King of War Tech novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: The Stage

The Navy Club ballroom held four hundred chairs at eight in the morning, and none of them were empty.

A glass wall faced the river lawn.

Along the back stood the press pool, with their cameras on tripods.

On the stage, the gray targeting rig sat on its cart beside a wide monitor.

Clyde's giant photograph grinned down from the wall behind it.

Stellan had put the three of us in the front row.

Marjorie sat in the middle with her cane.

Imogen sat on her left and I sat on her right, in a suit Admiral Wetherington's tailor had altered overnight.

Stellan looked down at the suit once, and his jaw tightened.

He did not know what else to do about it.

The chief of security stood at the stage-left curtain, pale, his sling gone gray with a night's sweat.

He did not look at me.

Admiral Wetherington walked to the podium before Stellan could.

"Good morning," he said. "Before this demonstration, a Navy rule."

"For any new system, the Navy flies the target."

"Our drone, our path, chosen here, in front of you all."

A murmur ran through the press pool.

Stellan took a step toward the microphone, and then he saw the cameras, and he stopped.

"Of course, Admiral," he said. "We welcome it."

A captain held out a Navy cap.

The Admiral drew a folded card from it and read it.

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