CHAPTER ONE

 

"Where's your younger half?" Mary Max asked as Frank stepped into her office.

"He's in school, Ma'am." Frank Farrell grinned. "Final exam today."

"Really?" She arched an eyebrow. "What subject?"

"HALO." Frank told her. "Jumping out of an airplane."

"Why in God's name is he doing that?"

"He felt the need," Farrell shrugged. "And, to be honest, it could come in handy down the line."

"Alright," she shook her head. "When do you expect him back?"

"Sometime tomorrow."

"Call me when he gets in," she put a hand on the back of her neck, pressing hard to relieve the tension there. "I need to get you guys working on this one."

"Which one is that?"

"I'd rather wait until you're both in the room." She picked up a folder and began to study the contents, dismissing Frank.

Must be important, he thought as he closed her office door. I should call Sean and tell him. He pulled out his cell phone-then stopped. No, he told himself. It'll wait until tomorrow morning. He nodded once. Best not to bother him until after his jump.

Farrell pushed the phone back into his pocket and headed for his office, wondering where the youngster was right now...

 

***

 

Sean Piper was, in fact, some two thousand miles away busily humping his way toward a C 130 sitting on the very edge of the flight line.

"Thought you were going to be late," a young woman in coveralls smiled as he reached the plane's ramp.

"Wanted to check my paravane one more time," he answered, smiling back. "Took a little longer than I expected."

"Did you check your barometric trigger? Make sure it's properly calibrated?"

"Yes Ma'am," he gave the girl a casual salute as he reached the top of the ramp. "I also checked my emergency 'chute' and my backup altimeter," he held up his right hand, showing her the device on his wrist. "Did I forget anything?"

"Did you check your life insurance?" She tapped a control on the wall of the aircraft and stepped back as the door began to close. "Just in case."

"I hadn't thought about that," he raised an eyebrow. "Do you lose many trainees?"

"No," she shook her head. "But I always worry about them before a jump."

"You're way too young to be mothering guys like me." He grinned at her. "You should save it for important things."

"What's more important than the lives of guys like you?" She motioned him to one of the aluminum and nylon seats folded against the side wall. "I mean..."

Sean wedged himself into one of the seats-the move made far more difficult by the gear he was wearing. "You're worrying right now!" The plane lurched as it began rolling toward the runway. "Sit down and relax-it'll be okay."

The girl nodded and lowered herself into one of the seats-leaving an unoccupied one between them. "Why are you doing this?" She frowned at him as the plane began to speed up. "You're not in the SEAL's."

"Not in the military at all," he shrugged. "But my Dad was in Special Forces and I wanted to get all the training he did."

The plane rocked a bit, then settled as it took to the air.

"Why?"

"Seemed the right thing to do." He shrugged again. "And I might need the training eventually." He looked at his companion. "How about you? Why are you here?"

The girl-her nametag said 'Sobkowiak' but Sean knew her name was 'Connie'--sat back to think about that.

"I..." Her shrug mirrored his. "I didn't want to go to college-no real reason to spend all that money. The Air Force..." She gestured around her. "I love flying and this job gives me the chance to spend a lot of time in the air." She glanced at her watch. "Which reminds me..." She pulled an oxygen mask from her belt and held it up. "Time to go on O2."

"Right," Sean had a small tank attached to his pack and quickly put it on and adjusted the flow."

"As I was saying," she smiled at him. "I like to fly-and it gives me the chance to take care of nice young men like you-make sure you are properly prepared for a jump."

Sean smiled back. 'Connie' had been the jumpmaster for three of his drops. She'd taken great care to check his gear before each of the drops, making sure that all the lines and straps were where they were supposed to be. Some of those checks had included soft touches in rather intimate spots-and Sean wasn't sure if those meant anything although he rather hoped they did. He hadn't spent any time with a girl since his rather one-sided romance with Angie had crashed and burned.

At least that got me working with Farrell, he thought. And got my Mother and Sister taken care of!

Sean still hoped to have normal relationships now and then-and he liked Connie. She was pretty in a fresh-faced and earnest kind of way and a quick and completely illegal check of her record had shown him that she was honest and, in the opinion of her commanders, completely trustworthy.

Now all he had to do was find a way to ask her out...

"We'll be at the target height in just over five minutes," she told him. "Time to get into position."

Sean nodded and pushed himself onto his feet. He made his way to the edge of the closed ramp where he stopped while Connie checked his rigging.

"Why are you here?" She asked him as she checked the security of his straps. "I mean, really?"

"They weren't doing any HALO jumps at Banning," he told her as she pulled one of his shoulder straps tighter. "So I used a work contact to get a couple of rides here at Hurlburt Field."

