Whiplash

4

Danny Freah’s initial reaction to general Magnus’s offer was thanks, but no thanks.

Magnus’s limited description made the assignment sound a lot like his job at Dreamland, without the security component. Eventually, the unit would be bigger than Whiplash, which at Dreamland had never numbered more than a dozen people, at least not while he was assigned to it. “Wing size, potentially,” Magnus said, though he added that it would start out much smaller.

Commanding a unit that large would be a definite plus in his plan to advance to general. But Magnus had made it clear that the job was outside the normal Air Force structure, and that wasn’t going to help him at all.

The detour on the road to general wasn’t the only thing bothering him. Magnus was undoubtedly right about how limited the opportunities in the near future were, so taking this job might not hurt at all. But Danny couldn’t articulate, not even to himself, the other reasons that made him hesitate.

Everything had bored him after Whiplash and Dreamland. There was no way it couldn’t. He’d traveled across the world, saving people, at times even saving entire countries, or at least good portions of them. No assignment that followed could ever come close in terms of excitement or gratification.

Yet, he didn’t want to go back.

He was…afraid.

The word came at him like a train in a tunnel exploding in a sudden rush.

Afraid.

Was he?

Yes.

Afraid of what? he wondered.

Not death. Danny had learned that when you were in danger — when it was actually a possibility — death was not something you tended to think about. There was too much else to do. It was only later that it hit you, if it hit you at all.

His fear was of something else: Not being able to measure up to what he had done before. Of proving unworthy of the Medal of Honor he’d been awarded. Of disgracing himself and everyone who believed in him or looked up to him, like the sergeant at the gate that morning and the others who had applauded.

Danny realized this on the way back to his hotel, as the Metro came to his stop. He got out of the car and walked slowly toward the exit. Outside, he took out his cell phone and called a cab to take him to the hotel. He was annoyed with himself, unnerved at the waves of introspection that consumed him.

This wasn’t what a leader did, Danny thought. And he was a leader. There was no question about that.

The taxi was just arriving when his cell phone rang. The number didn’t look familiar, but he decided to answer it anyway as the cab pulled to the curb.

“Freah.”

“Colonel Freah?”

“Yeah?”

“Please hold for the senator.”

“Danny, what the hell are you doing in town without calling?” said Zen Stockard, his voice booming out of the clamshell speaker on Danny’s phone.

“Hey, Zen. I just came in for a quick meeting.”

“That’s no excuse, Colonel.”

“Hey, hold on a second, OK?” Danny got into the cab and told the driver to take him to his hotel. “Still there?”

“What the hell are you doing staying at the Alexandria Suites?” asked Zen, who’d heard the destination.

“It’s nice and not too expensive.”

“I don’t care — you should be with us. Teri loves your bedtime stories.”

Danny laughed. The last time he’d stayed with them — a year before — he’d told her fairy tales for half the night, all variations of things his grandmother had told him when he was little.

“What are you doing for dinner?” asked Zen.

“There’s a nice restaurant about two blocks away. I figured I’d walk on down.”

“Forget it. The Yankees are in town to play the Nationals. You and I are going to the game.”

“Uh—”

“Listen, buddy, I’m not taking no for an answer,” said Zen. “A senator outranks a colonel by a hell of a lot.”

“Sir, yes, sir,” laughed Danny.

When he’d been in the Air Force, Zen played down the fact that his family was wealthy. He’d banked nearly all of his trust proceeds, never took money from his father or uncles, and with one exception had never called on them for help. That exception had been during his fight to get reinstated on active duty after the crash that cost him the use of his legs.

Now that he was older, however, and had clearly set his own path in the world, he took advantage of the conveniences his family’s money provided. A driver and a van specially adapted to his wheelchair were the most obvious. There were others, though — like open invitation to use the owner’s suite at the Nationals.

Zen arranged to pick up Danny at his hotel an hour before the game. He grinned as his old friend spotted him and trotted out to the van.

