Page 14 of Badd B*tch

Tea snorted. “Okay, buddy. Keep telling yourself that."

Tea was already out of the Range Rover and walking a wide circle around the aircraft, which was all stark, sheer angles and matte black paint. The tail rotor was enclosed in a shroud, and there were five main rotor blades instead of one; additionally, those main rotors looked…different. I'm not an aviation nerd, though, so I couldn’t say what's different.

I slid out and joined her as she closed in on the fancy-ass helicopter. The look on her face was positively rapturous. Orgasmic, even.

"God, it's sexy. Isn't she?” She grinned at me, excitement lighting up the sharp angles of her beautiful face.

"It's a hell of a tuff looking helicopter."

"Tough?" She sounded baffled at my word choice.

“T-U-F-F,” I explained. “Cool-looking. Badass."

“Oh. Slang. Fuck that." She gestured at the rotors. "Those aren't just cutting edge; they're fucking science fiction, Jax. You'll see when I start 'er up, but she's the aviation version of an EV when it comes to noise. I could hover a few hundred feet up, and you wouldn't hear a damn thing. And it's all down to those rotors. The engines are muffled and vented, and all sorts of shit to reduce noise, but the real advancement is in the rotors. As much R and D went into them as the rest of the project combined, I read. They shift their shape in minute ways as they spin, using what are called piezoceramic actuators. The constant adjustments mean that when the blade passes through its own air vortex, it creates less disturbance and thus, less noise. The idea was experimental until Roth perfected the technology. She also has global active noise control, which uses algorithms to produce counter-vibration and pressure so that—" She cut herself off, glancing at me. "Sorry, I'm nerding out. It's just…fuck, it's sexy. It's like…if you were a car guy, it'd be like…shit, like driving an experimental Bugatti prototype or something. Or doing your hacker coding stuff with a quantum cloud computer or whatever."

"Quantum and cloud computing are different modalities," I pointed out.

She rolled her eyes. “You get the picture. My point is, the thing is a helo pilot's wet dream. It can hit a top speed of almost three hundred miles per hour, and has a radar cross-section smaller than a hummingbird. I haven't seen the actual R-C-S numbers, though, so I’m only going based on what I know of military-grade stealth tech.”

"About the size of a large bumblebee, in fact," Linus said from behind us. "In testing, pilots were able to hover almost directly in front of a radar array, like, within range of naked eyesight, and the radar had nothing. Of course, it's a civilian aircraft, so there aren’t any weapons systems to hide. His work with military aircraft is truly inspiring."

"Why would a private, civilian aircraft need to be invisible to radar?" I asked.

Linus just grinned. "Because we asshole billionaires like to have toys no one else can even dream of. When you reach the level of success where money becomes essentially meaningless, you need something to work for. More money, more success, more fame…fuck that. Means nothing. But creating something never seen before? Achieving the impossible? That is a goal worth working for."

I nodded. "Makes sense on paper, I guess."

"Make your first billion and come talk to me, kid." He glanced at Tea. “How long till you're in the air?"

"Oh, I'll need a few minutes to familiarize myself with her," she answered. "Give me twenty."

In just over ten minutes, the aircraft was ready to go, the engines, as advertised, giving off way less noise than I'd have thought possible; you could have a conversation at normal volume within a few feet of the thing, which was every bit as mind-blowing as you'd imagine, and then some.

Linus clapped me on the shoulder as I gathered my bags from the car. "I'm excited to see your work, Jax. You're gonna do great things; I truly believe that, and my hope is to play at least some small part in helping you get there."

Tea glanced over her shoulder at him. "You have another driver on the way or what, boss?"

Linus rolled his eyes. "No, as a matter of fact, I am going to be driving myself. Which I can, in fact, do, you know. Helena's greatest passion in life is the achievement of normalcy, I think. Or at least the appearance of it. Personal drivers and pilots embarrass her, as does the very fact of my absurd net worth."

"And Gunnar?" Tea asked.

"Oh, he suffers no such compunction," Linus answered. "I love him so very dearly, but he has yet to find a purpose in life that doesn't involve putting his penis in places it doesn't belong, such as my office staff and personal assistants.”

I spluttered a laugh. "Sounds like a quintessential billionaire's kid."

Linus gave me a droll stare. "Yeah, thanks for the reminder." He slapped the open door of the aircraft. "Now get going, you two. Jax, I'll be up to see how you're getting along in a month or two. Tea, I'll see you in a few days for the flight back to Seattle. Things are about to get busy for me, so I hope you're ready to earn that salary."

I couldn't help wondering what kind of a salary a personal pilot for a billionaire pulled in—I'd been hired on as a junior programmer, essentially, and my pay was eye-popping. Tea had qualifications and experience oozing out of her pores.

I kept that question to myself, though. I settled my bags into the helo, and then paused, uncertain yet again if I was meant to sit up front with Tea or in back like a passenger. I opted for the former, climbing through to the front right seat. Tea handed me a headset, which I donned.

I glanced out the window to see Linus swinging behind the wheel of the Range Rover and zipping away. "He's not at all what I was expecting," I said.

Tea gave a single, sharp snort in response. "No shit. He’s about as far from what I was expecting as you can get. I almost like him."

"Feels like a big deal for you to like someone," I said—blurted would be more accurate, maybe.

Tea eyed me sidelong. "I'm not sure if that's a dig or not."