Freda turned slightly red. “Yes, I do, Papa, but we just met…”
“And that’s all the more reason to let you have some time of your own. You may meet a lot of young men and you will need the time to get to know them better. That way, if you do eventually fall in love, your heart will know he is the right one,” he said smiling. “You and I have always told each other what we think, so now I think you must spread your wings a little. Don’t worry about us so much, just think about yourself,” he said as he patted her cheek.
Still blushing, she looked up at her father. Somehow he had always known what was going on with her and had the perfect solution. “I would like that, but I still want to help.”
“Oh, I know that, but when a friend calls, don’t let us hold you down. Now, tell me about young Petyr,” he said with a smile.
Her eyes brightened and her smile widened. “I think he’s wonderful,” she blurted out.
Those four words brought both joy and great worry to her father.
Chapter 2
Plans
The compound had taken forever to get right. Chemically, it was more complex than the professor had ever seen, but then, the final mixture had been done under an electric charge. The result was a polymer-type string that could be wound on a spindle. The compound kept making and making until finally, thirty minutes later, the string stopped. In just a few minutes, it began to glow. Placing the strings in a loom, the men began to weave the string into a sort of blue glowing cloth. Unfortunately, their loom was a small one and what came out was only the size of a common washcloth. The cloth was spread across a steel plate and the student applied a light coating of resin. A second sheet was spread over the resin and coated again. Then the metal plate was heated. Immediately, the glow got much brighter — enough to light a room. As the men watched, the resin hardened into a solid sheet while the light increased.
Just as they were about to pronounce the experiment a success, the glow suddenly stopped. The radio, which had been playing softly in the background, went silent. Another man, on his cellphone in the far corner suddenly stood and looked at his phone. He shook it and tried to redial a number. His curses could be heard through the room.
“Damn it! That was an important call,” he said to no one in particular.
“Oh well, let’s try it again,” the Professor said to his student. “Maybe we don’t heat it as long as the last one.”
After the resin coated sheet cooled, the student used a spatula to slide under the now hardened plate of resin and material. When it popped free, the radio suddenly came back to life.
“Hold on a minute,” said the student. He placed the sheet back down on the metal table. Once the bottom fibers made contact, the radio went silent again. The student and professor looked at each other in amazement. “What did I make,” the student asked.
On Friday morning, Hammond summoned Jeffers into his office. “Rod, we have been invited to dinner tonight. Since you picked up your car yesterday, do you mind doing the honors?” he asked.
“Sure, Admiral. What time is dinner?” Jeffers asked.
“About seven, but we probably need to be there about six thirty. Our host will want to meet you and say hello and we have some times to catch up on. We can go in service dress whites, so let’s plan on leaving here around four to get ready. If you can pick me up at six, we’ll head over. It’s across the river and I can get us there,” Hammond said.
“Who is the host?” Jeffers asked.
“Just a guy I know that works in government. We go back a ways,” Hammond said cryptically.
“No problem, sir, I’ll come by around six. Just hope you don’t mind riding around in my old beater of a car,” Jeffers said.
Hammond noticed a strange twinkle in his eye, but ignored it. “I’ve had my shots. Now what’s next on the schedule?”
The rest of the day was the same bureaucracy as previous days, meeting with other military types or contractors. During one of the breaks, Hammond noticed a phone message on his desk from a Tim Maxwell. He picked up the phone and dialed Jeffers’ number. “Rod, what is this message from a Maxwell?”
“Admiral, I’m not quite sure, but he says he was aboard the Iowa when you were the CO and said it was very important,” Jeffers said.
A look of pleasure spread across Hammond’s face. Fireman Maxwell had been the one man to put out a fire on the boiler face in the number two fireroom aboard Iowa. He remembered talking to the young man and thanking him for his work. Every time he had gone down into that fireroom, he had been there smiling up at him. “Oh yes, I remember him now. Thanks,” he said.
Hammond dialed the number on the message and after two rings a familiar voice answered the phone. “Maxwell, how are you doing!” he nearly shouted into the phone.
“I’m doing fine, admiral. It sure is good to hear your voice again,” Maxwell said.
“Same here. What are you up to?”
“Well, sir, I am getting my degree in chemical engineering at UNC Charlotte and I have come up with something that I think you might be interested in and I need some help in testing. Is there a way you can help me test this stuff out?” Maxwell asked.
“What is it?” Hammond asked.
“Well, sir, I developed a compound that can be pulled into a sort of string. I won’t go into the details, but when woven into a mat and heated, it appears to absorb all RF energy,” Maxwell said. “I heard you had gotten your new job and I figured you might be able to get some of the testing people to check it out.”
“You say it absorbs the energy? Like in radar and radio?”
“Yes sir. Like in it sucks it in from all around it. Nothing gets through. I just don’t have the stuff down here to really check this out, but if it does like I think, we could render a fleet invisible to radar.”
Hammond stared at his phone a moment. This would be the answer to a lot of stealth prayers. “Tim, I’ll call over to David Taylor R&D Center and see what I can do. Can you get this written up and bring a sample we can test?”
“Already done, sir. Whenever you are ready I will drive up there.” Of course one of my professors may come with me,” Maxwell said.
“I don’t really care how many you bring. Let me make a call and I’ll call you back,” he said. After a few more words he hung up the phone and punched in Jeffers’ number again. “Rod, get me the number to the head of David Taylor across the river.
A few minutes later the phone rang. “Admiral, Dr. Harry Thomas, the head of David Taylor is on line one,” Jeffers said.
Hammond picked up the phone. “Dr. Thomas, this is Roger Hammond,” he said. After some back and forth to get acquainted, Hammond got to the point. “Actually, Doctor, I need a favor.”
“What do you need, admiral?”
“Don’t you have one of those rooms where you test antennas and transmitters over there?” Hammond asked.
“Yes, we have an anechoic chamber. It’s a pretty good sized one, at that,” said Thomas.
“I just heard from a young man down at UNC Charlotte who needs to test some sort of material he has developed. He says it absorbs any and all RF energy. He’s being very careful because he says they just don’t have the equipment to really test it, but he is willing to bring it up here if we can check it out. If it works, I don’t have to tell you what it might mean,” Hammond said.
There was some rustling of paper on the other end of the line before Thomas spoke. “Can he bring it up this weekend? The chamber is open and I can have a guy there to give it the once over. If it works, we want in on it, if not, no harm done,” Thomas said.