Chapter
Thirteen
“This looks promising,” Emily
commented to Sam as they headed for their jet.
The trip was a quick cargo hop to
Portland International Airport, known as PDX, and back. The cargo
had come in from a small airstrip near Norfolk, Virginia, overnight
and was being split into two shipments. One was going to PDX. The
other to Boise, Idaho. The bulk of it was going to Boise in one of
the newly outfitted, strictly cargo jets. They’d take a smaller set
of boxes in a passenger jet to PDX.
They’d opted to take the PDX flight
because the second leg of that trip would net them a few passengers
who were on their way to a tiny airstrip in the wilds of Eastern
Oregon. Emily agreed with Sam’s conclusions that something was up
in that region. They’d tried to hide it but when looked at as a
whole, all those mysterious shipments seemed to center around that
geographic area. It was also pretty wild up there. Farm country
that was somewhat mountainous and desolate. There was lots of room
up there to do all kinds of things without anyone being the
wiser.
Sam had cautioned her against talking
in the cockpit until he’d had a chance to check it for bugs. They’d
also done a thorough but nonchalant check of the jet’s systems,
looking for any possible sign of tampering. She didn’t think the
bad guys would want to blow up their own cargo, but it couldn’t
hurt to be too careful. Sam would also discreetly check the cargo
before they took off, to be sure that it wasn’t a
bomb.
They were in the thick of things now.
Since their encounter with that creature in West Virginia, Emily
understood exactly what was at stake here. She and Sam had to find
out where the bastards who wanted to sell that heinous technology
were hiding out.
Emily taxied to the runway while Sam
checked the cargo. He rejoined her in the cockpit with a few
seconds to spare, giving her the thumbs up that was her signal
meaning the cargo was not potentially explosive. She shot them into
the air and Sam took care of the communications with the tower and
ground control until they were at cruising altitude.
When they began to level off, he
started fiddling with some electronic gear he had in one of his
pockets. At length he gave her the all clear signal and she relaxed
a fraction, knowing they could talk without fear of being recorded.
There was no real viable way to listen in on them live while they
were in the air, but a bug could record for later playback and get
them in trouble once they landed, he’d warned. It made sense and
she was being ultracautious now that she knew what they were up
against.
“This came last night, along with your
phone,” Sam said, pulling out a long, thin wire that had a little
flat oval on one end.
“What is it?”
“A way to eavesdrop on our passengers
after we pick them up at PDX.” He leaned over in the small cockpit
space and examined the bottom of the soundproof—and
bulletproof—cockpit door. “There seems to be just enough space in
the seal for me to wiggle this under. Or over,” he added, looking
at the roof. “Once they’re aboard and they’ve settled a bit, I’ll
slide this baby into the crack of the door. It’s the latest in spy
gear. Supposedly undetectable. I guess we’ll find
out.”
The devil may care grin he sent her
made her want to laugh. And worry. She did both, knowing it was
futile to try to tell him not to do something potentially
dangerous. Danger was his middle name, it seemed, cliché as it was.
He’d come alive when they were in West Virginia, fighting for their
lives. And he hadn’t been the man she’d first met
since.
This was the real Sam Archer. The
warrior. The daredevil. She loved that about him, as much as it
frightened her. Her only consolation was that he had to be damn
good at what he did if he’d stayed alive this long. She had faith
in his abilities and she knew he was getting top of the line
equipment in this fight. The little gizmo in his hand proved it. As
did the new cell phone clipped to her hip. The government wasn’t
sparing any expense to stop this horror in its tracks, and she was
glad of it.
They should have never tampered with
such things to begin with but now that the genie was out of the
bottle, they had to do everything in their power to stuff him back
in. More than the safety of the nation depended on it. Life itself
depended on getting this technology under control and completely
out of circulation.
“Yet another good reason to have taken
the PDX flight,” she commented.
“Yes, ma’am. Cargo is one thing, but
passengers inevitably talk, even if it’s only to complain about my
flying.” He winked at her and she laughed, knowing there was
usually very little to complain about his competent hand at the
stick.
“Are you going to give them something
to complain about?” she challenged.
