make a note to drop the references to the medal … but that’s not the
real problem, is it?”
“Not really. It’s this whole glory-game image.”
“Which you are stuck with, no matter what’s on the tape.” She reached
out, impulsively, and laid her hand on his knee. “Ruining my project
isn’t going to help you, Matt.”
He looked away. “I hadn’t really thought of it as … ruining it.”
“What is it, Matt?” She leaned closer, dropping her voice. “Someone
giving you trouble about your hero status? About me?” He looked away,
uncomfortable, and she had her answer. “You’re one hell of a guy,
Matt,” she said. “I meant what I said the other day. I wouldn’t want
you to change.”
He turned back suddenly, so close now that their lips nearly met. Pamela
reached out … and then she was in his arms, drawing his head down to
hers.
Much later, she disentangled herself enough to murmur, “You’ll stay
tonight, won’t you?”
He looked into her eyes for a time, until she was afraid he would answer
no. But he nodded, smiled, and then they kissed again.
After a long time, he pulled back and, rather unromantically, checked
his watch. “Can I use your phone?”
“Sure.” She got up so that he could move. “Over there, by the window.”
He picked up the receiver and spoke briefly to the hotel operator.
“Calling your ship?” she asked.
“I’m square with them,” he replied, holding the receiver to his ear as
he waited for the call to go through. “Long as I’m back on board by
0800 tomorrow. No, someone else I saw tonight was going to arrange for
a place for me to stay in Bangkok. If I don’t let him know, we’ll be
interrupted by …
yes? Hello? You speak English? Good. This is Lieutenant Commander
Magruder, U.S. Navy. Put me through to Colonel Kriangsak, please. He
gave me this number. Yes, I’ll wait.”
Pamela left Tombstone to finish his phone call and went into the suite’s
bedroom. She was ready for him by the time he entered.
2325 hours, 18 January
Dusit Thani Hotel, Bangkok
It was the noise that woke him.
At least, he thought it had been a noise, one of those sharp, metallic
clicks one hears in a strange room in the middle of the night and can
never identify. He lay there in the darkness for a long moment,
listening.
Nothing. Or perhaps someone had dropped something, upstairs or in the
hallway outside the suite.
No matter. He needed to use the bathroom anyway. Taking care not to
waken Pamela, he disentangled his arm from beneath her pillow, then
swung his bare legs over the side of the bed. The air in the room,
though stirred by the large ceiling fan, still retained the musky scent
of their lovemaking.
Pamela. He could just make out her sleeping form on the bed by his
side, see the rise and fall of her breasts by the hint of reflected
moonlight spilling through the open door from the next room.
Tombstone felt a twinge of guilt as he realized that their relationship
had changed again. He’d not told her everything. He couldn’t. The
word that a Navy aviator and his RIO had been lost over northern
Thailand was still classified, and any officer leaking that tidbit to
the news media would be roasted over a slow fire by Admiral Magruder,
nephew or no nephew.
And the pain he’d been feeling that evening was due at least as much to
the fact that Malibu and Batman were missing as to Bayerly or anything
else.
If it had just been Bayerly’s accusations, well … Tombstone could
live with those.
But Batman and Malibu had gone down while flying his mission … while
he had been assigned to look pretty for the camera and answer Pamela
Drake’s questions. He’d never been one to claim that the universe was
fair, but this put a new twist to the way God seemed to be running
things that left a distinctly bitter taste in his mouth.
Part of the change in his relationship with Pamela was a new desire to
tell her about his friends, about his feelings at their loss. It would