Dale Brown: Act of War

After the President and his party departed, Frank Falcone and Jennifer McCracken came up to Jason and Ari. “Well, looks like we’re still in business,” Falcon said. “What’s the word, boss?”

“The word is…I’m not going back to our damned base until they get some hot water, decent chow, and regular beds,” Jason said. “We can write up an ops plan just as well on a beach in Florida. Daytona Beach is nice this time of year, isn’t it? Jennifer, get us some nice Visiting Officers Quarters at Cape Canaveral or Patrick Air Force Base for a month or so, and get them working on fixing up Pecos East.”

“Yes, sir!” McCracken said happily.

Ariadna followed Jason to the cargo hold on the C-37A to supervise the loading of their folded CID units, then went inside to wait until Jennifer filed their flight plan and made preparations for departure. The interior of the C-37A was downright luxurious compared to the C-17 Hercules they had been flying around in. Jason found himself on a large L-shaped settee in a private compartment of the plane near the middle, with freshly made coffee, cold drinks, computer terminals, and large-screen plasma TVs waiting for them.

He stretched out on the settee, put his feet up, and patted the settee beside him. “We got a few minutes to kill, Ari,” he said expansively. “Why don’t you and me relax a bit?”

Ariadna smiled warmly and seductively sauntered over to him. She stopped right in front of him, leaned forward, and let her dark hair cascade over his chest, letting him catch just a glimpse of her chest inside her partially unzipped warm-up suit top. “Jason…” she breathed. Her lips moved closer to his…and then she dropped a glass of ice water into his lap. “Like I said, maybe if we were stuck on a deserted island for like a year. Until then, keep dreaming.” She got up, tossed him a towel, and watched him wipe himself off with an amused gleam in her eye as she fired up a computer terminal and got ready to start writing up their report.

Well, she thought, maybe not a year…a week, maybe…

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A personal Thank You to my friends Don Aldridge, Mike Alger, Kirk Caraway, Frankie Sue Del Papa, Darla Deville, Robert Gottlieb, Bruce James, Steve Martini, Jean and Sheamus McFadden, Jodi Rafkin, Don and Mary Savage, and of course my wonderful wife, Diane, for their support. It has been a rough year, but with your help and best wishes from you and many others, I think I’ll be fine.

Thank you again to Dave and Cheryl Duffield for their extraordinary generosity and community service.

About the Author

DALE BROWN, a former U.S. Air Force captain, was born in Buffalo, New York, and now lives in Nevada. Act of War is his seventeenth novel. He graduated from Penn State University with a degree in Western European history and received a U.S. Air Force commission in 1978. He was still serving in the Air Force when he wrote his highly acclaimed first novel, Flight of the Old Dog. Since then he has written a string of New York Times bestsellers, including, most recently, Battle Born, Warrior Class, Air Battle Force, and Plan of Attack.

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ALSO BY DALE BROWN

Flight of the Old Dog

Silver Tower

Day of the Cheetah

Hammerheads

Sky Masters

Night of the Hawk

Chains of Command

Storming Heaven

Shadows of Steel

Fatal Terrain

The Tin Man

Battle Born

Warrior Class

Wings of Fire

Air Battle Force

Plan of Attack

Credits

Jacket design by Richard Aquan

Jacket photograph collage: Washington, D.C., by Miles Ertman/

Masterfile; fire by Roy Ooms/Masterfile

Copyright

“Act of War” is a trademark of Atari Interactive, Inc. Used with permission.

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

ACT OF WAR. Copyright © 2005 by Air Battle Force, Inc.