“If I must.” He sighed dramatically,
but she knew he’d do whatever it took to get the information they
needed. If these passengers had it, he’d get it out of them and
they’d likely never even know.
“So what’s in the cargo this
time?”
“Nothing much. Could be a red herring
meant to throw any watchers off the trail. Bundle the shipment
together as far as Wichita, then split it in two. One is the real
shipment. The other is useless junk going to a dummy drop point.
I’m betting that’s what we’ve got. If not for the need to get the
passengers, those crates might’ve ended up going to New Mexico or
someplace else, unrelated at all to the action up here. It’s like
laying a false trail in the woods.”
“Clever.”
“Well, unfortunately the people we’re
dealing with aren’t dopes. Most of the tech folks on the original
projects were medical doctors or Ph.D.’s. Some had multiple
doctorates. Not stupid people. The few that we’ve already stopped
were either a little crazy, had delusions of grandeur, or visions
of being super rich and all powerful.”
“Nice bunch of folks,” she said
dryly.
He laughed and shook his head. “One of
the female researchers went completely around the bend. She turned
her ex-husband and his trophy wife into zombies and took over their
lake house. Since the creatures don’t like direct sunlight, they
need to go to ground during the day. She took great pleasure in
telling them to go jump in a lake. The creatures took her literally
and walked into the deepest part of the lake to hide from the
sun.”
“You’re kidding.” She was
appalled.
“Afraid not. They’re dead. They don’t
need to breathe. They could hide down there all day and walk out of
the lake at night to do their nasty work.”
“I’ll never enjoy a day at the
lakeshore again.” She shivered, imagining seeing something like
that creature from the convenience store walking out of a peaceful
lake to ravage the countryside.
“Never fear. That’s what we’re going
to stop. With any luck, you and I can shut them down completely.
We’ve accounted for almost all the original scientists except one.
The leader of the team. A charming fellow named Dr. Emilio
Jennings.”
“You’ve met him?” Sam’s voice had an
edge when he said the man’s name.
“No, ma’am. I’ve not had the dubious
pleasure. But from the things we’ve been able to piece together
after the fact, it looks like Dr. Jennings maneuvered his way into
leadership of the team by employing some pretty underhanded
tactics. He had one of the leading scientists in his field
discredited with false rumors. Everyone later realized the man was
innocent but by then the choice had been made to put Jennings in
charge. Then, when it began to look like the goal they’d been
working toward had taken a horrible turn, it was Jennings who
pushed to test the experimental substance on cadavers. I hold him
responsible for that first outbreak that killed so many of my
brothers in arms. Their blood is on his hands.”
A cold look had entered Sam’s eyes as
he went on. “I believe that bastard knew damn well what would
happen when he shot up those corpses with the contagion, yet he did
it anyway. Then he ran away with the technology and put it up for
auction to the highest bidder among several hostile foreign
governments. If I ever meet the man, it will be my pleasure to put
a bullet between his eyes. I only regret I can’t make him suffer
the way my teammates did.”
Sam was staring out the cockpit window
into the distance, and Emily knew the awful memories that tightened
his muscles must be terrible. She reached out to him, putting one
hand over his. He turned, taking her hand in his as he looked at
her.
“I’m sorry, Emily. I’m a violent man.
It’s best you know that from the beginning. I’ve led a hard life
but I’ve never reveled in killing. The part that scares me is that
I would probably dance on Jennings’ grave given half a chance, for
what he did to my friends and me.”
“You’re only human, Sam,” she
whispered. The moment was tense. She wanted to comfort him and
reassure him that wanting the man dead who had killed his friends
wasn’t a terrible thing. It was understandable, under the
circumstances.
“See, that’s the thing . . .” He let
go of her hand and turned back to stare out at the sky. “What
happened changed me. Forever. There’s no going back to what I
was.”
He looked so torn. So sad. Again, her
instinct was to comfort him.
“I suppose that’s to be expected. Life
changes us. The things that happen to us and how we react to them
make us who we ultimately become. And from where I’m sitting,
you’ve taken all that life has dished out to you and done good with
it. You haven’t let it beat you down. You haven’t let it turn you
bitter or stop you in your tracks. You’re out here, actively doing
something to make the world safer. That’s a win in anybody’s book,
so give yourself a break, Sam. You’re doing fine.”
