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.Lowell had agreed to resign as of January 1, 1959, but he told Bellmon that heintended to spend the holidays with his friends on the post.When Jane had told Tom about Lowell one night at dinner, he'd laughed.But then the next day, Ed Greer had been killed when the Big Bad Bird crashedand exploded.Jane had known Greer, of course; Greer had been assigned toCombat Developments, but he was also married to Melody Dutton, the daughter ofHoward Dutton, the mayor of Ozark.Howard and Tom were good friends.Jane and Tom Cassidy had been sitting in their reserved seats in the bleacherson the parade ground for Ed Greer's funeral services when the black-paintedPage 38 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlhelicopter had appeared out of nowhere, buzzed the field, and then blown up aline of Russian tanks.Before they left the parade ground, one of the Combat Development guys hadtold her what had happened.Major Lowell had stolen an H-19 from the AviationSchool.He'd taken it somewhere out on the post in the pine thickets andhidden it there.Then he'd made all sorts of unauthorized modifications to it:he had another door cut in the fuselage; had mounted rocket launchers on theskids; and then he had used it to shoot up the Russian tanks lined up at thefuneral ceremony.Jane thought she understood why he had done it.The rocket armed helicopterwas important to the army, and it was liable to go down the tube because of EdGreer's accident.Lowell had decided in effect, to commit suicide in order toprove beyond question that a helicopter could kill a tank.It was generallyagreed that Lowell would be court-martialed for what he had done, and wouldprobably spend some time in the federal prison at Leavenworth.Thus, when she walked in on Cramer hanging up the sign with Lowell's name onit, she believed she had been assigned to an office where nothing would happenuntil they courtmartialed Major Craig Lowell.As it turned out, Jane was wrong.She soon learned thatMajor Lowell was not going to be court-martialed, nor was he going to resign.The Rocket Armed Helicopter Section of theFlight Test Division was indeed what Colonel Roberts had said it was, a brandnew division of the Board, and she was its administrative assistant.And Major Lowell himself was not what she expected him to be.She had thoughthe was a swinging bachelor and had learned that he was instead a widower; awidower with a son, whose photograph in a silver frame was the only decorationinLowell's office.About the first thing he ordered Jane Cassidy to do was toput in a telephone call to his son in Germany.Neither did he look at her as a man on the make looks at a woman.He spoke toher briefly when Mr.Cramer introduced them, telling her that if she hadworked for Bellmon for a year, that was all the reference she needed.He waspolite, but not charming.Other small things about him surprised her, too.For instance, he immediatelyproved that he was the best and most accurate typist in the office.She wouldnot have expected a somewhat dashing pilot to be a skilled typist.Tomcouldn't type at all.And she saw something else that interested her.The officers and men whoworked for him, with whom he dealt casually and jokingly, regarded him withgreat respect and admiration.Colonel Bellmon had been known behind his backas"Old Iron Britches." But Lowell was either "the Duke," a flattering referenceto his finely tailored uniforms and to the mustache, or he was simply "theMajor."By the end of her first day working for Major Craig W.Lowell, Jane O'RourkeCassidy had learned something else: she was as attracted to Major Lowell asshe had been to Tom Cassidy, Auburn halfback, the first time she had seen himPage 39 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlup close.At 2:30 P.M." there was a phone call for the Major, and she had to waitbefore he looked up at her.He had an ability to concentrate on what he wasdoing to shut everything else out that was almost frightening.Despite hiscasual manner, she knew right away that he was probably the most intenseindividual she had ever met."Colonel Bellmon's wife," Jane said, then immediately corrected herself, "Imean General Bellmon's, is on the phone if you're not busy, Major."Lowell picked up the telephone, idly thinking that tension had done it again,had made him aware of Jane Cassidy's breasts and her sexuality.Whenever he was tense, he got horny.Of course, after the ass-chewing sessionhe had had with Paul Jiggs, he would not have jumped her if she had come intothe office starkers.And besides, this was not your typical Rebel broad, ready to jump into the bedof her dashing lover.This one was a lady; married, Cramer had told him, to aformer football hero now running the peanut mill.She would not be interestedin fun and games with Craig Lowell; "Hello, Barbara, what can I do for you?"he said to the telephone."Southern's having "equipment problems' again," Barbara Bellmon said."The next flight to Dothan is at 11:15 tonight
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