Ingrid, whose eyesight was legendary, smiled to herself when she spotted a particular group of men approaching the Hiller stand.
‘’Heads up, Shirley: I see a bunch of French Air Force pilots in uniform approaching from the right.’
‘’Goodie! Maybe the two pilots who intercepted us over the Atlantic will be part of that group. If so, I hope that they will prove cute.’
‘’We’ll see soon enough, Shirley. Elliot, we will personally take care of that particular group.’
‘’Why am I not surprised by that?’ replied the Hiller executive, who then stepped back to let the front of the stand to Ingrid and Shirley. The man leading the newcomers’
group was a commandant wearing a fighter pilot’s wings on his chest, along with a number of medal ribbons. He smiled widely to Ingrid while offering his hand for a shake.
‘’Good afternoon, General Dows. I am Commandant Robert Pelletier, commander of the fighter squadron 3/30 ‘Lorraine’. Two of my pilots met you and your wingman over the Atlantic on Friday.’
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‘’And we were hoping fervently that they and their comrade fighter pilots would come visit us here at Le Bourget, Commandant Pelletier.’
‘’How could we not visit your stand in order to have a look at your impressive new aircraft, General?’
‘’You came only to look at my plane? What about me and my friend Shirley?’
Pelletier and many of his pilots chuckled at that reply.
‘’Don’t worry about not being paid attention to, General: we also came to see you and your friend.’
‘’Aah, that’s better!’ said Ingrid, drawing some amused exclamations from the French pilots. ‘’Well, let’s start first with a guided tour of my Hiller A-24 SHARK. Then you will be able to go to the ‘pièce de résistance’: us!’
More laughter followed before she led the group of French military pilots closer to her A-24, stopping under the nose section, which stood over three meters over ground level.
‘’Let me first explain what prompted me into designing the A-24, gentlemen. A bit over eighteen months ago, a delegation from Southeast Asia visited me at my office and production plant in Port Angeles, near Seattle, on the American West Coast. They then asked me to design for them a new combat aircraft specifically geared for the Pacific area, with very long endurance and range, and this at the lowest cost possible without compromising its requested performances. The roles they had in mind for that new plane were actually quite different from those normally assigned to American and European combat aircraft, thus no existing type could fill their requirements, which are the ability to patrol over huge areas, police their economic exclusion zones, fight piracy and do counter-insurgency and counter-smuggling operations. Also, they wanted a plane that would be economical to acquire, maintain and operate. Armed with those specific requirements, I then designed the beast you are looking at now: the Hiller A-24
SHARK. Let me now show to you this large sign, which gives the specifications and performances of the A-24, as validated to date by test flights done by me. Read it first, then I will answer your questions and comments.’
It took only a few seconds before the first question came up from Pelletier.
‘’You really can cover 9,600 kilometers at Mach 1.62, and this with a clean aircraft and no air refueling? That’s mind-boggling! How did you manage that, General?’
‘’By powering my aircraft with two commercial engines of the high-bypass turbofan type, which have a specific fuel consumption that is less than half of that of the
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typical low-bypass turbofan engines used in modern combat aircraft. When coupled with divertless supersonic air inlets, those high-bypass turbofans can work perfectly well at speeds of up to Mach 2. Also, I voluntarily limited its top speed to Mach 2, both to allow the use of high-bypass turbofan engines and to be able to use only standard aluminum alloys in its construction, another way I kept the costs low.’
Another French pilot then asked the next question.
‘’Your board states that your A-24’s maximum range, without any air refueling, is just over 11,500 kilometers. Have you actually validated that claim by flying a long-range trip, General?’
‘’I have, Lieutenant! Last week, I flew straight from Seattle to Manila, crossing the whole Pacific at Mach 0.9 on that trip, a 10,692-kilometer flight, using only internal fuel and with some fuel to spare on landing. From there, I flew from Manila to Perth, on the western coast of Australia, covering some 5,203 kilometers while flying supersonic at Mach 1.9 before landing in Perth. Those two flights thus validated both the subsonic range and the supersonic range my A-24 claims. As is, you could fly out of Paris and get to either Djibouti, La Réunion, French Guyana or the Martinique in one straight flight.
As for reaching Tahiti, you would need only one pit stop on the way, in either the Martinique or French Guyana.’
The French fighter pilots exchanged befuddled looks, having never heard of such long ranges in combat aircraft, other than with strategic heavy bombers. Ingrid didn’t miss the fact that many of the French pilots, including Commandant Pelletier, noted down the numbers she was quoting. The next question came from a handsome young captain who waved his hand high to attract Ingrid’s attention.
‘’General, my name is Captain Jean Vermeil and I led the patrol that intercepted you off the coast of Brittany on Friday. While your plane certainly can carry and fire missiles, I can’t help but notice that you apparently put a heavy emphasis on the use of unguided rockets, notably by incorporating your HVSSR system to your aircraft. May I ask why?’
‘’A good question and one that deserves a full explanation, Captain Vermeil.
