fair damsel again, is he? Well, you just head back and tell the
admiral that I think I can take care of myself. I got in here on my
own, I can get out. Now go away. You’re interrupting my beauty
sleep.” She lay down again and turned her back to him, pulling the
sheets up around her neck.
Sikes sighed. This mission was becoming more of a pain in the ass
every second. “Ma’am, I don’t think I can let you do that,” he said
gently. “There’s some things you need to know.”
“Are you going to make me leave by force?” she asked, still not
turning to face him.
“There’s a strike inbound on the base. We don’t recommend you stick
around for it.”
“I already survived one.”
“You won’t survive two.” Sikes made his voice deadly certain. “Not
from our weapons they’re as accurate as you report them to be. If they
hit what they’re supposed to, this area’s going to be lousy with
nuclear debris.”
“We’re shooting a nuclear weapon?”
He saw her go stiff under the sheet. “Not us. Conventional munitions
only. But what’s stored in those weapons is dirty weapons, ma’am, real
dirty. Some nukes, maybe some biological. Certainly some chemical
ones. And they’re all capable of reaching the United States. You want
to come back when it’s all over, hell, I’ll help you talk them into
it.
But for now, I think you’re going to want to be out of here when it
goes down. At least long enough to find out what’s in those boxes.”
“You saw my report?”
The question surprised him, but not for long. He forced himself to
sound calm. “It was used for an intelligence briefing, ma’am. I
figure,” he said, an idea suddenly occurring to him, “that that’s what
you intended. That wasn’t a mistake, was it? Getting all that in the
background?”
Finally, she rolled over to look at him. The smile creeping across her
face lit it up like a child’s at Christmas. “You noticed that, did
you?” There was no mistaking the self satisfaction in her voice.
He nodded. “We all did. It takes a pro to keep their wits about ’em
during something like that. That information will help save lives,
ma’am.” And so this is the way you skin this particular cat, he
thought, wondering if he’d find his Psychology 101 classes more useful
in this mission than any swimming skills.
“Dirty weapons?” she quizzed. “Could we” He shook his head again.
“No, ma’am, the only thing we can do now is leave. There are a lot of
people putting a lot on the line to afford you this opportunity, so I
suggest you take it. You’ve done your part for the war, now let us do
ours.” He stood and held out a hand to her, suddenly uncertain as to
exactly what she was wearing beneath the sheet, and wondering whether
the SEAL team was really ready to transport a naked female out of the
compound undetected.
She flipped her sheet back, and he was relieved to see her in a dark
T-shirt and a set of sweats. A pair of blue and white fluorescent
running shoes were peeking out from under the bed. She slipped them on
quickly.
“Did you mean that? About getting me back in?” she asked as she tied
her right shoe. She looked up at him, a winsome smile lighting her
face. “I’d really like that if you did.”
“I’ll try, if the debris isn’t too deadly. Best we get back to the
shop and let them make that determination before you go back in,
though. You’ve reported from some dangerous places, but I don’t want
one of them to be a plague quarantine hospital.”
She looked slightly paler, but still determined. “We’ll see,” she said
enigmatically, standing next to him.
Pamela grabbed her equipment bag and followed them to the door. She
paused at the threshold, glancing around suspiciously. Sikes motioned
to her impatiently. “Come on we know what we’re doing.”
She stepped across the threshold and stopped again.
“What about the pilot?”
The air between the SEAL team members crackled with tension. Was it
possible? Of course it was they should have suspected it, planned for