"How did you know that we do jumps here?"

"Your planes are kept ready for SEAL Team tasking and I know just how often the guys in the teams like to practice..."

"Okay," she gave his gear one final look then stepped back. "But why do a solo jump? Why not wait for some of the others?"

"Have to get back to the office," he grinned. "Can't let them think they can get along without me."

"Oh," she frowned. "Does that mean..."

The door suddenly CLANKED loudly and began to open.

"Grab a safety line!" Sean yelled. "Quick!"

It was too late. Caught by surprise Connie was pulled backwards by the rush of air...

Right out the back of the aircraft.

"Shit!" Sean muttered as he raced down the ramp and dove after her.

 

 

CHAPTER TWO

 

High-altitude military parachuting is a method of delivering military personnel and military supplies from an aircraft out of sight and out of reach of most equipment. A HALO (High Altitude Low Open) jump demands that the parachutist free falls for a period of time.

Free-fall has been practiced by civilian skydivers since the 1960's although seldom from the kind of altitude used by Military personnel who routinely jump from altitudes of between fifteen and thirty-five thousand feet.

Sean had planned his jump from twenty-five thousand feet and had hoped to do it at night, a request denied by the base commander...

Which is a good thing, he thought as he pulled his arms tightly to his side to increase his speed. Or I wouldn't be able to see her!

As it was, he could just make out Connie below-she had spread out in a stable position, slowing her fall and making it possible for him to catch up.

He hoped.

Just keep straight, he told himself, and let yourself catch up. He took a deep breath. The hard part will begin then!

He thought about what he would need to do.

I'm going to have to get the best grip on her I can, he knew. It would help if she was conscious. He could see that she still had her oxygen bottle. If she is, she can wrap herself around me...

A small part of his brain told him that might be fun.

No time for that now, he risked a glance at his altimeter. Twenty-two thousand feet... He did some math in his head. I'll have to get to her before we reach ten thousand or we might not have time to get our act together... He tried to judge his speed-an impossibility with no frame of reference. Just keep going and hope for the best...

He inched closer, closer...

Can't hit her too hard, he told himself. Gotta match velocity as nearly as I can...

He opened his position a little, reducing his speed just enough-he hoped...

He was within twenty feet...Ten...Five...

He grabbed one of her arms, putting the two of them into a spin for a moment while he pulled her closer together.

"Grab me!" He shouted into the slipstream. "Wrap your legs around me!"

He could see her face now-white with cold and fear-but her eyes were steady and she nodded once before wrapping her arms around his chest before pulling herself closer and repeating the action with her legs.

He closed his own arms around her and, for a few seconds, concentrated on stabilizing their fall. If he couldn't do that, the paravane lines might become snarled and keep the canopy from opening.

She kept still, not interfering as he worked, not wanting to break his concentration.

"Okay," he said into her ear. "I'm going to open the chute in three..." He tightened his grip with his left arm while grabbing the chute release in his right hand. "Two..." He swallowed once, then: "One!"

He pulled hard on the release...

 

***

 

During a typical HALO exercise, a jumper will reach terminal velocity within about 60 seconds (depending on wind and his body position). That meant that as the paravane deployed, Sean and Connie were subjected to around three 'G's of force which meant that Connie's One hundred twenty pounds instantly became a three hundred sixty pound weight dragging at her grip. For a long moment, she held on with a desperate force-matched by Sean's.

And then they were floating downward, supported by the fully-opened paravane.

"You all right?" Sean asked in the suddenly quiet air.

"I think so," Connie looked into his eyes. "You saved my life!"

"We still have to get down," Sean looked at the landscape below. "We're well short of the drop zone-all I can see down there is scrub and sand."

"Do whatever you can," she took a deep breath. "Drop me if you have to."

"Not a chance of that," Sean smiled. "Just hold on tight..."

A moment later, they were down. At the last minute Sean had found a small clearing and by 'gulling' out the paravane, he'd been able to put them down in it-not as gracefully as he would have liked, but softly enough that neither of them were hurt.

"Okay," he said a moment later as they slid to a halt-her on top. "You can let go now."

"Just a minute." She pulled him closer and kissed him hard. "That's for saving me." She kissed him again. "And that's for getting the two of us down in one piece."

"Any time, Ma'am." Sean grinned as the two of them disengaged and sat across from one another for a long second. "Just one thing."

"Yes?"

"When I get back down here," he raised an eyebrow. "Would you go out to dinner with me?"

She looked at him for a long moment, then leaned forward and kissed him again, her arms going around him. "Anytime, Mr. Piper. Anytime at all!"