Please understand first that my plane was designed to fill roles specifically requested by the customer countries which asked for it and which are quite different from the roles typical of combat aircraft operating in the European Theatre. Those roles are mainly long-range oceanic patrol and policing of economic exclusion zones, counter-piracy, counter-insurgency and counter-smuggling. Guided missiles are mostly wasted in those
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roles, which call for close-in and positive visual identification of targets before any attack can be authorized and then initiated. On the other hand, using gravity bombs forces an attacking aircraft to approach and even overfly a target in order to drop its ordnance, something that will expose those aircraft to ground fire by rifles, machine guns and automatic cannons. My new rocket-launching system protects my A-24 from such ground fire by allowing it to fire its rockets from a safe distance, out of automatic cannon range and also out of most shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles range.’
‘’But, wouldn’t such unguided rockets be quite inaccurate at the ranges quoted by your information board, General?’
‘’Normally, most existing unguided rockets would indeed be inaccurate at ranges over 3,000 meters, Captain, but not my HVSSRs. As its name indicates, my HVSSR
rockets attain maximum speeds at engine burnout of either 1,200 meters-per-second for the larger caliber ones or of 1,600 meter-per-second for the smaller, 81 mm and 76 mm caliber rockets, velocities which are actually faster than those of cannon shells and are as fast as tank-fired armor-piercing sabot rounds. They thus have very flat trajectories, which helps tremendously their accuracy at long range. Also, my rockets are spin-stabilized by exhaust vanes in their rocket motors and start spinning inside their launch tubes the moment their rocket engines ignite. By the time they exit their launch tubes, my rockets are already spinning at a high rate, while their engines finish burning just after leaving their tubes. I used for that purpose the best solid propellants available in the American Space launch engines, which burn much faster and much more energetically than the usual propellants used in, say, the 68 mm and 100 mm rockets presently used by the French Air Force. Finally, the warhead sections of my larger rockets, in calibers of either 155 mm, 127 mm, 122 mm or 100 mm, detach automatically from their motor sections once the latter have burned out, then continue on their ballistic trajectories while spinning at a high rate. You will thus find that my rockets are at least as accurate and as fast or faster than the shells fired by automatic cannons, on top of having a much longer effective range. Finally, HVSSR users can choose from a variety of warheads and fuses and can also change quickly the caliber of the rockets carried by their A-24s by switching the type of rocket-launching modules they carry, an operation that can be easily done in the field and which takes less than one hour to do.’
Exclamation again ran through the group of pilots before another question was thrown at Ingrid.
‘’Can our planes carry and fire your HVSSR rockets, General?’
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‘’Unfortunately for you: no! They necessitate the use of long launch tubes which would not fit easily on your planes. My HVSSR system was specifically designed for the A-24 and for any other plane designed from the start to carry it. However, please note that this HVSSR system is covered by a patent under my name and that France would thus have to pay royalties to Hiller in order to use or adapt my HVSSR rockets to your planes.’
Commandant Pelletier showed some disappointment on hearing that.
‘’That’s too bad, truly, as your aircraft possesses some truly tremendous firepower, mostly thanks to your HVSSR.’
‘’Maybe France could buy some A-24s, in order to equip a few squadrons tasked with patrolling your overseas possessions in the Pacific and in the Indian Ocean, Commandant Pelletier.’
‘’Uh, I would personally like to see that but, in view of our national policies concerning weapons systems acquisitions, I doubt that we will ever see that happen, General. I however agree with you that a few of your A-24s would do a great job if based in, say, Tahiti or the Reunion Islands.’
Ingrid nodded her head once, then pointed at the HVSSR rocket pod module on display on the ground next to her A-24, along with a number of demonstration rockets of various calibers.
‘’Well, with this said, let me show you in detail what my HVSSR system is all about, gentlemen.’
About one hour later, and after letting a few of the French pilots climb up to the cockpit section, so they could see what the instruments in it looked like, the group left, but not before Jean Vermeil and Pierre Favreau received discrete invitations to visit Ingrid and Shirley at their hotel in the evening. As for Elliot Goulding, who had taken care of the other visitors to their stand, he was visibly satisfied with their day of work.
‘’Nicely done, girls. Many of the other visitors to our stand listened on to the briefing you gave to those French pilots and were apparently very impressed by what you said. I had in particular a group of Indian government officials who showed a high interest in our A-24 and who even asked me for details on its pricing and delivery times.’
‘’India would indeed prove to be an important customer for us, Elliot, especially since its usual past provider of aircraft and weapons, Russia, is now mostly out of the advanced aircraft production business, thanks to our strikes after it tried to launch a
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surprise nuclear attack against the United States a decade ago. Well, things are looking good for us up to now. I am however impatient to see the open family days next weekend: I love showing off my aircraft to little kids.’
10:11 (Paris Time)
Wednesday, June 18, 2003 ‘C’
Hiller exposition stand, Le Bourget Airport
This third day of the airshow was proving up to now to be as busy and productive as the three preceding days for both Ingrid and Elliot Goulding. Ingrid had been approached by a high-level Air France executive who had asked her if Hiller was planning to eventually design and produce a transonic airliner with the kind of speed and range of the A-24 or better, stating France’s need to shorten the long present flights endured by Air France’s customers when traveling from France to French Polynesia, Australia and the Réunion Islands. The man had been positively fired up with enthusiasm on hearing from Ingrid that she already had such a plane in her projects book, to be called the Hiller TRAN-SONIC. Ingrid had then discussed for a good half-hour with him about the requirements and performances desired by Air France for such a future airliner, with Elliot Goulding attending the discussion and taking copious notes.