His expression lightened as he seemed
to consider her words. At length he shook his head, his tension
leaving him.
“I’m glad you have such faith in me,
Em.”
“Always.” She smiled at him and
neither said much more until they began their approach to
PDX.
The cargo was whisked away as they
refueled. They had to wait for one of the passengers. There were to
be two men. A Caucasian fellow with a thick accent Emily thought
was Russian or something like it was already waiting when they
landed. Sam handled the refueling and paperwork with the jet while
Emily dealt with the passengers. They’d agreed beforehand that it
would be best for Sam not to have direct contact with them, in case
he spooked them somehow. It was pretty hard to hide his stature and
unmistakable military air.
A lot of pilots had that vibe but Sam
was a little more intimidating than the others she’d dealt with.
Her brother had pegged him for Special Forces right off. One
soldier, it seemed, had a way of recognizing another. They’d take
extra precautions in case Sam’s demeanor spooked any of the
passengers. He’d told her he didn’t want to blow it when they’d
already come this far and she agreed. Besides, it was more natural
for her to deal with the passengers since she was the senior pilot
on this team and had been with the company much
longer.
What she hadn’t realized was that Sam
would be skulking around the jet, using his phone to take
surreptitious photos of the two men they were to transport. She
didn’t think anybody else would realize it, but she now had the
same phone he carried and had been introduced to its rather
surprising features that morning. It could take photos from a
camera secreted in its tip.
Which was exactly what Sam had
pointing toward her as she walked across the tarmac with their two
passengers. The second man had shown up a few minutes late. He was
Asian, probably Chinese if she was any judge, but she couldn’t be
sure. Their names were not listed on the flight manifest and she
knew enough not to ask. That’s the way it had been since Scott had
taken over, though many of the celebrities she’d flown before had
avoided talking with the “little people” like her as well and
didn’t list their names on the manifests—only those of their
managers and support personnel. Often they’d list fictitious names,
if they listed any at all.
This new policy, though, was taking
things to an extreme. Celebrities were one thing. Everybody knew
who they were. But in the past, businesspeople had always been
required to show I.D. and give their real names for the records in
case there was an accident or some question later. Their insurance
carrier demanded it.
Only Scott didn’t seem to give a damn
about legalities lately. He’d sent down the directive and suddenly
it was law. They’d fly anybody, anywhere. No questions
asked.
Emily was glad it was starting to
unravel. With any luck, they’d catch the bad guys and end this
soon. Then she could go back and rebuild what Scott had
destroyed—if there was anything left to rebuild.
Of course, that would probably also
mean the end of her time with Sam and she couldn’t be happy about
that. He’d given her so much in the short time they’d been
together. He’d made her feel special and cherished. He’d made her
feel loved.
That was something rare in her life.
She had the love of her family, of course, but there had been
precious few men she’d fallen for in her lifetime. And of those
few, fewer still had fallen for her in return.
She didn’t know if Sam loved her. He
cared about her. She knew that with certainty. But love? She didn’t
dare jinx what they had by bringing it up. They both knew their
relationship was doomed from the start. Their jobs and
responsibilities would be hard to reconcile even if they did both
want to pursue the relationship beyond the end of this
mission.
Increasingly though, she wanted to
keep him in her life. She was contemplating ways they could make
that happen. A long distance love affair was better than nothing at
all, she figured. But it would take two to make it work, and so
far, Sam hadn’t said anything about the future. She sure wasn’t
going to bring it up. Not yet. She didn’t want to say anything that
could ruin what they had. The time would come when she couldn’t put
it off any longer. That would be soon enough.
Emily saw Sam finish his walk around
and slip up the stairs into the jet before she and the passengers
got there. He was already doing the preflight in the cockpit when
she ushered their guests to their seats and showed them the various
amenities. There was a fully stocked bar and snacks on board should
they desire to eat or drink. This wasn’t the fanciest jet in their
fleet, but it was often used for high powered businessmen who
didn’t want to deal with commercial flight schedules.
