3
Julie stares out the window of the helicopter. It’s a new model, stealth technology, eerily quiet, with retractable rotor blades like the kind of ceiling fan that tucks back up above its light fixture.
The pilot of the helicopter is new to her, but she’s seen the co-pilot before. Gardner, she thinks his name is. She won’t ask. She doesn’t want to talk to either of them.
There’s a tremor in her right arm. She keeps trying to still it, use sheer will to make it settle, but there’s something neurological going on and that’s that.
Julie closes her eyes. Ignores the tremor and focuses on her brain.
Her mentor, Colonel Jenks, taught her a skill back in advanced training three years ago. At first every time she did it she felt a kind of mental nausea, like her mind wanted to vomit, even th