Both Ingrid and Elliot were thus in a very good mood by the time that Shirley Slade spoke up with a verbal warning.
‘’Heads up, guys! I see a group of probable V.I.P.s on approach, surrounded by at least a dozen armed French gendarmes.’
That prompted both Ingrid and Elliot in staring at once at the incoming group, with Ingrid soon letting out an exclamation.
‘’These are not mere V.I.P.s, Shirley: that’s nothing less than French President Jacques Chirac, coming along with his prime minister, his minister of defense and the chief of staff of the French Air Force. Time to straighten ourselves up, guys: some big business may be coming our way.’’
‘’Gee, I hope so!’ said Elliot. ‘’To be able to have France as one of our customers for the A-24 would be a true marketing coup for Hiller. Uh, could I ask you to greet them, Ingrid? Your French is so much better than my French.’
‘’No problem, Elliot.’
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Ingrid then quickly combed her hair and zipped up fully the front of her aviator’s coverall, which had the ribbons of her impressive collection of military medals pinned to her chest’s left side. A forked thong would have told her to do the contrary and show as much of her cleavage as possible, since President Chirac was rumored to have cheated on his wife more than once, but Ingrid was not that kind of girl: only single men...and women, would be targeted by her for some fun. Besides, this would have been totally inappropriate and would have hurt Hiller’s reputation, especially since the French minister of defense was a woman. As the French president stopped in front of Ingrid, the gendarmes escorting him immediately established a security perimeter around the Hiller stand, while four presidential bodyguards in suits stayed around Chirac. Ingrid came to quasi military attention and nodded her head in salute while speaking in French to President Chirac.
‘’Mister President, it is a true honor to receive you at this Hiller exposition stand.’
‘’And it is an honor for me to finally meet such an illustrious person as you, General Dows. I see that you have won in the past the French Légion d’Honneur, along with the Croix de Guerre. You won them during the Second World War, right?’
‘’Correct, Mister President. I won them in 1944, for planning and leading the major Allied heliborne assault which took the bridges along the Rhine in Southern Germany.’
Chirac nodded his head as well, then presented his group.
‘’May I present you my Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, my Minister for the French Armed Forces, Michelle Alliot-Marie, and the Chief of Staff of the French Air Force, General Richard Wolsztynski.’
Ingrid shook hand in succession with the French dignitaries, then presented to them Elliot Goulding and Shirley Slade, who also shook hands with them. With that done, President Chirac had another question for Ingrid.
‘’Pardon my next question, General, but how old are you? Right now, I would give you only about nineteen.’
‘’I am now 77 years-old, Mister President. Before you ask, I don’t know when or how fast I will physically age during the next years and decades.’
‘’I am sure that my minister of defense, Michelle Alliot-Marie, standing to my left, must be jealous about that.’ joked Chirac, a smile on his face. ‘’My own wife told me that she is certainly jealous about your ability to stay young.’
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‘’Aah, the female wish for eternal youth. If it could interest your wife and Minister Alliot-Marie, my friend Shirley here is now 82 years-old and fought alongside me during World War 2. She was rejuvenated by supernatural means three years ago. But that is most probably not the reason for your visit to our stand, Mister President.’
‘’Indeed, General Dows. We came to see your Hiller A-24, about which I heard a lot about in the last couple of days. While France didn’t formally have an acquisition program for a very long-range fighter-bomber, it was for the simple reason that no existing aircraft possessed the kind of range we would wish to have to defend and patrol our overseas possessions in the Pacific and in the Indian Ocean. Presently, the combat aircraft we use in those areas have to use a circuitous route with many stops, or a number of successive air refueling operations, in order to deploy from France to our overseas territories, or to redeploy between them. This takes a lot of time, preparation and coordination and is also quite costly, if you count the need to maintain a fleet of air tankers. Even once deployed, our present MIRAGE and SUPER ÉTENDARD need to fly around with drop tanks in order to be able to cover a wide-enough area. Now, we have your A-24, which you designed specifically for the Pacific Theatre, and which promises to fill our needs nicely. However, I will let General Wolsztynski and Minister Alliot-Marie elaborate more on that subject. First, would you be kind enough to give us a tour of your aircraft, General?’
‘’With pleasure, Mister President.’ replied Ingrid, smiling. ‘’Let’s start by showing you the specifications and capabilities of my aircraft, then I will explain in detail its main features and systems. Please feel free to ask questions at any time.’
With the gendarmes protecting President Chirac politely keeping other visitors away from the Hiller stand while he was there, Ingrid was able to concentrate on him and his ministerial team and took a good twenty minutes to guide them around the A-24. At the end of the guided tour, Ingrid and Elliot Goulding sat down with President Chirac and his group to discuss business about the possible acquisition by France of a number of A-24s, with Goulding now the center of attention for the French. To Goulding joy, that discussion concluded with the French taking a buying option for an initial fifty A-24s and for the license production in France of Ingrid’s HVSSR system and rockets, to be produced solely for French needs. As President Chirac was getting up to leave, Ingrid quickly asked him a question not related to the A-24.
