He dragged his gaze from her and looked at the crane through the porthole. “We put shaped charges on the structural supports and the whole thing drops into the ocean.”
“And the cargo ship captain sees it happen.” Her mind was already running calculations—he read it in the way her focus sharpened. “No recovery is possible. Mission over.”
“Exactly.”
Caro shifted in her seat. “I know where the weak points are. Where the supports would fail if you hit them.”
She looked fragile under her thermal blanket, and yet she was volunteering for more.
“Good,” he said. “We’ll need that.”
They’d be exposed during explosives placement. One person couldn’t do both. They’d have to split up?—
“My palm print will open the armory. Yours won’t.”
Damn, Jen just read his mind. “No?—”
She straightened, arms uncrossing. “I know the fastest route through Engineering. You don’t. And you’re the one with combat training and a gun. We need the crane area cleared so we can plant the charges.”
Every tactical instinct he had said she was right. Every other part of him said absolutely not.
“Too dangerous,” he said. “You’d be exposed the whole way.”
“So would you be.” Her eyes didn’t leave his.
There it was again. That stubborn refusal to let him carry everything alone. It infuriated him, but it was also the thing he admired most about her.
Caro’s blanket rustled. “No one knows this rig like Jen. If anyone can do it, it’s her.”
He flexed his fingers, locking his reaction down.
“You’re worried,” Jen said.
He didn’t lie. “Yeah.”
“Good.” Something softened in her voice. Just slightly. “I’d worry if you weren’t. But I can do this, Wyatt.”
He knew she could. But knowing someone was capable didn’t make sending them into danger any easier. Especially when that someone was her. If she got hurt or killed?—
The pressure behind his ribs ramped up. He breathed out. He hated it, but trust meant not stopping her.
She straightened. “I’m not asking for permission. This is the plan.”
She was willing to walk into a terrorist-controlled station alone.
Christ. She was magnificent.
His dad’s voice surfaced in his head.Sometimes the hardest part of protecting someone is knowing when to step back.
Wyatt let the air drain from his lungs. “Okay.”
Jen blinked. “Okay?”
“You get the charges. But you take the radio.” He reached up, unslung the M4, and held it out to her. “Any sign of trouble, you call it in. Don’t be a hero.”
“Says the man who took a knife to the leg.”
“Do as I say, not as I do. Twenty minutes. You get to the armory, grab the demo charges and detonators, get back out.”
