Page 43 of Air Force One
“Pretty much.” Holly hadn’t looked away from Andi. “I need to make everyone think she’s dead and get her out of Russia. Probably in the next twenty-four hours. You know I’m not the big thinker, Andi. Not at the level of Miranda. It’s got to be a hundred percent bulletproof—so to speak.”
Andi…shifted. Her stance was that of any landlubber standing on a pitching boat. To Holly it might have been dead calm. His years as a downhill skier let him compensate for each wave’s passage with some modicum of stability. Andi’s skills were the delicate control necessary to pilot a military helicopter. She staggered a step one way and then two the other under the gross motion of the Coast Guard cutter. But no…she was more unstable than that.
Slow, Mike! When did he get so damn slow? Andi had followed them with the clear intent of inflicting serious harm on Holly. Then she’d become as cowed as Mike had seen her since the day he’d given her permission to try to heal the breach with Miranda. Now she looked thoughtful.
“You want to save this Inessa?” Mike asked.
“I promised.”
“Her husband?—”
“Kidnapped Miranda, I know. Inessa set her free.”
“Inessa hurt her like hell!” Andi shouted, now shifting straight through furious and back into dangerous.
“How?” Mike asked before the two women could go at each other.
Holly didn’t answer, instead meeting Andi gaze for gaze. He’d been shocked that Andi had gotten that earlier punch past Holly’s defenses. And that was before the battering she’d taken aboard Air Force One. For once, his bets might not be on Holly in a fight though she towered eight inches over Andi.
Andi finally answered. “Miranda’s parents treated her like shit her whole life. Like she was a failed component and a burden. If not for her therapist and governess, they’d probably have rammed her into an institution. But they treated Inessa like their beloved daughter.”
“That explains it,” Mike nodded.
“Explains what?”
“The message said that Inessa wanted to meet her Little Sister. I’m assuming that’s Miranda.”
Andi closed her eyes. And when the next wave caught the ship’s bow a little sideways, it almost tumbled her to the deck. She stumbled a few steps away before recovering. “Yeah…that’s Miranda. Inessa said that, the day I betrayed?—”
Holly reached out and grabbed her shoulder.
Mike knew he’d screwed up. Her stagger had placed him three steps too far away to intervene in time.
But rather than attacking, Holly simply shook her. “That’s done now, Wu. Yeah, we never had our talk and I’m guessing that now we don’t need to. Miranda loves you with all her heart is capable of and she married you. And, yes, you finally pounded it through my thick skull. I want to spend the rest of my life with Mike, and I’ll figure out how to tell him sometime soon without freaking both of us out.”
Mike wanted to respond, he really did. It wasn’t that he was freaking out. No. The big surprise that had stolen his breath away? That he was not already overboard and swimming for shore. He looked at her and knew it was true; he wanted to spend every day he could with Holly. But she wasn’t looking at him. Instead, she was watching Andi.
Andi in turn studied the deck intently. Did it until she finally managed a nod. Then she faced Holly as if nothing had happened. “Miranda can’t help you with this, what can I do?”
35
Miranda had let Meg and Andi’s double hug bring her back. That and her simple statement, “You take care of Air Force One. I’ll take care of Holly.”
They were a team of two and Miranda knew to her very core that Andi always spoke truth. So not having to worry about what Holly said anymore, she’d pushed away the darkness and returned to watch the machinist as Andi went on deck. Though she did keep Meg clasped tight in her arms. Meg had calmed enough to rest her head on Miranda’s left shoulder as usual when everything was okay.
After a careful inspection, she made a few suggestions. The man had agreed and implemented them quickly.
She felt the heft of the finished two-plated window seal. The chief petty officer had done a fine job and done it quickly. This seal would hold against fifty atmospheres of pressure, five times the necessary maximum.
“Do not let them bleed the air in too quickly, Chief, or they will risk blowing the hull of the fuselage. It is in balancing the internal and external pressures that will provide a chance of success. If this does work and the plane does rise, you will have to rapidly release the pressure back to one atmosphere or it may rupture and sink again.”
He held up a box with four switches. “Petty Officer 2 Stanik will be holding this. We’ve rejiggered some steam relief valves to add a remote control. We shoved ’em through the top and bottom of the fuselage as we don’t know which way she’ll come up. Put ’em fore and aft, so as to balance her if we have to.”
Miranda nodded. She enjoyed working with competent people.
He took her nod as approval and hurried toward the ladderway leading to the deck. They’d used a single media, non-verbal communication. Yes, that worked nicely too.
Competent people.