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‘’Mister President, you must have heard about the assassination attempt against me and my friend Shirley on last Saturday morning. Could you tell me what your Gendarmerie has found to date about those would-be assassins?’
‘’Since my minister of defense was briefed in detail about that incident, I will let her answer your question, General.’
In turn, Michelle Alliot-Marie thought for a second before speaking, probably to decide what she could say to Ingrid about that ongoing crime investigation.
‘’While the GIGN is still working on that investigation, what I can tell you is that the four men shot by our officers were all Pakistani citizens, two of whom actually worked at the Pakistani embassy in Paris. A series of searches of their residences uncovered a number of illegal weapons and explosives, along with documents linking them to the Pakistani ISI intelligence services. As a result of all this, the Pakistani ambassador was called in and given a stern rebuke and warning, while a number of Pakistani diplomatic attachés were expelled as ‘persona non grata’. Unfortunately, our security services can’t vouch that other potential assassins are not still at large, so I would urge you to be extra cautious during the rest of your stay in Paris. If this could reassure you, the GIGN has posted a few undercover agents around your hotel to provide you with protection and they will stay on duty until your departure from France.’
‘’It does reassure me quite a lot, Madam Minister. I saw your GIGN officers in action and they proved themselves to be very competent and professional.’
‘’Thank you for your compliment to our officers, General, and for guiding us around your impressive new aircraft.’
The French dignitaries then left after a last exchange of handshakes. Elliot Goulding had a huge smile on his lips as he watched them walk away with their escort.
‘’Now, this is what I call a good, productive day. I believe that I will have to tell Jeff Hiller to speed up the construction of that new aircraft production line for your A-24
in Palo Alto. By the way, when do you expect it to be officially certified as good for production, Ingrid?’
‘’Since all the test flights to date have gone without a hitch, I expect the FAA to certify the A-24 within at most five more months, so you can tell Jeff that this new production line will be needed soon indeed.’
‘’I will! In fact, I’m going to call him right now, to give him the latest good news.
You certainly have the Midas touch, Ingrid. Since you started working for Hiller, our
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corporation’s business has grown exponentially, to the point where we are hard-pressed to build our planes fast enough to satisfy our customers.’
‘’Well, I in turn have to thank Hiller for giving me a chance to continue living my aviation dream. This is the best job I could have hoped for after retiring from military service.’
‘’Yeah!’ said Elliot, his smile partly fading. ‘’Let’s hope that some new war will not prompt the President to recall you to military service...again!’
09:49 (Paris Time)
Friday, June 20, 2003 ‘C’
Hiller exposition stand, Le Bourget Airport
Ingrid was having a great time as she was answering the questions from a large group of small children from a primary school excursion trip visiting the airshow. She always had loved children and those preteens, who had come with their teachers and a few parents, reminded her of the times when she was raising her own daughter, Nancy.
She was listening to a question from a cute nine-year-old girl when she telepathically felt intense hatred directed at her. Snapping her head up, she saw a man of possibly Middle-Eastern origin who was approaching the Hiller stand at a rapid pace, his eyes drilled on her. The man wore a loose-fitting windbreaker completely zipped up despite the fairly high temperature of the day. She understood at once what that man wanted to do and felt rage towards him: he wanted to blow himself up and kill her, along with the over twenty young children surrounding her. Her suspicions were confirmed when the man took out of one pocket of his windbreaker a sort of handle with trigger, raising it high while starting to shout out loud.
‘’ALLAH... ’
Transported with fury, Ingrid reacted immediately, with her sole goal being to save those children from being slaughtered by the suicide vest probably carried by this fanatic. Her rage and despair multiplied the strength of her supernatural powers as she pointed a hand at the man and concentrated her telekinetic powers on him, shouting out her anger at the same time. Before he could finish his short sentence, the man was catapulted into the air, as if a giant, invisible hand from the sky would have pulled him up by his collar.
Before he could understand what was happening to him, he was already at an altitude of
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over 150 meters and was also being pushed away from the Hiller stand at a rapidly increasing speed. Overtaken by panic, the man did the only thing left that he could do: he pressed the trigger of his explosive vest. However, when the seven kilos of plastic explosives, wrapped with old nails and ball bearings, detonated, he was already at an altitude of 200 meters and at a distance of 150 meters relative to the Hiller stand. Thus, apart from blowing the suicide-bomber to bits, the explosion proved nearly harmless to the people on the ground, which only received a dispersed rain of low-velocity metal fragments. Another effect of all this, something that Ingrid had never experienced before, was the fact that a glowing white halo enveloped her as she projected all of her energy into her telekinetic effort to save the children around her. That halo persisted long enough after the death of the suicide-bomber to permit a couple of the teachers and parents accompanying the children to film her as she was still glowing, looking up while trying to calm herself down. When she regained full control of herself, she belatedly realized that the people around her, including the children and the two French gendarmes who had been posted nearby, were staring at her with disbelief.
‘’Aw shit! More circus to come after this.’
