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Except someone was missing.
“Miranda!” she shouted but couldn’t hear herself.
But Andi must have heard as she spun around to look.
Miranda had wandered down the flightline. She was walking along the Number Four wire out onto the deck.
Andi started to move, but Susan grabbed her shoulder. The woman was, or had been, a Night Stalker and should know carrier operations.
With her other hand, she slapped her hand on the arm of a white-vested safety officer and pointed to Miranda.
She couldn’t hear his curse, but she could see him shout,Shit!
Andi tried to surge forward again. Susan would have lost her if Holly hadn’t grabbed her in a two-armed bear hug. Still she struggled to get to Miranda.
The white checked the sky aft, then sprinted toward Miranda. He tackled her and kept right on going until they were on the far side of the line.
Two seconds later, an F/A-18 Super Hornet slammed down and caught the Number One wire. Its engines roared to life until the wire had halted it almost exactly where Miranda had been standing moments before.
The pilot looked pissed as hell as he cut the engine, then raised the hook to drop the wire. In all of the confusion, he hadn’t been given a wave-off to abort the landing. The wire slid back toward reset.
A hand spun Susan around.
The Acting Captain was right up in her face. “I want these people off my ship. Now!”
“That’s not going to happen, Lieutenant Commander.” They’d each shoved back one ear of their muffs.
“You don’t get to—”
“By order of Admiral Stanislaw and the President of the United States, this team is not leaving the ship until we know what happened.”
“We know what the hell happened. Your civilian almost got one of my people killed saving her stupid ass. No one crosses the deck without an escort.”
“I know that, Acting Captain,” Susan took a breath and did her best to make her voice calm and professional. “I apologize in my oversight of assuming they, too, would know that protocol. I will make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
The jet had taxied away and the arresting wires were all reset. The pilot still looked pissed as hell.
The white had Miranda halfway back but she stopped him in the middle of the landing area. After a brief argument, one of the radios on the table squawked.
“Landing officer. White Seven. Time to next landing?”
“LO to White Seven, you have ninety seconds.”
“Roger.”
Susan could feel Captain Brightman steaming beside her.
Miranda was walking back and forth across the deck. She looked up and waved to the others to come join her. Holly turned to look toward the LC as if asking permission. Now that Miranda was safe, Andi had stopped fighting. Mike was smart, watching Holly for his cues.
Brightman waved them all forward in clear disgust with a shouted, “Hurry!”
Andi raced over and embraced Miranda hard, then began yelling at her. Good. Someone had to and Susan was glad it wasn’t her.
By the time Mike and Holly had trotted over, Andi had calmed down.
Within seconds, Miranda had them all studying the deck. Then, with a gesture from Miranda, they scattered, each in a different direction.
The white looked toward Brightman as if asking what the hell he should do. Every untrained person on an operational flight deck was supposed to have a white at their side. There was only one of him and four on Miranda’s team.
