Still about four hundred seconds till final pitch-over. Her mind drifted idly, wondering what ultimately would happen between Paul and herself. She had gone out with better-looking men, but no one smarter. In fact, that was probably part of the problem. Hoehler was clearly in love with her, but she wasn't al-lowed to talk technical with him, and what nonclassified work he did made no sense to her. Furthermore, he was obviously something of a troublemaker on the job -a paradox considering his almost clumsy diffidence. A physical attraction can only last for a limited time, and Allison wondered how long it would take him to tire of her - or vice versa. This latest thing about Livermore wasn't going to help.
The fire colors faded from the sky, which now had a faint tinge of blue in it. Fred - who claimed he intended to retire to the airlines -spoke up, "Welcome, lady and gentleman, to the beautiful skies of California... or maybe it's still Oregon."
The nose pitched down from reentry attitude. The view was much like that from a commercial flyer, if you could ignore the slight curvature of the horizon and the darkness of the sky. California's Great Valley was a green corridor across their path. To the right, faded in the haze, was San Francisco Bay. They would pass about ninety kilometers east of Livermore. The place seemed to be the center of everything on this flight: It had been incorrect reports from their detector array which convinced the military and the politicians that Sov treachery was in the offing. And that detector was part of the same project Hoehler was so suspicious of- for reasons he would not fully reveal.
Allison Parker's world ended with that thought.
ONE
The Old California Shopping Center was the Santa Ynez Police Company's biggest account