Her mind then returned to the children she had protected and, crouching down, gently hugged the little girl who had been asking her a question.
‘’Don’t be afraid, young girl: you are now safe, you and your comrades.’
Straightening back up, she looked around her at the people starring at her and spoke up in a loud but calm voice.
‘’Please do not be afraid of me: I only did what was needed to save you all from that suicide-bomber.’
She next turned to face an equally flabbergasted Elliot Goulding.
‘’I guess that I will now need to go make a statement with the gendarmerie about this incident, Elliot. Could you and Shirley please continue here while I’m away?’’
‘’Uh, of course, Ingrid.’
Feeling tired from the explosive energy drain caused by her desperate telekinetic effort, Ingrid walked to the nearest gendarme and nodded her head at him.
‘’I believe that I will need to fill a statement about this incident, Officer.’
‘’Uh, I believe so as well, General. Please follow me.’
10:58 (Paris Time)
Security offices of the Le Bourget Airport
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‘’If you will please sign your declaration here, General, plus write the date there.’
Ingrid did so, then handed the form to the captain of the Gendarmerie Nationale who had been interviewing her. The man read quickly her statement, then gently smiled to her.
‘’This looks quite satisfactory to me, General. You may now return to the Hiller exposition stand if you wish so.’
‘’I don’t know, Captain: I am liable to find an army of reporters, press photographers and paparazzi waiting for me there. Have your officers found anything about that suicide-bomber who blew himself up? I know that he was reduced to shreds but maybe some papers on him survived the blast.’
‘’My officers indeed combed the scene in a large area but they found nothing except for pieces of scrap metal and human remains. The man’s head was blown to bits, thus it made it impossible to see what he looked like while alive.’
‘’Damn! I hope that this failure for them will discourage for good those who sent that man from trying anything else against me. This incident is liable to create a full-blown media circus around me.’
The gendarmerie officer briefly looked up at a television screen positioned high in a corner of the reception room and made a sour smirk.
‘’Too late for that, General. MERCIER, RAISE THE VOLUME ON THAT
TELEVISION SET, PLEASE.’
Turning her chair around, Ingrid then saw that the television set had just started showing the hourly news program of the main French channel, TF1. On it, a young and pretty newscaster was shown sitting behind her news desk, while half of the screen was occupied by a still picture showing a glowing Ingrid still looking up while pointing her right arm. The picture had apparently been taken by someone’s cell phone camera and also showed a few of the children who had been near Ingrid at the time.
‘’...This dramatic and fantastic picture shows the famous retired American general and fighter pilot, Ingrid Dows, just after she had catapulted high in the air, probably using one of her supernatural powers, a suicide-bomber before he could explode his bomb near her and the group of children visiting the Hiller stand at the time.
Thankfully, nobody was hurt by the explosion or by the shrapnel which flew around. As for the suicide-bomber, he was reduced to small bits by the explosion of his suicide vest.
One witness to the incident reported that, before he was projected upward by some kind of invisible hand, the suicide bomber had started to shout ‘ALLAH’ but never got to finish
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his sentence, which was probably ‘Allah U Akbar’, meaning ‘God is great’, the usual ultimate shout from Islamic fanatics conducting a suicide attack. As of this hour, General Dows is still at the security offices of the Le Bourget Airport, where she is said to be filing a statement on this incident. In the meantime, the gendarmerie is still searching the airport for possible accomplices to this suicide bomber...’
Ingrid sighed in discouragement as the newscaster continued her reporting.
‘’I’m going to again be a circus animal after this. Damn!’
‘’You only did the right thing, General, and saved dozens of lives by your actions, however fantastic they were.’ said gently the gendarmerie officer facing her. ‘’Nobody could blame you for anything in all this.’
‘’Maybe, but I still have a job to do here and I won’t be able to do it if I am constantly besieged by an army of reporters and paparazzi. I suppose that you can’t stop them from harassing me at my stand or at my hotel.’
‘’I effectively can’t: liberty of the press, as they say. If I may make a suggestion, giving a formal press conference here may buy you at least some peace afterwards.’
‘’Yeah!’ replied Ingrid, not too convinced. ‘’And I wanted so much to be able to enjoy Paris during this stay. Alright, could you arrange for a select group from the media to come in for a press conference given by me, Captain?’
‘’I will be happy to help you with that, General.’ answered the gendarmerie officer. ‘’Give me a couple of minutes and I will take care of it.’
Ingrid then waited patiently for a few minutes while watching the TF1 newscast on the room’s television set, imitated by the three gendarmes present. The gendarmerie captain finally reappeared and signaled Ingrid to follow him. Doing so, Ingrid ended up in what had to be a press conference room, complete with a lectern with microphone, a giant flat screen television and rows of chairs. Sitting in the chairs facing the lectern were a good twenty men and women who were obviously reporters or press photographers. Thankfully, there were none of the paparazzi which Ingrid loathed in that lot. The gendarmerie officer went to the lectern first and powered on its microphone before speaking to the reporters.
‘’Thank you for your patience, ladies and gentlemen. Before General Dows will speak, I will urge you to show both restraint and respect towards her and to not turn this into a circus. I will designate the reporters who will be allowed to ask questions.
