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case. As a matter of fact, he had forgotten all about his student escapade
with the Nash Rambler. What had given him the idea for showing off the NIFTV
when the Air Force was testing its APU was something he'd read about Charles
Parsons, the English inventor of the steam turbine, who had used the
celebration of the Queen's Jubilee in 1897 to arouse the interest of the
British Admiralty. On that occasion, the
Royal Navy had assembled 173 warships to be reviewed by the Royal Yacht and a
grand flotilla of craft containing the Lords of the Admiralty, various
colonial premiers, the Diplomatic Corps, and members from both Houses of
Parliament; but Parsons stole the show by roaring around the fleet in his
2,000 horsepower turbine-driven yacht Turbinia at thirty-four knots, which was
faster than anything the Navy could send in chase. In fact, it was the fastest
boat in the world at the time.
Such was the spirit of the age, that the British Admiralty had responded by
promptly ordering two turbine-powered ships. As he zipped up the document case
and rose from his chair, Keene wondered if they could expect a similar display
of magnanimity and perspicacity from the Defense
Department.
* * *
After leaving Amspace, Keene stopped by his own company to show his face and
check on how things had gone during his absence. Protonix occupied a five-room
suite in an office park on the south side of Corpus Christi, near the
interchange between the Crosstown Expressway and South Padre
Island Drive. Besides himself as president, it had four other staff, all
female. Vicki was Keene's associate and second-in-command; Celia acted as her
assistant; Judith had a math Ph.D. and looked after the computers, while Karen
was the receptionist, secretary, and general errand-runner. The engineers at
Amspace referred to the firm enviously as Keene's Harem. In fact, as a point
of professionalism and out of the sheer practical consideration of getting
things done in an environment that was complicated enough already, Keene kept
business strictly separate from anything personal. As with marriage, he had
suffered the consequences of those kinds of involvements in earlier years.
Sometimes he thought that the first half of his adult life had served partly
as a rehearsal for the second, in which he was finally managing to get a few
things right.
He was greeted with laughter and applause, a bottle of Bushmills Black Bush
Irish whiskey, and an old astronaut-style cap from the souvenir shop at the
Johnson Space Center in Houston. The girls
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n.txt had watched the demo that morning and said it was terrific. Karen
thought that Keene looked great on TV that unshaven, mildly haggard look was
exactly what movie producers were hunting for. He ought to apply for a part,
she told him. Keene assured her that there had been nothing mild about it.
Although Protonix hadn't been named in any of the coverage, the political and
media insiders who knew Keene were already clamoring to get ahold of him, and
Shirley, who ran the office that he used in Washington, had called with a
tentative list of meetings scheduled for Monday. But the big news was that
Naomi had presented Celia with five kittens: two tabby, one black, one gray,
and one
"kind of stripey something," Celia said. . . . Oh, and yes, apart from that,
Judith had left early to attend the computer show in Dallas tomorrow; there
were problems with machining some of the parts for the reactor Westinghouse
was fabricating in San Diego, that Vicki needed to talk to him about next
week; the guy in Japan who had done the thermal studies had downloaded the
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reports that
Keene was interested in; and the parking lot would be closed next Friday and
over the weekend for resurfacing. When a few more minor items were disposed
of, Vicki followed Keene into his office with a list of things to check for
Monday, leaving Karen and Celia clearing desks, organizing purses, and
exchanging plans for the weekend.
Vicki had light brown, almost orange hair that contracted itself into wiry
curls no matter how she tried to comb or wave it, and a freckled, angular face
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