Ghostrider - M. L. Buchman Page 0,74

from Andrews… Short-notice Air Force flight… Full fuel load.”

She relayed the information to Miranda.

“They’re starting from the west,” Miranda declared it as fact. “I’m guessing that they’re somewhere in Sonora or Baja. Probably Baja as it is relatively unpopulated and therefore easy to hide in. Also, they could cover the whole range from Tijuana to Ciudad Juárez in a single pass out and back. It’s under a thousand miles round trip. They can cover that twice on the fuel they’d already have aboard. They probably planned on ducking back across the border and calling up the Marines again if they needed a refuel for additional sorties.”

Lizzy called out to Jon. “I don’t care who you have to bribe, lie to, or shoot. Get us permission to circle over the Sea of Cortez.”

“You mean the Gulf of California?” He smiled at her and he finally made her smile back.

“Shut up, you young pup. I was brought up properly.” Her fifth-grade schoolteacher had been very traditional about his use of geography names and she’d always done the same. She also knew of its earliest Western name, the Vermillion Sea, though he’d be disappointed that she didn’t recall the original native name. “Just make sure that we’re way high, so that we look like an airliner.”

A thousand miles from San Antonio to Baja. It was already sunset here. It would be sunset there in just over an hour, but it was two hours of flying time away.

Shit! They were going to be late.

Next she called Captain Thorsen back in DC.

“Get me imaging of Baja and west Sonora in Mexico. I don’t care what satellite time you need to grab or whose program you have to bump, just do it. They’ll be aloft at local sunset. I want to know if so much as a bug takes off without a flight plan.”

He snorted a laugh, “I think you overestimate our satellites. How about bigger than a robin?”

“Fine. A robin.”

Jon looked at her strangely.

“Then, very quietly, find out who Colonel Vicki Taz Cortez got to. Could be DEA, but it could be us. It would have been after her meeting with me about two weeks ago.”

“I’ve got it on the calendar, ma’am.” And he was gone.

If there was a leak in her NRO, she was going to plug it but good—with a round from the Ghostrider’s M102 howitzer if necessary.

55

“We have to get moving. It will be sunset here soon.”

“Okay.” Jeremy stood and offered her a hand to her feet.

She felt surprisingly self-conscious as she dressed. Another thing that had never been an issue for her.

When she was done, Jeremy pulled her back against his chest and simply hugged her, resting his cheek on her hair. Definitely not something she was used to.

“I’ve decided what I’m willing to do.”

She pushed back enough to look up at him. She and JJ had conferred while Mike and Jeremy slept. He’d accepted her recommendation to allow Jeremy to decide for himself, at least at first.

“I don’t shoot people.”

She’d known that. Inside she’d known that. But she also knew that JJ wouldn’t sanction that.

“However, I have no compunction about shooting arsenals or vehicles.”

Taz sighed. It was reasonable. It was right for Jeremy.

But that wasn’t enough either.

“I know that expression. It’s how Miranda looks when a solution isn’t right yet.”

Taz nodded reluctantly.

“Okay,” Jeremy looked at the sky, but kept holding her close. “The laser is tricky. But I can teach you to run the howitzer. How to target, aim, and fire. I can’t make you a brilliant gunner in one day. I never fired one myself anyway, but I can help you with how to read the sensor data and the basics of how to read the control systems.”

“How do you know all that?”

“It’s controlled by a computer. I’m good with those. If I tried to fire an actual gun, I’d probably shoot myself.”

She nodded. That she could sell to the general.

Jeremy looked down at her. “You can really kill people?”

“Yes.”

“Wow. Um…okay. You didn’t even hesitate. I’ve got nothing in my life that tells me how you can say that. Um…nope. Not a thing. That’s either really strong or really scary. Maybe scary and strong both. That sounds right. I just—”

Taz wondered what his life had been that he could ask such a question. She pictured the gun battles that used to rake through her Iztapalapa neighborhood of Mexico City. The starvation, the garbage, not even safe water. Finding her father just moments after his execution. The coyote man and