 

***

 

"You look like you had a good time," Frank Farrell gave his partner an up-and-down glance. "A very good time!" He shook his head. "I thought parachuting was supposed to be hard work."

"Hard enough," Sean paced the older man as they made their way through the crowd at Reagan airport. "What's going on?"

"Mary Max has something for us," Farrell dodged an overweight tourist's backpack. "Says she won't go over it until we're both there."

"Important?"

"If it was vital, she'd have asked me to call you back immediately." He pushed open the door that led to the parking garage. "I figure it's something on the back burner that involves computers in one way or another."

"Russian hackers!" Sean smiled. "Gotta be-what else is going on that would need our attention?"

"You might be right," Farrell led the way to his car-an unassuming Gray Lexus parked in the lot reserved for members of Congress and VIP's. "In any case, we'll find out soon enough." He looked at his watch. "Mary Max is waiting for us."

"Now?" Sean tossed his bag into the car's trunk. "I don't even get to shower and change?"

"She said to bring you there ASAP," Farrell shrugged. "That means now."

Sean sighed as the car left the garage and headed for the 14^th Street Bridge, thankful that the traffic wasn't too heavy yet.

 

***

 

Traffic was, in fact, light enough that Farrell pulled into the FBI Building's garage only twenty minutes later.

"Not bad for a five-minute drive!" He told Sean, smiling. "One of these days, somebody will put in a Ferry and really speed things up!"

"It'd be easier just to concrete the river over," the younger man stepped out and straightened his short-sleeved shirt. "I'm really under-dressed for this. Are you sure..."

"You wouldn't have worried about that a year ago." Farrell grinned. "Don't tell me you're growing up!"

"It's not that, it's just..."

"Mary Max will understand." Farrell reached the elevator first, pressed the button for the appropriate floor. "She's good that way."

Sean sighed again-then resigned himself to the meeting and followed his partner down the long corridor and across to the small meeting room where Mary Max was waiting.

"Gentlemen," she nodded as the two entered. "Please be seated."

Mary Max Halston had been a fixture in the intelligence services for more than twenty years. Like many old-timers, she knew where a great number of bodies were buried and that knowledge, coupled with her undeniable capability, had given her no small amount of power--and a great deal of independence.

She was going to test just how far that independence went now.

"You've both heard about the Russians 'hacking' the recent election and about the 'collusion' between them and the new administration?"

"Impossible not to," Sean nodded. "If you pay any attention to the news at all."

"Well," Mary Max produced two folders and slid them across the table. "Here is the complete file on the incident."

"But," Sean looked up after a quick scan of the file. "There's nothing here! No proof at all-nothing but opinions..."

"They call it 'Consensus'." She shook her head. "Consensus..."

"Just like Global Warming." Frank put the folder down on the table. "So they agree that something happened but don't know what." He looked at his boss. "What do you want us to do?"

"I want you to look into this-find out whether they really hacked into the DNC and whether anyone in this country was giving them aid of any kind." She looked at the two of them. "Do you think you can do that quickly and quietly?"

"I thought we didn't get into political matters?" Sean tapped the folder. "Judging by this 'proof', this is nothing but."

"Normally," she looked at the young man, "you'd be right-but this is paralyzing half the government and building up to what might turn out to be a real crisis," she shook her head. "I'd like to head it off before that happens."

"We'll need more information than this!" Frank spread his hands. "What kind of authority do I have?"

"The usual." She looked at Sean. "How about you? Can you put the politics aside and dig into this hard enough to find out what's really going on?"

"I can certainly try," He looked at his partner. "But we'll need a lot more than this to do anything!"

"Go to the FBI-check what their 'Cyber CSI' crew has." She frowned. "I assume they have something to draw their 'consensus' on."

"I'll get on it first thing in the morning, Ma'am." Sean bit into his lower lip. "If they have anything at all, I'll see what it amounts to."

"Do that," Mary Max pushed her chair back a little, relaxing. "And tell me," she looked at Sean. "Who's the girl?"

"Ma'am?"

"I see just a hint of lipstick on your collar-not to mention a slight relaxation of your usual taut posture." She smiled. "Ergo, you found a girl."

"I don't know if I'd call it that, Ma'am."

"What should I call it?"

"I'm not really sure..." He shrugged and smiled back. "It's possible that I found a girl-but I'm not really sure yet."

"Don't let it interfere with your work."

"I won't, Ma'am."

"Good," she made a shooing motion with her right hand. "Now get out of here and get to work-I'll expect a report in forty-eight hours."

"Two days," Farrell nodded. "Yes Ma'am."

Before the door had even closed, Farrell was looking at his partner and asking: "You found a girl?"