Read Online A Sword Into Darkness by Thomas A. Mays - Free Book Online
Authors: Thomas A. Mays
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spoke again, he sounded very circumspect. “Well, I may have a line on some reactor components.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really!” Lee responded, defensive. “But you don’t need to worry about it. This is my contribution. You just worry about getting everything else together, including our drive section.”
Nathan wondered why he was being so evasive about their power source, but it did not really matter. He knew the Department of Energy had turned down their request for an experimenter’s license to acquire fissile materials, but Lee had a lot of initiatives going on at once, many about which Nathan had no knowledge. Perhaps one of them had panned out, such as a reversal by the DOE or a partnership with an established research outfit. Still, progress on one front did nothing for the complete failure on the drive front.
“You make it sound so easy, Gordon. Our problem is that every dollar you’ve sunk into advanced rockets and reactionless drives has bought us exactly nothing. This is our number one showstopper. If we don’t have something to match their super-rocket, we’ll have to make our stand within the inner solar system, and that’s a bit too close to home for me.”
“Me too, but don’t worry. Something will turn up. After all, the aliens do it, so we know there’s an engine out there that can do what we’re asking. We just have to figure out how they do it.”
“Once again, boss, you make it sound like that’s so simple.”
“There’s a way, I promise you. Faith and courage, boy, faith and courage. It’ll come to us.”
Nathan wrapped up the call and docked his suite on the dash of the Beemer. Ozone blues, Nathan’s current music of choice, surrounded him from the car’s ribbon speakers. He started the hybrid turbine up, its engine betraying only a high pitched whistling whine. Four hub-mounted electric motors propelled the metallic blue sports coupe smoothly and silently out of his space and onto the road.
Two sedans pulled out at the same time and followed.
Nathan rocketed down the access road toward Virginia Beach, foregoing the congestion of the highway for the white-knuckle thrill of speeding along the two-lane road with its nonexistent shoulders. He drove entirely too fast, which was how he first noticed the two sedans—they not only kept up with him, they were closing in.
“Damn it, Gordon. What did you do?” Nathan knew it was nothing he himself had done. He had been dealing in proprietary technology and beyond bleeding edge weapon systems, but nothing shady or illegal. Some of Lee’s plans, however, were more esoteric than others.
A third sedan, as dark and nondescript as the other two, suddenly pulled out from a hidden driveway along the access road and stopped in Nathan’s lane, blocking him. Two suited heavies scrambled out holding weapons.
Instead of coming to a screeching halt, he floored the accelerator and swerved into oncoming traffic. Alert drivers and collision avoidance logics drove all but one of the few cars there off into the tall grasses abutting the road. As Nathan zoomed by the men and their car, an old minivan appeared in front of him in the oncoming lane. They both swerved into Nathan’s right-hand lane, still headed for collision.
Nathan checked his turn at the last instant and the two vehicles scraped by one another in a shower of sparks and flattened fenders. The BMW fishtailed down the centerline while the minivan spun around and came to a stop just in front of the third sedan. Nathan got his car under control and slid back into his lane, flooring the power to the wheels once more.
It was all for naught. Apparently deciding the sedans and armed heavies were not enough, two tactical vehicles merged onto the access road and blocked both lanes. Their occupants exited bearing automatic weapons. Nathan continued to debate his options for escape, but then he saw the letters emblazoned on
“Really?”
“Yes, really!” Lee responded, defensive. “But you don’t need to worry about it. This is my contribution. You just worry about getting everything else together, including our drive section.”
Nathan wondered why he was being so evasive about their power source, but it did not really matter. He knew the Department of Energy had turned down their request for an experimenter’s license to acquire fissile materials, but Lee had a lot of initiatives going on at once, many about which Nathan had no knowledge. Perhaps one of them had panned out, such as a reversal by the DOE or a partnership with an established research outfit. Still, progress on one front did nothing for the complete failure on the drive front.
“You make it sound so easy, Gordon. Our problem is that every dollar you’ve sunk into advanced rockets and reactionless drives has bought us exactly nothing. This is our number one showstopper. If we don’t have something to match their super-rocket, we’ll have to make our stand within the inner solar system, and that’s a bit too close to home for me.”
“Me too, but don’t worry. Something will turn up. After all, the aliens do it, so we know there’s an engine out there that can do what we’re asking. We just have to figure out how they do it.”
“Once again, boss, you make it sound like that’s so simple.”
“There’s a way, I promise you. Faith and courage, boy, faith and courage. It’ll come to us.”
Nathan wrapped up the call and docked his suite on the dash of the Beemer. Ozone blues, Nathan’s current music of choice, surrounded him from the car’s ribbon speakers. He started the hybrid turbine up, its engine betraying only a high pitched whistling whine. Four hub-mounted electric motors propelled the metallic blue sports coupe smoothly and silently out of his space and onto the road.
Two sedans pulled out at the same time and followed.
Nathan rocketed down the access road toward Virginia Beach, foregoing the congestion of the highway for the white-knuckle thrill of speeding along the two-lane road with its nonexistent shoulders. He drove entirely too fast, which was how he first noticed the two sedans—they not only kept up with him, they were closing in.
“Damn it, Gordon. What did you do?” Nathan knew it was nothing he himself had done. He had been dealing in proprietary technology and beyond bleeding edge weapon systems, but nothing shady or illegal. Some of Lee’s plans, however, were more esoteric than others.
A third sedan, as dark and nondescript as the other two, suddenly pulled out from a hidden driveway along the access road and stopped in Nathan’s lane, blocking him. Two suited heavies scrambled out holding weapons.
Instead of coming to a screeching halt, he floored the accelerator and swerved into oncoming traffic. Alert drivers and collision avoidance logics drove all but one of the few cars there off into the tall grasses abutting the road. As Nathan zoomed by the men and their car, an old minivan appeared in front of him in the oncoming lane. They both swerved into Nathan’s right-hand lane, still headed for collision.
Nathan checked his turn at the last instant and the two vehicles scraped by one another in a shower of sparks and flattened fenders. The BMW fishtailed down the centerline while the minivan spun around and came to a stop just in front of the third sedan. Nathan got his car under control and slid back into his lane, flooring the power to the wheels once more.
It was all for naught. Apparently deciding the sedans and armed heavies were not enough, two tactical vehicles merged onto the access road and blocked both lanes. Their occupants exited bearing automatic weapons. Nathan continued to debate his options for escape, but then he saw the letters emblazoned on
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