General...’
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With the gendarmerie officer stepping aside to free the lectern, Ingrid walked to a position behind it and adjusted the height of its microphone before speaking, as numerous camera flashes exploded from the crowd of reporters.
‘’Ladies and gentlemen of the Press, I will first make a short statement, then you will be able to ask questions. What happened less than an hour ago at the Hiller exposition stand was a despicable attempt by a religious fanatic at killing me while showing utter disregard for the lives of dozens of young children who were visiting the Hiller stand at that time. Personally, I believe that those who are ready to worship a god who would supposedly encourage or reward such a despicable act should seriously reconsider their notions of what is right and what is wrong. Those I call good Muslims do not condone such suicide attacks against unarmed, innocent children and will state so and oppose fanatics like the one who tried to kill me today. As for my demonstration of supernatural powers, you frankly should not be surprised by it, ladies and gentlemen. I have publicly announced my nature as a Chosen of The One decades ago, along with the fact that I hold supernatural powers from The One and that I can remember my past incarnations, which cover over 7,000 years of history. I have also been known for over fifty years as ‘God’s General’, a rather misleading nickname in my opinion. I don’t fight in wars in the name of any god, but simply to defend the United States, its people, its allies and the innocents being abused or killed by dictators, criminals and fanatics. I serve The One, the powerful spiritual entity from which I received my powers sixty years ago, by simply promoting good and helping this World to become more peaceful and kinder. The One is not the so-called ‘God’ of the Bible or of the Koran and he didn’t create our Earth or the Universe: he was simply created along with the Universe. He also doesn’t want to be prayed to or worshipped and neither is he asking for financial donations from believers, contrary to the prophets and preachers claiming to represent the ’gods’ of the various religions practiced around this planet. He simply wishes to see Humanity better itself with time. I say ‘he’ to describe The One only as a matter of simplifying my choice of words, as The One has no sex and is an entity made of pure spiritual energy. You can contrast that with those religions which preach that men are superior in status to women, just because of their sex. We are all equal at birth and I have always acted accordingly. With that said, you may now ask your questions.’
The room exploded at once with shouted questions, forcing the gendarmerie captain to point at one reporter.
‘’The gentleman from AFP has the floor. Go ahead, sir.’
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‘’Thank you, sir. General Dows, what kind of power did you use to propel that suicide-bomber high in the air?’
‘’I used telekinesis. It was the quickest and safest way to put the children present at the Hiller stand out of harm’s way. I however must recognize that the emergency of the situation and the gravity of the danger faced by all around the Hiller stand injected in me an intensity in my power that I have not experienced before, a bit like adrenaline will increase your strength, speed and endurance when faced with a mortal threat. Next question!’
‘’Mary Hopkins, BBC! There was already another assassination attempt against you six days ago, as you were walking out of your hotel in the morning. Aren’t you afraid that more attempts may be made against your life after this, General?’
‘’Only a fool would dismiss such a possibility, miss. However, I am more worried about the lives of the innocents around me than about myself. As for the ones who would want to hurt me, I have a warning: I am ready to unleash all of my powers to counter their attacks and I will show no pity towards cowards who would be ready to endanger the innocents around me. What you saw today is only a small part of the powers I hold, but don’t ask me what my other powers are: I will keep them as a surprise for the bastards who sent that suicide-bomber. Nex question!’
‘’John Renquist, ABC News! Wouldn’t it be both simpler and safer for you and others around you to leave France now and return to the USA, General?’
Ingrid glared for a second at the American reporter before answering him.
‘’That would be the cowardly way out, mister, and it wouldn’t really ensure my safety anyway. I was attacked a number of times in the past while in the United States, including two times when my house was riddled with bullets by criminals. Did the United States cower from the Japanese after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941? No! We fought back and eventually won the war. I came to Paris to show my newest aircraft to the World and I will do just that this afternoon, when I will make a demonstration flight of my A-24 SHARK at Le Bourget Airport at two o’clock.’
Ingrid answered seven more questions after that one before calling an end to the press conference. She was then escorted out by four gendarmes and returned to the Hiller stand, leaving behind a crowd of half-satisfied reporters still shouting questions at her.
Once she was out of the room, those reporters then ran out themselves, in order to call their editors and place their reports online.
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14:07 (Paris Time)
Cockpit of the Hiller A-24 SHARK
Rolling towards Runway 03/21 of Le Bourget Airport Ingrid did her best to forget
about the morning incident with
the
suicide-bomber
and
to
concentrate on her present task
as a demonstration pilot for her A-
24 as she taxied towards Runway
03/21, the second longest one in
Le Bourget with a length of 2,665
meters and also the one nearest
to the spectators of the airshow
presently watching her roll along a taxiway. Stopping briefly at the junction of the taxiway and of Runway 03/21, she took a few seconds to obtain from the control tower the latest meteorological and barometric pressure data, as well as the permission to roll on the runway. Once authorized to do so, she turned right on the wide concrete runway and stopped again, now aligned with the centerline. Ingrid did a last check of her instruments, then took a deep breath of oxygen from her mask.
‘’Time to show them that you know how to pilot an aircraft, old girl.’