“Danny,” he said, as Freah pulled open the sliding door at the rear. “How the hell are you?”

“Is a U.S. senator allowed to use profanity?”

“Only if his daughter isn’t in the car. Jeez, man, you’re looking good.”

“You don’t look too bad yourself. You put on a little weight.”

“Too many fat cat lunches,” said Zen.

It was a joke. Among his strictest rules was that he always paid for lunch.

“So how’s Bree?” Danny asked.

“Good.”

“Teri?”

“Ready to run for princess. She’s taking tap dancing lesson now, besides the ballerina stuff. She’s amazing. Must get it from her mom.”

Zen rocked back and forth in the wheelchair, which was fitted with a special brace holding it in place in the van. The brace was similar to the one he had used in the Megafortress years before. The driver’s side had a similar arrangement, so he could push the regular seat back and use hand controls to drive himself if he wanted.

Too much beer drinking at a baseball game for that, though.

“Hear much from your father-in-law?” asked Danny.

Zen felt himself flinch. “No one hears much from Dog these days,” he said. “Not even Bree.”

Danny nodded.

“So don’t tell me that you’re rooting for the Yankees tonight,” said Zen, anxious to keep things cheery.

“I am from New York.”

“Buffalo is not in New York. It’s Canada, isn’t it?”

Danny did, in fact, root for the Yankees, though very discreetly. Zen was anything but discreet as the Nationals took a 6–0 lead into the sixth inning. But then the Nationals’ pitching crumbled and the Yankees mounted a comeback, tying it at 6–6 in the eighth. The visitors went on top by a run in the ninth, the home team scored one, and the game went into extra innings.

It wasn’t until the top of the tenth that Zen told Danny that he knew he’d been offered the new Whiplash job.

“I figured there was an ulterior motive here,” said Danny.

“Actually, my ulterior motive was to get to a baseball game,” said Zen. “If it weren’t for you, I’d be listening to some State Department dweeb telling me about how China’s going to blow up next week. You were my excuse to the staff to blow it off.”

“Uh-huh.”

“So what about it?”

“What about what?”

“You taking it?”

“I don’t think so.”

Zen pushed his chair up closer to the open window of the booth. The Yankees’ best hitter had just struck out.

“Hey, it’s no reflection on Bree at all,” said Danny.

“I didn’t think it was,” said Zen. “This guy’s going to whiff, too.”

He didn’t — he sent a long drive to the warning track in center field. The Nationals fielder needed every inch of his six-nine frame to catch it, jumping high at the wall to bring it down.

“If you take it, we’ll see a lot more of you,” said Zen when the crowd had quieted down. “I hope. Got a couple of dates lined up for you.”

“Thank you, Mr. GoodDate.com.”

The Nationals manager had seen enough. He came running from the dugout waving his right hand, asking for a new pitcher.

“How come Breanna didn’t ask me herself?” said Danny.

“She doesn’t want to talk you into it,” said Zen. “She’s afraid you’ll take it just as a favor.”

“So she sent you?”

“Actually, no. She doesn’t know you’re at the game with me. She’d probably be pretty mad if she found out. So don’t tell her, right?”

“I won’t.”

Zen hadn’t learned of Danny’s candidacy from Breanna. He found out originally from Magnus, who’d consulted him not just because he’d served with Danny, but because Zen was a member of the Senate intelligence committee. The new Whiplash concept had been championed by the committee, and Magnus was a smart enough backroom politician to keep his allies well-informed about what was going on. He also suspected that Freah would need some convincing to take the job.

Danny stared down at the ball field. He was sure plenty of other people could do the job.

“I can probably come up with a whole list of people for her if she wants,” he told Zen.

“Well, why don’t you then? Give her a call. Tell you’re thinking about it and you want to talk to her.”

“So she can talk me into it, right?”

“She won’t.”

“You didn’t have to take me to a baseball game to get me to call her, Zen.”

