed to me to be a serious, intelligent and most mature girl for her age.’
‘’Well, nothing tells me that I can’t try.’ replied Greg while watching the blonde starting to exercise with an impressive amount of weights put on the steel bar she was moving up and down. After another four minutes of lifting his dumbbells, Greg decided to change exercise machines and walked to the squat lift apparatus next to that used by the young blonde. While adding weights to the exercise bar, he smiled to the girl, who was still lifting up and down her set of weights.
‘’Hi! My name is Greg Sumner. I didn’t see you here before. Are you new to the university?’
Greta, who had caught at once on why this Greg Sumner was now taking the machine next to hers, answered him while keeping her eyes looking directly ahead of her as she bent and then straightened her legs while carrying the weighed-down bar on her shoulders.
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‘’I started studying here at the start of this session. I’m Greta Visby.’
A bit put off by her short, minimal answer, Greg took place under the weighed bar of his machine and started moving it up and down while talking to the girl and discretely admiring her body.
‘’And in what kind of program are you studying, Greta?’
‘’My major is in security and emergency management, while my minor is in military security studies.’
‘’Sounds like interesting subjects. I study mechanical engineering and am on my second year of studies. I must say that I never saw a girl as strong-looking as you before. You must be exercising daily, no?’
‘’I do every day I can.’ she answered simply and not saying more while continuing her exercising. By then, Greg was starting to get a bit discouraged by her lack of conversation. He was thus surprised and stunned to hear her next sentence.
‘’I suppose that you would like to know the number of my room and in which residence I live, right?’
‘’I wouldn’t mind that, Greta.’
‘’Sorry: you can’t have them.’
On that cold retort, Greta got up from her exercise machine and went to a rowing machine in a far corner of the weights room, leaving behind a flustered Greg Sumner.
Greta, who already had to tell off many male students during the first two weeks of her Spring semester at UAF, didn’t pay further attention to Greg during the hour or so of exercising she did before finally leaving the weights room and going to have a shower in the female locker room. Once clean and dressed up to go outside, she left the Student Recreation Center and walked some 500 meters through the snow-covered grounds of the campus, heading towards the Wood Center, which housed the main dining facilities of the UAF. There, she took a quick and frugal lunch of soup and salad before putting back on her winter parka and boots and heading out to return to her residential block, the Morton Stevens Hall, situated a bit over 200 meters away from the Wood Center. Contrary to the large majority of Americans, her Swedish upbringing and early years had accustomed her to using strictly the metric system, rather than the needlessly confusing and antiquated imperial system, so she always thought in meters when measuring distances. It was a bit past half past twelve when she arrived at the Morton Stevens Hall and went up to the second floor, where her room, Room 216, was
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situated. That room, measuring about 4.7 meters by 3.5 meters, was fairly small and also minimally furnished but was still more than adequate for her, whose six years in the U.S. Marine Corps and her previous life in the wilds of Northern Sweden and Alaska had accustomed her to what many would describe as Spartan conditions. Those previous years, along with her extensive experience of combat in both Somalia and Afghanistan, had made her a lot more mature than what boys and men would expect from a 25-year-old girl, so she had learned how to politely tell those boys and men off. While she, like any normal girl, liked to have fun from time to time, this year and the next three following years were going to be concentrated on her studies and on her goal of earning a bachelor’s degree, so that she could continue her military career in the Marine Corps as an officer.
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CHAPTER 3 – AT THE TOP OF THE CHARTS
Lucy Dows Sarah Weissmann Nancy Dows Carmen Estrada Erika Lang 21:37 (California Time)
Wednesday, February 27, 2002 ‘C’
The Staples Center, downtown Los Angeles
California, U.S.A.
‘’Ladies and gentlemen, dear guests, here is the moment you have been waiting for. LET’S APPLAUD NANCY DOWS AND THE ‘D.C. FIVE’ BAND!’
The thousands of spectators and invited guests filling the big sports stadium, which had been decked out with thousands of lights, a stage and giant electronic boards for the annual Grammy Awards ceremony, applauded enthusiastically as the powerful spotlights in the arena centered on a group of five young women standing or sitting behind a variety of musical instruments on the elevated stage. Sitting in one of the front rows of
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spectators nearest to the stage, Ingrid Dows applauded as loudly as anyone else, feeling overwhelming emotions at seeing her daughter and her band being celebrated like this.
If any person from Timeline ‘A’, the original timeline of Humanity’s history, had been present at the ceremony, that person would probably have not recognized most of the artists and celebrities present, for the good reason that Timeline ‘C’ was effectively a parallel timeline which had split from Timeline ‘B’, itself a parallel world to Timeline ‘A’, decades ago. As a result, while the biggest artists and celebrities were still existing, many lesser personalities had lived different lives from those of their Timeline ‘A’ alter egos, or had not even been born at all due to the fluctuations of history since the splits in timelines, which had occurred in 1940 and 1941 respectively. All of this was mostly thanks to the involuntary travel back in time of Nancy Laplante, Ingrid’s adoptive mother, who had been transported against her will from the year 2012 to the year 1940 by two rogue scientists from the 34th Century bent on experimenting with time travel. However, very few people in Timeline ‘C’ knew that their world was not the original world of Humanity. Ingrid, as the resident field agent of the Time Patrol in Timeline ‘C’, certainly knew about it and so was her daughter Nancy. In fact, Ingrid, then named Ingrid Weiss, had been an original inhabitant of Timeline ‘A’, a young teenage German girl caught in the turmoil of World War 2. Young Ingrid Weiss had then been doubled when the timelines had split for the first time in 1940 with the arrival in England of Nancy Laplante, left marooned in time when the two scientists who had abducted her were killed in an accident just after dropping her off, unconscious, with her car in a pasture field near Northolt. What was then Ingrid Weiss ‘B’ eventually met Nancy Laplante and got adopted by her, while the original Ingrid Weiss ‘A’ was officially killed in a British air bombing raid on Berlin. In reality, Ingrid Weiss ‘A’ was secretly saved then, along with a few of her comrades, by the Time Patrol in 1945, to then become one of its field agents.