With both of her feet firmly pressing on the brake pedals, Ingrid then gradually pushed forward the double throttles of her engines, making them scream in a thunderous avalanche of decibels and making her A-24 vibrate like a restrained bull. Then, once at maximum power, she released her brakes, with the forward acceleration that followed pushing her back in her seat.
In the squadron readiness room of the 3/30 Squadron ‘Lorraine’, in the French airbase at Mont-de-Marsan, near Bordeaux, nearly twenty fighter pilots were avidly watching the video of her takeoff on the television set hooked to a wall, impatient to see what her A-24 was truly capable of and commenting between themselves.
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‘’There she goes! Hell, that’s an incredibly fast acceleration on takeoff.’
‘’SHE’S ALREADY ROTATING HER NOSE UP AFTER BARELY 200 METERS
OF ROLLING. THAT’S INCREDIBLE!’
‘’She barely left the ground and is already pointing her aircraft to the near vertical... MERDE8, SHE’S NEARLY IMMOBILE IN THE AIR. SHE’S GOING TO STALL
AND CRASH!’
‘’WAIT! SHE’S NOW ACCELERATING AT THE ABSOLUTE VERTICAL AND
SEEMS TO BE IN FULL CONTROL OF HER AIRCRAFT. THAT AIRCRAFT OF HERS
IS SIMPLY INCREDIBLE!’
The French fighter pilots watched on, their eyes glued to the television set, as Ingrid’s plane rocketed up through the sparse clouds hovering over Paris.
‘’Did you see that vertical acceleration? She must have climbed at an acceleration of about half a G9.’
‘’She’s now performing a large looping and is now on her back... Now entering a steep dive back towards the airport. Her aircraft is now spinning like crazy: I hope that this is intentional and not a loss of control.’
‘’She’s in control, Jean: I can tell by how her aircraft is moving. She is now in a tight corkscrew dive. Damn, she must be enduring at least six or seven Gs of continuous turns while doing this. That’s one tough girl.’
‘’She’s now out of her dive and heading straight down the runway at low altitude... SHE JUST ROLLED ON HER BACK AND IS FLYING LOW AND SLOW LESS
THAN FIFTY METERS ABOVE THE RUNWAY. THAT’S NEARLY SUICIDE!’
‘’Not for her, Régean: she’s the best and has been proving it for over fifty years.’
replied their squadron leader, his expression most serious.
When the video showing her airshow performance was broadcasted a few hours later on the American West Coast, Jeffrey Hiller yelled in triumph as he watched Ingrid land back after some ten minutes of amazing flying.
‘’YES! WAY TO GO, INGRID!’
8 Merde: ‘Shit’ in French. Very popular exclamation in France.
9 G: Unit used to express acceleration in relation to Earth’s gravity. Our planet’s gravity is worth one G, or nearly ten meters per second square. An acceleration of 0.5 G means that you are picking up speed at a rate of nearly five meters per second every second.
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In the pilots’ lounge of the Marine Corps’ El Toro Air Station, where dozens of marine aviators had been watching the broadcast showing Ingrid’s air performance at Le Bourget, their wing commander turned down the volume of the television set they had been looking at and looked at his pilots with a stern expression.
‘’Alright guys: if any of you try to replicate her stunts, I will kill you...if you survive your flight.’
78
CHAPTER 6 – A CRUCIAL DECISION
16:30 (Seattle Time)
Tuesday, June 24, 2003 ‘C’
1402 South McDonald Street, West End District
Port Angeles, State of Washington, U.S.A.
Ingrid was tired but happy when she arrived at her house, situated on the southern coast of the Juan de Fuca Strait. Apart from the two assassination attempts against her in Paris, the participation to the Le Bourget Airshow had been a huge success for the Hiller Aircraft Corporation and for her new A-24, a success which had translated into a mana of new aircraft orders and contracts for Hiller. Personally, the airshow had reaffirmed her as being one of the top aviators of her time, as well as being recognized as being in a class of her own in terms of aircraft design work. Now, having returned from France only a couple hours ago, she had only one wish: to have a good meal and then have a good night’s rest.
Her happiness at returning to her home was however doused as she turned her car into her driveway, when she saw light inside her lounge. She was quite certain that she had closed all of her lights before leaving for France. On the other hand, she doubted that a thief would be dumb enough to leave the lights on after burglarizing her home. Still, she pulled out from its ankle holster her compact 9 mm GLOCK pistol as soon as she had parked her car inside her garage and took its safety off before going to the side entrance door linking the garage to her house proper. Deciding to take out her suitcases only after checking out her house, Ingrid unlocked the side door and cautiously entered the staircase well and vestibule beyond it, her pistol at the ready. She froze for a moment, then swore at herself then: she had not checked the door for possible boobytraps before opening it. With Muslim fanatics and suicide-bombers being after her, the presence of a hidden bomb inside her house was a real possibility, with her ten days of absence from Port Angeles giving plenty of opportunities for an assassin to enter her house and place a bomb. Resolved to be more cautious from now on, Ingrid slowly
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climbed the short set of stairs that led to her kitchen. That was when a voice she knew well called her out from inside the house.
