Judy Mardorf Thompson

Spare Parts Judy Mardorf Thompson

Publisher Marketing: In Spare Parts, Claudia Martin, an avionics engineer at Duffet Commercial Airplane Co. (DCAC), finds a serious software anomaly which could threaten the integrity of the Flight Management Computer system -- and that could bring down a jet. Her boss, an ex-lover, chooses to overlook her warning in order to meet the accelerated airplane development schedule. But Claudia's own values will not allow her to agree to let it go. Claudia finds her professional reputation challenged, her career at stake. When a local flight crashes under mysterious circumstances, she accepts the call to adventure that will change her life forever. Claudia approaches the FAA where she is offered a job as an undercover mole. She teams with FBI Agent Wyatt Richardson to examine bogus parts issues. Their sexual tension serves as a subplot highlighting rivalry between governmental agencies. Wyatt regards bad hardware to be the issue, but Claudia disagrees. She pursues her quest for the hidden cause -- bad software. But that is only the tip of the iceberg. Lurking beneath it all is a sinister plot to ruin DCAC by a EuroAire-owned subcontractor. What begins as an investigation of flight-critical software and bogus spare parts explodes in global dimensions, becoming a race for market share and air safety, and threatening Claudia's life. Spare Parts spans two continents, where an evil web turns safe air travel into a roulette game. The FAA, FBI, NTSB, British Civil Aviation Administration (CAA), and New Scotland Yard wage separate battles before joining forces against one CAA inspector, and a corrupt subcontractor. As Claudia puts the pieces together, she discovers how EuroAire obtained software source code to deliberately sabotage flight-critical programs on DCAC jets.