“Hey, I told you — the job’s just an excuse to get out of the reception.” He pointed toward the field. “Watch now. This guy’s going to strike out, too.”

The batter didn’t strike out — in fact he hit a home run, and when the Nationals were set down in order in the bottom of the tenth, the Yankees won the game.

Zen was a reasonably decent sport about it when he dropped Danny off at his hotel. Breanna was a reasonably decent sport the next day when Danny called her at her office.

“I understand General Magnus spoke to you yesterday,” she said when she came on the line. “So, have you made up your mind?”

Danny hesitated. He had, but he knew it wasn’t the decision she wanted to hear.

“You don’t have to take the job, Danny,” she told him. “It’s all right.”

“I want to—”

“Great!”

“No, no, I mean — I don’t know, Bree. I just…”

“It’s a tough job, I know.” She tried to hide her disappointment. “We can’t really ask you to keep making the same kind of sacrifices you made when you were younger.”

“It’s not my age—”

“I don’t mean it that way.”

“I do want to be involved. It’s just…”

“You don’t want the job. It’s OK,” she told him. “Don’t worry.”

“Can we have lunch?” Danny asked. “Or coffee or something?”

They arranged to meet on the mall that afternoon, not far from the Lincoln Memorial. The day turned chilly, threatening rain. Danny, dressed in a civilian T-shirt and jeans, found himself rubbing his arms for warmth as he crossed from the reflecting pool. Breanna, coming from a meeting on Capitol Hill, had already called to say she was running behind, and he took advantage of the delay to walk around.

He stared up at Lincoln, seated not on a throne but on a simple chair.

Lincoln was a man who knew the costs of war, who suffered them personally. How many mornings had he risen feeling he had gone as far as he could, yet continued, conscious not just of the burden, but of the necessity of his mission?

He should take it, he thought. It was his duty.

And he wanted to. But still, he was afraid — not that he couldn’t do it, but that he wouldn’t measure up to who he’d been.

Fear was a terrible reason not to do anything. Fear only held you back.

He should do it.

Danny felt his pulse rate kick up as soon as he saw Breanna walking from the direction of the Vietnam Memorial. Two bodyguards trailed behind at a respectful distance as she strode toward the monument where they said they’d meet.

She spotted him and waved.

“Hey there,” he said as she stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek in greeting. “You allowed to kiss the hired help?”

“It depends on whether they kiss back,” she countered. “How are you, Danny?”

“I’m good. Yourself?”

“Busy, unfortunately.” Breanna took a step back, comparing him in her mind’s eye to the younger version she’d known a decade and a half before. He looked a few pounds heavier, though not overweight by any means. His face seemed more relaxed, the space beneath his eyes smooth. She remembered his eyes were always puffy from lack of sleep. He’d always looked a few years younger than he was, and that remained true. A casual acquaintance might guess he was in his late twenties or early thirties.

“I don’t mean to play Hamlet,” he started.

“I kind of know what you’re thinking,” she told him. “After my — after our crash, when Zen and I were lost on that island off India. When I was laid up. I went through — it was an awful experience. I wouldn’t want to go through it again. I don’t. With Teri, now — I’ve taken my risks.”

“No, that’s not it,” said Danny. “I guess — well you know, one of the things is, I am in line, I want to be in line, to be general. And that was one of the things on my mind.”

“There’s not going to be a list this year, Danny. And probably not next year.”

“Yeah. But listen, forget all that — I want the job.”

Having expected that Danny would reject the offer, Breanna was surprised — and then apprehensive. “I don’t want to talk you into it,” she said.

“No, that’s OK. I’ve made up my mind. I’m doing it.”

“It’s a tough job.”

“You trying to talk me out of it?” He smiled, but there was an edge in his voice. Her reaction did make it seem as if she had changed her mind.

“No,” said Breanna. “Not at all.”

“When do I start?”

“Monday. Sooner if possible — as soon as we can get the paperwork settled. Whatever time you need for your assignment now. The sooner the better.”