the other rapists of the San Diego gangs. Her mother never said how many times she was attacked. Taz only knew of three and she’d dealt with them all for Mama, permanently.
Jeremy pulled her in tight one last time.
She really, really didn’t understand people like him.
56
JJ didn’t know whether to be amused…or worried.
Taz had informed him of the deal that Jeremy was willing to make. She had also made it clear, without so many words, that JJ would accept it at face value.
Taz was now on someone else’s side. Perhaps not Jeremy’s, but perhaps her own. And as she was the most dangerous weapon he’d ever wielded, far more dangerous than an AC-130 gunship, he suspected caution was the best course of action.
Colonel Vicki Taser Cortez, the ultimate in self-guided weaponry.
They waited for full dark before they pulled aloft, turning northeast.
He wondered if he’d be back to see the dawn.
57
Lizzy had given up looking; whenever her phone rang, she just answered.
Miranda had just unloaded another line of reasoned thinking on her, laying out likely targets, angles of attack.
I only had a chance to study the laser on the Ghostrider at Lackland for a few minutes. I wish I’d had more time. But it will work for both defensive and attack scenarios. The pilots may not have thought this through, but with the AC-130J Ghostrider’s maneuverability they…
She’d hated to do it, but she’d unloaded that call onto the copilot. The fact that, from her seat close behind the pilots, she could see him scribbling frantic notes was either interesting or very unnerving.
If Miranda was still tied up with the pilots, then maybe Thorsen had some satellite data for—
“Hey, honey. You free for a late dinner?”
“Drake. Hi. Not really.”
“Busy day?”
“You mean other than gunships falling out of the sky?”
“Right, sorry. I spaced it.” Drake did sound exhausted. “Busy day here. Think we got the cork back in the bottle. We’ll have to wait to see what happens in Yemen and Iraq over the next forty-eight hours to be sure.”
“Good. I’m glad you got that fixed. Even just temporarily.”
“Sure you’re not up for something? I could grab some Italian or a pizza and come by your office?”
“Pizza is Italian. Besides—”
“Yes,” Jon did a fist pump as he got off his phone. “We’re cleared into Mexico.”
“You’re what?” Drake roared over the phone.
“Uh, we’re cleared into Mexican airspace.”
“As a cargo transport with emergency supplies,” Jon called out cheerfully over the engines’ steady roar.
“As a what?”
“Drake. Just calm down. You know the Ghostrider from Eglin that the President authorized to go after JJ?”
“Ye-es.” It was a low, drawn-out sound.
“Well, the observer seat is quite comfortable.”
“Lizzy, are you out of your goddamn mind?” Again the bull’s roar.
“Drake—”
“You turn that goddamn plane around and—”
“General Drake Nason! Shut up or I’ll stuff this ring right down your throat.”
Jon stared at her wide-eyed as if she was the one who’d lost her mind.
Drake was suddenly much meeker. “You wouldn’t do that, would you? Give it back I mean. You wouldn’t really—”
“You’re goddamn tempting me! This is my operation, apparently because you were too busy with the goddamn Saudis and had to fucking blow off Miranda this morning when she called for help in finding JJ. Did you know that because his clearance was still active and had no alerts attached to it, he just strolled through the front gate at Andrews Air Force Base to steal that second Ghostrider?”
He was wise enough to answer her with silence.
“Well, she’s cracked it wide open and I’m dealing with it. And if the President keeps giving you all the goddamn credit for our goddamn work, then you can both go to hell and neither of you is ever getting my vote again. And I’ll tell Miranda to do the same.”
“My, but you are a jet jockey. All this time and I didn’t know you had a mouth like that on you, Lizzy. Besides, I’m not elected; I’m appointed, then consented to by the Senate.”
“Go to fucking hell and die, Drake.”
“Yeah, about that. Don’t be dying out there. I want you back.”
“Fat chance!” But she regretted the words as soon as she said them.
There was a long silence.
Long enough for her review her other words. She agreed with most of them. But she could feel the ring on her finger. So unfamiliar, so new, and so perfect that she never wanted to take it off again.
“That thing you said,” Drake spoke softly.
“Which one?”
“The one about me taking credit for your work? You know I’d