Able One- Part Two

"The habit of reading is the only enjoyment in which there is no alloy; it lasts when all other pleasures fade."
- Anthony Trollope

All right, I know it has only been hours since my last post, but this one might be a bit longer, have more detail, and is needed to do my assignment for my FLVS class. On a side note, I think I will continue with this after my class is over like I'm doing it now. No great detail, just summary and my feelings on it. All right, lets roll!

Fun stuff in this installment! We start off this segment of the show with Lieutenant Sharmon and Colonel Christopher (apparently the Colonel is a woman, so the name threw me off for a bit) talking about the lack of a GPS. Sharmon tells the Colonel that he can navigate the plane, it would just be more reassuring with the GPS to back him up. The Colonel and Lieutenant then go around the corner and speak privately, Colonel Christopher asking Sharmon to call her Colonel instead of ma'am, and Sharmon telling her that his friends call him Jon. The Colonel reassures Jon that this flight is only a test run, nothing serious, and he has nothing to worry about.

A few moments later, the Colonel finds herself talking to Major Kaufman who informs her that there is no metsat (civilian satelites) operational in orbit, but the milsats (military satellites are fine). She takes this info with a grain of salt and continues to the flight line.

Another character, Harry (who had moved to California to get away from the snow and unrelenting weather of northern states), finds himself on the flight line next to the 747-400F trying to make a cell phone call to his superior. Unfortunately, the cell service is still down, so he just entered the plane. What else could he do?

This is an example of a Boeing 747-400F

At the Pentagon, General Higgins (the same general from before) is quickly trying to recall Air Force One from it's path to San Francisco out of fear that there might be a nuclear attack on the city. As this happens, Jamil and others in the room are forumlating theories as to who exactly is behind the outages and possible attack on America. Muslim Jihadists? Chinese who are angry at the U.S. for the world-wide recession? Eventually, they decide that until they can get eyes in either country again, they won't have a clue.

On Air Force One, the president's Chief of Staff, Norman Foster, delivered the request to the President, who didn't much like what he heard. He tells Foster that he won't turn around for four reasons. One, if he turns back, he looks like a coward. Two, he has faith in the missile defense systems in place on the west coast. Three, he's going out there to calm people down about the sudden outages of our satelites. And four, because he says so. With that, the conversation ends and Foster exits the room, thinking that he really doesn't want to be anywhere near San Francisco tonight.

Back in the Pentagon, the sae group from before is discussing the different forms of defense they can use, and what they're going to use it against. One member points out that we can try to hit it white it's in midcourse (coasting) phase with our two subs on their way to Japanese waters. Another points out that we have the missile defense systems in Alaska and California. But General Schieb adds one more possibility for attack during the boost phase, the Airborne Laser or ABL-1. The ABL-1 is able to shoot down missiles using a laser beam to pierce through the aluminum hull and blow up the fuselage. The General tells them to let the ABL-1 team know that they're headed for North Korea.

The ABL-1 (also pronounced Able One) is the source of the name of this novel.

Again, loved it and wish I had the time to read more of it. I did notice that this time I think the author's intent was more towards suspense for the President story, but revving up the pace for the upcoming missile chase over North Korea.