She shut the door between the cabin
and the flight deck and locked it for good measure. They’d
communicate with the cabin via intercom from here on in. All of
their jets were carefully designed so that the intercom could not
be tampered with. Their business clients demanded the utmost in
privacy, which included that the pilots not be able to overhear any
business that might be discussed in the cabin during
flight.
No matter. Sam had his new gizmo to
try out. Hopefully it would work and they wouldn’t get caught.
Emily felt her heart race as she slid into her seat and joined Sam
in the procedures necessary before getting the little jet off the
ground.
“Did you take pictures?” she asked as
they rocketed into the air.
“You saw that?” He seemed
concerned.
“I don’t think anyone else would have
realized it, but I’m familiar with the phone and its abilities
now.”
He nodded, seeming to put his worries
aside. “I sent the images back to base. Hopefully somebody back
there will be able to I.D. our guests, though I have a sneaking
suspicion I know who they are already.”
“Really? Who?”
“Not yet. I want to be sure
first.”
“Tease,” she accused
playfully.
He waited until they were about
fifteen minutes into the flight to deploy his little gizmo under
the door, in the corner, where it wouldn’t be easily seen. He put a
small earpiece in one ear, taking off his headphones. The mic
plugged into a small black box that looked like one of those
miniature radios joggers wore on armbands. It had a dial he played
with until he seemed satisfied that he could hear what was going
on.
Emily flew the plane, trying to hold
her curiosity in check, but it was a hard thing. She wanted to hear
what he was hearing but there was only one earpiece. She’d have to
wait until he chose to tell her what was going on back
there.
Finally she couldn’t wait. She tapped
him on the shoulder, drawing his attention.
“Anything?” she mouthed.
He shook his head. “Negative. They’re
drinking but not saying much of anything useful.”
At least it was working. The little
gizmo was picking up the cabin conversation and hadn’t been
detected. So far, everything was stable.
It was only moments later when Sam
suddenly tensed.
“Bingo,” he said absently, listening
intently to the conversation in the cabin.
It was a good thing. The flight
wouldn’t last much longer. It was only a quick hop from PDX to a
small airstrip on the Oregon border with Idaho. Sam seemed to
notice they were beginning their descent and he took the earpiece
out to talk to her.
“Can we find a way to stay over? Maybe
invent a malfunction with the jet?”
She thought about it for a moment.
“Yeah, I can complain about a sticky rudder. That should ground us
for a bit.”
“Sounds good. Work it out so we can
stay overnight. There’s something going on here I need to check
out. This thing records digitally,” he pointed to the little black
box. “I can download it to my sat phone and send the file back to
base. I’ll do that as soon as our guests deplane. This is hot
intel. I’ll need to act on it and have a plausible reason to stay
in the area while I check it out.”
“I’ll deal with the jet and the
mechanics. I’ll throw a hissy fit if I have to, in order to get one
of our mechanics up here from Wichita. They’ll arrive tomorrow, so
that’ll give you tonight and part of tomorrow to do what you need
to. Good enough?”
“Perfect,” he replied, a predatory
grin stretching his lips. He was on the hunt and enjoying every
minute of it, judging by that dangerous expression.
Emily landed the jet while Sam split
his attention between cockpit duties and continuing his
eavesdropping. She had no idea what he was hearing from the
passenger cabin, but judging by the set of his jaw, it was
something juicy.
They landed and Sam had to pull in his
surveillance gizmo before she could open the cockpit door and help
the passengers out of the cabin. She let him stay in the cockpit
while she dealt with the pleasantries. She waited until the
passengers were gone before asking for hangar space for the
allegedly faulty jet. She set the wheels in motion to have the jet
housed here for the night while demanding one of the Praxis Air
mechanics fly in first thing in the morning to look at
it.
Once she had that all settled, she
looked around for Sam. She found him leaning against the hangar
wall. He looked smugly satisfied.
“So what now?”
He swooped down to kiss her cheek,
pausing to whisper in her ear.
“Now we follow the transmitter I
planted on their rental car.”
“You didn’t.” She was truly impressed.
She hadn’t thought there’d been time to get ahead of them or that
he’d be able to get close enough to place a tracking
device.
“Oh, ye of little faith.” He drew back
and gave her a teasing grin.
