"That's the man. How good is he?" Clark asked, mainly to get a feel for Malloy.
"None better in a helo, 'specially a Pave Low. He just talked to the airplane, and it listened to him real nice. You know him, Harrison?"
"Only by reputation, sir," the copilot replied from the left seat.
"Little guy, good golfer, too. Does consulting now, and works on the side with Sikorsky. We see him up at Bragg periodically. Okay, baby, let's see what you got." Malloy reefed the chopper into a tight left turn. "Humph, nothing handles like a -60. Damn, I love these things. Okay, Clark, what's the mission here?"
"The range building, simulate a zip-line deployment."
"Covert or assault?"
"Assault," John told him.
"That's easy. Any particular spot?"
"Southeast corner, if you can."
"Okay, here we go." Malloy shoved the cyclic left and forward, dropping the helo like a fast elevator, darting for the range building like a falcon after a pheasant-and like a falcon, pulling up sharply at the right spot, transitioning into hover so quickly that the copilot in the left seat turned to look in amazement at how fast he'd brought it off. "How's that, Clark?"
"Not too bad," Rainbow Six allowed.
Next Malloy applied power to get the hell out of Dodge City-almost, but not quite, as though he hadn't stopped over the building at all. "I can improve that once I get used t o your people, how fast they get out and stuff, but a longline deployment is usually better, as you know."
"As long as you don't blow the depth perception and run us right into the friggin' wall," Chavez observed. That remark earned him a turned head and a pained expression.
"My boy, we do try to avoid that. Ain't nobody does the rocking chair maneuver better 'n me, people."
"It's hard to get right," Clark observed.
"Yes, it is," Malloy agreed, "but I know how to play the piano, too."
The man was not lacking in confidence, they saw. Even the lieutenant in the left seat thought he was a little overpowering, but he was taking it all in anyway, especially watching how Malloy used the collective to control power as well as lift. Twenty minutes later, they were back on the ground.
"And that's about how it's done, people," Malloy told them, when the rotor stopped turning. "Now, when do we start real training?"
"Tomorrow soon enough?" Clark asked.
"Works for me, General, sir. Next question, do we practice on the Night Hawk, or do I have to get used to flying something else?"
"We haven't worked that out yet," John admitted.
"Well, that does have a bearing on this stuff, y'know. Every chopper has a different feel, and that matters on how I do my deliveries," Malloy pointed out. "I'm at my best on one of those. I'm nearly as good with a Huey, but that one's noisy in close and hard to be covert with. Others, well, I have to get used to them. Takes a few hours of yankin' and bankin' before I feel completely comfortable." Not to mention learning where all the controls were, Malloy didn't add, since no two aircraft in the entire world had all the dials, gauges, and controls in the same places, something aviators had bitched about since the Wright Brothers. "If we deploy, I'm risking lives, mine and others, every time I lift off. I'd prefer to keep those risks to a minimum. I'm a cautious guy, y'know?"
"I'll work on that today," Clark promised.
"You do that." Malloy nodded, and walked off to the locker/ready room.