‘’YOU CAN RELAX, MOM: IT’S ME! I’M IN THE LOUNGE, WITH MICHAEL.’
Reassured by that, Ingrid put back on the safety on her pistol, then holstered it back before climbing the last few stairs and going through her kitchen. As soon as she entered the lounge, a smiling Nancy came to hug and kiss her, with Ingrid happily returning the favor. Archangel Michael, as impossibly handsome as ever, was next to hug and kiss Ingrid. The latter however couldn’t help look at him questioningly.
‘’Michael, I am happy to see you again but when you show up, something important or grave is happening or about to happen. To what do I owe your visit this time?’
‘’Partly to your trip to France and to the two attempts by Muslim fanatics at killing you there, Ingrid. But let’s sit down first, so that we could discuss quietly.’
‘’With pleasure, Michael.’’
The trio moved to the two sofas of the lounge, set in a ‘L’ shape facing the television set, with Nancy taking one sofa and Ingrid and Michael taking the other sofa.
However, instead of sitting next to Michael, Ingrid sat in his lap and wrapped one arm around him while smiling maliciously, attracting an amused smile on the archangel’s lips.
‘’I see that you really missed me, Ingrid.’
‘’Oh yes, I did, Michael. So, why did you come to visit me at my house, with our daughter in tow?’
‘’Well, as you saw in Paris, you still have plenty of enemies of all ilk, be they religious extremists, hostile governments or plain criminals, all of whom want you dead.
While you were saved from the first assassination attempt in Paris by the quick and efficient reaction of the French police, you only barely survived the second attempt. In fact, you only survived it because The One then lent you a hand by temporarily multiplying the strength of your powers. If not for that, your normal telekinesis power level would have only pushed away that suicide-bomber by a few meters, not enough to save you or the children surrounding you then.’
Ingrid soberly nodded her head once at that.
‘’I thought so, Michael. I thus must thank The One for that providential assistance: many innocent lives were saved then by his assistance.’
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‘’And saving all those children was his best reward, on top of saving you, Ingrid.
But, to return to the reason of my coming here today: I came to present you an offer from The One, an offer that would make you able to counter much better those would-be assassins and to also help more efficiently those around you.’
Ingrid, guessing what that ‘offer’ could be about, looked soberly into the eyes of the archangel.
‘’If it is to offer me more powers, then I must refuse, although I appreciate greatly that offer.’
‘’Actually, The One was ready to transform you into what our daughter is: a half-Human, half-Celestial being who could live forever and help others via enhanced powers, including that of mass healing. Do you really want to forego that, Ingrid?’
‘’Yes, I do, Michael, and here are the reasons why. While I have been staying young physically for all those decades, I have been watching my friends around me grow old, get sick and die. Most of the brave women who fought with me in the Pacific during World War 2 and during the First Korean War are now either dead or about to die from old age. My own first adopted child, Hien, is now 56 years-old and her son is already looking distinctly older than me. The two other children I adopted, Leonardo and Lucy, are now both 26 years-old and will probably soon form families of their own. I don’t want to see all the ones I love die one after the others along the coming years while I stay young and powerful. To watch them wither and die would be too painful to me, Michael.
If anything, I wish to be able to start aging again at a normal, human rate.’
Those words brought tears on Nancy’s face.
‘’But that means that I will lose you in the coming decades, Mom.’
Ingrid, deeply moved, looked at her and replied in a soft voice.
‘’All the daughters and sons in this World eventually have to watch their mothers die, Nancy. That is called ‘life’ and it has happened to billions of Humans along the past millenniums. While I would like to be able to continue helping the others around me, I wish to finally be able to follow the same life and death cycle as that of my fellow Humans. I truly hope that my request will not disappoint The One and that he will grant it to me.’
Michael starred into her eyes for a moment before nodding his head.
‘’He fully understands your reasons for your request and accepts them, Ingrid.
While you will keep the powers you presently have, so that you could both defend yourself and help others around you, your immortality and ability to rejuvenate yourself
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and others are gone as of now. From now on, your body will age at the normal human rate and you will one day look like the grandmother you already are.’
With a crying Nancy watching on, Ingrid tenderly kissed Michael on his lips while tightly hugging him.
‘’Thank you, Michael, and thank you to The One for granting me my wish. I do have another wish, though, and this one is to you directly.’
Ingrid then whispered into Michael’s ear, making him grin in amusement.
‘’I should have known! Nancy, if you could return to Washington D.C. now, I would like to be alone with Ingrid tonight.’
Wiping out her tears first, Nancy then got up and looked down at both Ingrid and Michael, still sitting on their sofa.
‘’I will leave now, Mom. Have a good night.’
‘’With Michael with me, it will definitely be a good night for me, Nancy. Say hello to Lucy and Leonardo on my part. You may also tell them about my decision.’
‘’I will, Mom.’ replied Nancy before vanishing from where we stood. Now alone with Michael, Ingrid gave him a malicious smile.
‘’I hope that you are still as skillful as before in bed, my lovely Michael.’’
‘’Do not worry about that, my perverted Ingrid. As they say here, I will fuck your brains out...as many times as you wish.’
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CHAPTER 7 – REASONS TO CELEBRATE