They got a car from the rental guy.
They were lucky. He only had one left in the lot. This airport was
tiny compared to where they’d come from. A few minutes later, Emily
was behind the wheel, taking directions from Sam. His phone may
have looked like hers, but she quickly learned it had a few extra
features. Somehow it was able to follow the tracker he’d planted on
the bad guys’ car. He was able to direct her to turn right or left
from quite a distance away, which meant their targets wouldn’t know
they were being followed.
“I still don’t know how you got close
enough to put a tracker on their car,” she mused.
“It was really a thing of beauty. I
threw on a windbreaker over my uniform shirt as soon as I got out
of sight and headed straight for the parking lot. There were only a
few cars and only one with someone in it. I watched while the
waiting man went to meet our two passengers. While he went to get
them, I casually tagged his car with a tracker chip. They’re a
variation on the chips we use to mark kills, only a little
stronger. They use satellite technology, like our phones
do.”
“This is a satellite phone?” she
patted the new phone clipped to her belt. “It’s not any bigger than
a regular cell phone and it doesn’t have that weird antenna I’ve
seen on other sat phones.”
“You’ve probably seen the commercially
available sat phones. These aren’t on the market. Hell, they’re not
even available to most military outfits. Our team already had the
model you’re carrying but when we added a CIA operative to the
team, he upgraded a few of us to the one I’ve got. Real James Bond
stuff.”
He seemed like a kid with a new toy
and it made her smile. She’d seen that look on her brothers’ faces
many times.
“So who are we
following?”
“If I’m not very much mistaken,
Aleksander Krychek and Bin Zhao. Two potential buyers of the zombie
tech. Krychek is a freelance arms dealer who pretends he’s a
businessman. He’s made billions off the death of others with the
arms he’s supplied—often to both sides of a conflict. Zhao’s
background is shadier, though I personally think he’s working for
one of the unfriendly governments on the other side of the Pacific.
Could be North Korea, China, a few others. He’s Chinese by birth
but even our CIA friend had a hard time digging up any more than
that.”
The seriousness of the situation was
driven home by his words. This was bigger than anything Emily had
imagined in her naïveté. By comparison, she almost wished it had
been a simple drug ring operating in her airline.
“Why only two buyers? Wouldn’t the
seller want to open this up to a broader group in order to get more
bids and raise his profit?”
“Normally, yes, but this technology is
too hot. We’ve been a half step behind them since the beginning,
constantly gaining ground. We’ve taken care of many of the original
threats. We believe only this one single corrupt member of the
original team remains. He’s got to be cautious. Inviting more
people to bid means disclosing the nature of the weapon to them and
increasing his risk. All he needs are two competitive bidders to
get a good price and it looks like that’s exactly what he’s
got.”
“But why would they travel together if
they’re on opposite sides? They didn’t seem very chummy, but they
were cordial to each other from what I saw.”
“Some ridiculous notion of honor among
thieves, no doubt. Both men seem to live the high life and enjoy
all the trappings of the elite rich. They make a show of being
polite and businesslike in their outward dealings but they’re both
ruthless when there’s blood in the water. Don’t let the urbane act
fool you.” Sam kept his eyes glued to the small color screen on his
phone that displayed a GPS map while he spoke. “But the more likely
reason they came in together is simple logistics. They probably
flew to PDX separately from wherever they were in the world and the
seller—Jennings—provided transport to the meeting place. If they
don’t know where they’re going, they can’t set up a snatch and
grab. It’s a wise precaution on Jennings’ part. These kinds of men
would gladly kill him and each other if it meant they could grab
the technology free of charge.”
“Wow. I find it hard to
believe.”
“Believe it, Em. Your life depends on
your taking this seriously.”
“Oh, I do,” she was quick to protest.
“It’s just that I find it hard to wrap my head around some of this
stuff. It seems so unreal—like a movie playing out and I’m trapped
inside.”
“I know what you mean, but trust me,
this is about as real as it gets.”
“I understand, Sam. Truly I do. Don’t
mind me. I just . . .” she trailed off, not knowing how to express
what she was feeling inside. It was such an alien world she’d
stumbled into.
“Are you starting to feel a little bit
like Alice when she fell down the rabbit hole?”
