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14
Susan knew notto draw conclusions based on a woman’s size, but she looked so…fragile. Jumping at every disturbance like she’d never been out in the world.
Now she was frozen rigid in her seat. Her arms were clamped to the chair arms as if they were flying through severe levels of turbulence, the knuckles already going white.
Susan almost scooped up Sadie, but her dog knew people. She wouldn’t have chosen Miranda’s lap without a good reason. Susan left Sadie where she was.
Still, it was incomprehensible that Susan had been scrambled on an elite C-37B, one that was supposed to be taking Admiral Stanislaw back to DC right now, to fetchthiswoman out of all of the possibilities.
She knew never to question the admiral’s core decisions, only the ways he chose to communicate them at times. However, there was definitely something off here, far beyond Michael Munroe’s explanations.
Susan had studied all of their files during the flight to Alaska and nothing about this team made sense.
Miranda Chase was autistic.
Susan hadn’t told Mike that she knew that to see how he handled it: quite discreetly.
Her file said that Miranda had required a personal therapist in near-constant attendance well into college. At the same time, she was rated as the top air-crash investigator by the NTSB, the Air Force’s own AIB, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as well as the President. She was also an only child, daughter of parents listed as working for MITRE Corporation but with no other background she could access, which practically guaranteed that they were CIA. A multi-millionairess with no clear line of where her money had come from. Chase was a recluse who owned an entire island in Washington State and a surprising array of aircraft.
She was also listed as troublesome, contrary, having no respect for any assignment, and an impressive list of other phrases that might appear on the review of a sailor who would never earn another promotion, ever. It was one step away from a dishonorable discharge.
Michael Munroe was the polar opposite. A bad boy from an orphanage. He was also remarkably handsome, though he didn’t appear to be playing that card. Having a younger man checking her out didn’t harm her ego at all, but he hadn’t tried flirting with her at all. His own background was foggy in different ways, ways apparently hidden deep in the FBI’s files that hadn’t been included in the military dossier.
Captain Andrea Genji Wu, a direct lineage daughter of the legal-powerhouse San Francisco Wus. She was one of the very first female pilots to ever qualify with the 160th SOAR Night Stalkers. From which she had departed for unstated reasons shortly before joining Miranda’s team. A departure marked by highest honors, including a few post-retirement ones for reasons not disclosed.
And Holly Harper, a tall blonde beauty who should be on a runway or at a bodybuilding competition, not an ex-Australian Spec Ops operator who had no clear connection to any of the other members. Though she’d certainly noticed Holly keeping an eye on her and Mike.
Two members of the team were missing. She’d sent a current status request to the ONI. The Office of Naval Intelligence informed her that they were currently interviewing the Director of the CIA. Some kind of a miscue on the information request?
The files had described each of these people very clearly, in terms one might use in describing criminals.
Yet,thiswas the team she’d been told to oversee. A team that could stop or perhaps, based on their findings, start a war. If the events in the South China Sea were an attack on a nuclear supercarrier, that wasn’t any form of a testing probe—it was a declaration of war at the highest levels.
She wanted to send Admiral Stanislaw aReally?!text. Probably not the best choice as he’d said the order came straight from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Except the CJCS had no authority to issue orders. Did that imply that the President himself had stated this was the only team they would trust with this level of investigation?
That instruction made no sense based on the information in the files.
“The President recommends you very highly,” she tested the waters. Maybe she could find out what was going on from the team itself.
“That’s nice,” Miranda was keeping her hands firmly on either chair arm and staring down at Sadie perched in her lap as if she might disembowel her.
But that wasn’t the unusual part. Sadie was now settling down in Miranda’s lap. She never did that with strangers.
“I haven’t spoken to Roy in a while.”
“Roy?” Susan caught Mike’s smirk too late. He’d obviously expected her to walk into the trap the moment Miranda said the name. She hated that he was right.
“You’re referencing President Roy Cole, aren’t you, in stating that the President recommends me? If not, you’ll need to be clearer in your communication about which President you’re referring to as I know several who have stated that they appreciated my services, including presidents of several corporations as well. There have also been three prime ministers and two kings.” Miranda hadn’t once looked up from Sadie, now curling up in her lap.
“Iwasreferring to President Cole.” Susan didn’t know of anyone other than his wife ever calling him Roy. She’d done so consistently and effectively during the first campaign. Cancer had taken her before the second one.
“Well, I haven’t spoken to him since the day after the downing of Marine Two.”
After twenty-five years in the Navy, Susan could usually hide what she was thinking. But Mike’s continued amusement at her surprise? Well, she wouldn’t mind wiping off his face with something nasty, like a bucket of cold clam chowder.
The crash of Marine Two had broken a seventy-five-year flawless record for the Marine Corps HMX-1 Helicopter Squadron. A crash due to sabotage, which had changed the shape of the US’s Middle East policies. The Middle East Realignment Plan was changing numerous alliances.
Susan also knew that it had prompted the abrupt insertion of two aircraft carrier groups into the area to contain anything that slipped out of hand with the announcement. It had certainly changed her and Sadie’s lives as they’d spent two fast weeks there closing some channels of communications and opening new ones.
The Marine Two crash, she now recalled, that had been solved in an unheard of twenty-four hours. Entire defense contractors had been shut down and their key people imprisoned awaiting investigation and trial—some for treason. Only the outline of which had been in the files available to her.
Again, nothing about this little four-person team matched the information she’d been given.
Miranda Chase’s achievements. Holly and Andiattemptingto draft an initial findings report to Miranda Chase’s standards. Mike’s patience with Miranda, despite her oddities like sitting in silence for ten minutes—to all appearances stone deaf—while making neat notes in her little book.
Once again, Sadie, now settled happily to sleep in Miranda’s lap, was probably being smarter about people than she was. Most people had learned quickly enough not question why a Naval commander always traveled with her dog. Susan had also learned, often the hard way when she didn’t pay attention, to not question Sadie’s judgment.
Please let Sadie be right and the files wrong.
