Breaking point - By Tom Clancy & Steve Perry & Steve Pieczenik Page 0,42

place, but since it had been his first ever competition, he had been happy to have third.

Not this year. This year, he wanted first. And Nadine was the defending champion, and he had beaten her—in practice, anyway. Of course, if he was gonna do that, he’d have to be better, ‘cause they were gonna use the same ’rang. The new Takahashi Silk Leaf he’d bought had added ten or fifteen seconds to their best times, and the blue beast was the way to go, no question. And she had beaten him as often as he had her, so it was not a sure thing. And on any given day, the wind could be hinky, the thermals might go weird, and you could get a great throw or a bad one. No way to tell until the moment of truth.

Nadine put her pack down and started rolling her shoulders. You couldn’t throw without warming up and stretching, that was a good way to injure a joint or tear a muscle. Even if you were real limber, you could strain something, and you didn’t want to do that in general, and certainly not when you were going to be competing in the Nationals.

“Don’t see any Indians or wagon trains,” Tyrone observed as he used his left hand to pull his right elbow up and back over his head. His shoulder popped like cracking a knuckle.

“Doesn’t look like it’s gonna rain, either,” Nadine said.

“God, I hope not. That would be awful.”

After a couple minutes, they were loose enough. The sun was shining, it was warm, but not too hot, and the wind was mild. A great day for flying.

Washington, D.C.

Michaels might have felt better a few times in his life. His wedding night. The day his daughter was born. Even the first time he and Toni had been together in this very bed, but this had to rank right up there with the best. Toni was back, and the two of them were naked under the sheet. That went a long way to smooth the turbulent waters he had been in lately.

“What time is it?” she asked, sleep still thick in her voice.

“Eight.”

“You’re late for work.”

“I called in sick.”

She grinned. “I have to go pee.”

“Go ahead. I’ll make the coffee. Meet you back here in a few minutes.”

“Um.”

He had already started the coffee, and was able to snatch a couple of cups and be back in bed before Toni returned from the bathroom.

“That was fast,” she said, taking one of the heavy china mugs. She inhaled the vapor. “Mmm.”

“So, you want to talk some more about how stupid I am?”

“You’d have to call in sick for a few more days to exhaust that one.”

“Okay. How about, what now?”

“We could take a shower together.” She smiled over the top of the mug.

“Oh, yeah, I can line up with that. But I meant something a little further ahead.”

“We could come back to bed after the shower?”

“Uh, Toni ...”

“I know, I know. Let’s just let everything else wait, okay?”

He nodded. He didn’t want to push her. But he also didn’t want her to get up and dress and leave, either.

“Enough talk,” she said. “Actions speak louder than words, remember?”

“Really? Maybe you better show me. I kinda don’t remember.”

She threw her pillow at him. “You better remember!”

Portland, Oregon

“You think the kids will be all right?” Howard asked.

“You want me to drive?” his wife said. “You know you can’t worry and drive at the same time. This is the village of the happy nice people, John. At least compared to where we live. They are in a crowd full of people playing with boomerangs, for God’s sake, they’ll be fine.”

They were driving through a tunnel on Highway 26 that led into downtown Portland. The walls of the tunnel were white tile, and they were pristine. Not just white—there wasn’t any graffiti painted on them. Clean.

“This is the cleanest town I’ve ever been in,” she said, echoing his thought. “No trash, no beer bottles, it’s like Disney World.”

Somebody honked, just like somebody always seemed to do in a long tunnel, just to hear the sound it made. He nodded in the direction of the honker.“Yeah, too bad they can’t get rid of the morons.”

“Stay in the center lane,” she said as they exited the tunnel.

It was a pretty city. There were more buildings than he remembered from his last visit, and the views of the mountains were not quite as open. Mount Hood still had snow on it, even