A pair of shadowed figures, one towering with bulky equipment, the other slight
in comparison, pushed through the bridge entry light curtain. Amanda shot a
brief glance back over her shoulder. “Good evening, gentlemen. Status report please.”
“The transverse bay has been flooded down, skipper,” Stone Quillain reported, his voice a quiet rumble. “Tractor crews and beaching force are aboard and ready to disembark. Sky Island
and Special Boat chalks standing by, ready to load.”
“Is it still your intention to go in with Sky Island Able?”
Quillain’s gear harness clicked lightly as he shrugged. “If you’re gonna lead, you got to be out in front.”
“I’ve employed that useful sophistry myself on more than one occasion so I can’t ethically call you on it. Arkady, what’s the last word on the air group?”
“We had one hundred per cent availability, all mission slots filled. We’re set to commence launching as soon as we convert the deck.”
“We will be doing so shortly,” Amanda replied, not taking her eyes from the monitor display. “Arkady, what’s the word from the Sky Base AWACS?”
“All sky base elements and all support flights are holding on station. They are
standing by for mission commit.”
“Very good. We have one final problem out here to deal with. Then we’ll commence air and landing operations. After we take out the Indonesian guard
ship, we’ll ring down to full stop to put the tractor platoon and the raiders over the
side. As we perform that evolution, we’ll convert the deck and vertical launch the Eagle and Hell Eyes. Then we’ll turn into the wind and start working back up to flank speed. Arkady, as soon
as you get adequate wind across the deck, you may launch the manned aircraft.” Amanda turned to face her two subordinates. “Fluid, flexible and fast, gentlemen, that’s how we play it. Good luck to you both. May we be discussing a clean victory
over breakfast tomorrow.”
“I wonder if any of the mess men aboard this tub know how to make fried mush,” Quillain mused. “Nothin’ sits better after a night’s huntin’ than a good plate of sausage and fried mush.”
“I’ll make the appropriate inquiries, Stone. Commander Arkady, if you’ll remain for a few moments, I need to speak with you.”
“As you wish, ma’am,” he replied formally.
Quillain took his departure and she led Arkady out to the portside bridge wing. There she sought for a pocket of isolation and dogged the wheelhouse door closed behind them.
Slipping her command headset down around her neck, she leaned against the bridge wing railing looking out across the bow, hoping Arkady would catch the invitation to informality in her posture. After a moment he joined her, shoulder to shoulder at the rail.
She and Arkady still had a lot of exploring to do in this new relationship of theirs. She was afraid that her orders tonight might not make things any easier.
“For some reason, this reminds me of that night off Shanghai,” she began. “That first one when we accidentally ran down the Red torpedo boat.”
She watched his silhouette nod. “I was just thinking the same thing. The feel is the same.”
“Very much so. Different, but the same.” That summed up their current personal situation quite well. “Arkady, may I ask you something?”
“Sure thing … ma’am.” She caught the hesitation in his voice, that floundering frustration in just who she was and what he was supposed to be.
“Did you really throw that engagement ring off the end of my father’s boat dock back in Norfolk?”
She’d caught him by surprise as she had intended. Arkady tried to suppress an
explosive snort of laughter. “How the hell did you find out about that?”
She smiled to herself. She’d found the right tension breaker. “Dad told me all about it. He wanted to make sure I knew just how badly I’d blown that particular opportunity.”
“It wasn’t your fault, b …”
“Arkady, it’s still me in here,” Amanda said levelly. “Go ahead and say it.”
“It wasn’t your fault, babe.” The old comfortable endearment of their affair rolled out of him in relief. “It wasn’t anybody’s fault. It just wasn’t meant to happen.”
Amanda shook her head. “No, we can’t fall back on that fudge either. Let’s face it, Arkady. What we had together was very, very good – and I have never regretted a moment of it. Something could have built on that.
I suspect we could have probably made a marriage work if we’d wanted to. Lord knows, we’d both considered the point. But when the time came to make the decision, we
made another choice. Or at least I did.”
“Why?” he asked simply. They couldn’t really see each other’s eyes in the night shadows, but she could tell he was looking into her face. She took a deliberate breath. She owed him a long-deferred answer to that question, but she wasn’t sure how acceptable a one she had.
“I don’t know if this will make much sense, Arkady. It hasn’t to me on the frequent occasions when I’ve thought about it. But, for all of my life, I’ve trusted and reacted to my instincts. So far, it’s worked for me. I hope you can trust them on this point, too.”
“To date I haven’t had any complaints either. Try me.”
Amanda took a deep breath. “As you wish. Back when I was with the Sea Fighters, we had this one little Motor
Mac who was blessed, or cursed, with what they call ‘The Touch’. She always seemed to know beforehand if a mission was going to go clean or
ugly. Or if someone was going to die or not. Have you heard of the phenomenon?”
“You always hear the stories,” Arkady replied uncertainly.
“And sometimes they turn out to be true,” Amanda continued. “Well, on that day, I ran out on you for that job into West Africa, I had this … sense that it just wasn’t supposed to be. That there was some other kind of destiny, of fate, waiting
for me somewhere. One that I didn’t want to draw a very caring and loving and slightly wonderful young man into.”
“Ah, Christ.”
She felt his hand come up to touch her cheek. For one sweet, familiar moment,
she tilted her head into the caress. Then she lifted her own hand and caught
his in a tight grip, lightly kissing his stick-callused palm. “Damn it, Arkady. We’re always going to hold a piece of each other – and, God knows, I need you now as much as I’ve ever needed you. I need you to stand at my shoulder and tell me when I’m right and when I’m wrong and to lend me a little extra strength when I need it.”
The pause between her heartbeats seemed to last for a long time. The Sir Lancelot’s role was a difficult one for even the best of errant knights to play. It took a big-hearted man and friend to take it on. Then she felt the strong responding grip of his hand.
“Hell, what do you think? You knock ’em down. I’ll stomp on them. Same as always.”
She bit her lip for a moment. That was the wonderful thing about a good grade of steel. It could be reforged.
“I’m very happy to hear that, Arkady. More so than you’ll ever know. Because I have a special job for you tonight. Just one bitch of a
job.”
“Call it, babe. It’ll get done,” he said briskly.
“Okay, here it is. Tonight, when your strike group goes in over Jakarta, you stay out of it. You stay high and you stay totally defensive. You do not engage unless you receive a specific clearance from me. Those are specific orders, Commander, and they are not open for tactical interpretation.”