She was surprised by his
understanding, though she guessed she shouldn’t have been. He’d
probably already dealt with this persistent feeling of disbelief
back when he’d first learned there were actual zombies in the
world.
“Did you feel the same way when you
learned about it?”
“That would be a giant affirmative.”
He let out a big sigh. “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. Either
that, or it will all be over by the time you come to grips with it.
Pray for the latter and in the meantime, keep on truckin’. As long
as you can continue to function and work toward the goal of
eliminating this threat, the better off you’ll be. Take my word for
it. It’s not good to feel useless.”
The terrain was getting more desolate
the farther away they got from the airport. For the past few miles,
all they’d passed was wire fence meant to hold in cattle, though
there were few in sight, and acres and acres of
farmland.
“It’s pretty empty up here,” she
commented.
“Lots of space to do things where
nobody would know,” Sam agreed. “And we’re about to head into more
mountainous areas if they keep going the way they’re going now.
Logging country that’s still heavily forested in most places.
Perfect for the creatures because of the dense tree
cover.”
“You said they don’t like sunlight,
right?” She didn’t want to ask, but she probably needed to know
more about the zombies if they were going into the lion’s
den.
“Most encounters have been at night or
in shade, like heavy tree cover or inside a dark building. They
don’t usually come out in the open unless it’s dark outside. They
move deceptively fast. They never run, but the slow, steady pace
eats ground. If you encounter one, run as fast as you can. The
newer models are capable of basic strategy and they’ll surround you
like wolves—encircle you so you have no way out.” He watched the
scanner carefully. “They’re slowing. Looks like they’re heading
down a private road. Probably a ranch driveway or something
similar. Be ready to stop the car. I’ll tell you
when.”
“You’re not going to bail out on me
again, are you?” she asked, only half joking.
“Maybe. But I think there’s enough
room on this road to pull over. If you recall, that road in West
Virginia had no shoulder and the spot I needed to get out was on a
blind curve.”
“Are you trying to convince me that
the reason you scared me half to death and risked life and limb
jumping out of a moving car was for safety?” The convolutions of
the male mind still managed to astound her sometimes, despite being
Henry’s shadow the majority of her life.
“Yes, ma’am.” He shot her a quick
glance and she could see he was laughing. “I’m all about
safety.”
“You’d better be,” she muttered,
following a long, sweeping curve of the road as it rode up the side
of a heavily wooded hill.
“We should be entering a small town in
a few minutes. Keep your eyes peeled for a bed-and-breakfast. There
are lots of them in this part of the country. If we can find one
close to where our targets just stopped, we can use it as a base of
operations.”
“So do you want to tell me what Zhao
and Krychek were talking about during the flight?”
He frowned and a muscle ticked on the
side of his jaw. Whatever it was, it had to be something
bad.
“A demonstration.” His voice was
grim.
“Wait. Do you mean they’re going to
kill someone and turn them into . . . one of those things?” She was
horrified at the idea.
“Yeah. Apparently Jennings promised
them they’d see proof the technology worked as advertised before
the bidding began. Our buddies, Butt and Ugly, were saying how the
demo had better be really good to justify the multimillion dollar
price tag Jennings was asking for.”
“How far do you think Jennings will
go? With the demonstration, I mean.” She was almost afraid to
ask.
“For that much money?” Sam sighed
heavily. “The man’s already proven he has no conscience. I think
he’ll go as far as he can without getting caught, and he won’t care
who he kills in the process. Which is why I have to stop
him.”
They’d entered the sleepy little town
perched on the side of the mountain. A few blocks into the village,
Emily spotted a sign.
“Just what the doctor ordered,” she
said with some satisfaction, though thoughts of what Jennings had
planned disturbed her on a deep level. She stopped the car in front
of the bed-and-breakfast. It looked quaint and had a
pseudo-Victorian façade. “Do you want me to go in and see if they
have a vacancy?”
“We should go in together. It would
look more natural.”
“But you want to stay and keep an eye
on your GPS, don’t you?” She could see it in his
expression.
“Yeah. But I can walk and chew gum.”
He opened the car door and got out, still watching his phone. “Get
your sweater out of the back. Put it on over your uniform shirt.
