expect from the press. He had even seen that expression on Pamela’s face
at times, and flinched away from it.
Where was–there she was, seated in the middle of the pack. He
suppressed a smile, wondering what sort of mistaken maneuvering had earned
her that chair. Pamela Drake, star correspondent for ACN, had never been
in the middle of the pack–never in her entire life. Her normal seat at
any press conference was in the front row, directly in front of the
speaker, where her astute questions and bulldog glare could rarely be
avoided. She must have arrived late, he mused, and wondered what had been
the cause of that.
“Thank you all for being here today,” Tombstone began, shuffling the
papers in front of him. “As you know, this is a sad but historic occasion
for the Navy. Decommissioning a command that has served this nation so
honorably is never a pleasant task, but in these days of
down-sizing–right-sizing, as some of you have chosen to call it–most of
our forward deployed units are being pulled back to CONUS–Continental
United States, for you civilians,” he added, noting a few puzzled looks.
“Now, I’ll start with a brief-”
“Admiral Magruder,” he heard someone say. He turned away from the
slide presentation he had been about to begin, covering the illustrious
history of the P-3 squadron’s service in Adak, his eyes going immediately
to the slim, all-too-familiar figure. Pamela’s voice still could cut
through him to some warm, secret place deep inside. Memories of the last
time he had seen her aboard USS Jefferson surfaced.
Now, seeing her again after more than six months, the strength of his
reaction surprised him. Memories of Tomboy should have erased every trace
of Pamela Drake from his soul. Yet there was still something compellingly
attractive about the strong, smooth curves of her body, the emerald eyes
framed by dark hair now touched with gray, the easy athletic balance of her
stance. He sighed. Pamela Drake had quit haunting his dreams five months
ago. He supposed seeing her in reality was the payback for that. “Miss
Drake,” he began coolly, “if you could just hold your questions, there will
be plenty of time for them after the presentation. I think you’ll find
that most of the information you need is already contained in this brief.”
Pamela regarded him bluntly, a slight tinge of amazement creeping into
her expression. “Evidently you haven’t heard, yet, Admiral,” she remarked.
“if you had, you would know that the decommissioning ranks a poor second
against this current story.”
“And what would that be, Miss Drake?” Tombstone asked. The conviction
in her voice gave rise to an uneasiness in his stomach. Whatever else she
might have been, Pamela Drake was one hell of a reporter. If she was hot
on the trail of another story, then there was probably something to it.
“About thirty minutes ago,” Pamela said, reading from a slip of paper
in her hand, “the Greenpeace vessel SS Serenity disappeared fifty miles
north of here. Immediately prior to that, an F-14 Tomcat was observed
circling overhead. Did the crew of that Tomcat see anything that might
explain the disappearance of this peaceful research vessel? And what is
the squadron here doing as far as SAR goes–sea-air rescue?”
Tombstone rocked back slightly on his heels, stunned at her claim. He
locked eyes with her for a moment and saw the determination burning in her
eyes. “This brief will be postponed indefinitely,” he said abruptly. A
protesting murmur arose from the crowd, quickly growing to a clamorous
racket. “Miss Drake–please accompany my people immediately to my briefing
room.”
Tombstone turned and strode away from the podium, aware of Captain
Craig and two master-at-arms approaching Pamela. Tombstone heard her high
heels clattering on the worn linoleum behind him.
Three minutes later, they were alone in the briefing room. “What is
this about?” Tombstone demanded.
“No time for hi, how are you?” she said sarcastically.
“Not when lives may be at stake. Damn it, Pamela, what are you
talking about?”
She met his gaze levelly. “Fifteen minutes ago, a fishing boat just
south of the Aleutian Islands reported seeing a large explosion. The