As for Ingrid Weiss ‘B’, she had to endure the pain of apparently losing her adoptive mother when one Nancy got killed while being held and tortured by the German Gestapo. That death had caused a further split in timelines, with Timeline ‘C’ emerging out of Timeline ‘B’ in 1941 at the moment of Nancy’s death and with yet another Ingrid coming into existence in the new timeline. The present Ingrid ‘C’, distraught by the apparent death of her adoptive mother, had then married a handsome American Marine Corps officer, Kenneth Dows, and had become Ingrid Dows, to then follow him to his new posting in the Philippines, where her fabulous career as a fighter pilot eventually started. Now, at the actual age of 76 and while still looking like a beautiful eighteen-
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year-old teenager, Ingrid was able to watch her biological daughter, conceived with Archangel Michael, as she and her band were attaining the top of the musical world.
On the stage, the already most beautiful and sexy Nancy Dows was even more of a feast for the eyes with her semi-transparent, vaporous golden dress covered with thousands of small golden reflective flakes, which glittered like tiny lights when hit by the light from the spotlights aimed at the stage. Then Nancy, standing behind a Qanun2, started singing a soft tune in her melodious voice while playing the strings of her instrument. More applauses rose as the spectators quickly recognized the tune and words from her band’s latest hit, ‘And an Angel Sang’, which was presently at the top of the musical charts around the World. With Sarah Weissman playing the violin, Lucy Dows, an adopted daughter of Ingrid, playing the harpsichord3, Carmen Estrada playing the electric guitar and Erika Lang doing her usual virtuoso performance at the drum kit, the band played a soft, melodious and most romantic song which made the spectators listen to it in religious silence.
Thunderous applauses erupted when the song ended after four minutes, with all five young women bowing down to the crowd to thank the spectators.
The awards ceremony’s presenter, himself an acclaimed singer, then walked on stage to thank Nancy while speaking in his microphone.
‘’And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen: ‘And an Angel Sang’, the top song on the charts and one in line for ‘Best Song of the Year’ award, sung by one of the contenders for ‘Best Artist of the Year’ award and accompanied by a most talentuous band in line for the ‘Best Musical Pop Band of the Year’ award. Nancy, bravo for your performance and that of your band tonight.’
‘’Thank you, Jon. It was an honor for us to perform here tonight.’
More applauses rose as Nancy and her four band members walked off the stage to make place for the next performer.
2 Qanon: Zither-like board instrument with multiple strings. Of Persian origin.
3 Harpsichord: A predecessor of the piano invented in the 16th Century.
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Behind the curtains of the stage, Nancy exchanged warm hugs and kisses with her band members.
‘’Great job, girls! We can now say that we are at the top of our business as a band.’
‘’Yes, but let’s wait for the award winners to be named before calling ourselves the queens of pop.’ replied her sister by adoption, Lucy Wong-Dows. ‘’Still, this can only boost the sales of our latest album. We are well on the way to become millionaires, all five of us.’
‘’And that thanks to your generosity and selflessness, Nancy.’ added Erika Lang.
‘’Compared to you, many band leaders keep the major portion of their band’s revenues, claiming their ‘lead role’ in their success, while parceling out smaller portions to their band members. In contrast, you always split our band’s revenues’ evenly in five equal parts.’
‘’Hey, think of this like the celebrated Three Musketeers quote: all for one and one for all. Well, time to go back to our seats besides that of my mother. We shouldn’t insult our competitors for tonight’s awards by snubbing their own performances.’
Giving back to the backstage technicians the electronic microphones they had used on stage, the five young women then went down to the audience level by a hidden staircase and went to sit on each side of a happy Ingrid, with Nancy sitting next to her and then hugging and kissing her.
‘’Thanks for having come to watch us perform tonight, Mother.’
‘’How could I have not come, Nancy? This must be about the best moment of your life and that of your band members. You richly deserve all the awards you will win tonight.’
A couple of rows of seats behind and to one side of Ingrid’s seat, a well-known rap singer was less than enthusiastic about the D.C. Five’s performance, bending sideways and talking in a low voice to his wife.
‘’Pff! That was pure fluff, nothing else. That Nancy Dows is sure playing too much on her reputation as a half-angel.’
His wife, a woman in her thirties who was usually quite obedient to him, did throw him a dubious side look in response.
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‘’Come on, Jay! You can’t deny that this Nancy has a golden voice and that her band members are very talented and are all able to play multiple instruments, on top of being able to sing in many different languages.’
The rapper didn’t reply to that, making a scowl instead.
Nearly two hours later, the rapper had more reasons to scowl when Nancy Dows and her band won a total of three of the most prestigious awards of the night, namely
‘Best Pop Song’, ‘Best Pop Band’ and ‘Best Artist of the Year’. Having himself missed on the title of ‘Best Rap Artist’, he then got up from his seat and walked out, forcing his wife to reluctantly follow him as Nancy Dows got up one last time on the stage with her band to accept the award for ‘Best Artist’. Other rappers and musicians sitting in the same row as the departing couple watched him go with disapproval showing on their faces, with one rapper shaking his head.
‘’Jay’s problem is his damn ego, always has been.’
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CHAPTER 4 – A NEW KID ON THE BLOCK
09:15 (Seattle Time)
Thursday, May 8, 2003 ‘C’
Prototype workshop, Hiller production plant
