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37
“How can wenotbe going?”Jeremy begged for an answer the moment the conference room door had closed behind Clarissa and General Nason.
Taz didn’t know what to say. She could feel the pain of being left behind herself, andshehadn’t been Miranda’s right hand for the last two years. The movehadbeen the right next step for her, and for Jeremy. She knew that, but he still had doubts and she didn’t know what to do about them.
“And thefifthperson. Who’s that? Can he help Miranda? Or is he going to be a problem like Major Jon Swift? Or maybe someone who won’t understand what she’s like? Who replaced us so quickly? We only left four days ago. I don’t understand what’s happening. If she still needed us, why did she let us go?”
“What is she like?” Rose asked in a soft voice when Jeremy finally paused to take a breath.
“She’s the best person—ever!” Jeremy declared.
“Yes,” Taz agreed, and not solely to mollify Jeremy. “You’ll meet few people like her. She’s also one of the strangest.”
“In what way? I’ve never heard of her before tonight.”
And Taz could feel it. The room was calming down. Jeremy’s breathing, which had been coming short, was easing. Even she herself felt calmer. Rose’s simple question waspreciselythe right thing to ask Jeremy to calm him down. That was a little spooky.
“She’s the best air-crash investigator in history.” Jeremy would be loyal to her until his dying day. Taz wondered if she’d ever live up to Miranda’s image. How was she supposed to do that? She could live with Jeremy but she’d never be the most important woman in his life. An awful revelation that she’d prefer not to have had.
Rose raised her eyebrows. But it wasn’t a challenge, nor pretend surprise. She communicated interest.
Taz latched onto that to keep from drowning in her own thoughts. Since when did she need anyone other than herself, anyway?
“She is mechanically brilliant. If you’re an airplane—”
“Or a helicopter,” Jeremy put in.
“—or a helicopter.”
“Or—”
She rested a hand lightly on his arm and resisted the urge to dig her fingertips into the radial nerve to silence him.
“However,” Taz continued before Jeremy could list every mechanical conveyance ever conceived, “she has a massive blind spot. Emotions are very elusive to her. Sudden noises, arguments, even actively chaotic situations throw her badly. Though a chaotic-looking yet static-in-reality airplane…or helicopter wreck, she can stroll into and see patterns no one else can.”
“You’re describing someone on the autism spectrum.”
“I am.”
Rose Ramson folded her hands neatly on the table. “A curious mix of competence and incompetence then.”
“She’snot—”
Taz applied just the slightest pressure on where the radial nerve passed over the bone close below Jeremy’s elbow. Only enough to gain his attention, not enough that he’d even be aware of any pain.
“Exactly.” Then she turned to Jeremy. She wasn’t comfortable having him around Rose Ramson until she understood more of what was going on here. “Did the black box from Miranda’s Alaskan KC-46 crash arrive yet?”
“Oh. Yes. Almost an hour ago. Oh my God. I have to get started on that.” Halfway to the door, he stopped, then returned to kiss her on top of the head. For never needing anyone, Taz felt ridiculously better for his gesture.
“He’s sweet,” Rose said after Jeremy left.
“He is.”
Rose contemplated her own hands for a while before speaking into the silence. “I should like to meet his Miranda one day. I have the opposite affliction.”
“You’re autistic? You don’t fit anywhere on the Spectrum as I understand it.”
“No. I understand people, I always have. People are…easy. Not necessarily simple, but easy for me. Mechanics? Airplanes? Each time my computer updates, I’m at a complete loss. If my car breaks, I’m likely to faint. Hunter was little better than I was, so at least he could empathize with my woes. I think it would be interesting to meet my polar opposite.”
