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“Traitor,” he offered.
Susan laughed. “I can’t say I’ve been called that much in my career. I on-boarded into the Navy at twenty-six—no idea why I waited so long. I have advanced degrees in PR, law, and communications. I was swept up by a full admiral to make sure his orders and communiques were delivered to the right people in the right tone at the right time. I haven’t served anyone below an O-9 since, that’s all flag officers.”
“Ran an ad agency myself for a while.”
Susan reached across the aisle and patted his shoulder. “An amateur. Your type are always so cute.”
He knew she was teasing, but he still felt the cut. Then he rethought that. How would Holly view a trained fighter, maybe a winner of a Taekwondo tournament, versus her own deep training in hand-to-hand combat? Or a farmer who could plant his own dynamite to break up a rock versus her own ability with a wide variety of explosives against targets ranging from bridges to airplanes?
Done recalibrating his thinking in a way thatdidmake him feel like an amateur for how effectively and neatly it was done—Susan had trusted his skills enough to know that he’d draw his own conclusions rapidly enough—she continued.
“You can think of me as your PIO, your Press Information Officer. I’m going to be the sole point of contact for all communications in and out of your team.”
Mike wished her luck with that. She might be good, or even the best at her job. But he doubted very much that would help her. He certainly hadn’t ever been able to control Miranda or Holly.
But it did give him her language.
“There’s another reason that Miranda is shutting you out. Yes, first is to clear her head of the KC-46 incident. But more so, she’s not going to want to hear a word that you or anyone else has to say about anything to do with a crash.”
“Why thehellnot?”
“And letting out your fiery Italian side won’t help matters, Commander Piazza. That will only fluster Miranda, or she won’t hear the tone at all.”
He didn’t need to be an expert on people to read Susan’s glare.
“When we get wherever we’re going, Miranda has an approach to a crash that is unique. You’ll see. Any informational bias will be rejected out of hand, including a description of what happened from a third party. Again, that’s her own unique approach. That’s why I’m not with them. I jumped to a conclusion without crossing each and every one of the steps in between. She’s now doing her own step-by-step analysis to get there. Despite her initial agreement based on the amount of immediate evidence, she may have even blocked out my solution until she has proven it to herself.”
“Well, it’s not going to work in this case,” Susan freed her seatbelt and had leaned forward…when Miranda stepped up and sat in the seat opposite Mike as soon as he removed his feet. He noticed that she sat as far toward the window as the seat allowed before glancing cautiously at the small dog sleeping across the aisle.
He didn’t have much use for cute little dogs, but he didn’t question that Miranda was more terrified of dogs than he was of snakes.
