"The half-cracked professor?"
"Well, he only seems that way. Behind all those eccentricities is a mind you wouldn't believe. But whatever we find, I think we both need to knock off for a while and get recharged."
"Let's give it a try. I think everybody's brain, and nerves, could use a breather. I know mine could."
"We're out of here." She was already typing instructions into the keyboard.
[ ]
Chapter Eleven
9:15 p.m.
Fayette-Nam—as they called Fayetteville, North Carolina, in the 1960s—hosts the largest army base in the world: Fort Bragg, home of the XVIII Airborne Corps. Breaking the monotony of the harsh red Carolina clay around it, the town sports a variety of go-go bars, honkytonks, and tattoo parlors to refresh and spiritually solace the base's hundred thousand personnel. Known far and wide as a "macho post," Fort Bragg houses front-line units ready to mobilize on a moment's notice. During the Persian Gulf crisis, they were among the first to ship.