You do the talking. I’ll be just another stressed out yuppie glued
to his PDA.” He still had his windbreaker on, which made them look
a lot less like pilots and a lot more like a couple out for a
casual ramble through the countryside.
Sam’s plan worked like a charm. Within
moments they were ensconced in an upstairs room with a private
bath. The rental car was parked around back under cover of a big
carport, not visible from the road or even from the
air.
“This is good,” Sam said, checking the
view from the window. “We’re not too far from the GPS hit as the
crow flies and it looks like it’s straight uphill through this
woodland. I should be able to get there on foot from
here.”
“Are you sure?” She looked at the
uncertain terrain at the back of the house. Their window faced the
back of the house, looking out onto the steeply graded
mountainside. “It looks a little rough.”
“Piece of cake,” Sam countered,
keeping one eye on his phone while he reached for his big duffel
bag. He pulled out items of clothing and a big pair of well worn
boots.
“This Clark Kent changing into
Superman routine is becoming familiar,” she mused as he shucked his
dark uniform slacks and pulled on a pair of camo cargo pants. An
olive drab T-shirt replaced the white one he’d had on under his
white pilot’s shirt.
He laughed outright at her comparison
as he laced up his boots. All the while, he kept one eye on the GPS
screen, probably to be sure his target stayed where he expected it
to stay.
“So what’s the plan?” she asked as he
finished his transformation from charter pilot to Green
Beret.
“I’m going to hike up there and take a
look around before night falls, to see what we’re up against and
what the setup is. I’ll be back in about ninety minutes. Then I’ll
call in to the base and make my report. Then we have dinner and coo
at each other like we’re in love.” Her heart stuttered when he
mentioned the “L” word, but he breezed past it. “Depending on what
I find up there, I might go back out again. In fact, it’s more
likely than not.”
“What do you want me to do while
you’re doing all that?” She didn’t like the sound of him doing all
the work and her sitting around counting the cabbage roses on the
wallpaper.
“You’re going to stay in the room and
pretend we’re having a good time all by ourselves. Keep up
appearances while I sneak away. Call your brother, if you’re bored.
Tell him how annoyed you are that I’ve left you sitting here while
I’m having all the fun.” He dropped a kiss on her forehead as he
teased her.
“I don’t know that I’d call risking
your life fun,” she muttered as he chuckled and moved toward the
window, opening it wide and peeking out. It looked like he was
scoping the area in preparation for a jump. Was he serious? They
were on the second floor.
She squeaked when he lifted his foot
and stepped over the sill. He paused and turned a grin on her that
at any other time would have made her tummy flip. He was just that
sexy. But not when she was worried he’d break a leg or crack his
skull on the way down.
“Don’t worry, Em. This is what I do
for a living and if you’re around me for any length of time at all,
you’ll soon learn I’m really hard to kill.”
“Is that supposed to comfort
me?”
“Come here, Emily.”
His voice was pitched low. He
straddled the windowsill, one leg dangling outside the building,
the rest of his body inside. She almost didn’t want to obey the
command in his voice, but in the end she was powerless to resist
him. She went to him, moving closer when he clasped her waist and
pulled her in for a deep, drugging kiss.
How he could dangle twelve feet off
the ground and still kiss the sense out of her, she’d never know.
He released her lips and his gaze met hers.
“Please try not to worry about me,
Emily, although I have to admit I’m touched that you do.” His grin
charmed her. “Trust me, I’m really good at my job. They wouldn’t
have sent me if I weren’t.”
His reasoning did bring some comfort.
He’d known exactly what to do at the convenience store in West
Virginia and he was calm, cool, and collected in the cockpit. She’d
seen his flying skills and some of his fighting skills already. He
had to be the best of the best if they’d tapped him for this
all-important job, she reasoned.
And she could see he needed her to
pull herself together. She didn’t want him worrying about her
worrying. Anything that distracted him from keeping himself safe
was bad. She shored up her reserves and tried to give him a
smile.
“I do trust you, Sam. Now go before
someone sees your leg dangling out the window. Just be
careful.”
“Always.” He ducked his head out the
window and moved to the side.